Queenstown Lakes District harbourmaster Marty Black is concerned boat users are continuing to use an international distress channel for day-to-day communications - despite the poor coverage and it being illegal to use the channel for anything other than an emergency.
Mr Black said the council installed a new radio repeater on top of Cecil Peak about three years ago to ensure coverage across Lake Wakatipu.
"It means that all boaties should be communicating through channel 5."
Channel 16 was the international distress channel and a "simplex" channel, which meant, despite it being the emergency channel, it could only be picked up in line of sight on Lake Wakatipu - which was why the council invested in the repeater.
However, Mr Black had received feedback some boat users were continuing to use channel 16 instead of channel 5.
"Some operators have expressed concerns that if a visiting boatie to the area calls on channel 16, if they are in distress, no-one would hear the call."
Mr Black said all operators should be scanning two channels on their radios - the main working channel ( 5) and the emergency channel (16).
• Anyone with questions or concerns can contact Mr Black at the harbourmaster's office.
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