We hope to run a VHF Short Range Certificate (SRC) radio course sometime soon – hopefully next term, hopefully in Oxford, and probably on a weekend in term time. OUUEG doesn’t often get these running, so this is your chance!

This is a one-day course to teach you the protocols for using the VHF radio on the boat, and assess you on them. You will get a VHF SRC radio licence issued to you, which lasts you for life in the same way as a driving licence, and the licences are issued by the RYA on behalf of the government (OFCOM).

It would be really useful for all Diver Cox’ns and Boat Handlers and people wanting to learn to drive the boat, or even thinking that they might one day want to learn to drive the boat, to do this course. We cannot recommend this enough, mainly for the confidence in using the radio. The licence is a legal requirement to be able to use the boat radio for anything other than an emergency and you will also need to have the licence if you ever want to register a radio.

Because these courses are run external to the club then we cannot control the price as much as we like. However, by doing it as a group (probably also involving the yacht club) we might be able to get a reasonable discount. I would hope that it will cost about £50-60 for the course, and then there is a £60 fee for the exam and issuing of the licence. So in total just over £100. Sounds like a lot, but you only need to get the licence once.

Firstly we need to get a good idea of numbers. No firm commitment required at this stage, just a strong expression of interest. We will collect deposits nearer the time when we can firm up some dates. Please let our boat officers know at [email protected]. If you are into boats and marine things at all then this is a good ticket to get.