Gould 0738 wrote:
I'm sure if I made ten improper transmissions on marine VHF radio let's
say on ch.16 I could guarantee I would get the $10,000 fine, and
imprisonment for two years!" this I can count on.

Not.

The CG seems to be "relaxing" the enforcement. And that's a shame.

We took a cruise to the south sound last weekend, and when returning on Sunday
we listened to some woman call the CG on 16, to report a lost dinghy. Without
switching to 22 or some appropriate channel, and without being requested to do
so by the CG, the conversation went like this:

Hello, CG? We can't find our dinghy this morning, and I want to know which way
the wind was blowing last night.

Where were you anchored?

Off Raft Island.

Let me check. (pause for 15 seconds). M'am, there was a south wind.

Does that mean the wind was blowing from
north to south?

(another pause for 15 seconds) M'am the wind was blowing out of the south,
toward the north.

Well, we've lost out dinghy, and it looks like this........ (on and on and on.
An actual emergency would have been SOL on 16)

(sheesh)

If they fined everybody who used 16 cluelessly or flagrantly abused the rules
$10,000 an incident, we'd no longer have a national debt.

I usually listen to 16 on the Bay. The Coasties are on the channel
frequently with reports of missing boats, or boats in trouble, et
cetera. Every so often, a boater will ask for a "radio check" while on
16, and usually the Coasties tell the boater to use another channel for
that. Perfectly appropriate for the Coasties to do that.

--
"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in
Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me -
you can't get fooled again." -George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept.
17, 2002