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Larry

Bruce in alaska wrote in news:fast-
:

Ok, Larry, I have an Inquiry in with the Maritime Rules Chief at the
FCC, but he is on vacation, till the middle of August, so I have
another
Inquiry with his Stand-in, who should get back to me, in the next day
or
two.... and I will get the definitive answer, for Licensing, for both
Vessel and Operator, for both classes of AIS Transponders.....

Thank you, Bruce. The boaters are just too casual with radio operation,
I'm afraid. It's become even more of a problem when we "went CB" with
no licenses to lose. There's no enforcement in Charleston any more,
either. The only one who calls them out is the CG watch, whom they
mostly ignore.

Marina operations go on no matter whos boat is sinking or whos person is
lost and being searched for. The operators in the marinas, here, are
college kids working in the office with no radio experience, licenses,
operating procedures, etc. We did get them to stop saying "10-4" on the
air, though. Their bosses do make them say the station callsigns. If
someone's calling for help, it's not the marina's fault so the distress
call goes ignored because its not from the diesel or gas docks. All
marinas need to be told to take down the towers and go to 1 watt.
Channel 68 wasn't meant for long range marina communications. Some
marinas have towers 70' high running 25 watts!

Some kids last summer got me mad. Mom and Daddy had left them on the
boat to go shopping or something. They started harrassing people on Ch
16 trying to make calls. The signal was quite strong on my walkie so I
took the antenna off it and started walking the docks, waiting,
listening, walking some more. I had my earphone plugged in so noone
could hear it on the dock. As I walked by this boat from New Jersey, a
nice trawler on the face dock, I heard the kid calling someone out
through the open hatch. I flipped open my cellphone and called CG's
watch giving him the boat name and slip number. He said he had a rib
looking for them, too, and went off to military channels to tell them I
found 'em. About 10 minutes later, a big CG rib came up to the dock,
its sailors all looking like the swat team. They boarded the trawler
and I heard the kids scream. Problem solved. The dockhands said Daddy
got another surprise when he got home. Not sure if some little asses
got the tanning they deserved, probably not....

I bet Daddy secured that radio before he left the boat after that
fine.....

--
-----
Larry

If a man goes way out into the woods all alone and says something,
is it still wrong, even though no woman hears him?