Coastguard Station visit 3rd September 2007

20:00 on a beautiful Monday evening, 4 vehicles meeting up in a car park. Yes, its the long awaited visit to see the Coastguard facilities at Dover.

14 people, one of our better turnouts. We made our way in convoy (shades of C W McAll!) to the Coastguard station and went into the foyer, where the group photo was taken by Zena.

A tour around the building included the briefing room, the kitchens and the main operations room where all the emergency services would gather in the case of a major incident. There, they would have phones, computers and the direct feed from the radar pictures to see exactly what was going on.

In this room, we saw a very informative film on a massive plasma screen, and were shown how the real-time radar would be shown for emergency services.

Following this, we all trooped down to the control centre where we were shown how the system worked in reality. I loved all the large screens at each post. Ranged around the operator in a semicircle, plus of course, the touch-screen operations which made switching channels so easy.

We saw, and heard, how vessels called in and identified themselves, announcing their last port of call, their next destination, their draught (how deep they are in the water), any dangerous goods, the state of the ship, i.e., faults, problems or otherwise, and number of persons on board.

Apparently the penalties for NOT reporting are quite heavy, but not quite as bad as using the wrong lane in the channel. We were told about a recent prosecution where the person was fined £10,000 GBP for getting it wrong! Imagine a fine like that in your local high street!

As a technophile, I was in seventh heaven around all this wonderful equipment.

There was a piece of lo-tech equipment though, the GIANT pair of binoculars, mounted on a periscope pole, allowing movement in all three dimensions so that the entire Dover Straights could be seen. Quite a few of us had a go on those, and yes, so did I. :-)

FADARS would like to thank Don and H M Coastguard Dover for allowing us to visit and see the vital work they do on our behalf in keeping one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world as safe as they can. I for one learned much from this visit.

Pictures can be seen elsewhere on this website.

73, de Stan, G6ZNW Chairman

In the picture Ron M1CWQ, Alan G8KSD, and Tony G4IMP.

In the picture (left to right) Ron M1CWQ, Anne G4RJZ, Alan G8KSD, Stan G6ZNW and Tony G4IMP.

Chris with his daughter looking out to sea!

The FADARS gang looking around.

The FADARS Gang (left to right) Alan G8KSD, David G0VGX, Ron M1CWQ, Paul 2E0AYY, John G3GIE, Dennis G0SLJ, Chris M3???, Barbara M3OJY, Anne G4RJZ, Tony G4IMP, Don M3PQB, Stan G6ZNW.

Thanks to the photographer Dennis G0SLJ.

More photos below from Tony G4IMP:-

Stan G6ZNW

The Fadars team looking at all the equipment