Saturday, January 4, 2014

Maritime VHF Channels

U.S. VHF CHANNELS

Channel NumberShip Transmit MHzShip Receive MHzUse
01A156.050156.050Port Operations and Commercial, VTS. Available only in New Orleans / Lower Mississippi area.
05A156.250156.250Port Operations or VTS in the Houston, New Orleans and Seattle areas.
06156.300156.300Intership Safety
07A156.350156.350Commercial
08156.400156.400Commercial (Intership only)
09156.450156.450Boater Calling. Commercial and Non-Commercial.
10156.500156.500Commercial
11156.550156.550Commercial. VTS in selected areas.
12156.600156.600Port Operations. VTS in selected areas.
13156.650156.650Intership Navigation Safety (Bridge-to-bridge). Ships >20m length maintain a listening watch on this channel in US waters.
14156.700156.700Port Operations. VTS in selected areas.
15--156.750Environmental (Receive only). Used by Class C EPIRBs.
16156.800156.800International Distress, Safety and Calling. Ships required to carry radio, USCG, and most coast stations maintain a listening watch on this channel.
17156.850156.850State & local govt maritime control
18A156.900156.900Commercial
19A156.950156.950Commercial
20157.000161.600Port Operations (duplex)
20A157.000157.000Port Operations
21A157.050157.050U.S. Coast Guard only
22A157.100157.100Coast Guard Liaison and Maritime Safety Information Broadcasts. Broadcasts announced on channel 16.
23A157.150157.150U.S. Coast Guard only
24157.200161.800Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
25157.250161.850Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
26157.300161.900Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
27157.350161.950Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
28157.400162.000Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
63A156.175156.175Port Operations and Commercial, VTS. Available only in New Orleans / Lower Mississippi area.
65A156.275156.275Port Operations
66A156.325156.325Port Operations
67156.375156.375Commercial. Used for Bridge-to-bridge communications in lower Mississippi River. Intership only.
68156.425156.425Non-Commercial
69156.475156.475Non-Commercial
70156.525156.525Digital Selective Calling (voice communications not allowed)
71156.575156.575Non-Commercial
72156.625156.625Non-Commercial (Intership only)
73156.675156.675Port Operations
74156.725156.725Port Operations
77156.875156.875Port Operations (Intership only)
78A156.925156.925Non-Commercial
79A156.975156.975Commercial. Non-Commercial in Great Lakes only
80A157.025157.025Commercial. Non-Commercial in Great Lakes only
81A157.075157.075U.S. Government only - Environmental protection operations.
82A157.125157.125U.S. Government only
83A157.175157.175U.S. Coast Guard only
84157.225161.825Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
85157.275161.875Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
86157.325161.925Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
87157.375157.375Public Correspondence (Marine Operator)
88A157.425157.425Commercial, Intership only.
AIS 1161.975161.975Automatic Identification System (AIS)
AIS 2162.025162.025Automatic Identification System (AIS)

VHF Maritime Spectrum Chart

NOAA Weather Radio Frequencies
ChannelFrequency (MHz)
WX1
162.550
WX2
162.400
WX3
162.475
WX4
162.425
WX5
162.450
WX6
162.500
WX7
162.525
Channel numbers, e.g. (WX1, WX2) etc. have no special significance but are often designated this way in consumer equipment. Other channel numbering schemes are also prevalent.
The order of channels shown is the order they were established and is slowly becoming less "popular" over time than a numerical ordering of channels.
Additional Information, Frequencies, & Charts
Frequencies are in MHz. Modulation is 16KF3E or 16KG3E.
Note that the letter "A" indicates simplex use of the ship station transmit side of an international duplex channel, and that operations are different than international operations on that channel. Some VHF transceivers are equipped with an "International - U.S." switch for that purpose. "A" channels are generally only used in the United States, and use is normally not recognized or allowed outside the U.S. The letter "B" indicates simplex use of the coast station transmit side of an international duplex channel. The U.S. does not currently use "B" channels for simplex communications in this band.
Boaters should normally use channels listed as Non-Commercial. Channel 16 is used for calling other stations or for distress alerting. Channel 13 should be used to contact a ship when there is danger of collision. All ships of length 20m or greater are required to guard VHF channel 13, in addition to VHF channel 16, when operating within U.S. territorial waters. Users may be fined by the FCC for improper use of these channels. See Marine Radio Watch Requirements for further information.
Also available are International VHF Maritime Radio Channels and FrequenciesNarrowband VHF Maritime Channels and FrequenciesRadio Information for Boaters , and U.S. Coast Guard VHF Distress and Safety Coverage Charts.

source: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=mtvhf

6 comments:

  1. Interesting blog. i'm a fellow malaysian and im glad to hear that there are others who are very dedicated and interested in this field.

    i have just started getting into RTL-SDR, and I bought a NooElec R820T SDR & DVB-T and using SDR#. As i live in about 15km away from Subang ATC, I'm still unsuccessful in picking up any conversation between any aircraft and the ATC. not sure why, but am considering a larger aerial at the moment. i think this small aerial can't get good reception on 118.2MHz with WFM setting in SDR#. only thing i can listen to successfully is......................Hitz.fm and taxi drivers complaining on x freq ;)

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    Replies
    1. Hi for your information for 118.2 you need to switch the mode to AM not WFM...i am sure u can copy the signal if u do that....Have fun...

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    2. For more infö regarding local aviation freq. u may try this url http://advanced-skynet.blogspot.com/p/malaysian-air-band-frequency-list.html

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  2. Replies
    1. Pada Walkzone Digital....freq. utk Marine di Malaysia very subjective.....sila scan 156.050 -162.000Mhz.....Channel nya sama saperti di atas cuma beza nya hanya lah Port dan juga VTS.....utk Ch 16...itu adalah standard International utk kegunaan Distress dan juga Calling Channel....sekian

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  3. Thanks hopefully you get some info .....

    ReplyDelete