Shore to ship?

[BinaryMode]

I'm aware marine radio is only a water communications medium by FCC rule, but are there channels from shore to ship and vice versa? Thanks.

 

[mmckenna]

I'm aware marine radio is only a water communications medium by FCC rule, but are there channels from shore to ship and vice versa? Thanks.

There are specific licenses that the FCC will issue to shore stations.

There are also some very limited cases where a marine VHF radio can be used from shore, mainly for mooring/docking.

 

[BinaryMode]

Thanks.

 

[prcguy]

Marine radio is license by rule where you can stick one in your boat and just use it. If you install one in your house or business on shore you would need to get a specific FCC shore station license.

 

[BinaryMode]

I'm wondering why the need for a license when they should have at least 4 to 5 channels in the marine use band for shore to ship and vice versa communications?

Why is that so hard and why would the FCC want to license shore to ship operations? There must be a legitimate reason for this that I'm just not understanding. Well, I'm not a bureaucrat...


At this rate I'd have to use GMRS or amateur radio when marine should be what's used.

 

[mmckenna]

I'm wondering why the need for a license when they should have at least 4 to 5 channels in the marine use band for shore to ship and vice versa communications?

Why is that so hard and why would the FCC want to license shore to ship operations? There must be a legitimate reason for this that I'm just not understanding. Well, I'm not a bureaucrat...

The VHF Marine shore stations are usually allowed to run more power and have much higher antennas, so the ability to cause issues to a lot of users is increased.

The application process is not difficult, at least not any more difficult than other services.

Not everyone follows the rules, though. There's a lot of people that will plop a VHF marine radio on a power supply at their home and just use it. Get up into Alaska, and it's pretty common to see VHF marine radios in people's homes and vehicles.

 

[BinaryMode]

Not everyone follows the rules, though. There's a lot of people that will plop a VHF marine radio on a power supply at their home and just use it. Get up into Alaska, and it's pretty common to see VHF marine radios in people's homes and vehicles.

Interesting.

 

[paulears]

There is no problem with shore stations in marine band, they’ve been there since it’s inception worldwide. Licensing is always required virtually everywhere, and frankly it’s difficult to use them secretly! In the UK I have a special licence that allows me to test and demonstrate radios, so while I could have conversations with other users, I rarely do, bar a quick test with either a vessel or port control. Location is critical, because even in my smallish port area, a shore station, with even 10w can wreck things if it accidentally goes into transmit. The authorities know where they are and this keeps things safe. The licence is expensive and time limited here if you are say, a business who need to talk to their craft at sea.

we have wind farms here and they also have business band digital comms out to the farm, so their day to day business does not clog up the marine channels. They use marine till they exit port, then switch to their other system. We have the harbour services, bridges, locks and marinas, all with antennas on roofs.

 

[G7RUX]

I'm aware marine radio is only a water communications medium by FCC rule, but are there channels from shore to ship and vice versa? Thanks.

Absolutely there are shore to ship channels; they are usually used by Coastguard stations, VTS and ports, for example. How they are identified in the US listings I cannot answer but the duplex channels are probably used in this way, as well as other simplex channels.

 

[mmckenna]

Here's the channel assignments for the USA:

U.S. VHF Channel Information | Navigation Center

For the shore to ship question, there are the "Public Correspondence" channels, which were for ship to shore telephone service. I think most, if not all, of those services have shut down. The cell phone and satellite phone replaced most of that need. I think there may still be some HF ship/shore telephone providers, but it's nothing like it once was.

 

[paulears]

I think maybe we assumed too much in the first post. a quick google gives you most countries band plan, US, Canada and International and they all detail ship to shore channels. I wonder if he just assumed it was on water only, thats all?

 

[G7RUX]

I think maybe we assumed too much in the first post. a quick google gives you most countries band plan, US, Canada and International and they all detail ship to shore channels. I wonder if he just assumed it was on water only, thats all?

Quite probably the case, yes. To be fair, the requirements in most countries are that a ship or ship portable licence forbids the use of the equipment, unless licensed as a shore station, from the land so it's not an unreasonable assumption. Some countries don't police this all that strictly but it could be easy to get into trouble around this.

 

[paulears]

Just to muddy the waters, the current UK licence system states:

3.4 The Ship Radio Licence and Ship Portable Radio Licence do not authorise the use of any equipment on land. This includes safety equipment such as maritime EPIRBs and PLBs. Some PLBs may be used on land under another type of authorisation.

The land based services do not form part of out ships radio system but are termed maritime radio licences - and often feature just one frequency!

 

[GlobalNorth]

I'm wondering why the need for a license when they should have at least 4 to 5 channels in the marine use band for shore to ship and vice versa communications?

Why is that so hard and why would the FCC want to license shore to ship operations? There must be a legitimate reason for this that I'm just not understanding. Well, I'm not a bureaucrat...


At this rate I'd have to use GMRS or amateur radio when marine should be what's used.

Hawaii, Guam, Alaska, and Key West are places where shore based Marine radios are used. Use of GMRS is fine, but do other mariners and the USCG monitor those frequencies? Not likely.