Gudmundur wrote:
I have looked through the FCC rules and regs and don't see the answer,

The question is this,,

Suppose you and your buddy each take your boats out on a north american
river and you want to do some idle chit chat such as "Hey, lets head to
the edge of the breakwall over there", or "Hit your trim button, you're
running to flat", What channel would you use???

It appears that the FCC desires no channel to be used for such a purpose.

What insight can you folks give to me??


Your hailng channel will vary slightly depending upon where you are in
the country. Some districts insist that vessels hail only on 9, except
in case of emergency. Other districts allow hailing on 16.

Once you have established contact and *before* you begin discussing
trim tabs, etc, you need to agree on a proper non commercial channel.
These are 68 and 69, (not 70- it has been reserved for DSC service
only), 71 and 72. In districts where 9 is not the assigned hailing
channel for pleasure boats, you can also take your traffic to 9.

By FCC regulations, (and because there are only a few channels
available and a lot of potential users), you conversation should be
brief, to the point, and should concern the vessel, its passengers, or
its operation. Yakking on about the NBA playoffs or the hooters on the
gal at the waterfront bistro are not considered appropriate uses of the
VHF, even the non-commercial channels. :-)