marine radio on the lake

[michaeljp86]

Is there anything worth listening to on the marine radio on my scanner? I live near St. Joe and I can pick up the airports around chicago so is there anything around I could listen to? There is the big cement boat that comes in the river and the coast guard. Or is the summer the only time to listen? I have the scanner on and sometimes get something faint in but I cant tell where its from or what it is.

[ab8sf]

Depends on the transmitter site being used. The Coast Guard group radio can access all the transmitters in their area of responsibility. Obviously the summer is much busier. The Coast Guard will be on one of only a few frequencies. I don't know if you can hear any of the vessel traffic in or out of Chicago, Gary, etc. Try searching the marine frequencies and see what turns up. I can't remember if BH-SJ has a drawbridge, but if they do, there will probably be some vessel - bridge traffic.

Jim

[Fizz753]

Hello fellow Berrien County person.

As Jim said the summer is a much busier. From down here in the Berrien Springs area I have heard quite a bit on the marine frequencies. Most of it is the large freighter type ships "calling" ahead to give warning to the smaller boats that they are inbound and about what arrival time they will be there. Not just into St. Joe either. Some times into Muskegon or several other ports around the south end of the lake. Depends where the sending boat is at the time. Oh and BH / SJ does have a draw bridge. A couple, a normal road one and a swinging rail road bridge. The railroad one gets the most radio traffic since its rather hard to stop a large ship or a loaded train .

I have also heard the Coast Guard quite a bit. Their standerd evening info / hazzard broadcasts. Plus the ocasinal searches. The only thing is the traffic dosent last long. They say what they need to say and thats it so its easy to scan right past it some times.

Hmm had an excel spread sheet of marine frequencies around here some where.

Edit: Found it. At least I think thats it. Due to some computer fun I dont have excel installed at the moment and there for cant open that file. If you want it in another format you will need to give me a few days on that one .

Edit: Again and again and..
Dug the original page I found that at out of my book marks. Here you go.
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/vhf.htm

[jimsokol]

I am also in the Saint Joe area. There isn't much to hear this time of year on the marine bands except for the marine information broadcasts (157.1) a few times per day, unless there is an ice or some other rescue. From spring to fall it is another story. There are two drawbridges and one railroad swing bridge. Have only heard the RR bridge on one of the the railroad channels (160.23 I think), as it is always swung open during boating season unless a train is near.

Although the other bridges have licenses on 156.6 and 156.425 , I have not heard them. Approaching boats blast their horn to get the bridge open, and also when clear.

...jim

[MacombMonitor]

You might hear an occasional rescue operation of a stranded ice fisherman, or snowmobiler.

[CapnJon]

Program channel's 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 21, 22, 23, 68,69,70,72,81, 83...

[Fizz753]

Originally Posted by jimsokol

I am also in the Saint Joe area. Have only heard the RR bridge on one of the the railroad channels (160.23 I think), as it is always swung open during boating season unless a train is near.

Although the other bridges have licenses on 156.6 and 156.425 , I have not heard them. Approaching boats blast their horn to get the bridge open, and also when clear.

...jim

I know I have heard traffic at least to the bridge some times over the summer. Not sure which frequencies it was on though. You are probably right about them just blowing the horns now though. Having 2 jobs and a radio that dosent work as much as it works some days has really messed up my monitoring time for a while. All well, about all you can do is toss some frequencies into the scanner and see what pops up.