Chicago River & Lake Michigan ops

[daveharpe]

Hey everyone,

New to the area and trying to get a handle on marine ops around Chicago. Now that it's summer lots of traffic both on the river and Lake Michigan. Does anyone have a good collection of frequencies to monitor during events like a stranded vessel or person rescue in both the Chicago River and Lake Michigan? Any other general river ops would be great (sightseeing vessels, Chicago PD water unit, etc.). I live near the river so it would be nice to listen to this traffic.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[melvin1987]

156.425 Marine Ch68 Monroe Harbor & Columbia Yacht Club
156.450 Marine Ch09 Lake Michigan Calling Channel
156.600 Marine Ch12 Chgo Bridge Operations
156.650 Marine Ch13 Chgo Locks Navigation
156.700 Marine Ch14 Chgo Locks Operations
156.800 Marine Ch16 Emergency
157.025 Marine Ch80A Wendella & Skyline tours
157.150 USCG Helo/PATCOM
157.175 USCG Auxcomm

 

[kevino]

156.425 Marine Ch68 Monroe Harbor & Columbia Yacht Club
156.450 Marine Ch09 Lake Michigan Calling Channel
156.600 Marine Ch12 Chgo Bridge Operations
156.650 Marine Ch13 Chgo Locks Navigation
156.700 Marine Ch14 Chgo Locks Operations
156.800 Marine Ch16 Emergency
157.025 Marine Ch80A Wendella & Skyline tours
157.150 USCG Helo/PATCOM
157.175 USCG Auxcomm

Ummm....some OK, some dated. None of the sightseeing boats are currently using Ch. 80. Ch. 13 is the common boat-to-boat channel for sightseeing boats (especially on the Chicago River). Channel 11 (156.550) is an alternate to that and a typical "switch to" channel for boats first contacting CPD Marine units on Channel 16. Channel 18 (156.900) is used by 'Chicago's First Lady' boats when asking Mercury dock permission to depart. If it's CPD Marine Unit you want to hear, their primary channel is TG 45072 on the CPD 800 MHz TRS Chicago Public Safety and Services Trunking System, Chicago, Illinois - Scanner Frequencies (with TG 45088 reported as their secondary). They use CPD Citywide 1 (460.125) to communicate with the OEMC dispatcher. And yeah, Channel 16 is supposed to be an 'emergency' channel, but tour boats and others also use it to self-announce departure from their docks, when approaching certain bridges and locations on the river. USCG boat/sector ops (P25, usually encrypted) on Net 113 (163.1375) and/or Net 118 (164.900). USCG aircraft/sector ops (P25, aircraft encrypted, sector clear) on Net 409 (412.975).

 

[daveharpe]

Thanks guys! I'll try those out. Probably a busy weekend coming up...

 

[cea1991]

I can confirm that Chicago River Bridge Ops operates on Marine VHF channels below and NOT on CDOT's "Loop Ops" frequency. I watched the bridges go up today and monitored activity on both Marine channel 12 & 16.

156.600 - Marine Ch12 Chicago Bridge Operations
156.800 - Marine Ch16 Emergency/Locks/Commercial Calling/

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