What channel am I on?

[Bob Pointer]

I was going to post this on the crew member page but I can’t log on. So I will do it here. Some may be interested.
Many are confused about our radio channels.
Our portable radios are Motorola VHF units. They have to be programed with special software. You just can’t take it out of the box and use a new radio.
There are almost 100 channels assigned to the US marine frequency spectrum. You can’t just pick any channel to use. Each has a special purpose and use.
( https://www.qsl.net/ku4tf/vhf.htm ).
Our ship uses marine channel 8 for inter-ship communications.
Our radios are programed for this frequency ( 156.400 MHz)
The knob that selects the channels are numbered 1 thru 15 Some radios may also have more or less depending on the model.
Now comes the confusing part:
You don’t have to remember all that to use the radio. Just turn it on and set it for Channel 1 and the radio remembers this is actually marine channel 8 and we all talk together. This worked for a few years.
Then along came the paging system with transmitters running a lot of power. These signals caused interference with our marine radios. The office staff got tired of listening to “BEEP Beep..Dr. Brown call your office”, and like calls constantly all day.
A special code was programmed along with the frequency for channel 8. This code allowed only radios with it to talk to each other. Any other signal would not get heard by our radios. We call that channel 2. While on our channel 2, no more BEEPS and Dr. Brown call your office” or other pages that go out hundreds of times a day.
So why don’t we just use channel 2 all the time?
We also have standard marine portable radios. They do not have the capability to use the special tone. They can only talk to radios on our channel 1. So when we are underway or away from Evansville everyone uses channel ONE. Marine protables use actual channel 8 and everyone is happy.
You can listen but do not transmit on other channels unless you have a specific reason to do so. Also remember anyone can hear everything you say on these radios, including the Coast Guard.
Keep it professional.

[Rus Davies]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I believe this should be required in the orientation of any crew member who is assigned a radio.

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