The first two pictures on this page are courtesy of Murty Campbell and Stornoway Canoe Club.
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Introduction
If you have a VHF radio or cellular phone you can tell somebody where you are and what help you need. If you have actually spoken to a rescuer, you know that somebody knows all about your problem, which is better than when you send up flares or trigger an EPIRB.
Calling for help does not necessarily result in your being rescued promptly, or at all. Kayaking groups should be able to sort out most of their own problems. See Rafting-Up & Towing; Deep-Water Rescue & Self-Rescue; Repairs & Repair Kits; and First Aid Kits. A kayaker needs to know his or her limitations and not be tempted to go beyond them because of the reassuring presence of a set of flares or a radio.
Let's say that your trip has just gone very wrong, so wrong that you can't get your group to safety. Before you set off your left details of your trip with a friend. Nobody will really worry about you until well after dark, which is probably too late for the Coast Guard to co-ordinate an effective search. In a wilderness area it may be several days before a search begins. Can you speed it up?
VHF radio
A VHF radio is the best way of communicating at sea. You can use it to:
• Get the permission of port control to enter, cross or leave a major harbor (naval or commercial)
• Pick up maritime weather broadcasts
• Tell the Coast Guard that you have set off from A intending to go to B and will call again on arriving safely
• Tell the Coast Guard you are OK if you hear somebody wrongly report that you are missing or in trouble.
• Receive a message telling you that you are approaching a military exclusion zone or shipping lane
• Send a distress message
• Enable a lifeboat to pinpoint your position by radio direction finding (RDF or just DF)
If you lead groups of inexperienced or young sea kayakers, you need a VHF radio. Radios can also be useful for advanced day trips and expeditions because they may work in places where a cell phone has no signal.
A good handheld VHF radio is not all that expensive. You want a small waterproof model with at least 4 watts output power and preferably 6 watts. For the USA and Canada it is very useful to have special features for picking up weather radio. Some VHF radios also have GPS features. Manufacturers with good reputations include Standard Horizon (Yaesu) and Icom. Both offer handheld radios with 5 watts output power which float if you drop them.
Even with a "waterproof" radio it's good to have some way to keep it dry, such as a small transparent dry bag. It is best to carry a VHF radio someplace you can easily reach it without sinking your kayak, ideally in your PFD pocket so you still have it if you are unlucky enough to lose your kayak. Alternatively in a deck bag, not someplace which will require you to take off a hatch cover or your sprayskirt.
You can get both radio and dry bag from a good kayak store or marine supply store. Probably you can get a cheaper deal on the Internet but make sure you don't get a radio which lacks channels you need, or which is illegal because it gives you one-click access to channels which are reserved for particular Coastguard, rescue, port, transport or automated weather or distress communications. Different parts of the world use different VHF radio channels. There's a handy list on Wikipedia, and last time we looked the page was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHF_Marine_Radio. The cheapest deals are usually for radios which have the USA/Canada channels.
A good modern radio will have Channel 16 and at least twenty programmable channels, so you can pre-program it to use the Boater Calling Channel and your favorite local and weather channels.
The normal transmission range of a VHF radio is "line of sight". If you are sitting in a kayak, your line of sight to the horizon is less than 2 nautical miles. That is not the maximum effective range of your VHF radio, because a yacht, ship or coastal radio station will have its antenna mounted on a mast as high as possible above water level. The antenna may be in line of sight even if the ship itself is invisible, hull-down beyond the horizon. See Distance To Horizon.
Ship-mounted radios may put out as much as 25 watts in high power mode, but you will get that much power only with a ship-mounted radio. Handheld radios usually have a maximum power of 3 to 6 watts. For comparison, a cell phone may transmit at 3 watts.
If you are transmitting from a kayak at sea level, using a 6 watt handheld radio set to "high power" and with a well-charged battery, your message may be picked up by a ship as much as 5 miles away. It may be picked up by a coastal radio station 6 or 7 miles away. 50 miles is occasionally possible in some atmospheric conditions. If you don't get a response to your radio message, kayak to a different location, or land on a beach and climb a hill.
Recreational boaters in the USA may now use a portable VHF marine radio without a license but in many other countries this would be a minor criminal offense. In Canada you need a Restricted Operators’ Certificate (Maritime). In Britain it's a VHF Short Range Certificate. The purpose of licensing is to ensure that users know not to use high power mode unnecessarily; to transmit as little as possible in a harbor or a busy estuary; not to chat with friends; not to use inappropriate channels such as those reserved for port operations, ship movements, Digital Selective Calling or search & rescue; and not to transmit accidentally. If you press the transmit button while trying to find a Snickers bar in your pocket, you can jam the distress channel for miles around.
When not transmitting, most VHF radio users leave their radios on "dual watch" so that they hear messages on Channel 16 which is the distress, safety & calling channel and also on their regular working channel. In the USA, Channel 9 has been designated the Boater Calling Channel for dual watch and hailing so that Channel 16 can be left for emergency use. The US Coast Guard says "you may use channel 16 to call a ship or shore station, but if you do so, you must, must be brief! We recommend this same procedure be used over channel 9, if channel 9 is used as a calling channel". Dual watch means you hear announcements such as notification that the Coastguard is about to issue a weather forecast, and any nearby emergency calls or warnings.
Comms within the group
If your group is taking two or more VHF radios you can agree in advance which of the ship-to-ship (intership) channels you will use as a working channel for communications within the group. In the USA, that will probably be one of Channel 68, 69, 71, 72 or 78. In Canada either Channel 72 or one specified for use in a particular region. In Europe, probably Channel 6, 8, 72 or 77. Again, you will find a list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHF_Marine_Radio. .
Radio safety traffic
You may get a frosty answer if you call up the Coastguard to ask for the time of high tide, location of the nearest 7-Eleven or a weather forecast.
However if you really need weather information and you have a good reason for not having listened to a scheduled broadcast, it would be OK to call the Coastguard because it is "safety traffic". In many countries the Coastguard encourages kayakers to use VHF to notify them that they are going by kayak from point A to point B and again on safe arrival at B.
Channel 16 is the distress, safety & calling channel and it is essential that it does not get overloaded. Anybody using it must keep their message as short as possible. The first thing the Coastguard will do when responding to a call on Channel 16 is direct you to switch to another channel. In your own home waters you may know that the Coastguard also monitors a channel other than Channel 16, in which case you should use that channel for non-urgent communication. In the USA, you can use Channel 9 as your calling channel.
To send a message, turn on your VHF radio, turn the power setting to "low" if you are within easy sight of the person to whom you want to speak or "high" if they are miles away, turn up the volume, turn down the squelch filter, and select a channel. Listen to make sure it is not in use. Then press the "transmit" or "press to speak" button and say into the microphone something like:
"Portland Coastguard, this is Kayak Group Alpha, Kayak Group Alpha, I have safety traffic, over".
The word "over" means you want a reply. "Out" means that you are ending the discussion. "Over and out" is meaningless. Now take your thumb off the "transmit" button and listen for a response. If you don't get an immediate response you must, except in case of distress, wait at least two minutes before repeating the call.
The Coastguard will respond on Channel 16 telling you to switch immediately to another channel. So the response to your message might be:
"Kayak Group Alpha - Portland Coastguard - Channel 68".
Radio distress calls
It is a criminal offense in most countries, including the USA, to use a VHF radio to make a a Mayday call unless you are in "grave and imminent danger" and require immediate assistance.
You need to say where you are, what the emergency is, and how many people need help. Select the "high power" setting before transmitting. Hold the radio with the antenna vertical. The signal's range and power will be greatly reduced if the antenna is not vertical.
The wording for a Mayday call is something like:
"Mayday, mayday, mayday.
This is Kayak Group Alpha, Kayak Group Alpha, Kayak Group Alpha reporting a medical emergency.
We are two seven zero from Ardnamurchan Point two miles.
We have a kayaker suffering a severe asthma attack. The casualty requires immediate evacuation to hospital by helicopter.
Over."
It would be just as good to say "we are two miles west of Ardnamurchan Point". If you don't get an immediate response to a Mayday call, wait for 10 seconds (US) or one minute (UK) before repeating it.
Battery management
Most handheld VHF radios have Ni-Cad (nickel-cadmium) or NiMH (nickel metal hydride) batteries. According to radio manufacturer Icom, the dreaded "memory effect" has been almost eliminated from new batteries. However improper charging / discharging can still lead to the growth of crystals within the battery which will reduce its performance. You can expect 45% of batteries to fail within 12 months if improperly managed. That figure can be reduced to 15%. On their expert pages Icom advise fully discharging the battery "to less than 0.6V per cell. This is best achieved by using a battery analyser, designed specifically to cycle the battery correctly". Second best is to leave the radio on until the battery goes flat. NiCd and NiMH batteries "should be cycled periodically to maintain the best performance. This process is sometimes referred to as conditioning. Some manufacturers provide fast chargers that discharge the battery before charging. Although this will prevent crystal degradation, the disadvantage is that the battery life could be reduced. This is because each battery cell has a finite lifetime in cycle terms and conditioning the battery each time uses one of these ‘lives’. To achieve optimum performance NiCd batteries that are in regular use should be conditioned once a month, whilst NiMH batteries need conditioning just once every three months".
Waterproof?
Icom's expert pages advise that a waterproof VHF may be designed to survive spending 30 minutes underwater, to a depth of (say) 1 metre, but if it does go overboard you should retrieve it as fast as possible and carry out maintenance. "Good practice is to rinse the radio with tap water and dry thoroughly... as salt can cause serious corrosion. After repeated exposure to spray all battery contacts should be inspected, cleaned and lightly greased. Knobs should also be removed and control shafts cleaned and re-greased likewise. After any exposure to moisture the radio should be thoroughly dried."
