Radio Club

What is Radio Club

Each Marine Rescue NSW unit operates a Radio Club for members of the local boating community – a boat registration and “look-out” service provided by Marine Rescue Port Stephens unit, with applicability across all Marine Rescue NSW bases.

These clubs are a great way for you to show your support for our volunteers and the vital emergency service they provide on NSW waterways.

Your small annual club membership fee makes an important contribution to our volunteer fundraising, which is crucial to Marine Rescue NSW as a not-for-profit community-based service.

By providing information to us on the attached membership application form, we will enter all your details into our computer database. This will provide our Radio Operators with immediate details of who you are, as well as full details of your vessel.

You will be allocated an MRS call sign, for example… MRS123. This number will be unique to you only and is valid while ever you remain a member, even if you change boats.

As a Radio Club (or MRS) member, all you now need to do is simply call up “Marine Rescue Port Stephens, this is MRSxxx”……

• On channel 88 (27 Meg) – Marine Rescue Port Stephens will then ask you to “go to channel 98” to provide log-on details.
• On channel 16 (VHF) – you will be asked to “go to channel 71”.
• By phone, call 4981-3585.
• Marine Rescue Port Stephens will then ask you to “go ahead”.  You then advise where you launched from today, how many persons are on board (counting children separately), where you are going, and your estimated time of return (ETR).  That’s it!  No need for boat name and registration number etc – it’s all on our computer.

If you choose to stay out longer, please call up our base immediately to extend your ETR. Don’t forget to “log off” on return!

Our radio base at Marine Rescue Port Stephens is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Please feel free to call our base and our radio operators will be pleased to explain our operations and how we use the Radio Club Database. Our Radio Operators will be pleased to explain our operations and show you our Marine Radio Club Database and how we use it.

Benefits of MRSS Membership

1. Free on-water assistance or towing to all financial Radio Club members, if required.
2. More detail is stored in our Radio Club database than will ever be included in a normal log-on, which may provide that vital bit of information required to identify WHO and WHERE you might be if you ever need help, or cannot be found.
3. The logging on and off process is much easier for Radio Club members, as we already have most of the data needed.
4. It is so much easier to identify a Radio Club vessel calling on the radio by MRS number, rather than trying to work out what is the name of the vessel, how is it spelt, does it have spaces between the words, is it hyphenated etc etc. An MRS number is SO MUCH easier to give and receive by radio.
5. MRS members are looked after by a “well-trained team” of volunteers, whose contributions to the smooth running of our waterways is generally very much appreciated. Hence, the small membership fee is a great way to say “THANKS” to the Marine Rescue volunteers, and assist with the ongoing operations.