American River VMR - Michael Kildea reports on the faces and personalities behind the American River voluntary marine radio organisation

Alan Miele and his wife Carol are dedicated marine radio enthusiasts who provide 24 hour coverage for yachties, boaties and professional fishermen. Their home is perched gracefully upon a hill overlooking picturesque American River on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
Sitting at the dining room table, one could not help but notice the crackle of communication activity coming through speakers, adorned high on the kitchen wall. Their very existence is permeated by the constant barrage of radio talk.
Alan explained that the majority of voluntary marine radio personnel turn their radios off when they go to sleep at night. However, in their house the radios are left on at night. If there are any emergencies, it will be broadcast through the speakers, situated throughout the house.
Alan was keen to show me his radio communication centre, a room he built within his shed in the backyard. Seated at his chair in the radio room, Alan is within arm’s reach of two HF radios, two VHF radios, a 27 Meg radio and his computer displaying C-map, which provides him with a vast array of communication and navigation devices. Set amid the radios are a variety of clocks, including a tide clock. Alan explained that he has a VHF radio set up in one of the bedrooms of his home which is always on, so he doesn’t have to run to his shed to answer a call.
With so many radios covering different channels, it was sometimes difficult to work out what channel the radio call he was receiving, came in on. He says ship stations should nominate the channel of communication they were using i.e. channel 80, channel 21 or if on HF 2524, or HF 4483.
Channel 21 is a new VHF channel, which has a radio transmitter beacon situate at Mount MacDonald on Kangaroo Island. Previously there had been a dead zone on the North Coast of Kangaroo Island, after Cape Cassini and travelling west where channel 80 would not work.
Has channel 21 added a new dimension to Alan’s working radio life?
“We are not just radio operators … we end up being conductors of the whole orchestra,” he said. “You get a boat halfway down the Gulf who is calling his mate on Channel 80. His mate is somewhere near Kangaroo Island down the West End, and he is on Channel 21. So you’ve got to find out if the boat coming down the Gulf is within channel 21 range, and then tell him to go to 21, and he will find his mate on Channel 21.”
Alan remembers the time when he was building his radio room, he told Carol he had one more coat of paint to put on the entrance door and Carol said “don’t worry about that, you have a rest and I will paint the door”.
An hour later Alan went to the shed and was greeted by a cartoon character with the words “grey haired old farts office by order of the War Department.”
Inside the radio room is a lovely photograph of his beloved Blackadder, a steel Vanderstadt 34 which he built himself.
In his previous working career Alan was a self-taught shipwright, and he has built 26 Alan Payne designed Koonya yachts. Alan waxed lyrical about the seagoing capabilities of the Koonya, primarily because the yacht’s stern was high off the water, making the yacht very buoyant in heavy weather.
“The Koonya was designed to sail to England all the way in a gale,” he said. Alan had his own shipyard at Salisbury and specialised in building steel and aluminium yachts. He estimates that he had built over 50 yachts during his boatbuilding career.
American River VMRAlan and Carol monitor VHF channels 80, 16, 21 and 74 and HF 2524 and HF 4483 and provide weather reports on channels 80 and 21 and HF 2524 and 4483 twice daily. Alan really enjoys providing assistance to skippers of yachts who are voyaging around Australia or to New Zealand. As we talk, he is in communication with a local yacht from Kangaroo Island which is cruising in Esperance in Western Australia.
John Ayliffe who is a keen yachtsman and sails an S&S 34 says “Alan has extensive local knowledge and a firm grasp of weather conditions. He is very helpful to those in need and has a generous nature.”
Alan also has a tray of spare parts for his radios. Robert Smith of Vision Fix mans the radio station at Penneshaw and he fixes the radios. Alan does not receive any government assistance to purchase or repair equipment. He explained that there is another radio station down the West End of the island at Western River and is operated by Gavin Solley.
The island radio operators work together hand-in-hand to monitor channel 21 and always make sure that someone is monitoring the channel.
You will find Alan in his radio room away from the house at 0645hrs each morning preparing for his radio sked and providing private assistance to voyaging yachts on HF radio.
His morning sked on Channel 21 commences at 0720 and the afternoon broadcast commences at 1650hrs. Channel 80 broadcasts and HF 2524 commence at 0735 and 1705.  Throughout the day Alan and Carol will monitor the radios through the speakers set up in their house.
“Alan and Carol are dedicated voluntary marine radio enthusiasts who render enormous assistance to people. You have to give them credit for the number of hours they put in,” said Clive Colenso who operates Coast Guard radio station Emu Bay.
Alan commenced his interest in the sea at the age of eight. He began skippering his father’s fishing boat, in the channel out the back of Garden Island … in those days there were no channel markers. He had to gauge the middle of the channel, and he could do this by relying upon the echo of the motor coming back off the mangroves to give him a position.
Alan’s father held a B-class fishing licence and Alan would often go on trips in the Gulf. In his teenage years Alan was a very keen catamaran sailor, skippering Quick cats, Yvonne cats and graduating to Tornados.
Alan commenced his boatbuilding career by building round bilge aluminium catamarans. One day a fellow walked up to him and asked him if he could build a yacht.
“What sort a yacht?” Alan asked.
“An Alan Payne designed Koonya,” the fellow said.
“What’s a Koonya? It doesn’t matter I can build anything,” and so he set about building yachts.
Alan and Carol have the ideal background to be voluntary marine radio operators, particularly with Alan’s boatbuilding skills and yachting ability (he holds a yacht master’s certificate). They understand the yachtsman’s needs and have a caring attitude which at the same time is relaxed and friendly.
In the past Alan has had his fair share of emergencies. On one occasion when a yacht lost its rudder, Alan turned up the next day with a steel rudder he had made, so that the yacht and its crew could continue its journey.
Alan and Carol are marine radio enthusiasts who have a passion for ensuring the safety of yachtsman and fishermen. They have increased their watch to a 24 hour service and have plans to provide worldwide coverage. If you log on with Alan or Carol, rest assured they will have your best interests at heart.