BBC News reports that bad weather has prevented a team of Belgian radio enthusiasts from landing safely on the North Atlantic islet of Rockall. The skipper of their chartered yacht has decided to head for the islands of St Kilda to seek shelter from the poor conditions.
The Belgians are planning to make thousands of contacts from Rockall, a volcanic rock that is 100ft wide and 70ft high and a 250-mile boat trip from Stornoway on the Western Isles.
Andy Sennitt comments: BBC news makes the common mistake of referring to the planned transmissions as “broadcasts”. This inaccurate terminology is something that has irritated me for years. These are not “broadcasts”, but two-way contacts between amateur radio stations. The content of the transmissions is only officially of interest to those participating in the contact. Of course, others are allowed to eavesdrop on the conversations, but that doesn’t make them broadcasts. I would have thought that after nearly 90 years in the business, the BBC should know what a broadcast is.
on Apr 30th, 2009 at 09:23
In all fairness, it’s a common mistake on the part of all broadcasters to report anything that’s even remotely technical in a misguided way. There don’t seem to be any even half-technical journalists in existance, even on technology programmes.
Having said that, you’d think that large broadcasters would have learnt to run anything half technical past engineers before publication or broadcast.
on May 3rd, 2009 at 06:12
The only amateur radio that could be legitimately called a “broadcast” would originate from the likes of GB2RS …