Channel change at sea as radio signal moves

Boaties in South Taranaki are being warned not to be caught out by a maritime radio frequency change.

The South Taranaki Coastguard’s VHF radio channel has just moved from 83 to 63, part of nationwide changes in October.

Technical issues had delayed the change in the district, South Taranaki Coastguard president Gary Darnell said.

‘‘Anybody that’s going offshore from South Taranaki needs to understand there is no channel 83, now it’s 63.’’

The Coastguard radio channel provides a safety net for people heading out to sea, who can call in and tell the operator how many people are on board and their estimated return time.

‘‘They will call the fishermen back if they haven’t heard from them by that time,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s like an overarching eye to look after fishermen.’’

New Zealand, along with a num- ber of other countries, was required to change some maritime VHF repeater channels to make space for newly-allocated international services for ship tracking and data services, according to the Government’s radio spectrum management website.

The international changes occur on January 1 but in New Zealand they were made in October, before the peak summer recreational boating season when VHF radio services become busy.

The Coastguard radio service was unchanged apart from the frequency shift, Darnell said.

‘‘We still have two radio operators but their capability now is channel 63. If they can’t contact anyone on channel 63, they need to use the emergency channel, channel 16, that is picked up by Taupo Maritime.’’

The Coastguard radio operators monitor the frequency from 7am until the last boat returns, seven days a week, covering the area off the coast from Opunake to Waverley.