On 19 Apr 2005 at 7:59, Peter Rattenbury wrote: > I am strongly opposed to the moves to make it easier for idiots to > gain > access to the VHF frequencies. I strongly believe that we should all > have to study and sit exams for a VHF licence, as was once the case, > at least in Australia. So too with me here in the Great White North. Unfortunately, the attitude that the license is not required (in the sense that you won't get caught) is quite common. Add to that the fact that with the US dropping license requirements means that US manufactured power- and sailboats come with marine VHF transceivers as standard equipment. When those boats are sold in Canada, no one says "you need a license for this bit." Ditto the radio shops - when you buy a ham radio rig, you need to show a license but when you buy a marine VHF (as I did this past weekend), no one asks for anything. The ham radio enthusiasts are keen on keeping their hobby clean, but there's no one stepping up for marine VHF. > Professional mariners must be shaking their heads at the stuff that > is > infesting the international calling channels these days. Eventually > the VHF channels are going to be as clogged as the 27meg channels. They have at least one thing in their favour - commercial operators are required to carry DSC enabled gear. That means that they get a digital emergency transmission out on channel 70 with a registration number (ID) and GPS position automatically. No voice competition involved. The followup is on channel 16, but the main message is out already. If all someone wants is good weather info, buy a weather radio receiver. Both NOAA (US) and Environment Canada broadcast weather info on the WX1-WX10 channels and no license is required. If you want to chatter with your kayaking buddies, buy a set of FRS radios - no license required for that either. But if you buy marine VHF, respect it for what it is. As Dave says, don't abuse it. Mike *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Apr 18 2005 - 21:57:09 PDT
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