Rally of Great Britain 20th-23rd November 1999

It is with concern I see a link to scanner frequencies for the Network Q Rally on your site.

 
A real concern, having once been present while Rescue and Recovery crews have been trying to get to

a serious incident only to find their way seriously impaired by hoards of spectators who had been

listening to the Safety and Medical Frequency on their scanners, heard the details and set off for the

scene. When eventually the crews arrived at the scene their work was impossible to carry out with any

degree of safety until they had dealt with the crowds. The Doctor had to work alone until Rescue and

Recovery crews had made the area safe, a task which further delayed vital rescue work by at least 10

minutes.

 

Do the people who publish these frequencies for all and sundry to read realise that they could easily be

the cause of a competitor losing his fight for life while Medical personnel try to reach that competitor?

 

The MSA Safety and Medical Frequency is run on a private, controlled Network. The whole idea of the

closed network is so that the Controller can get help in as short a time as possible to wherever it is

needed. For that you need clear forest tracks, not tracks filled with spectators trying to make their way

to the same part of the forest as the Rescue crews.

 

If you are, in fact, going to link to such information I would think that it is only fair to point out to the

readers that, in the case of licensed frequencies, which all these are, it is not illegal to listen to

transmissions but is totally illegal to act on what you hear. 

 

By making these frequencies known to the general public with no reminder that acting on what they

hear is against the law, one cannot really blame them for breaking the law - except a DTI Inspector

would not be interested in ignorance, he would just remove their scanners and descend on their homes

to remove every iota of radio equipment they possess, TV, stereo, mobile phone, microwave oven,

computer, the lot!

 

The problem is real and genuine amongst the Safety crews that staff any rally stage and more so in the

Network Q. One cannot stop odd spectators rolling up at the scene of an incident, they do not need to

hear the radio transmissions, they just walk WD when the cars stop arriving and carry on walking until

they find the cause. What we do need to stop is the mass exodus stage direction, the direction the

Rescue crews will be taking. This mass exodus is caused by spectators listening to transmissions on

scanners and acting on what they hear. At the risk of repeating myself, they are acting illegally.

 

It would serve both the MSA and all the Safety Personnel well if you were to ensure that that page has a

very clear warning in very large block capitals of the fact that acting on what is heard is illegal and the

consequences of being found to have acted on information gleaned from "eavesdropping" on frequencies

such as the MSA Safety and Medical, Medivac HELO, Red channel etc.

 

Perhaps, instead of encouraging the masses to race to the scene it could well do what we have been

trying to do for years - make them stay where they are and wait while the injured are seen to and taken

to a place of comfort.

Stoke 3 and Stoke 4

Detailed information about Radio in Motor Sport from Graham Brown.

More information about Scanners from FlightDeck