Marine radios on land

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gewecke

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Good point. The USCG in keokuk still monitors ch.16 however.

n9zas
 

W9NES

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Not a good idea to use VHF Marine Freqs unless you have a boat.A local Police Department was "Busted" by the The FCC and The Police Chief Ordered all of his officers to take the radios out of the Police Cars.
 

gewecke

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Not a good idea to use VHF Marine Freqs unless you have a boat.A local Police Department was "Busted" by the The FCC and The Police Chief Ordered all of his officers to take the radios out of the Police Cars.

We already know.
n9zas
 

eaf1956

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Ham

Not a good idea to use VHF Marine Freqs unless you have a boat.A local Police Department was "Busted" by the The FCC and The Police Chief Ordered all of his officers to take the radios out of the Police Cars.

Were they not using 2 meter Ham radios for comms between officers? I didn't think it was Marine radios.
 

sflmonitor

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Were they not using 2 meter Ham radios for comms between officers? I didn't think it was Marine radios.

FWIW, there was a ham radio store in Miami back in 1999/2000 that I used to purchase amateur equipment from (I am a licensed ham). The owner told me that some of the local narcotics officers (City of Miami) had been purchasing dual-band (2M/440) handhelds for their ops in order to avoid being monitored on their 800 MHz trunked system. I didn't get into any specific frequencies or any other information about this. I've never heard any LE traffic on ham frequencies around here, but you never know.
 

NickH

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Marine equipment is common place up here in Maine, especially in the north woods, where the odds of getting caught are slim to none, and cell phone service is sketchy at best... I suspect if they were closer to the coast, they may get caught.... But in northern and western Maine the Moose ain't tellin' nobody.
 

W9NES

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The local Metro PD was using 156Mhz freqs and those are Marine Channels among other channels that were not in the 156Mhz Marine Freqs and without a License.
 

ecps92

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Too many rumors as to what/where/when they were using.
I've heard Amateur, also Marine and then also unlicensed Part 90 channels not used locally. [the Part 90, which is allowed, under certain conditions]

Seems someone was more upset about the Salty Language used.

Until there is a FCC Notice of Violation posted, its all conjecture.

Were they not using 2 meter Ham radios for comms between officers? I didn't think it was Marine radios.
 

OpSec

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Up north, I see just about every hillbilly hunter type with either a mag-mount VHF 5/8w or a fiberglass marine antenna and a white VHF marine radio sitting on their rusty pickup dash or center console. I've listened just about every time I'm up there, but haven't heard much traffic. What I have heard was too far away to make anything out.

Legalities aside, why have it if it's not being used? What's the point?
 

W9NES

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Point of Order----Marine Radios of any kind cannot be used on land.Is land a Natvigational Body of Water???* If you use these radio you are to have a Marine Radio License and these radios are to be used only on water as in ship tp ship.You cannot use them on land.Please feel free to check with the FCC.
 

gewecke

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Point of Order----Marine Radios of any kind cannot be used on land.Is land a Natvigational Body of Water???* If you use these radio you are to have a Marine Radio License and these radios are to be used only on water as in ship tp ship.You cannot use them on land.Please feel free to check with the FCC.

Everybody is already well aware of this. :) But thanks for pointing out the obvious.
n9zas
 

hill

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I do monitor marine radio channels while mobile as a member of the USCG Auxiliary and don’t hear too much abuse of Marine Radios in the Baltimore/Central Maryland area. Don’t scan all VHF-FM marine channels only the CG, Distress channel 16 (156.800 Mhz), Channel 12 (156.600 Mhz) alt CG channel for my sector, and channel 13 (156.650 Mhz) Navigational. The CG is able to use channels 21A, 23A, 81A, and 83A for their operations and these rotate at each to minimize interference amongst units. The Sectors/Station only guard the channels used in that sector or area. The CG also has the net 100’s and net 400’s channels to use as command and control.

If someone were to use marine radio on land and select a channel not used by the CG, commercial, or noncommercial user it would easier to avoid detection. In an area like the Chesapeake Bay these channels are so crowded on summer weekends that general chit chat would most likely sound like pleasure boaters. Sector Baltimore does transmit message if they receive unauthorized users on channels being monitor, but I can’t speak for all other sectors. I only travel in a few different ones a few times a year.

Larry
 

WA1ATA

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The Sectors/Station only guard the channels used in that sector or area.
In the New Bedford / Cape Cod area of Massachusetts the same appears to be true. CG only monitors 16 and their working channels. The Coast Guard gets testy if someone does a radio check on 16, but I've also listened to commercial trawlers chit chat for hours on 17 (reserved for state use) with nobody complaining.

Channels tend to get policed by other users, not authorities. Users that linger on 16 with conversations rather than just hailing will soon have someone pop up to say "Take it elsewhere".
 

Dei2Racing

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We had a motel here in nj a 9 years a go have a VHF in the lobby. They were north of where I keep my boat. Here is the link to the FCC about the case. http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2002/DOC-239285A1.html Most of the boaters i know now run VHF Digital Direction Finders all it takes is one complaint to the CG and they check it out. Marine VHF only works line of sight any way heavy fog and rain cuts down your range never mind what a hill or trees would do.


Here is a hunter that had one.

http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-258045A1.html
 

Gator596

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Judging from the amount marine freqs traffic heard in NW Florida lately, there sure is a lot of deer hunting happening out in the gulf of Mexico!
 

exkalibur

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The FCC just likes to throw its weight around. All they want is money, they have no interest in the 'public interest'. By forcing someone to pay $10,000, it just proves it.

Perhaps if the FCC didn't make commercial licenses such a complete PITA and $$$ to obtain, more people would go legit?
 

redneckcellphone

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1. channel 66 no boater is suppose to be on and 2. 16 is know as a distress/hailing only. these people need to learn that there are only a handful of stations that they can run on. 68, 72, 78 are some of them and that no matter if they use those they are still running illegal.


to the op. you should just run gmrs. yes you need a license and have to pay a fee of 85 bucks but you can run 50 watts legally and also can use repeaters
 

kb2vxa

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Die2, I knew it, I just KNEW it! I checked the NAL and confirmed it, I remember the old Amethyst case very well. I knew they were up to something even before the axe fell, the marine coastal station antenna on the roof was a dead giveaway. That was one of several busts around that time being every other house sported a boat antenna and they used it like CB, the FCC made its point and they all came down like autumn leaves in a windstorm.

"They were north of where I keep my boat."
Mantoloking maybe? (;->)
 

Dei2Racing

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1. channel 66 no boater is suppose to be on and 2. 16 is know as a distress/hailing only. these people need to learn that there are only a handful of stations that they can run on. 68, 72, 78 are some of them and that no matter if they use those they are still running illegal.


to the op. you should just run gmrs. yes you need a license and have to pay a fee of 85 bucks but you can run 50 watts legally and also can use repeaters

We use 66A some times in the marina moving around other boats. Chanel 9 is really used for all hailing now 16 is distress use for the most part. Here is the full marine Chanel list.

U.S. VHF Channels - USCG Navigation Center

FCC list on channel use FCC: Wireless Services: Ship Radio Stations: Data: Channels




I keep my boat on LBI.
 
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