Hormuz Straight Confrontation may have been Radio Troll
Posted by: delusional in Humour, Politics“I am coming to you… you will explode after a few minutes.”
This quotation may well be the VHF radio equivalent of “All Your Base Are Belong To Us” according to El Reg.
Apparently, there is a phenomenon on marine monitored VHF frequencies known as the “Filipino Monkey” which quite literally refers to a ‘Troll’ who transmits on the monitored marine channel 16 in order to ‘grief’ diligent radio operators at the other end. (All ships at sea must maintain a watch on channel 16)
While this may nominally mean generic insults about the operator’s mother or other lineage, it can also be a somewhat comical response to broadcast anti-collision warnings or more formal transmissions.
So how does this relate to last weeks ‘confrontation’ between the US Navy and Iranian fast patrol boats. Well, as the register points out, the USN can’t be sure that the transmission they heard actually came from the Iranian boats.
We cannot make a direct connection to the boats… It could have come from the shore, from another ship passing by… I guess we’re not saying that it absolutely came from the boats, but we’re not saying it absolutely didn’t.
It could just as easily have been transmitted by a bored Oman ship’s radio watch operator 20 miles away who was tired of listening to USN posturing that day.
Now the US Navy are understandably twitchy about people proclaiming that they are ‘going to explode’ because the USS Cole was bomed back in 2000 by Sudanese suicide bombers. Of course, this isn’t the [demonstrated] style of the Iranian Navy who seem to do things the ‘old fashioned’ way using various projectile weapons and torpedoes.
I’d like to think that if the Iranian navy were actually intending to broadcast a declaration of war via ship-ship VHF, they’d at least prepare a slightly less comedic sounding statement beforehand.
Tags: filipino monkey, hormuz straight, iran, radio troll, us navy, usn
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