On 9/5/2013 5:31 AM, Jeff wrote:

Is VHF outside of ham bands? I looked at the test data a little, but
didn't find that particular info. From the wording I found about the
licenses, I guess I thought ham use included the marine VHF band. There
seems to be concern about operating at frequencies below 30 MHz unless
you pass a tougher test.

It seems very restrictive that anyone can use a marine VHF radio on
their boat, but if they want to speak with someone on shore that is not
allowed except for special cases like drawbridge operators. I can
understand that marine radios are not for shore to shore communications,
but it only seems natural to use the same radio for ship to ship and
ship to shore comms.


You cannot operate in the marine VHF band with a ham licence.

(the talk about disaster situations just clouds the issue as anyone can
legally use anything just about anything under those conditions
regardless of a ham licence or not).

The restriction on ship to shore use in the marine band was there
originally to protect the revenue of the commercial coast stations.
However, a licence is still required for a shore station of any type.

You *might* be able to get a shore licence if you say that you are
providing safety cover for the kayaks.

CB or one of the other licence free allocations such as MURS or FRS
mighty be your best bet, but of course you will not be able to talk to
the Coastguard or other vessels.

Thanks for your advice. I will look into this deeper. It just seems so
strange to have a marine radio band that doesn't allow communications to
shore other than a few specific commercial facilities. I guess that is
why there is no one monitoring channel 16 here at lake Anna. There are
only a small handful of marinas and they aren't located so as to cover
the whole lake anyway. I don't think the police monitor marine VHF
because they don't regularly patrol. But the next time I see one I will
ask them about it.

I'm relatively near the center of the lake and so not badly positioned
to cover a large hunk of it if my antenna is high enough. I'd be
willing to put up a reasonable tower for this.. and who knows, a ham
antenna or two might just appear on it some day.

--

Rick