The navigational radio beacons all around our coasts, and further abroad, are there for the safety of those of us who need and can use them. We should learn to make the fullest use of these beacons.

RDF sets are not expensive, as compared with the radar of our posh yachting fraternity. However, disregard the gross misstatement in Reed’s Almanac, bottom of Page 285: ‘There is no LW radio receiver which will cover even part of the marine and air beacon bands’.

An ordinary LW radio can be modified and converted to RDF, but unless you have the radio knowledge and patience and unlimited spare time, don’t try! Being myself retired, so having much spare time, I am in the final stages of producing my third RDF set, thanks partly to the tolerance of my wife! I would be glad to pass information on to any member who could cope with such a job.

And forget the idea of some sailing boffin sitting at his chart table producing ‘cocked hats’ on a sheet of paper (in a little dinghy). The helmsman, often single-handed, must be able to take his bearings or, if lucky enough, ‘home’ on a beacon without leaving the tiller.

So… the receiver has a permanent mounting on a fore-and-aft line in the dinghy. It must be accessible to the helmsman for tuning-in the wanted beacons. Better than using a speaker to find the ‘null’ is to use headphones, cutting out the noise of wind and weather; one ear can be uncovered to listen for that tanker on a collision course! But for goodness sake keep the headphones (or speaker) well away from the compass!

The procedure is to swing the whole dinghy until a ‘null’ is obtained on a particular beacon, when the compass bearing is noted. Yes, I know some of you will be immediately ‘up in arms’ at this, but I have done it successfully and really there is no alternative for the single-hander or with just one crew. Should conditions prevent swinging to a course necessary to get the ‘null’, a reverse bearing can be taken, though with probably less accuracy.

A rudimentary bit of Pelorus is useful for initial mounting of the set fore-and-aft. It is screwed with a few degrees of angular movement available, and locked in position when ‘swung’ on a beacon of known bearing, perhaps a line-of-sight on a lighthouse housing the beacon. Once so fixed it is there for good, unless some wire stays or other metal are moved. NOTE: a visual alignment of the ferrite rod aerial in the set is not satisfactory.

Before starting one’s cruise, a calibrating card would be made out to attach at the tuning scale. Suppose, for instance, you planned to sail from Truro to Exeter. The card, to be aligned with the 285 to 420 kilohertz markings on the scale, would show, perhaps:-

All taken down from Reed’s Nautical Almanac

Note that PB comes on only every six minutes, alternating with others of little interest on this course; also that LZ/PE/SP likewise are each on the air (with others further off) only every six minutes.

Once having made an offing from Falmouth, you would actually ‘home’ on SP, Start Point, provided of course that a direct course could be set. And again, having rounded Berry Head, you would likewise ‘home’ on EX, Exeter Airport. In neither case would any swinging off course be necessary.

To conclude — what satisfaction it was to me, after crossing single-handed from Falmouth to France in 1963, to see at last at extreme visual range the lighthouse with the beacon BA on the Ile de Batz, on which I had homed for some hundred miles. Alas, that beacon is no longer there; nor is FRQ Consul at Plonéis.