Editor’s Introductory Note: The following lengthy article is being posted in one piece, for the sale of continuity. I recommend printing a hard copy for your radio reference binder. Note that some of the methods described are illegal, and are presented for educational purposes only. SurvivalBlog.com VHF Marine band radios come programmed and channelized
...or spend a week of evenings studying, pay $50 (because you waited so long) pass a test and do it legally. The author mentions it is ok because noone cares. Two things come to mind - 1) the phase "make an example of" and 2) Murphy's law. Think about it before you become the example.
Marine band has been used by so-called gypsy taxis in Chiraq and New Dork city. Oddly, both of these city have fairly active maritime ports. The black SUVs showed up, fines (called a Notice of Apparent Forfeiture in federal basfflegabble) started at $10K [per violation] Murphy, indeed.
Just a note here: The information presented about Marine Vhf is very dated, and or inaccurate. First, there are No Repeaters licensed in the Martime Radio Service in the USA, anymore. What these Duplex channels were for is Public Marine Telephone Service, which has been suspended, and replaced by Cellphone & PCS Services for the last 25 years. Second, Channel 70 Marine use has been changed to a Digital Only Channel for GMDSS Distress & Digital Selective Calling. AIS is a Digital Marine Radio System that uses GPS Signals to give a vessel it’s location and then broadcast that position to other surrounding vessels, and these positions can be presented on a digital Marine Chart for use in navigation and collision avoidance. This System uses Marine Ch 87B and 88B which are the Duplex Marine Receive Frequencies for the Standard Marine Channels 87 & 88..Transmitting voice on these Digital Marine Channels completely disrupts the Digital Comms and will be noticed right off and reported to the FCC.
"IF" indeed you have an actual emergency no one argues with unlicensed radio use, However, once the emergency is met with proper personnel your communications needs are over, to continue using a band unlicensed will render a violation.
What I think has become obvious is we will see much more FCC monitoring and active oversight in the coming days. Hell, given their soon increase of $35 for licensing, this increases their budget by ~$7 million (using 2020 numbers of new licenses) which should buy them a bit more control but don't be surprised if they get a major budget increase too. While the major Tech companies can easily be prodded to censorship while leaving the government's hands clean, they realize they have made a mistake with Amateur Radio and will need to clamp down on it so we'll see more restrictions "to ensure the compliance of the airwaves and safety of the public la-la-la..." in the near future. Just my two bits and how I see things turning out...and soon. Yes, exactly. We have recently had a rash of non-license users show up on the Ham bands because mainly they didn't understand how to operate their radio. UGH! Also, many have been ill-informed that they could simply use their new purchase Baofeng radio if there was an emergency; however, what constituents an emergency was the problem. During a recent wildfire, these unlicensed folks thought, "OH! There is a wildfire close by so we can now use our radios how we want" even though their life and property were not in danger, not even close to danger - no emergency. We have had reeducated these folks because their actions made matters even worse.
One person’s Emergency.is another person’s No Big Deal... I wouldn’t expect to see much change in the Monitoring done by the Commission, itself as they do not have the trained Field Agents, that they used to have back in the Carter Admin... All the HF Monitoring was automated and now is done by AI at the NSA level..Most of the VHF and above is done by users, who report interference locally, and then it is prioritized by the local EIC, and dealt with in order, National Security first, Safety of Life, Second, and everything else comes after that and if there is time and staff available, which is very unlikely... The USCG does all the Marine Vhf monitoring, but only on specific Safety and Distress Channels. The FAA takes care of the Aircraft Safety and Distress Aviation Frequencies, but not much on working channels, where the users do the monitoring and reporting...
I think some of you are missing the point of the article >>> it's trying to hit on a more serious SHTF where the FCC and rules/laws isn't the issue >>> more like a drone strike on a home transmitting something "anti" ...
??? - first paragraph covered it - basically talked on a current Bidenese dictatorship - title is labeled "pirate radio" - don't think the author cared much about the lazy lot that doesn't get around to taking the test & license ....
