Filipino Monkey

Learning New VHF Skills

Log | Rama | Spring 2008

00:00-03:00
First night watch and it almost didn't happen. Liz, who stayed up to read, promised to wake me up and, after spending 2 hours tossing and turning I finally dropped off at 2330, only to be woken up by Liz at one minute past midnight, a minute after my watch started. Turned out Liz had fallen asleep too!

We spent the first hour listening to the VHF, which was a real education. Having done most of my night-sailing around the UK and then across empty oceans, it was a new thing to learn about Philipino Monkeys. For those who don't k now, all vessels should have their VHF radio on stand-by on the international channel 16. It's used as a hailing channel and for emergencies but it can be open to abuse. 'Philipino Monkey', for example, so the story goes, apparently, according to legend, is a term the Arabs call the Philipinos and around the Med and the Indian Ocean (some claim around the world) you'll hear bored night-watchmen and deck-hands abusing channel 16, hurling nasty nonsense, making noises and generally being dicks. Here's what we heard in the space of fifteen minutes, many of them repeated over and over. Alone, at night, some of these sound quite spooky:

[Said in a high-pitched taunt] Filipino monkeeeeeeey!
Faaaaaaaaccckkkkkkk orffffffffff
[Whispered] I'm comin' to getcha
Filipino monkeeeeeeey!
[Mutley giggles]
This is motor vessel 'Spirit'. My position is zero thirty four degrees, ner minutes, blah blergghhhh arrrgghhhhh degrees east. Aaaaaghhrrr. Over.
Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaackkkkkk your mummmmmmmmmmm
Filipino monkeeeeeeey!

All very silly, but Most Entertaining Transmission of the Evening has to go to the Filipino who came back with this:

Does anyone know what IMO stands for? (It actually stands for International Maritime Organisation). [No answer.] Does anyone know what IMO stands for? [No answer]. No one? It stands for 'Indian Monkey Organisation'.

And so on. Whilst this can be amusing I just wonder how these idiots would feel if it was they who were trying to put out a Mayday in amongst the idiotic transmissions.

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Dining table, Rama

Log | Rama | Spring 2008

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Channel 16 VHF:
Channel 16 VHF on the marine radio frequency is the International Emergency Distress Frequency for shipping and maritime purposes. It may only be used for broadcasting MayDay, Pan-pan or urgent Safety (Known as "Securite") messages. It is allied to the 2182 kHz frequency. Distress signals at sea are defined in the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea and in the International Code of Signals. These channels are monitored 24 hours a day by Coastguards across the Globe.

All sea bound vessels are required by International Law to stay tuned to and monitor Channel 16 VHF when sailing ( except when communicating on other marine channels for legitimate business or operational reasons. In other words ships must effectively "listen out" for any vessels in distress in their immediate vicinity.

Source: Wikipedia

Filipino Monkey:
"Filipino Monkey" is a pseudonym used by radio pranksters in maritime radio transmissions since at least the 1980s, especially in the Persian Gulf. These pranksters make odd, confusing, or even threatening calls on VHF marine channel 16, which is the VHF calling and distress channel. Prior to the advent of GMDSS all ships at sea were required to monitor the channel, which is meant to be used only to make contact before changing to a working channel.

An account of U.S. operations during Operation Earnest Will in the Gulf in 1988 contains this description of the Monkey's nighttime broadcasts:

"From time to time, the radio squawked, breaking the quiet with a burst of static. Most of the messages were fully routine, the expected traffic in a crowded sea. But every so often a high manic voice would break from the speaker: 'Hee hee hee! Filipino Monkey!' No one knew who the caller was, or what he meant by his strange message."

Source: Wikipedia