It is illegal to use ham radio equipment on the marine bands. All
equipment must be at least "type accepted".....

However, lots of ham equipment is being used on the marine bands all
the time, these days.

The main disadvantage of the ham equipment is that the marine radios,
like our Icom M802 aboard Lionheart, is channelized for all the marine
frequencies, even to the point that the display tells you what special
purposes the current channel is used for, like the one the Coasties
are monitoring on this band. You COULD program the memories in the
better ham radios to the ITU marine channels with the list from
several sources, I suppose.

By the way, if you decide to go whole hog and get the beautifully
engineered, but poorly sealed, M802, you can switch from channelized
marine mode to "wide open" frequency mode by holding down MODE + 2 and
pressing TX buttons. This combo toggles it back and forth. When I go
aboard, I toggle it into open for use on the ham bands. When I leave
the boat, I switch it back to marine channels only to keep my
non-technical captain out of Federal prison, limiting his transmitting
to marine channels, only. It really is a beautifully-operating radio.

Oh, the ham rigs are, typically, 100W. The marine radios are 150
watts output. Power IS our friend....(c;

Sailnet has great prices on Icom Marine radios.....



On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 12:16:03 GMT, "Padeen"
wrote:

Anyone use this little mobile unit for cruising? What would be its
advantages/disadvantages over the 710? It seems to have a broader band
selection, and is smaller/lighter.

TIA

Padeen