Safety in Motorsport The Beginnings In the seventies a group of motorsport enthusiasts got together to work out how they could make motorsport safer. They wanted to be able to get medical help to incidents without delay and so needed to provide the ability to stop a stage as soon as possible at any given time. The Idea Developes They came up with the idea of marshals in cars fitted with radios and posted at strategic points around the rally stages. There would be one person, the Radio Controller, who would be sited at a point where contact could be made with every radio at the event. The Radio Controller would control the whole Network of radios ensuring important messages would reach their destination with no delay. In case of an incident the Radio Controller could stop the stage immediately and medical help could be sent in with no delay. The MSA Safety and Medical Frequency is born The DTI granted the RACMSA use of the 86MHz frequency under certain conditions and so the RACMSA Safety and Medical Frequency was born. In fact, at this time Forest Radios was also born because Forest 2 was amongst this group of radical new thinkers! As time went by, of course, the DTI became the RA (Radiocommunications Agency) and the RACMSA became simply the MSA (Motor Sports Association). 86MHz is MSA - Right? Wrong! Unfortunately the DTI also licensed the frequency to other, non-motorsport, people. Thus, under certain conditions and in certain parts of the country you will find the MSA frequency shared with such bodies as taxi firms, water boards, gas workers, armed forces, burger vans and ice-cream vendors, to mention but a few! Fortunately these users are getting less and less as they upgrade to FM radios and the MSA is left stuck in the past! Why License the Frequency? The RA license the frequency to the MSA so they have final control over the airwaves. Because only one person can talk over the air at once some sort of control is needed and the RA, once informed that the MSA S&MF is going to be used at a venue, checks to see who else is licensed to use the same waveband in the area of the event. If a clash is likely to occur then the RA will arrange to re-tune the radios so the MSA S&MF is clear to be used without interference. Needless to say, it is the other radios that have their frequencies temporarily altered, not the MSA radios. Do I really need a Licence to Operate? Oh, yes! Not only is it the law but also it means that the RA have an idea of the amount of radio usage there will be in an area. Things are getting easier as more and more licensees upgrade to FM and the frequency gets used less but the control still needs to be in place to ensure the MSAS&MF can be used without interruption during events. Are There Penalties for Having No Licence? Again, oh, yes! RA Inspectors visit rallies without warning. The penalty for being found "in possession of an unlicenced radio capable of being used" is firstly confiscation of all the radio equipment in your possession at the time - your 86 radio, car radio or stereo, mobile phone etc - and secondly confiscation of all radio equipment at your home - stereo, kid's game machines, TV (tell that to the rental company!), video, microwave oven (tell that to the wife!), computers, scanners, monitor, radio alarm clock, the mobile phones for the wife and kids - they can all go into the back of the RA wagon never to be seen again. The third thing, of course, is a Court appearance that results in a heavy fine. Scanners!!! The thorn in the flesh! Irresponsible scanner users cause the problems we have. Although it is against the Law to listen to "closed" frequencies I can fully sympathise with any one who does in an effort to find out what is going on at the other end of a stage or another part of the rally. After all, that is why many of us became radio operators. This is the big problem: - on hearing a Radio Marshal reporting an incident the irresponsible scanner users flock in hoards to the scene along routes that the Rescue vehicles will need to travel to reach the scene It does not happen very often that the arrival of Rescue is essential to save a life, but no one knows whether that is the case until the experts get there so every call out has to be treated as a matter of life or death. The Controller clears the whole stage of moving traffic in an effort to get Rescue to the incident in the shortest, safest time. Then the Rescue vehicle gets so far into stage and meets crowds of scanner owners and spectators they have related the news to, all going in the same direction as the Rescue vehicle, which just has to slow down. Thus the progress of the Rescue vehicle is hindered making the unfortunate injured party wait longer for medical assistance. What help is that to the safety of motorsport? Of course, the responsible scanner user will know that he is not allowed to listen to private, "closed" frequencies , which is what the MSA Safety and Medical Frequency is, unless he has a licence for those frequencies. Also that passing on information heard over a "closed" frequency is illegal. An RA Inspector can penalise him the same way as he penalises a radio owner without a licence.