Marine VHF Radio - What You Need to Know
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Learning how to use a marine VHF radio is important for your safety but new marine VHF technology like DSC and AIS makes VHF radio communication even better. Installing a DSC capable VHF radio on your sailboat will help you make distress calls, use DSC to relay your MMSI number information, and respond to mayday calls if needed. Today we discuss what you need to know about VHF radio on your boat.
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Two great examples of DSC:
1 - I'm trying to meet up with a friend's vessel in an anchorage that has a lot of boats. I send a "Position Request" to my friend's boat. His boat automatically returns his lat/lon, and puts a marker on my chartplotter at his location. So, I just use that as a waypoint, and navigate to his boat in time for cocktails.
2 -- I'm sailing from Sandusky to Cleveland along the southern coast of Lake Erie. A friend is 4-5 miles ahead of me. He calls me on my radio, and tells me he just ran into a field of fish nets. He tells me his lat/lon, but rather than write it down and try to find it on a chart, I just send him a "Position Request". This puts a marker on my chartplotter, and as we approach that position, we get out the binoculars and keep a close watch for the nets.
Even in my sea kayak I take a VHF hand held with me and keep it on 16. Always be prepared.
Great video. One thing I think you should mention - have your radio on while sailing. I'm amazed at the amount of people who don't.
He did mention that.
He did at 6:16
Some of us sail for peace and nature. VHF is for when you need it.
Though if there is a way of getting emergency notification, fine with that.
(Just getting my license)
Me generation. @@markthomasson5077
@@markthomasson5077also for hearing others in distress. Radio should always be kept on when under way.
Keep knowledge share videos like this coming. I didn't realize how behind the times I was when it came to VHF. Lady K Sailing brought me here. Keep up the great work.
🥰
Just came across this edition Tim. Well done! Simply the best short (watchable) video on the importance of the VHF and it's functionality. I can only hope that every boater would watch this. One of the questions I've always had was: Why isn't there a timer on the VHF (particularly channel 16) that cuts off the transmitter after about 1 or 2 minutes, five on the outside? If you haven't relayed your call in that time there is something really wrong! Once the call is terminated after the timer kicks in, you would be able to re-activate by hitting the transmit button again. Such a feature would stop all of these dummies that don't store their microphones properly and create long periods of open microphones that disrupt the channel. I've heard some that literally go on for hours, voices in the background discussing fishing, wives, businesses, etc., all while cutting off communications for everyone around them. The technology should exist that can do that! Keep up the excellent videos (and, of course) the digital magazine.
I sail in the lower Chesapeake. Lots of ship traffic. I use ch. 13 bridge to bridge if i have to contact them. I use a phone app to simulate ais so i can call them by name . Works way better than calling "blue hull container ship leaving Norfolk harbor."
Great update. Linking everything under that number, connected to a GPS, I can see it acting as a very useful ad hoc EPIRB in an emergency. This is something I need to look into further, thanks Tim.⚓
I want to start this in the very beginning. Marine VHF replaced an AM based low shortwave service of the same wattage. In theory, but not in practice, FM doesn't allow you to listen to the static, the best way to stretch your possibilities. It has function. It could have a whole lot more. I have the best Pearce Simpson hand built radio on the planet. It's only ho - hum. DSC is automation. It's main purpose is to deal with no sailor on the radio station. It does let you name yourself, but sometimes this works screwey. It captures NMEA 1283 GPS information and sends it for you, but rudimentary DSC 101 doesn't receive it. AIS is sensible as the works is based on each vessel that carries it. You can only use it when you are not afraid to divulge your location. It can also be a wattage hog for boat batteries. There are unmentioned technologies that tie in. Man overboard gadgets. SAR's that pinpoint your distressed boat. Similar PLB's. Two services can plug you in. Aircraft radio is AM VHF, and boy can that plug you in for rescue and relaying. CB radio is the little 4 watt AM service roaring lion, with a sharp emphasis on fun and utility, but it can outperform all the above. There's also SSB CB radio, an advancement that can talk hundreds or thousands of miles. Radio pays you back. Don't be a sheep. Use what you've got with skill and make advancements. Shore Watch stations can also row oars. A VHF and a CB in your bedroom or kitchen is a really good idea.
Great video and information. One thing I've had to explain to some boaters who did not want to invest in a VHF under the pretext that, if necessary, they would simply dial *16 on their mobile phone. True that the Coast Guard will get the call, but ONLY them! Whereas on a VHF, any boat within signal range will hear you and can render assistance much quicker.
A little chlorine in the gene pool.😂
Sorry but, they are their own worst enemy.
Is *16 still valid? The Coast Guard requested that all cellular phone service providers discontinue the “*CG” service, except in Alaska, and any such calls be routed to the 911 Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) nearest to where the call originated.
@sv_Island-Time it still works here in Canada. I used last weekend.
Excellent tutorial. Thank you.
Your video is so information dense. It's like going to school. Awesome job man
It would be nice if you talk about Epirb on future episodes. Great video and thank you!
Great video! I just installed a new VHF and was not sure what all the functions were. I would like to see a video on how to set up a MMSI number.
When I was in the Coast Guard in the early 70s, a lot of boat owners, particularly on the Great Lakes use CB radios. So we used to have CB radios at the stations and on the boats not always authorized but we put them in anyway. No radio direction finders or very very few. No GPS made the job a little more difficult, but we still got it done. If you have a boat, get the best radio the best safety equipment that you possibly can. You may need it only once in your life it will more than pay for itself. Who knows it may even save somebody else’s life and there again, it will more than pay for itself. lastly I don’t know how many people do it anymore but a real float plan your boat how many souls on board where are you intend to be and when you intend to get back and leave it with somebody that knows to make that call at 2200 when you’re not back good idea. Remember one hand for the boat.
IT would be useful to talk about how to change a MMSI on a VHF radio. I had to send mine physically to the manufacturer to change it.. 300 bucks plus...
Great video Tim, perhaps I missed it amongst the great content, but I would suggest that mariners take a recognized VHF/DSC course. I don’t want to split hairs here but the understanding is that if your vessel is equipped with a VHF and or DSC radio you’re obligated to be certified to use it. It’s not a licensed but a certification that allows you to use the equipment on your boat. The course also speaks (no pun intended), to other forms of communication that circle around our beloved SOLAS protected vessels.
As a sail Canada Sailing instructor teaching Cruising, I stress the importance of etiquette and functionality and all the cool things you spoke to. Thanks Tim, love your content!
If you don’t have a VHF or if your handheld VHF dies or your mobile VHF stops working for any reason you can use your cell phone (if you are in range) to call the Coast guard directly (in the Great Lakes region in Canada at least) by calling the shortcut code *16
*CG *24 is the USA version
One of the first improvements I make to any boat, is to upgrade the VHF to one with DSC and AIS receive capability. I often sail single handed and the AIS receive function can serve as an active watch keeper, if I need to nap at night. It also helps identify who the running lights belong to in the middle of the night, and a radar in low visibility. Keep in mind, it doesn't transmit my info, so others won't see me, so vigilant watch keeping is still required.
My handheld has DSC and includes gps info. One time I heard a loud beep and it seemed according to the display that I was receiving a distress signal. I was concerned that I had SENT that signal, but it was coming from someone else's dsc radio. I guess it sends out a signal so boats in the area can assist. In this case it was sent out by mistake, through some technical problem, and the coast guard was aware of that. I listened to the whole thing while it was getting resolved. I don't know if mine sends out a signal like that I'll have to check.
One bit of advice (to myself included): Learn how to use all the features, and learn what the radio displays in different situations. When it's happening in real time, I'm trying to maintain control of my boat while glancing at my radio and wondering what the hell it's saying. Even with a large display (for a handheld), it's not always so clear what's going on.
Also, my boat is fairly small, so I'm low to the water and don't always have a line-of-sight path to the Coast Guard antenna. I have tested my dsc (using the test function), and the signal doesn't always get through. When I hold it up high, it can get through. If it doesn't get through, my radio tries every four minutes. I need to know that, because if I don't get through, I could hoist it up (if I can) to get a signal through, or ask nearby boats to relay my info. I also have to be aware that when I'm in the water, my signal might not get to the Coast Guard directly, but at least nearby boats would hear.
Hailed a boat named Escape. Coast Guard heard the name, hailed me, we had an odd conversation.
GMDSS/DSC was supposed to be implemented in late 1990's. I've had my licence since then. Here in Aus, the Australian Marine Authority, the coastguard, volunteer rescue and the boaties are dead-set too stubborn or thick to realise that this is a life-saver.
And they are one of the founders of the UN, as well as the subdivision SOLAS. (Safety of Life at Sea)
They treat it as if it is an optional inconvenience.
Also - there is no privacy channel. If you put in your mate's MMSI, everyone will hear the call and be able to chime in. The difference is that your mate's radio set will beep like a phone, but not anybody else's.
I have an AIS transponder standalone... My iCOM only recognizes the iCOM AIS... Will you sometime in the future discuss VHF and other nav hardware compatibilities such that mariners can safely and reliably employ: GPS, DSC and AIS together and maybe with Radar was well...?
Very informative as always, and quite timely -- this sort of system might have made the difference for S/V Theros.
It's amazing how tech has changed the world of sailing , I learnt to sail from my Dad a ww2 navy vet and he used a sextant,charts to navigate , flags a lamp and a loudhailer to communicate , and the weather station was a barometer and looking at the seastate , now the helmsman is replaced with auto pilot so a sorta extra person onboard , the nav officer and weather man is replaced with realtime position and weather information and with radar , ais , the captain is aware of almost all of the shipping around just by looking at what amounts to a tv screen , who would have thought we have come from watching Rocky an Bullwinkle on tv to navigating the world with it 🙂 guess the next big thing will be some brave soul riding a bicycle to the moon an back 😁
You are so right. I use to voyage and navigate that way. My first boat was equipped with a compass, a sextant, a led line, a barometer And of course paper charts and a few cruising guides with hand drawn sketch charts of harbors. Not that it mattered that much that these charts were sometime miles off, based on 1800’s surveys, because the sextant had a typical accuracy of maybe 1-5 miles. And of course you could only get a fix once or twice a day and that’s IF the weather allowed it!
As I was also a pilot back then I could sometimes call an aviation weather briefer before I headed out and they would give ma a good briefing and then was on my own. Now…………….wow, I’ve got it all. Bought the first GPS around 1990 for $6000 on today’s money. And worth every penny. Magical! Still is. We just take it for granted.
@@roadboat9216 Yep hundreds of years of piloting and updates on logs are reduced to a computer chip an a tv screen and using a sliderule is becoming a lost art , auto correct doesn't even know that is a word 🤣 I was a pilot to and built an ultralight called skypup after that was going to build a kr1 rand robbison but life got in the way working on boats , still have the bench with all the lines drawn for the boat of the kr1 stretched to a kr2 but to old to fly put it off to long but gives me pleasure to this day looking at those lines , built a sailing dory during covid and a branch from a maple tree destroyed it so hit the sketch pad an designed another but with getting older an cancer surgeries dunno if it will be built , not giving up on it though nothing beats a day of working on boats 🙂
@@pl7868 Nice aircraft. Over 2000 built. 170 mph. 1000 fpm climb. Yeah, due it age i,m not flying anymore either. But still sailing!
@@roadboat9216 Yep I still fly and sail and ride bikes but the reflexs are just not there where it is safe and anything i build now will probably be cut up an go to the dump , getting old sucks because the mind is up to it but the body isn't , the kr is a wonderful plane if you stretch it for center of gravity issues an keep the weight down don't ask it to do more than intended , imho one of the best homebuilt planes designed that a guy can really build an use for the money
@@pl7868. I hear you. Sold y motorcycle a few months months. ago. I’m 80 now. So need some Common sense.
There is a but….. In the Netherlands only people having the Marcom B licence are allowed to use VHF radios with DSC. People with the base licence are not! Something to be aware of here in this region.
Also ch 16 may only be used in distress. For calling another ship inland use ch 10 , at sea ch 6.
Was involved in a rescue during a regatta.
A VHF radio had a full volume alarm when a local distress went off. Could not figure out how to turn off the alarm, nor how to turn it down. So loud it rendered thinking let alone conversation impossible.
Turned off the main VHF and pulled out an ol' skool, no feature handheld.
Lol -- no one read the instructions or could follow the prompts? Wow, good luck! ♪┌|∵|┘♪
Very informative, thank you 🎉
Great summary, Tim. Heads up that your VHF channel diagram is missing channel 68. Also, in my experience 68 is often the marina and yacht club hailing channel in most harbours on approach so can get very busy if boaters are using it for general communication. Better to use 71, or 72. Any idea of whether you can use an AIS enabled radio to direct call a vessel via DSC by a single click on the vessel identifier on a chart plotter or vhf radio? This feature, in my opinion, would make direct dsc calls so much more practical as currently I have know or look up an MMSI number of the vessel I want to call, enter that number manually into my vhf and then issue the dsc call. Fine if I’ve set up an address book in my vhf for frequently call boats, but a real nuisance when trying to call a random boat on AIS to ask their intentions or give them info.
I have a crazy problem. My sailboat is registered in Panama. Their bureaucracy is such that I have not been able to find a way to register a MMSI for my boat. The radio that was on it when I bought her has no number. Sailors in the area say nobody has MMSI. I don't quite believe that, but I know the US Coast Guard or American Boating club will only register US registered boats. I'm thinking there is likely an international organization that will register an MMSI regardless of the nation it is registered to? Do you know of such a thing?
While sailing in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. I found that there was often an atmospheric skip present. We sometimes could talk 60 to 100 miles apart, vessel to vessel! Don’t exactly know what caused these conditions but is sure surprised me!
Bouncing of the ionosphere
@@georgesutter2256 yep! And vhf doen’t usually do that.
How did you know I googled VHF radios yesterday for my 15 foot Daysailer?
on VHF AIS display looks a bit rediculus - that belongs to an integrated chartplotter. however when I was shopping for a backup handheld vhf I actually opted for an AIS capable one, so that in case of an emergency, I would really like to have some visual triangle on the display of a nearby boat.. As I was doing my research I think there are a lot around the handled ones. eg. connecting to an external antena. I'm thinking of making a socket to connect handeld backup VHF to boat's big antenna.
I just spent the $35 for my MMSI. I never have used DSC but you never know.
The next video is on how to get a mmsi what the differences is between boatus (or other's) and the fcc and or when do i need a license and how to get on. all is very simple but one needs to know
Boat US still goes through the FCC and coast guard, they just try to make it simpler for users who don’t want to use the government website.
Greate info, Thanks Tim
No that’s not actually correct, 16 is the emergency channel to be used and/or for initial contact. Channels 71,72 and 74 are the channels to be used for conversations be it with other sailors and/or marine safety organisations, like what we have here in Tassie (Tas Maritime radio) who provide weather forecasts, marine hazards info, let alone are the link to rescue organisations.
While VHF is still one of the most useful communication tools on a boat, its range limitation is one of the downsides of it and as such HF still has a value to have for offshore passage making let alone the newer satellite tools inc Sat ph, iridiumGo and Starlink
Have a mayday cheat sheet next to the radio. In a panic you will forget how to make one.
Why the audio buzz some episodes and not others?
Good karma points 😊
Are their nautical communication courses available?
Where are these radios available for purchase?
Great introduction to DSC and AIS/MMSI. iCom has an affordable hand held VHF with AIS capabilities, the M-94D. I used it extensively in a six month period sailing the Greek waters. It has collision warning and other safety capabilities, although it does not broadcast its own AIS information, unless it sends out a Distress message, which it can. A great safety tool for short handed or night sailing. The question - would the US Coast Guard recognize a distress message from a 235xxxxxx (UK registered) MMSI number I.e. if I used my radio in USA waters?
I am confident a USCG or Coast Guard Auxiliary member would be glad to assist you online, by phone or via Internet. 😎✌️
I still think its annoying that Canada requires more licensing for VHF. I took, and passed (score 100% -- im also a ham) the ROC-M through CPS. That allows me to use VHF. But a base station at the cottage requires a station license, including inspection i think -- in addition to all users having ROC-M. That barrier to entry means fewer users -- they might be more competent, but plenty of marinas and smaller commercial boats no longer use or even have VHF because of the license requirement. As far as i know in the US no license is required for VHF (or HF, unless you traveling outside the US)... And just about every marina, even at Yellowstone, or a state park reservoir marina, will have VHF... In the VI, the Caribbean, etc -- everyone has VHF. But not in Canada, at least not in Georgian Bay...
The only problem I see with DSC is that you can only enter it once on the radio. So if things change you must take the unit in and have it reset.
Having an emergency button that blasts out a distress call sounds like a great idea, until the manufacturer puts the button right next to a bunch of other buttons that are commonly used. The Coast Guard then has the responsibility to check on all the distress calls originating from accidental presses, and thereby diminishes the sense of urgency. It's no different than all the accidental 911 calls butt-dialers make with their phones. The cops are coming, but they're not coming fast.
It's very difficult to press it by accident. Every person on board should be given a quick lesson in basic VHF use.
Within the first minute bad information. Channel 16 is for emergency use only. Calling the coast guard, harbormaster, declaring an emergency (mayday), non life threatening serious issue(pan pan) or an important navigational issue(security). Hailing other boats should be done on channel 9.
I am not a fan of AIS integrated into the VHF. If the VHF fails you can use your backup hand held but you have no AIS.
Nice video today but one comment there is nothing private when using DSC.. your audios just as audible by other boats as it would be with just an old VHF radio..
DSC allows multiple radios to listen to the same frequency and only provide audio when called with the correct DSC code
01:40 WTF? Bullspit! You do NOT need an MMSI to use a VHF radio! In fact, you have to justify to FCC why you need an MMSI if you're just cruising US waters.
Many radios require mmsi numbers
One of the times where I cross Atlantic, I was held by there Spanish Coast car off the coast of Western Sahara heading to Canaries to look out for illegal immigrants which was on small boats overfilled with people and children. The Coast Guard ordered me to stay with them, but not approaching them as they would most likely invade my boat until they came and permanently gave the position.
This is a customers video: absolutely nothing usefull to maintenance, operation or even vhf improve of eficience. Very poor...
Hi, I really enjoyed your video and would love to work with you on a marine machine, but I can't find your email. Could you give us a chance to work together!🥰