Talk:Marine VHF radio

Scope of article

Uses of VHF radio are much wider than just marine. I'm pretty sue that all aircraft use VHF for approach/landing/take-off and indeed for air traffic control. Lots of the rescue services have probably moved on to UHF. A lot of VHF mobile radio exists for despatching, taxis etc. User:Rjstott

• Agreed with rjstott -- this is essentially an article about marine VHF, which is one particular band of VHF using narrowband FM. It's a very important band, but there's rather a lot more to it. I'm going to add some stuff to it, but the marine VHF material needs to be broken out into its own article. Haikupoet 03:30, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I renamed the page Marine VHF radio and merged the non-marine stuff, particularly the info on non-licensed operation, into VHF. I also set up VHF radio as a disambiguation page, with links to marine VHF radio, Airband, Amateur radio, etc. --agr 15:20, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

It seems to me that the page is currently limited to sea/ocean use. There are different rules for inland shipping (e.g. Basle agreement for Europe). So "maritime" here does not include inland shipping. 07:55, 15 June 2009 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.172.18.3 (talk)

Minor link edit

In the operating procedures section, I have added a link to the article on pro-words. posted this for completism and reference Editus 18:05, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

UK Marine VHF Channels and Frequencies

An IP user added the table under the section, UK Marine VHF Channels and Frequencies. It is not in proper format and uses HTML. It needs to be converted into usual Wiki Table format.

Also, we need to provide information for areas outside of the UK. Billscottbob (talk) 22:21, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Y Done. Table converted and columns made for other countries Billscottbob (talk) 19:11, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

strongly discouraged by some countries...

I never cease to be amazed at how the regulators in on country will forbid you to do a certain thing while the regulators in another country will require you to do precisely the same thing when both regulations were supposedly written to achieve the same end.

Here in the U.S. of A., The helmsman of every commercial vessel and, of every vessel greater than 20m LOA is required to stand watch on channel 13 (except in the lower Mississippi River where it's channel 67) whenever the vessel is under command so that he may chat with the helmsmen of other vessels about whose turn it is to enter the lock chamber, and who's to turn to the left and who's to turn to the right and so forth. The regulators consider channel 13 to be of such importance that the helmsman's radio must be dedicated to the purpose. It must not scan, and in particular, it must not be the same radio that is used to monitor channels 16, and 70.

71.253.13.216 (talk) 13:53, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Remember, this page is just for discussing improivements to the article, not for discussing what's wrong with the world.   Will Beback  talk  19:16, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

TWC

In the table, I know what UKSAR is, but what does TWC stand for. It needs explaining on the page, I think.

CharlwoodHouse (talk) 09:58, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

Team Working Channel, see http://forum.mrmap.org.uk/uploaded_files/uksar_implementation_control_v6.1.pdf

--83.216.95.154 (talk) 12:50, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

unicode

It seems some relatively obscure characters from unicode that aren't supported on my system are being used in the table, looking one of them up it seems to be a cirled letter A. Is it really a good idea to have an important part of a table heading done using such a character?! Plugwash (talk) 11:42, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Channel 16 frequencies

The table shows channel 16 as a duplex (ship/coast) channel and a change by an ip was reverted. In the handbook I have (from the Finnish communications ministry) it is half duplex only, at 156,800 kHz, with 161.400 kHz not mentioned. Same thing with all channels in the ranges 8-12, 13-17 and 67-77 (the use of most of these does of course vary internationally).

Are the coast channels in question used (somewhere) or are they just allocated in technical specifications? There should be some clear note about this, especially at channel 16 (which should be standardized globally).

--LPfi (talk) 10:20, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

This is the systematic pattern of channel allocation that countries are free to deviate from in their official maritime communication plans. Half-duplex channel use is indicated by a circled letter "A" or "B". --  Denelson83  18:16, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Frequency use table

In the table the use of the frequencies are given for five countries. It is of course useful for people from those countries and people sailing in those waters. Are they chosen with some thought or just the countries of contributors with the information at hand?

Is there some standardisation, e.g. in Europe or East Asia? Are the treaties regulating channel use or some summaries available on-line? For us not in the countries in the table those global or regional regulations would be far more important.

--LPfi (talk) 10:39, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Added Finland. We cannot have all countries here, but I suppose the channel use is representative for a larger area (at least the Baltic Sea, I suppose).

Are the AIS channels and frequencies correct? My frequency guide gives 161,975 and 162,025 for AIS, which would be the B-channels of 87 and 88, but does allocate the A-channels for normal use.

--LPfi (talk) 11:59, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Channel M and M2

In the UK Channel M (157.850MHz tx/rx) and M2 (161.425MHz tx/rx) are special UK only channels used for communications with designated shore stations with unlicensed operators including marinas and yacht clubs see http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/ra/publication/ra_info/ra264/ra264.htm As this is English language Wikipedia I think it is good to have the channels for English speaking countries correct. I would fix it myself but the table is hard to edit Billlion (talk) 19:00, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Loads of errors

I am not sure what the source was for the table of frequencies but much of it is wrong. For example (see Ofcom site above for example) channels 8-17 are simplex so tx and rx should be the same. Billlion (talk) 19:19, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

The Table

I have moved the table here for convenience. For the moment it is better to have it not in the article as it is misleading. The main point is to fix the frequencies for the simplex chanels which are spurious. The HMCG table is referred to, and this agrees with Ofcom. I need to check the ITU to see if some channels are duplex in other countries as these are UK references. Here is the table as it was.

Channel number	Frequencies (MHz)		United Kingdom	United States	Canada	Australia	New Zealand	Finland
	A  Usually ship stations	B  Usually coast stations
0	156.000	160.600	Private, coast guard  A
1	156.050	160.650		Ship-to-ship/shore, commercial and safety West Coast  A	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) BC Coast			Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
2	156.100	160.700			Public BC Coast			Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
3	156.150	160.750		A  Illegal for public use1	Public BC Coast/Inland		Boat to Boat - Kawau	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
4	156.200	160.800			Ship-to-ship/shore, commercial and safety East Coast and Inland  A  Canadian Coast Guard - public working channel BC Coast4  A		Boat to Boat - Tutukaka/Raglan	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
5	156.250	160.850			Ship Movements			Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
6	156.300	160.900	Ship-to-ship + Ship-to-Air  A		Ship-to-ship + Ship-to-Air  A	Distress - Ship-to-Air	Working - Intership	A  Ship-to-ship also SAR: Ship-to-Ship + Ship-to-Air
7	156.350	160.950			General working channel			Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
8	156.400	161.000	Ship-to-ship  A		Ship-to-ship East and west coasts, Lake Winnipeg  A	Working - Intership	Working - Intership	A  Ship-to-ship
9	156.450	161.050	Frequently used by pilots  A	Calling  A , commercial and non-commercial.	Ship-to-air for maritime support Atlantic and BC coasts  A	Pilots, Port Operations	Port Operations	A  VTS (Ship-to-ship + Port Operations
10	156.500	161.100	Frequently used by HM Coastguard  A		Ship-to-air - SAR and antipollution  A  General working - Atlantic and BC coasts, Great Lakes		Port Operations	A  Ship-to-ship Port Operations also SAR and oil cleanup only VTS on Gulf of Finland
11	156.550	161.150	Port Operations		VTS - BC Coast Pilotage  A		Port Operations	A  Port Operations
12	156.600	161.200	Port Operations	VTS - San Francisco offshore Pilotage  A	VTS - BC Coast Port and pilot ops  A	Port Operations, VTS	Port Operations	A  Port Operations
13	156.650	161.250	Bridge-to-Bridge Working  A	Bridge-to-Bridge safety  A : Vessels > 20m must maintain watch, Tx limited to 1 watt. Movable bridge / lock operations.	VTS - BC Coast Bridge-to-bridge safety  A	Port Operations, VTS	Intership Nav Safety	A  Pilots Ship-to-ship Port Operations
14	156.700	161.300	Port Operations	VTS - San Francisco Bay and Delta Pilotage  A	VTS - BC Coast Port and pilot ops  A		Port Operations	A  Working channel for SAR authorities, Turku Radio (Port Operations)
15	156.750	161.350	On board working (limited to 1 watt)  A					A  max 1 W Intraship Ship-to-ship Port Operations
16	156.800	156.800	International distress, safety and calling  A  All vessels equipped with VHF must maintain watch.
17	156.850	161.450	On board Working  A				Aquatic Sports Events	A  max 1 W Intraship Ship-to-ship Port Operations
18	156.900	161.500						Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
19	156.950	161.550		Landside facilities: harbormaster, marinas.	Canadian Coast Guard - Working Channel			Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
20	157.000	161.600				Repeater Operations	Continuous Weather Maritime Safety Service	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
21	157.050	161.650		A  U.S. Coast Guard Only	Continuous marine broadcasts  B  (WX 8)		Continuous Weather Maritime Safety Service	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
22	157.100	161.700		A  U.S. Coast Guard—public working channel2			Continuous Weather Maritime Safety Service	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
23	157.150	161.750	HM Coastguard Maritime Safety Information	A  U.S. Coast Guard Only			Continuous Weather Maritime Safety Service	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
24	157.200	161.800	UKSAR G/A Winching  A  UKSAR TWC  B					Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
25	157.250	161.850					Maritime Radio Working Channel	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
26	157.300	161.900	HM Coastguard Maritime Safety Information	Public correspondence (marine telephone operator)				Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
27	157.350	161.950						Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
28	157.400	162.000						Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
60	156.025	160.625						GOFREP on Gulf of Finland Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
61	156.075	160.675		A  Illegal for public use1				GOFREP (Estonia) on Gulf of Finland Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
62	156.125	160.725	UKSAR Calling & Helicopter Channel  A  UKSAR TWC  B				Boat to Boat - Waiheke/Whangaroa	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
63	156.175	160.775	UKSAR TWC (simplex)				Boat to Boat - Manukau	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
64	156.225	160.825	UKSAR TWC (simplex)	A  Illegal for public use1				Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
65	156.275	160.875			Marine Assistance Working Channel		Boat to Boat - Coromandel	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
66	156.325	160.925			Marinas - BC Coast  A			Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
67	156.375	160.975	UK Small Ship Safety Channel			Working Channel, Marine Weather	Maritime Radio Working Channel	A  VTS (Ship-to-ship + Port Operations)
68	156.425	161.275		Non-commercial  A			Maritime Radio Working Channel	A  Port Operations
69	156.475	161.075	Port Operations	Non-commercial  A		Australian Navy	Maritime Radio Working channel Surf Lifesaving	A  Ship-to-ship Port Operations
70	156.525	161.125	Digital Selective Calling  A
71	156.575	161.175		Non-commercial  A			Maritime Radio Working Channel	A  VTS (Ship-to-ship + Port Operations) Port Operations
72	156.625	161.225	Ship-to-ship  A	Non-commercial ship-to-ship  A	Ship-to-ship			A  Ship-to-ship Ship-to-air
73	156.675	161.275	HM Coastguard Safety Broadcasts			Ship-to-ship	Marinas - Working	A  Ship-to-ship Ship-to-air (Port Operations)
74	156.725	161.325	British Waterways/Canal and River Trust Channel (Canal and River System)			Ship-to-ship	Working - Coast/Ship	A  Port Operations
75	156.775	161.375	Navigaton related communications (limited to 1 watt)					A Restricted Ship-to-ship Port Operations
76	156.825	161.425						A  Restricted Port Operations
77	156.875	161.475	Ship-to-ship  A			Ship-to-ship		A  Ship-to-ship
78	156.925	161.525		Non-commercial  A				Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
79	156.975	161.575						Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
80	157.025	161.625	UK Marina Channel			Repeater Operations	Coastguard Radio - Working Channel	GOFREP on Gulf of Finland Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
81	157.075	161.675		A  U.S. Government Use Only		Repeater Operations	Coastguard Radio - Working Channel	GOFREP (Estonia) on Gulf of Finland Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
82	157.125	161.725		A  U.S. Government Use Only	Canadian Coast Guard - Working Channel		Coastguard Radio - Working Channel	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
83	157.175	161.775		A  U.S. Coast Guard Use Only	Continuous Marine Broadcasts  B  (WX 9)			Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
84	157.225	161.825	HM Coastguard Maritime Safety Information				Coastguard Radio - Working Channel	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
85	157.275	161.875	UKSAR TWC (simplex)		Radio Telephone - Duplex		Coastguard Radio - Working Channel	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
86	157.325	161.925	HM Coastguard Maritime Safety Information				Coastguard Radio - Working Channel	Public Correspondence (Ship-to-Shore Duplex) Port Operations
87	157.375	161.975	Automatic Identification System  B
88	157.425	162.025	Automatic Identification System  B

Notes:

1: Some radios enable channels 3A, 61A, and 64A when configured for "USA mode" even though those channels are allocated exclusively for Public Safety use by the FCC. The frequencies 156.075, 156.150, and 156.225 MHz are used for interoperability communication by police and fire departments in many areas.

2: Channel 22A is reserved for communication between the U.S. Coast Guard vessels and private vessels. The Coast Guard does not monitor 22A: Contact must first be established on 16.

3: UKSAR land based search & rescue teams have access to the simplexed versions of 24, 62, 63, 64, 85 for operational & training needs. These include Mountain Rescue teams in England, Wales & Scotland.

4: CCG public operations moved from 22A to 04A to avoid interference from USCG stations in northern Washington state.

Billlion (talk) 19:30, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

References

Authoritative source

So I have found the ITU publication here [1]

It is Circular Letter CM/19 To Administrations of Member States of the ITU 27 March 2009, and it details "Regulations dealing with the Table of transmitting frequencies in the VHF maritime mobile band" It has a table with the correct frequencies, it refers to (See Appendix 18 (Rev.WRC-07)) so I am not sure it is the primary source. Note in this table the simplex channels have same tx and rx frequencies. Billlion (talk) 19:41, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

license requirements?

I would like to see this article document various requirements to have the right to operate on the marine frequencies. Some countries probably require a license to operate on those frequencies. The US, i *think* do *not* require a license *if* you are on a sailboat - reading those documents may help: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=mtBoater http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=mtWatch --TheAnarcat (talk) 00:23, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Ofcom regulations [2] says "The use of International Maritime Mobile VHF channels by the international Radio Regulations as laid down by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva. The ITU is the branch of the United Nations responsible for the co-ordination of radio use worldwide. The Radio Regulations have treaty status for member nations of which the UK is one. The information in this sheet can be found in a fuller form in the 'Manual for use by the Maritime Mobile and Maritime Mobile-Satellite Services' available from the ITU." and

"It is an international requirement that every vessel, port or marina that uses radio be licensed. Anyone who operates radio equipment with access to international maritime frequencies must hold the relevant certificate of competence or be under the direct supervision of someone who does. Further information about certificates of competence is available from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at the address overleaf." Billlion (talk) 21:11, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Under FCC rules, in the USA, a "ship station" license is granted by rule for any OPTIONAL radio on-board operating in the "maritime services" frequencies (152-162MHz), provided it does not enter foreign ports or communicate with "international stations". All use of that band by others (e.g., portables ashore, coastal stations, or on ships requiring VHF radios) must have individual or fleet licenses. 47 CFR §§ 80.13, 80.501. The FCC has been cracking down on unlicensed shore-based users, such as duck hunters, using the cheap and powerful marine-band walkie-talkies. The point is well worth making, if it saves someone the $10,000 fine and keeps the channels open for their intended users. Lupinelawyer (talk) 02:58, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Channel 31 in NL

I have just come back from the Netherlands and found that marinas inland use Ch 31 but of course my UK set does not have that. In the UK it is a private channel used by the RNLI. I intend to put that in the table but I would like to check if it is used more generally in continental Europe first. Any suggested sources?Billlion (talk) 15:24, 1 September 2016 (UTC)

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