Range and bearing

[Martyboy]

Hrmmm the age old debate, and one that'll prob cause me to get "Officer cadet hate mail" but I love music on the bridge!! I once had an OS who wanted to be an officer, so he'd random cancel alarms and not tell you what they were.... "It's fine"....... Yea, i'm sure it is buddy, but what was it!!!!!

[alistairuk]

Hrmmm the age old debate, and one that'll prob cause me to get "Officer cadet hate mail" but I love music on the bridge!! I once had an OS who wanted to be an officer, so he'd random cancel alarms and not tell you what they were.... "It's fine"....... Yea, i'm sure it is buddy, but what was it!!!!!

This is the problem now that there's a frigging alarm for everything - they - and I admittedly on occasion - get so used to just hitting accept without looking at what the message is - on one ship the loudest alarm was the bloody coffee machine telling you it was over heating.

Especially if its the 1000th time that hour that you've got position changed warnings cause the stupid GPS keeps switching between GPS and DGPS mode..

[laura]

It wasn't music that was the problem.. it was his headphones, came up sat in the lookout seat put headphones in...arse truly kicked, the chief mate thought I was winding him up when I told him.

Saying that, this guy isn't the sharpest tool in the world... a bit of music mid ocean, little traffic and not much happening is just fine, I turn it off if I need to.

Yup, too many pointless alarms- my favourite was when ECDIS first came out, you would get a CPA alarm (I'll point out that I never use ECDIS-AIS for collision avoidance but you get the alarm anyway), then after altering course you would get an alarm to tell you that you were off course, slightly distracting to say the least- luckily that has changed with software updates and you silence the effin thing!

Alarms should be there when you need them, not distract you when you are very much paying attention to the situation at hand!

The coffee is ready alarm is my favourite though ,

[Silvertop]

It's range and bearing only because it sounds better that way. Bearings were always used before you could get a range, therefore bearing always goes down on paper first.

joining in the digressive conversation, music on the bridge is no issue at moderate volume, I like the company it gives... I send a cadet packing once for secretly listening on his headphones, he was not a happy bunny!!!

Alarms are always a pain, no matter what you do to reduce them, I encourage all lookouts to be familiar with them and be able to report to the OOW, this keeps them included and stops them falling asleep. They are also good for resetting the BNWAS alarm. (Which, BTW, should be passworded and not available for anyone to switch off!!)

[Martyboy]

Our BNWAS had a key which was on the bridge so we could switch it off, however the captain gave us the " I am trusting you" speech so you'd feel guilty switching it off :P My last vessel had the speaerks built into the deck head, and the radio/USB thing wired into the nav panel

[Silvertop]

Is it an old ship? My last ship had a key originally but it did not comply so we have just had a complete new system installed with new control panel and password.

[Martyboy]

Na, was all shiney and new, 2007 I think it was built from memory, i'm back at school just now so it's been about 7 months since I was last on board, but its relatively new.

[Martyboy]

Just checked the tinterweb, was built in 2009

[Silvertop]

When I said old, it was a bit relative. As your ship was built before 1 July 2011 the existing system might not be compliant. Will you be returning to the same ship or not? If you are might be worth checking it out? Or hopefully your company has already done this!

[Martyboy]

I don't know where i'll be going next. Yeaa, I work for Maersk so they are usually on the ball with this type of thing

[alistairuk]

When I said old, it was a bit relative. As your ship was built before 1 July 2011 the existing system might not be compliant. Will you be returning to the same ship or not? If you are might be worth checking it out? Or hopefully your company has already done this!

Systems utilising a key are permitted - although the key should be held by the master normally not left in the unit. Most likely your system was changed because it has to interface with the VDR so it records when it is activated/deactivated.

[Silvertop]

Actually the system was far more non-compliant than that, it had no connection to the autopilot, wrongly certified etc. We had also just had a new VDR fitted so the BNWAS was all connected up to that ok.

[GuinnessMan]

Actually the system was far more non-compliant than that, it had no connection to the autopilot, wrongly certified etc. We had also just had a new VDR fitted so the BNWAS was all connected up to that ok.

How was it wrongly certified?

Sent from the Batcave via carrier pigeon....

[pignutpilot]

It's range and bearing only because it sounds better that way. Bearings were always used before you could get a range, therefore bearing always goes down on paper first.

Thanks. That is the answer to the question I was looking for.

[Silvertop]

Glad I could help!! My bill is in the post....