The tale of the private channels

When I bought my radio I had no idea that there were private channels or even if there was that there was a possibility of them not being programmed in.
When I went to Castle Cove I was unable to hail the taxi because they monitor channel 37.... Easy I thought except when I pushed in 37 it wouldn't stick. Channel 37, I later discovered, is private channel M1.
On my return I checked the manual and followed the instructions but couldn't find these fabled channels, it must need reprogramming so it was time to take it to a dealer.
I took it to Greenham Regis in Poole where a very nice man plugged it in and started playing with it. "These old Simrads have odd menus" he said. After a bit of head scratching he phoned another sage who talked him through it.... The channels were there all the time, you just needed to be a code breaker to find them.
He didn't charge me any thing for his time so I promised to stick a couple of quid in the RNLI tin.
So here's an unashamed plug for a very nice man who deals with boat electronics.
Greenham Regis. Use them :-)