Just to add our side of the coin as a East Shetland Basin Controller (to the pilots as well as the oilies) - we do all we can to help the heli crews fly safely out to the rigs but sometimes things are beyond our control. Now the weather has become flyable we are faced with the (fairly straight-forward)problem of operating without a radar (Gulfaks radar found to have cracks in the base). We fight our way around that obstacle only to find there are problems on the COA with the Sat Coms equipment resulting (we are led to believe) from an over-enthusiastic flare stack. This has left us with no standby radios and very intermittent mains radio capability. All we are left with is the radio equivalent of two coke cans and a bit of string operating on a single frequency. Unfortunately, we don't always know that the mains have failed, so, pilots, if the frequency goes quiet for any length of time and you can't raise us, try the alternate freq. If you still can't raise us try contacting Sumburgh, who we sit next to, and we may be able to relay messages to you.