Apparently the US rules for monitoring Channel 16 changed a couple years ago. Following is the pertinent language, emphasis added by me; the requirement for recreational vessels to watch 16 arose in 2004, and I missed it. The following is from this site: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/watch.htm U.S. recreational vessels _not_ required to carry radios, _but if they do_, they must be turned on and set to channel 16 Vessels not required to carry a VHF marine radio (e.g. recreational vessels less than 20m length and commercial vessels under 100 GT carrying less than 6 passengers), but which voluntarily carry a radio, must maintain a watch on channel 16 (156.800 MHz) whenever the radio is not being used to communicate. Effective 2004 if a radio is carried, it must be turned on and set to channel 16 whenever the vessel is underway. Source: FCC 47 CFR 80.310 U.S. vessels required to carry a marine radio U.S. vessels required to carry a VHF marine radio, such as commercial fishing vessels, must maintain a watch on channel 16 (156.800 MHZ) while underway whenever the radio is not being used for exchanging communications. Source: FCC 47 CFR 80.148 I know for a fact this requirement is widely ignored, even by power boaters, who do not have the battery life issues we do. I do not know if the Canadian marine regs on VHF watch have changed. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** 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 Nov 13 2006 - 19:40:59 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:22 PDT