Let's take it from the top.
"Can you answer a call on marine channel 16 like you would if you was answering a call for help on Citizens Band radio CB Channel 9?
Yes, also both are calling channels so once contact is made you take the conversation to a working channel.
"Could I add a Marine HT or mobile to my emergency communiations unit to help monitor 156.300 with no license?"
Yes, but the key word is MONITOR, transmitting is another matter entirely.
"I do not own a boat and all I want to do is assist in a marine emergency in my local area."
No problem as long as you follow protocol and do not transmit. I've done just that by reporting unanswered distress calls and signal flares to the proper authorities.
Two notable ones, the first was a captain of a freighter in Port Elizabeth, NJ calling on an HT but I was the only one to hear him being on my job at Newark Airport within sight of the seaport. Once I gathered sufficient information to locate the vessel I notified the only agency I could by telephone, the Port Authority Police. Getting to the windup, it took a search of the vessel to find him hiding from his wife in a closet. Now there's one for the funny things heard on the scanner thread.
The second was here at my home in "The Beach" when one night I was taking in the air on the fire escape when I spotted a single red flare. I checked a map for bearing and distance, then notified the Coast Guard. After considerable back and forth during which they sent up a white flare for comparison the location was confirmed but no signs of a vessel in distress. We concluded it was some fool playing with a flare gun.
To clarify that 1988 rule change, as it stands now vessels under 25 feet in length are not required to have a radio aboard but if so equipped it need not be licensed. Those over 25 feet must have a radio and a license and are required to maintain radio watch on channel 16 whenever the vessel is in operation. In any case shore stations must be licensed, when the rules changed many still used marine radios at home and used them like CB, the FCC quickly put an end to that and the antennas came down... all but one ceased operation. That was a motel here in town that eventually got snagged having the radio in a public area where anyone could use it. They got hit with a heavy fine a few years ago, the antenna is still up but nothing on the down side of the coax.
