[Paddlewise] Inland Marine VHF, was Jetski's

At 01:58 PM 4/15/01 -0400, ralph diaz wrote:
>>
>> And what's this about inland lakes and Marine VHFs not being compatible?
>
>I was surprised at that.  While I don't expect the US Coast Guard is
>monitoring any channels, I would think that marinas, state and local marine
>enforcement agencies and motor boaters are using VHFs.  But I don't know the
>locale, so I bow to Wes's assessment of that situation.

Just to double check, I talked with a friend this morning who is a retired
conservation officer and a big cheese in the local Coast Guard Auxiliary.
He confirms that there's no requirement for anyone to monitor Marine VHF on
inland lakes. He has a fairly big boat, that he takes out on the Great
Lakes sometimes, and he's the sort of guy that flips on all the radios just
on general principles. He says, "When I've been out on some of the real big
inland lakes like Houghton and Higgins, I occasionally hear something on
VHF, but on the smaller lakes like around here, never."  He said that a
marine VHF call from an inland lake might bring in a coast guard station on
the coast, but from around here it would be unlikely as it'd be fifty miles
or more, and the signal would be blocked.
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