"John R. Campbell" wrote in
:

If travelling in a group of boats, consider some
FRS radios which don't have much reach but don't
need much when travelling close enough together.
Less interference on the marine channels and the
like... but it'd be *real* nice if some of the
bridges down here were monitoring something other
than VHF ch9. (These FRS rigs are very handy at
other times, too, like w/ multiple cars, visiting
Home Depot or Lowes and the like.)



The best feature of FRS radios is you can say whatever you like without
some kilocycle cop/boater or CG guy bitching at you to get the hell off his
channel....(c;

On Larry W4CSC wrote:
John R. Campbell wrote:
If travelling in a group of boats, consider some
FRS radios which don't have much reach but don't
need much when travelling close enough together.
Less interference on the marine channels and the
like... but it'd be *real* nice if some of the
bridges down here were monitoring something other
than VHF ch9. (These FRS rigs are very handy at
other times, too, like w/ multiple cars, visiting
Home Depot or Lowes and the like.)

The best feature of FRS radios is you can say whatever
you like without some kilocycle cop/boater or CG guy
bitching at you to get the hell off his channel....(c;

Sorry, I was trying for an "almost British" level
of understatement in my post... and you said, in
plain language, what I was trying to say in a more
obscure form.

(shakes head)

Granted, I try for laughs...

The point, really, is that FRS radios have such a
low wattage that there's not much of a likelihood
of interfering with others. The low costs (take a
look around a CostCo or Best Buy or some such) and
you'll not that the prices are also pretty low as
well-- so losing one over the side isn't the utter
disaster that a VHF hand-held would be.

Of course I don't personally know if FRS can even
be *licensed* for use outside the USA much less,
if usable, what the rules'd be.

Granted, you have to remember to use a *real* VHF
rig in order to hail others ... especially distress
calls.

Additionally, one suggestion: regular hand-held
scanners are available for a lot less than a "real"
VHF hand-held (especially if you only want to cover
the marine bands) so one of *those* scanner would
be handy for whoever is on communications watch.

The real point being is that there is other tech
out there that, while not tuned perfectly for the
marine environment, is fairly usable... and cheap
enough to more easily cope with replacements.

While it makes sense to avoid "disposable tech", I
think there are times when you want to use it to
cut down on the "wear and tear" (of the PTT button?)
of the far more critical marine-grade tech.

Some tech obviously will not make the jump very
well to marine conditions... but finding the more
appropriate tech to carry over can be rather
entertaining to discover.

--
John R. Campbell Speaker to Machines soup at tampabay dot rr dot com
"Grace is sufficient so Joy was let go." - Heather L. Campbell
"Faith manages ... even though she didn't get promoted" - me
Why OS X? Because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 04:46:38 GMT, "John R. Campbell"
wrote:


Of course I don't personally know if FRS can even
be *licensed* for use outside the USA much less,
if usable, what the rules'd be.

The USA and Canada have the same FRS radio allocations, so US FRS
radios can be used in Canada, and vice versa, without interfering with
other services (whether it is strictly legal is another matter...)

Other countries have similar services (and similar-appearing radios),
but often on different frequencies - In North America, FRS is around
460 MHz, but the similar service in Europe is on 446 MHz - use of
North American FRS radios in Europe, or vice versa, is likely to
result in interference with licensed services on the other frequency,
and is almost certainly illegal.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

In article ,
"John R. Campbell" wrote:

Of course I don't personally know if FRS can even
be *licensed* for use outside the USA much less,
if usable, what the rules'd be.

Quite possibly they're covered by the old 100 mw rule: Less than a tenth
of a watt was hardly considered a transmitter years ago, so you could do
anything you wanted without regulation. 'Course, things probably have
changed since.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

In article ,
Larry W4CSC wrote:

The best feature of FRS radios is you can say whatever you like without
some kilocycle cop/boater or CG guy bitching at you to get the hell off his
channel....(c;

God did Jackie Painter, bite your ass too..... He does get around...


Me