Topband: Maritime gear programmable on ham bands?

[Mike Armstrong]

I don't think anyone has mentioned the ONE VALID use for an "open" radio and that is MARS system service.  It still exists and with the advent of radios that can transmit almost anywhere without modifying the RF circuitry, MARS ops have moved further and further away from the freqs that are closest to the ham bands.  

At any rate, wasn't sure if MARS had been forgotten :)

Mike AB7ZU

Kuhi no ka lima, hele no ka maka

On Oct 1, 2012, at 17:01, "Tom W8JI" <w8ji at w8ji.com> wrote:

>> A fellow ham once was on a trip  from Spain to the Caribbean on a sailing boat. For comms with me and some friends he was using a FT-900, and as a backup rig he could have used the onboard Icom marine radio, in case his Yaesu failed. He is not a techie, so i think modifying the Icom was rather easy. Why should it be any harder than 'opening up' ham gear , e.g. cut out diodes?
> 
> Because commercial gear requires a different certification process that is supposed to prevent easy modification for use outside of type certification, and because Ham transceivers do not require that unless they operate on 27 MHz.
> 
> If they were built to the letter of the law the simple programming change would not be available.
> 
> Of course this would not stop Ham gear from being converted to marine. 
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