15
could allow you to talk thousands of miles away at sea to other boats,
or to your local yacht club if they have the marine SSB station license.
Ship-to-ship channels labeled with “A”, “B”, and “C” are primary racing
channels, in regular use by long range cruising mariners, as well as
race committees.
The FCC authorizes shared use of 4 MHz and 8 MHz radio channels --
these frequencies are spelled out in kHz. These ADDITIONAL ship-to-
ship channels are popular in congested coastal and Caribbean radio-
traffic areas where the “A”,”B”, “C” primary ship-to-ship channels are
regularly tied up.
Remember the x100 rule about how far your radio signals will bounce:
4000 kHz = 4 MHz = 400 to 800 miles
8000 kHz = 8 MHz = 800 to 1600 miles
12000 kHz = 12 MHz = 1200 to 2400 miles
If you select a ship-to-ship or ship-to-shore channel too high in
frequency for short and medium range communications, your signal
will actually skip over the station you want to contact. 8 MHz and 12
MHz are the primary medium range and long range ship-to-ship
channels. 4 MHz and 6 MHz are primarily the short to medium range
ship-to-ship channels.
Channels 129-160: DON’T TRANSMIT! Unless it is a true life and
death emergency, do not transmit on these HAM RADIO channels until
you have passed your General Class license exam. No more Morse
code test!