Topband: Maritime gear programmable on ham bands?

[Herb Schoenbohm]

Jeff,  Amateur Radio units are indeed cheaper plus the people on 14.313
have declared that this is "their" emergency calling frequency 24/7.
Even one of the ARRL SE Division candidates a few years ago made this
one of his key advocacy points to have the IARU name it as such. Thank
God he lost or he would be pushing this stupid idea at the ARRL as he
promised to do.

There is already excellent spectrum for vessels to use monitor by
international treaty by many other ships at sea.  Yet the lure of a free
phone patch to his property broker or bank to check on "is everything
10-4?"  is supported by amateurs who become enablers and  should know better on ham bands.
Some of the gurus  on 14.313 brag about the amounts of
"green stamps" sent to them in many cases for the devotion to this illegal
practice.


Herb, KV4FZ



On 10/1/2012 1:08 PM, Radio KH6O wrote:
> Folks, for the benefit of us reading the digest version, please
> consider trimming quoted text to the bare minimum. Thanks!
>
>
>> This is because the equipment they purchase, like Icom rigs, operates in Ham
>> bands. The radio buoys also are programmable to Ham bands.
>> 73 Tom
> Tom, this is news to me. Maritime equipment is manufactured to
> extremely strict type acceptance. Can you give me an example of an
> Icom MF/HF maritime rig that can be used or reprogrammed onto the ham
> bands? It seems to me that some incredible redesigning of such a radio
> would have to be done. Also, I don't see how the maritime
> channelization design could be defeated to give the frequency agility
> we enjoy in the amateur radio service (the only service to be given
> such a privilege).
>
> There are maritime channels set aside specifically for "chit-chat"
> among vessels at sea, so I see no reason for a vessel owner to go
> through the incredible effort of  getting a maritime-only rig
> operating on the ham bands. I suspect, instead, that the vessel owner
> has purchased a ham band transceiver (which is about half the price of
> a maritime transceiver).
>
> Note that maritime frequencies are channelized. See for example, our
> website: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov
>
> 73, Jeff KH6O
> Senior Chief, US Coast Guard
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK

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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK