Mobile, Marine VHF Channels

[ScannerWayne]

Hey All,

Some time back I had entered the Marine VHF channels into my scanner(BCD396T). I work near the port of Mobile and during slack time or lunch will activate the system and listen in. Some of the conversations to be heard can be a hoot. Most of the time it's pretty much business only.

One of the things that bothered me though was not knowing what a channel was to be used for. So tonight I sat down and found the channel plan and tried to incorperate an indication for the use of the channel into the channel name. I'm going to post it here for those of you that are close enough to navigable waterways to catch the comms on your scanner.

As you can imagine I had to use abbreviations extensivly to make them fit the 16 character limit. So here are the abbreviations:

COM = Commercial NCOM = Con-Commercial PO = Port Operations B-Call = Bridge to Bridge Calling B-B = Bridge to Bridge Dist/Call = Distress or Calling ST Only = State Only DUP = Duplex CG = Coast Guard MO = Marine Operator (Phone Calls)
AIS = Automatic Identification System T = Ship Transmit R = Ship Recieve A = International Duplex Channel (The duplex part is not used in the U.S..)


CH 1A PO 156.0500 NFM
CH 61A 156.0750 NFM
CH 3A 156.1500 NFM
CH 63A PO 156.1750 NFM
CH 64A 156.2250 NFM
CH 5A PO 156.2500 NFM
CH 65A PO 156.2750 NFM
CH 6 Safety 156.3000 NFM
CH 66A PO 156.3250 NFM
CH 7A COM 156.3500 NFM
CH 67 COM B-B 156.3750 NFM
CH 8 COM 156.4000 NFM
CH 68 156.4250 NFM
CH 9 B. CALL 156.4500 NFM
CH 69 NCOM 156.4750 NFM
CH 10 COM 156.5000 NFM
CH 70 DIGITAL 156.5250 NFM
CH 11 COM 156.5500 NFM
CH 71 NCOM 156.5750 NFM
CH 12 PO 156.6000 NFM
CH 72 NCOM 156.6250 NFM
CH 13 B-B 156.6500 NFM
CH 73 PO 156.6750 NFM
CH 14 PO 156.7000 NFM
CH 74 PO 156.7250 NFM
CH 15 EPIRB 156.7500 NFM
CH 75 156.7750 NFM
CH 16 Dist/Call 156.8000 NFM
CH 76 156.8250 NFM
CH 17 ST.Only 156.8500 NFM
CH 77 PO 156.8750 NFM
CH 18A 156.9000 NFM
CH 78A 156.9250 NFM
CH 19A 156.9500 NFM
CH 79A 156.9750 NFM
CH 20A Dup PO 157.0000 NFM
CH 20R Dup PO 161.6000 NFM
CH 80A COM 157.0250 NFM
CH 21A CG Only 157.0500 NFM
CH 81A CG Only 157.0750 NFM
CH 22A CG Only 157.1000 NFM
CH 82A CG Only 157.1250 NFM
CH 23A CG Only 157.1500 NFM
CH 83A CG Only 157.1750 NFM
CH 24T Dup MO 157.2000 NFM
CH 24R Dup MO 161.8000 NFM
CH 84T Dup MO 157.2250 NFM
CH 84R Dup MO 161.8250 NFM
CH 25T Dup MO 157.2500 NFM
CH 25R Dup MO 161.8500 NFM
CH 85T Dup MO 157.2750 NFM
CH 85R Dup MO 161.8750 NFM
CH 26T Dup MO 157.3000 NFM
CH 26R Dup MO 161.9000 NFM
CH 86T Dup MO 157.3250 NFM
CH 86R Dup MO 161.9250 NFM
CH 27T Dup MO 157.3500 NFM
CH 27R Dup MO 161.9500 NFM
CH 87 MO 157.3750 NFM
CH 28T Dup MO 157.4000 NFM
CH 28R Dup MO 162.0000 NFM
CH 87R AIS 161.9750 NFM
CH 88R AIS 162.0250 NFM


For those wondering why I put these into a seperate system it was for two reasons. 1, When scanning the pre-programmed marine band (or any of them actually) I found that the sensativity of the scanner was less than if I had programmed the freqs into a seperate system. 2. The scanning speed of the scanner is much greater on a user programmed system.

And if you'r wondering why I'm using NFM rather than FM it's because the band is switching to NFM so I thought I would save myself the trouble of switching it sometime in the future. Scanner does fine with NFM as far as I can tell.

I hope that some of you along the coast find this listing usefull.

Wayne...

 

[wradar]

Wayne,

I'm not 100% sure on this, but I don't believe the existing wideband (25 kHz spacing) VHF-FM maritime channels will be switching to narrowband (12.5 kHz spacing) - at least not any time soon. As far as I know, they (along with aviation channels) will remain as-is. I would presume this is because they're being used the world over, and having that many vessels, mariners, pilots, and aircraft switch their systems would be a monumental task, to say the least.

Here is a listing of the current VHF-FM maritime channels, as published by the U.S. Coast Guard's Navigation Center: U.S. VHF Channels - USCG Navigation Center. At the bottom is a link to some info on narrowband channels that, despite their existence on that site, I had never heard of before.

Otherwise, it looks like a really good listing you've made. Nice work!

Take care,
-Radar

 

[ScannerWayne]

Radar,

Thanks.

The reason everything is NFM is because of the volume. It's much higher in NFM than WFM or FM. As for the switch; yes I agree with you completely. But the Gov't being the Gov't they do go a little overboard in some of their planning. At least in this case. Many of these channels are for use outside of the U.S. but by having them in your scanner when something does show up on one of them you know a couple of things right off the bat. Their not supposed to be using it and you want to know what they are doing <Laugh>.

And for those of you that liked this one, wait for the listing I have for the aircraft band. I have two files for that. One is the plain jane file from the Gov't and the other one shows those stations I can hear and have identified. I think it's something along the lines of 728 channels. Should be ready soon. Have a little more research to do an a few channels that are proving tough to track down. Am beginning to suspect that most of them are intercepts made during ducting from areas normally out of range.

A note for those wondering what you're going to listen to when the county goes to their new system. Start exploring now. I'm currently working on hospital and ambulances. Did RR a while back. Need to post that. Matter of fact I'll go pull the file up and do so in a little bit.

Wayne...

 

[wradar]

Wayne, if you have any questions on the aircraft freq's, I might be able to give you a hand. I run across them from time to time in my line of work. Good luck on that project!

Have a great day,
-Radar