158. 725 (approx.) Boston Fishermen ?

[BOBRR]

Hello,

Saw in a Post that fishermen (Boston Area) were picked up on
158.720
158.725
158.730

Anyone have any info. on these ?

Question: are fishing boats, commercial or non-commercial, assigned their own
frequencies ? Or, do they just use CH 16, etc. like everyone else ?

Or, do they just usually use, illegally, whatever they agree to between themselves ?

Thanks,
Bob

[SCANdal]

Originally Posted by BOBRR

Question: are fishing boats, commercial or non-commercial, assigned their own
frequencies ? Or, do they just use CH 16, etc. like everyone else ?

Or, do they just usually use, illegally, whatever they agree to between themselves ?

Bob,

In the United States, commercial vessels can use Marine channels 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 18, 19, 67, 77, 79, 80, and 88.

Non-commercial channels are 68, 69, 71, 72, and 78. Channel 16 is the Distress / Calling channel that should be monitored by all marine stations.

Should any company have it's own FCC license, they can use whatever other frequency(ies) they are authorized on. It is not unheard of for ships to use an agreed-up (but unauthorized) frequency between/among themselves.

SCANdal

[Tech792]

This has been an on-going problem for years. Especially here near the Jersey shore.
There are certain VHF marine radios, I think they were Icoms and maybe even others, that when you install a jumper inside the radio, gives you extra "illegal" channels. Most times when the boats operate on the "extra"channels, they are interfering with business and public safety channels. They are always "in between" or just off of legit channels.

In the past, I have heard this first hand on the following freqs:
155.140....5 kc off of Sea Bright & Shrewsbury fire/ems
156.095....5 kc off of Atlantic Highlands police input
156.070....10 kc off of Middletown DPW input
and I know there is more that I can't think of off the top of my head.

Most of the time, the boat operators don't even know they are interfering with licensed users just out of ignorance. We've even had the FCC down here once about this problem.

[ecps92]

Some of the older Marine VHF Radios [ICOM is one] had a feature that
added Private Channels....

158.7250 is one of them called Ch.114

Originally Posted by BOBRR

Hello,

Saw in a Post that fishermen (Boston Area) were picked up on
158.720
158.725
158.730

Anyone have any info. on these ?

Question: are fishing boats, commercial or non-commercial, assigned their own
frequencies ? Or, do they just use CH 16, etc. like everyone else ?

Or, do they just usually use, illegally, whatever they agree to between themselves ?

Thanks,
Bob

[kb2vxa]

Oh tell me about the "pirate ships" here at the Jersey Shore! They're all over the place in and out of band, Coast Guard exclusive, railroad and business frequencies are not immune. Add a lot of cussing and it sounds like CB channel 19. Funny thing is they abandoned CB decades ago but I remember them well using high powered illegal gear before the yahoos chased them off the band.. I guess you can call them the original truckers, ironic isn't it?

[archduke]

I remember some Standard Communications Marine radios of the mid to late 1990's vintage came through with the ability to program additional xmit and receive channels (within certain limited ranges which probably went as high as 159MHZ using typical marine VHF channel spacing).

I don't remember if the programming consisted of cutting/rebuilding jumpers or consisted of a button pushing routine. In any event some people may have taken advantage of this capability to bootleg on a non approved channel. As far as I know, these 'magic' radios are no longer part of the Standard Communcations line.

So I don't know if that is what is going on in your area, but it might be an answer to your question.