[Scan-DC] Re: Port of Baltimore marine band ops

[ka3jjz at netscape.com]

  From Bob N3HFP; evidently for some reason it didn't reach scan-dc so here it is;
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To get a handle on the movement of large vessel traffic in and out of
Baltimore, channel 11 Marine VHF is a must. 156.55 is what the Bay Pilots and Baltimore Maritime Exchange use as a working frequency. The maritime exchange has a high site transmitter on the Bay Bridge and can be heard all the way to Solomon's. 

You should also load the many Marine VHF commercial frequencies in order
to listen to launches and tug boats in the harbor. Channels 12 14 18 are 
used a lot. For a good bit of the band (up to channel 19) you can figure the freq by taking 156 and adding the half of the channel number after the decimal point.  Channel 12 = 156.60

Channel 13 (156.65)is a low power channel for bridge to bridge traffic. 
That is a bridge of a vessel to a roadway bridge or bridge of a vessel to another vessel bridge. The channel gets used a lot however it is only one watt. Most of the ships and tugs have high gain antennas so you can hear these transmissions a good way out.

If you get board with commercial there is always a lot of recreational
traffic to hear but this can get very tedious, unless you might enjoy the 11 meter band from time to time.

The Coast Guard is active of the band also. They use 21a, 22a, 23a, 81a,
82a, 83a for daily operations and to assist vessels in distress. They 
also use high band Government frequencies for operations. These are usually encrypted.

Here is a link for this Band:  http://www.naval.com/marvhf.htm
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links editor,Capitol Hill Monitors
Utility Monitoring Central
editor, Strong Signals software page


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