Originally Posted by chevvron
Andu:the number of calls on 121.5 in Rhine airspace could be because the crew have omitted to either select or de-select 8.33kz on their radio, thus when changing to/from an 8.33 channel, they actually dial up the incorrect frequency
Not on the airline style radios I have seen, you do it all with the rotary selector, no 8.33 button.
In the big scheme of things I guess it's not a major problem but every time someone does a practice PAN or uses 121.5 to call a mate upwards of a hundred airliners are having to turn the radio down to avoid missing ATC calls, you hear practice pans from the UK well down into France, and in Holland and Belgium so it's not just a problem confined to UK airspace. I used the service once when I got lost with about 60 hours in my logbook so I know it's great and you need to have some sort of practice at it but now that we are all encouraged (required really) to monitor 121.5 whenever possible it seems that perhaps another frequency, either for them or for us, would be very useful.