[WARC] Marine radio

[Matt Burt]

Good afternoon all

Sounds like a great adventure!

I have been on the Mississippi from Red Wing to Brownsville with my boat
over the last 15 years.   Presently I have a 25W Uniden rig with a Bimini
mounted antenna that is very similar to a 2 meter mobile setup.

I like to have the marine radio connected to a separate battery from the
starting battery for obvious reasons.

I typically speak with the lockmaster on CH 14 as a primary contact for
requests to lock through.   I have heard that they also monitor CH 16 as
well but to be honest I've never tried it.

Many of the marinas and whatnot along the river do monitor CH 16 and
typically move off the calling channel for more detail.   Lately however
I've had to contact the marina (Pepin Marina) via cell as they don't always
respond on VHF.

All commercial traffic uses CH 14 on the upper Mississippi as far as I know
and they will give a smaller boat a shout on that frequency if necessary
(to get out of their way).

Radio checks are acceptable if done politely and infrequently.

That's been my experience - hope its helpful and best of luck to the
captain on a great sounding adventure!

One more piece of advice is the only thing one should see after dark on the
Mississippi is wildlife or commercial traffic....

73,

Matt - KF0Q


On Thu, Nov 30, 2023, 1:35 PM Climbing Without Passion via WARC <
warc at w0ne.org> wrote:

> Hey Nora,
>
> I have a handheld marine radio. The band is channelized, channel 16 being
> monitored by authorities for emergency contacts. Channel 9 is the call
> channel. It is pretty easy to get info on-line about all the other
> channels. A radio can be got for under $150, though the frequencies can be
> programmed into a Baofeng, legalities aside, technically I don't believe it
> is. No license is required.
>
> Best,
>
> Chad
>
> On Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 12:34 PM Nora Huxtable via WARC <warc at w0ne.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> My dad is going to boat some (or all) of the Mississippi River next
>> summer in his homemade dory. In the interest of safety, he's trying to
>> figure out marine radio, both in terms of equipment and rules.
>>
>> Would any of our hams be willing to talk with him about this? I'm out of
>> my depth.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> KF0KQV
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>>
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