I monitor 16 all the time and have noticed that since the Vancouver coast guard station closed, Victoria coast guard radio directs all 16 calls to channel 83a now, instead of ch 9 or a non international number. There are lots of radios out there with no licenced operators, that would have difficulty finding the international switch, in a real emergency. In the last 1000 hrs of monitoring, I can't count the number of boaters that can't switch to int mode. The CG radio operators must go nuts every season with this, so why do it ?
I wondered if this is a new border area policy so that US boaters or USCG Puget Sound can monitor 83a Canada radio traffic,
or a CG way to sniff out unlicenced and newby radio users, as they struggle find International mode on their radios ? [Harder than programming a home VCR for some ?]
Why force International mode channel 83a on Canadian Yachts, when ch 9 or even 68 would do ?
Thx
I wondered if this is a new border area policy so that US boaters or USCG Puget Sound can monitor 83a Canada radio traffic,
or a CG way to sniff out unlicenced and newby radio users, as they struggle find International mode on their radios ? [Harder than programming a home VCR for some ?]
Why force International mode channel 83a on Canadian Yachts, when ch 9 or even 68 would do ?
Thx
Last edited:
