News Archive 2008

Divetech Calendar & Diary Orders - updated 22.11.08
Sign the RNLI Petition - added 02.11.08
Ghost Walk Photos - added 24/10/08
Try Dives - added 16/10/08

Divetech Calendar and Diary Orders

The 2009 calendar and diary are ready and the first order has arrived.

Calendars cost £5.50 and £7.50 for the diary, both are on good quality paper, spiral bound with card covers. The diary has laminated card covers. If anyone has missed the boat a second run can be printed so please place your order with Alison as soon as possible. Any profit made will go to club funds. Here's an idea of what they look like;

Low resolution pdf versions can be downloaded below if you want to see the whole thing, be warned even though they're low res they're still big files;

• Divetech Calendar 2009 (1.27MB)
• Divetech Diary 2009 (2.03MB)

Many thanks to everyone involved in this project particularly Niall Kennedy for proof reading, Ian (Lucky Stinky) Stevenson for technical advice and the photographers for their terrific photos.

Sign the RNLI Petition

As reported in the Sunday Telegraph on the 28th September 2008, Ofcom wants to bring "market forces" into maritime and aviation communications. The RNLI will have to pay £250,000 a year, and "smaller search and rescue charities fear they may have to close".

LIFEBOAT crews fear being scuppered by crippling new charges for using their radios from Ofcom, the communications regulator. The RNLI could see the price of using its VHF emergency frequencies rise to £250,000 under plans to charge the full commercial rate.

The charity, which saves hundreds of lives every year currently pays an annual £48,000 at a discounted rate of 50 per cent. It relies on donations and fears the move will have a disastrous impact on fundraising. Peter Bradley, RNLI operations staff officer, said: 'It's a lot of money when you think in terms of lifeboat days and little old ladies collecting pound coins.'

'We could buy several inshore lifeboats for the same amount.' 'The Government rely on us to provide this search-and-rescue service, at a cost of £124 million a year, but they want to charge us for doing it!' Ofcom has set out plans to bring 'market forces' into maritime and civil aviation communications in a policy it calls Administered Incentive Pricing. £250,000 represents an awful lot of charity collections, even more so in the current economic climate so, if you feel strongly enough about this, please sign the RNLI-RF-licences petition on the No 10 website.

The Prime Minister's Office made an early response to the petition on November 5th;

Although this petition is not due to close until 8 October 2009, Ofcom have contacted the Prime Minister’s office, and asked that we publish the following clarification:

Ofcom has been consulting on introducing spectrum pricing to the aeronautical and maritime sectors. We are doing this because radio spectrum is a scarce and valuable resource and lots of different users want to use it. It’s important that it is managed as efficiently as possible, because then society as a whole can get the most out of the finite amount available.

One of the ways that we try to achieve this is by charging users for the spectrum - or airwaves - they use. This already includes a huge array of public and private sector users, including MOD, NHS, ambulance, police and taxi firms. But we recognise the special position of safety of life charities, which is why they receive a 50 per cent discount on their current fees.

What we are proposing in the maritime case is simply to change the ways fees are worked out so that they aren’t based on the admin costs of issuing a licence, but on how much spectrum is used. Under our proposals the RNLI might actually pay less than they do now. We estimate that they could pay around £20,000 compared to the £40,000 that they currently pay.

The consultation closed at the end of last month. Ofcom will now take stock of the responses, and any updates will be posted on the Ofcom website (www.ofcom.org.uk).

Ghost Walk Photos, October 23rd

Alex organised a ghost walk with Ferrie Scarie in South Queensferry - it was a brilliant night & even the ghosts from the 15th century seemed to know quite a bit about diving. Although they did think we should change our name to WitchTech . .

No details, if you want to find out more you'll have to go on a Walk, there's definitely more to South Queensferry than meets the eye!

Thanks to Alex for organising the walk and to everyone at Ferrie Scarie for being such good sports!

Try Dives, October 16th

On Thursday 16th of October Divetech hosted try dives at the Leith Academy pool. We had five try divers, and we now have some definite Ocean Diver trainees. Thanks to the instructors; Sands, Sarah, Ben and Ian, the "shore support" team and the try divers who's enthusiasm made it such a success! More try dives are planned for Thursday 30th October.

Ian warming up, although only he knows how juggling helps . . . .	Sarah favours the levitation method for kitting up
Judit goes diving!	Scott takes the plunge
It's almost like being in a jacuzzi . . .
Justyna enjoys the dive - levitation included!	End of a busy night and off to the pub before long!

Divetech Calendar . . . . and Diary . . . 2009

Because we had so many good pictures there's also a diary if anyone is interested, a week to two pages, A6, spiral bound with laminated covers;

Alison will bring the samples along to the try dives, Ghost Walk and November committee meeting / pub night and will be taking orders. Prices soon!

Divetech Flyer

We now have a professionally printed, A4 poster/flyer to help attract new members - please distribute it far and wide!

2009 Calendar Photo Competition Winners

On Thursday 2nd of October we got togther to select photos for the Divetech Calendar, 2009. Here are the winners;

Cuttlefish at St Abb's - Alex Brian on the Frankenwald - Alison Alex and friend at the Farnes - Ann Jellyfish - Bruce Dogfish - Ian aka Stinky! Seahare - Jo Pipefish - Mary The boats at Lochinver - Pete Cuckoo Wrasse, Isle of Skye - Sands Wolf Fish, Bass Rock - Sarah F Devonshire Cup Coral - Sheila Common Sea Urchin - Tom Many thanks to everyone that attended, to Tom and Hilary for organising the venue and to all the photographers - it wouldn't have happened without you!

PIE Eaters and TIE Wearers - Congratulations!

The news is just in from BSAC HQ, Tom and Ian were both awarded merits in their instructor examinations, taken up at Loch Fyne at the end of September.

Tom attained the Practical Instructor Exam (PIE), whilst Ian achieved a merit in the Theory Exam and the Theory Instructor Exam (TIE), despite Sands calling him Stinky all weekend. According to Sands they were both excellent.

Well done both of you!