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Communication advice please


Pippa Perryman

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Hi all, my husband and I are about to embark on a year long canal adventure and would like some advice please. There are times when I’m operating a lock and he is trying to communicate something to me which I cannot hear or understand. Are there any easy ways for us to communicate via Bluetooth headsets or something that is basically hands free and easy for two oldies to use?  All help gratefully received. Thanks. 

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13 minutes ago, Pippa Perryman said:

Hi all, my husband and I are about to embark on a year long canal adventure and would like some advice please. There are times when I’m operating a lock and he is trying to communicate something to me which I cannot hear or understand. Are there any easy ways for us to communicate via Bluetooth headsets or something that is basically hands free and easy for two oldies to use?  All help gratefully received. Thanks. 

Yes

A wide choice of two-way radios with a throat mike and ear-piece.

Although just having it clipped to your lifejacket harness on your shoulder allows for easy use / easily heard so if you are called "drop the paddles" you just do it, you don't need to start a conversations asking why ………….

Surely you will not have your hands 'full' all of the time ?

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12 minutes ago, Pippa Perryman said:

Hi all, my husband and I are about to embark on a year long canal adventure and would like some advice please. There are times when I’m operating a lock and he is trying to communicate something to me which I cannot hear or understand. Are there any easy ways for us to communicate via Bluetooth headsets or something that is basically hands free and easy for two oldies to use?  All help gratefully received. Thanks. 

Many people use PMR radios which are small and with sufficient range for lock work etc. They are popular because they are cheap and don't require a licence. Google PMR radios and you will find many on sale. An even easier way to communicate is to work out a simple set of hand signals between your husband and yourself, which is what we do usually very successfully with only the occasional misunderstanding, which, of course is always my fault!:rolleyes:

 

Howard 

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Experienced boaters mostly use hand signals as they have tried all the other methods and found them not that good!

Also, most people go in the canals for the piece and solitude including the word, quietness!

There is nothing that gets me annoyed more than someone shouting into a vhf set when there standing within a few feet of me!

 

Just look what others do and you will be fine!

Nipper

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Just now, howardang said:

Many people use PMR radios which are small and with sufficient range for lock work etc. They are popular because they are cheap and don't require a licence. Google PMR radios and you will find many on sale. An even easier way to communicate is to work out a simple set of hand signals between your husband and yourself, which is what we do usually very successfully with only the occasional misunderstanding, which, of course is always my fault!:rolleyes:

 

Howard 

Agreed. I bought some radios and the missus wouldnt use them so I gave them away. I do think however that they make sense especialy at locations like Nell bridge amongst others where it is impossible to see if anything is coming the other way.

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2 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Agreed. I bought some radios and the missus wouldnt use them so I gave them away. I do think however that they make sense especialy at locations like Nell bridge amongst others where it is impossible to see if anything is coming the other way.

And many other areas :

 

Middlewich (Maureen's) lock - cannot see under the bridge when waiting below.

Llangollen - SWMBO goes ahead up the narrows,

 

Etc ETc

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45 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

And many other areas :

 

Middlewich (Maureen's) lock - cannot see under the bridge when waiting below.

Llangollen - SWMBO goes ahead up the narrows,

 

Etc ETc

But the waiting lock landing below that lock is through the bridge immediately below the lock, not round the corner on the T&M. Maureen was for ever telling folk that.

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1 hour ago, Boater Sam said:

But the waiting lock landing below that lock is through the bridge immediately below the lock, not round the corner on the T&M. Maureen was for ever telling folk that.

When there are 5,6,....10 boats waiting, (as I'm sure you know), its a case of fitting in where you can and trying to remember your place in the queue, and knowing when there is space to 'shuffle-up' under the bridge.

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I think most seasoned boaters who see a couple using walkie-talkies think quietly to themselves, "plonkers".

 

99.9% of the time they are not necessary. When they are, 99,9% of boaters manage without anyway.

 

Most of them get dropped in the cut anyway sooner of later. 

 

 

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We use hand signals where possible but Pingu always takes the PMR with her on those flights where you can't easily see from one lock to the next. Also when I'm steering I have it handy all the time because she'll be at the other end of the boat, so I can call and ask for another coffee etc.

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If you're on the same mobile system, why not take your mobile phones? It costs nothing. We've got a couple of walky-talky things, but they're not used and are taking up space. 

 

Work out a few (clean) hand signals, create a 'language' between your both. You could hang a whistle around your neck to attract attention. 

 

I was working a lock last week, and only half opened the paddles while our boat stabilised in the lock. I got into a conversation with a woman who was working to lock, and I wasn't paying attention, until my husband gave a loud whistle. He can whistle loud enough so he doesn't need a 'physical' whistle. He got my attention, and with a hand signal I knew he wanted me to crank the paddles fully open. The lady I was chatting too was mortified.... "You answer to your husband's whistle?"  A bit sheepishly I had to own up that I do ?

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3 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I think most seasoned boaters who see a couple using walkie-talkies think quietly to themselves, "plonkers".

 

 

 

 

Many users off walkie talkies realise this and adopt a strange way of using them, holding them discretely in their hand, almost up the sleeve, and then putting their hand to their mouth as if coughing whilst mumbling into the radio.

 

.................Dave

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PMR radio's are great for listening to the local taxi firms or other boaters until you find an unused channel.

 

Ours only get used at narrow bits where you're supposed to send someone up the cut to advise of traffic, otherwise we use our own hand signals that we've worked out over the last couple of years (I say we, I mean the better half obvs) which seem to work well and don't rely on signal, need charging and are not at the mercy of water ingress.

 

and to support @Mike the Boilerman's point, one of our PMR's is somewhere in the cut opposite The Narrow Boat pub on the Llangollen :D

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We use walkie talkies and I don't care if people think we're plonkers.  I do a lot of single handing so where there's the two of us and we get to a flight, my OH goes ahead to set locks while I work up or down the flight.  Often we are out of sight of each other.  She can warn me when a boat is coming the other way and I can leave locks ready for them.  She can also warn if there is some kind of issue/hold-up/obstruction ahead, and I can let her know if I've been delayed, or want to have a cup of tea and does she want one?

 

Far more plonkerish are those crews who work up flights screaming, shouting and waving their arms around at each other.  Just use a walkie talkie - far more civilised.

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Just now, Dave_P said:

We use walkie talkies and I don't care if people think we're plonkers.  I do a lot of single handing so where there's the two of us and we get to a flight, my OH goes ahead to set locks while I work up or down the flight.  Often we are out of sight of each other.  She can warn me when a boat is coming the other way and I can leave locks ready for them.  She can also warn if there is some kind of issue/hold-up/obstruction ahead, and I can let her know if I've been delayed, or want to have a cup of tea and does she want one?

 

Far more plonkerish are those crews who work up flights screaming, shouting and waving their arms around at each other.  Just use a walkie talkie - far more civilised.

 

Snot Greeny.jpg

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8 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Agreed. I bought some radios and the missus wouldnt use them so I gave them away. I do think however that they make sense especialy at locations like Nell bridge amongst others where it is impossible to see if anything is coming the other way.

Same here, there are a pair laying on the boat somewhere at the moment

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Years of boating have taught  me that there are two golden rules when I am steering and the Memsahib has gone ahead to prepare a lock.

 

(1) Be patient;

(2) Wait and see - you will always find out before you need to know.

 

No 2-way communication is needed. 

 

Ok then, if you insist, an agreed arm signal for "one coming up first". The signal for "stop and wait" doesn't need to be agreed.

If the roles were reversed I would not be carrying my ball and chain mobile phone as they are all programmed to jump into water without provocation. 

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