Wayne.B wrote:

And that is exactly what most dockmasters use.

The marina office on the other hand, needs increased range to
communicate with boats looking for dock space. They need to minimize
their time on channel 16 and most do a good job of that in my
experience.

I've talked to marinas from southern Florida to Down East Maine and
can't remember calling a Marina on the calling channel and not being
immediately requested to shift to a working channel. That is the way
the system is supposed to work and it works well that way.

If I know the working channel I eliminate the preliminary call on the
calling channel.

The biggest problem on VHF marine bands are new boaters who are not
familiar with procedure, next are arrogant pricks that can't be bothered
to learn how to use it, and a final most irritating factor are the folks
that learned procedure by watching Smokey and the Bandit.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)