On Sat, 2 Feb 2008 12:36:55 -0600, "John Anderson"
wrote:


These users may be legal - you'd have to check the FCC frequency
allocations to be sure.

The marine VHF band is in the middle of the land mobile band - used by
taxis, trucking companies, and other commercial radio services.

They use Channel 68 or 69 in my area.
Truckers have been heard on Ch. 71, and 19a

Looks like they are using Marine Channels according to
the FCC rules!

Not necessarily - they could be using assigned land mobile frequencies
that happen to be close enough to those marine channels that they can
be heard on a standard marine radio. As I said, you'd have to check
to see if the FCC has any land mobile allocations close to those
marine channels for use in your area.


Oh, well, keeps them off the 10 meter ham bands!
A few years ago I heard outbanders on 28.085
griping about people throwing carriers, but the "carriers"
were hams on code transmission. With the tight bandwidth
of cw receivers, the hams were probaly not even aware of
the interlopers!



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

They use Channel 68 or 69 in my area.
Truckers have been heard on Ch. 71, and 19a

Looks like they are using Marine Channels according to
the FCC rules!

Not necessarily - they could be using assigned land mobile frequencies
that happen to be close enough to those marine channels that they can
be heard on a standard marine radio. As I said, you'd have to check
to see if the FCC has any land mobile allocations close to those
marine channels for use in your area.

They are using marine radios on marine channels.
A ham friend of mine has talked to them.
They are arguing that they don't need licenses,
and indeed, if the FCC does not have the money or
manpower to go after them, then this activity, like the
mess on CB will become legal by default!