Funny experience
Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 3:50 pm
I have a distant background in radio, I used to do morse in the Sea Cadets and I was a radio mechanic in the Fleet Air Arm for ten years but after I left the RN, I didn't really bother with it too much until I bought a couple of Baofeng UV-5Rs a few years ago and I recently decided to take my Foundation exam.
After I left the RN in the 80s, I worked on a few vessels in the North Sea, Irish Sea and Mediterranean and when working a night watch on the bridge, you would often hear the pre-internet equivalent of spam, bored seamen broadcasting expletives to the world.
As I am preparing to take my exam, I'm just sitting with both Baofengs on the windowsill monitoring four frequencies in the background to familiarise myself with local traffic. Yesterday, from one of them, I heard a female voice say what sounded like 'robo-t*ts'. I immediately thought it was some kid pranking like when I was at sea. Then it happened again and again until I was curious to know what frequency they were broadcasting on but when I looked, neither of the radios screens were illuminating when I heard the voice - though I figured out which one it was. It got more and more frequent and I got more and more puzzled to the point that I put my glasses on and took a close look at the screen and saw the battery indicator flashing. Only then did it dawn on me that the voice was saying, with a Chinese accent, 'low voltage'.
After I left the RN in the 80s, I worked on a few vessels in the North Sea, Irish Sea and Mediterranean and when working a night watch on the bridge, you would often hear the pre-internet equivalent of spam, bored seamen broadcasting expletives to the world.
As I am preparing to take my exam, I'm just sitting with both Baofengs on the windowsill monitoring four frequencies in the background to familiarise myself with local traffic. Yesterday, from one of them, I heard a female voice say what sounded like 'robo-t*ts'. I immediately thought it was some kid pranking like when I was at sea. Then it happened again and again until I was curious to know what frequency they were broadcasting on but when I looked, neither of the radios screens were illuminating when I heard the voice - though I figured out which one it was. It got more and more frequent and I got more and more puzzled to the point that I put my glasses on and took a close look at the screen and saw the battery indicator flashing. Only then did it dawn on me that the voice was saying, with a Chinese accent, 'low voltage'.