[Psml] MARYLAND DRN PROMOTES UNSAFE VHF USE

[Paul R. Soucy]

Ken,

I have to strongly disagree, why buy two VHF radios?  Best way out of this 
dilemma is to follow the Federal Rules and monitor channel 16.  If you want 
to call another boat, call on 16, establish a working channel, switch to it 
and talk to your hearts content.  When finished go back to monitoring 
channel 16.  Check the procedures outlined in USPS Boat Smart manual.  We 
boaters have been doing this for years with pretty good success.  Here in 
South Carolina we use channel 9 to call the bridge tenders.

BTW I couldn't find anything in various Maryland sites or the United States 
Coast Guard sites that says anything about not calling on channel 16 and for 
monitoring on channel 9 or whatever it was that started this thread.

Paul Soucy
SEO Long Bay

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Shaver" <keshaver at olympus.net>
To: "Paul R. Soucy" <psoucy at sc.rr.com>; <keshaver at olympus.net>
Cc: "'United States Power Squadrons Mailing List'" <psml at usps.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 1:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Psml] MARYLAND DRN PROMOTES UNSAFE VHF USE


> The way out of this dilemma use two VHF's on one scan 16 & 9 the other 
> scan two of your favorite channels.
>
> At 01:17 PM 12/5/2007, Paul R. Soucy wrote:
>>Lets don't forget what the federal rules require if one has a VHF radio on
>>board.  Please see the following from Federal Rules:
>>
>>Radio Listening Watch
>>
>>Vessels not required to carry a radio (e.g. recreational vessels less than
>>65.6 feet/20 meters in length), but which voluntarily carry a radio, must
>>maintain a watch on channel 16 (156.800 MHz) whenever the radio is 
>>operating
>>and not being used to communicate. Such vessels may alternatively maintain 
>>a
>>watch on VHF channel 9 (156.450 MHz), the boater calling channel.
>>
>>So folks if you have a VHF radio monitor channel 16.  You may and the word
>>is may, maintain a watch on channel 9.  When we teach VHF radio 
>>operations,
>>we state if you have a VHF radio you must use it and you must monitor
>>channel 16, but use another channel for boat to boat communications.
>>
>>The real question is who has precedence, the state or federal rules?
>>
>>Paul Soucy, AP
>>SEO, Long Bay
>>
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>