On Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:37:54 -0400, you wrote: >Pleasure boat use of all communications is governed by FCC rules, not the >USCG. The USCG will attempt to enforce FCC rules - especially on channel 16, >13, 22A, and 83A. Usually, the USCG is busy telling people who do not know >the rules to "take their idle chatter to a working channel." > And they get a lot of flack for it too.
>In all things, knowing the rules is helpful. On the Chesapeake Bay, medical >emergencies have often been responded to by doctors on pleasure boats who >respond immediately because they were monitoring 16. Meanwhile, the USCG is >arranging the evacuation of the victim from the boat to the hospital or >nearest pier and ambulance. > Personally, I like listening to all the dramas going on around me, and Bob is basically deaf so he can't hear or ignores (don't know which). We have a friend who sails with the radio off, so if we see him on the Bay (Chesapeake), we have to get close enough to yell or use an air horn to get his attention. We have the radio set to monitor 16 and scan to other channels of interest - channel 13 is not very active on the Bay. We don't usually have the radio on when we are anchored or in the marina - the exception to this is when we are in Florida, we keep the radio on most of the time especially the winter we were in Marathon. >Regrettably, you have to be willing to filter-out the voices of the unwashed >calling their buddies and calling marinas for a slip reservation on the >wrong channel. If you adjust your squelch to filter-out distant traffic, you >can limit traffic to the times when someone nearby is transmitting. However, >when their signal breaks squelch, you can hear the other jerks in the >background. > If I didn't contact the marina on channel 16 initially, and then switch, I'd never get them to answer. Sometimes marinas don't monitor the radio at all, and then I have to call on my cell. It used to be in the Bay that you were out of range of a signal tower unless you had an analog phone. I had a big bag phone and an antenna at the top of the mast and I could get connected from almost anywhere. But since they've turned the analog off, I'm back having no connection except close to shore. >This is a case of doing what you are willing to do within the context of the >rules. Often, you can relay distress messages for distant parties or for >vessels with inferior VHF installations. The USCG often asks that people >with poor VHF communications to switch to their cell phones. > >Ron Rogers _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
