Zambezi is incorrect, in so many ways. You cannot just program up a Baofeng into a marine VHF. Nor can you do it on the UK business light channels. Nor the PMR channels.
Anything operating along these lines has to be type approved here. Which Baofengs, and others like them are not. Put them on a spectrum analyser and see just how crappy their output is, harmonics all over the place. What else would you expect from something so cheap. They are strictly for licensed radio amateurs. If you want something a lot better, look at e.g. the TYT range.
And, by the way, you can register for a ships portable radio license, for free, as I have, for my legit. marine vhf. Look it up. You do not have had to have passed any test, indeed the coastguard want as many as possible to carry these things
when on the water. And I think limited to four watts output, for a portable. You can still screw it onto a high gain antenna if you want. Mine is about fifteen feet up, near the top of the mast. Makes a huge difference.
Your callsign will start with the letter T. The coastguard can look it up if they want to know who you are. Also find your contact details and next of kin if you have entered them. Likewise I have a slot to register an epirb or plb to me personally, but do not have either yet.
Still feeling anarchical ? Well take a look at
Ships' radio and ship portable radio
And ponder about "
Failure to hold a valid licence is a criminal offence and Ofcom's enforcement team can impose on-the-spot fines. The maximum penalty on conviction is a £5,000 fine and/or a six month prison sentence. Those convicted may also be ordered to forfeit any radio apparatus used illegally."
Just a simple point, a pukka marine VHF will only transmit for a certain amount of time before it has to be re-keyed. This is to ensure that it stops, whether or not the operator continues to yack into it interminably, or a fault has occurred in say the mic. switch. Not unusual in marine environments.
A little research will soon tell you the expected protocol for how to use one clearly and succinctly. And the difference between the simplex and duplexed channels.
Some useful information about how this all works:
To re-iterate. A marine VHF, whether legit. or a homebrew effort, is only for use on the water, or in marinas and maybe sailing clubs if they have their own allocated duplex channels, which mine does. They are competitive, so prefer not to use M1 and M2 simplex where everybody else can listen in to what you are talking about, to report for example to the race committee, when for example wanting to make a protest against someone else. And suggesting that they send over the committee boat to take a look and maybe give some stern advice. Otherwise the UK clubs just use M1 and M2.
Marine VHFs are not for using to communicate on land. Anyone suggesting otherwise is giving very bad advice.
