Sailing Hams: VHF/UHF?

[Cruiser2B]

Have used 2m on the boat quite often. always just chewing the rag with other hams on local repeaters. I also used it on a few cruises on the Chesapeake, a few time to see if there were and stores near the anchorage I was in. I would image this would be very helpful along the entire ICW and east coast.

[s/v Jedi]

It's in use everywhere. Here in Panama are plenty repeaters and they put them on very high mountains, vulcano's etc. With 50W on 2m I can open a repeater at 247km distance. It is at 11,400 feet height

But the closest repeater is at 20km and they are linked etc.
I think it's the same all over Latin America.

[El Rubio]

This thread got me looking at APRS, and i found something that i didn't know, but may

[El Rubio]

Ok, that's what I get for posting from my phone while waiting for pizza. What I was trying to write was that looking at APRS recently, I found that the ISS has an APRS gateway which could be useful for those of you that cruise offshore. It's probably common knowledge to many of you, but could be another interesting use for VHF/UHF on board.

[Hartleyg]

It's been a couple years since I actively hung out on 2M/440 on the boat (mostly day-sailing while getting her ready for the big departure..:-) but I do recall finding a number of "pro" fishing boats hanging out using amateur 2M & 440 as a "secret channel" - almost every big boat that took fishing passengers out of San Diego seemed to have an amateur dual-bander installed on the bridge. No, they weren't interested in talking to actual amateurs, nor did they have anything resembling an amateur callsign. I've also caught them on other folks' HF channels as well.
But I have had a lot of fun talking to shoreside folks along the CA coast - some of them seem amazed that boats could access their repeater which was 30-40 miles inland!

[Hoofsmit]

Hi, I am a bit ignorant on this UHF / VHF, do you need a personal license to operate as ham or is the VHF dsc license Issued by the RYA ofcom here in the uk enough?

[Hartleyg]

Hi Hoofsmit,

As far as I know, every country requires an amateur radio license to operate on the amateur bands. There is an excellent ability to operate in other countries using one's own home country license via a reciprocal licensing process, though this is not required outside of a nation's territorial waters. For example, I would need a UK reciprocal license to operate there in your territorial waters (or ashore).
I do not believe your boat's Marine station license would apply, however.

Hartley
W1OQ

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by Hoofsmit

Hi, I am a bit ignorant on this UHF / VHF, do you need a personal license to operate as ham or is the VHF dsc license Issued by the RYA ofcom here in the uk enough?

VHF stands for very high frequency. There are many different services that occupy VHF. There are several bands, ranges of frequencies, that are for amateur (HAM) use only. The HAM 2 meter band in VHF is 144 to 148 megaHertz. The Marine VHF band is 156.0 - 162.025 megaHertz.


You have to have a HAM license to operate HAM frequencies. Also you need a radio that transmits and receives on those frequencies.
RA190 - How to Become a Radio Amateur