Snooky. I thank you for your comments, as someone who heard the exchange you obviously appreciate that inappropriate comments on guard do not help the controller or do anything to settle any pilot who has called on 121.5 for assistance.
I dont intend to get embrolied in a debate about 121.5 usage by GA pilots in the UK. It is a FACT that the huge majority of tx on 121.5 are by CAT. Some points I would like to make.
1. When a pilot mistakenly calls a ground unit on 121.5 & recieves a "you're on guard" , you would not believe the amount of times he hears that response as "go ahead" and then launches into his speel about wheelchairs etc often lasting 20 seconds or so. Surely if he got no reply the penny would drop after acouple of calls? I know that when I tx whether as a contoller or when I am flying, if I dont get a response the first thing I do is check my frequency selection.
2. As for complaints about PP calls made within the UK, sorry I have limited sympathy whilst I can hear pilots whistling, singing, chatting, asking for football scores during the world cup and us being sworn at over 121.5 by CAT etc etc. Sort that nonsense out and my view point would be far more sympathetic.
3. In the congested airspace of the UK we actively encourage GA to call D&D 121.5 when they are lost. Part of humanising 121.5 is allowing pilots to make PP calls so that they are familiar with D&D & how we can help should the need arise. If they do get lost, many pilots now quickly declare that fact early on 121.5... often they are inside CAS & we take action to exit CAS and deconflict with CAT. If they werent confident about calling on 121.5, they would spend more time trying to sort themselves out & CAT would be getting unexpeditious recoveries or even go arounds.
4. As for the suggestion of naming & shaming, when ac tx on 121.5 we get a DF fix on that ac. The DF display sits approx 6 inches away from our radar displays which have all ORCAM squawks callsign code converted i.e. your callsign is displayed on our radar. It takes seconds to identify who is saying what........ Incidentally OC LATCC(Mil) was sat next to me a few minutes ago & he is leaning towards the idea of "naming & shaming".
In the 15 mins or so that this has taken me to write there has been one training fix on 121.5 and 11 CAT transmissions.... make that 13!
DD