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I sat down this month and really looked over my VerizonWireless bill. It has climbed steadily since we subscribed many years ago. We have a family plan with two phones. Basic Service is $59.99 but our bill is OVER $100.

There is the $34.07 Surcharges and Fees, Verizon Wireless Surcharges – “Includes charges to recover or help defray costs of taxes and of governmental charges and fees imposed on us by the government. Other Charges and Credits – includes charges for products and services, and credits owing.”

There is the $6.11 government surcharge and tax.

There is the “Voice” charge of $7.45 “The “Voice” section of your bill Includes charges for voice calls, including calls that exceed your Plan’s minute allowances, 411 Search, Long Distance and other calls.” They claimed seven minutes of share time used and 77 minutes total out of our 400 minutes authorized but we still have an inadequately explained $7.45 minute charge. It doesn’t appear we did anything to deserve this, ah except maybe 411 charges. Yes that’s it.. We don’t even use 100 minutes of a 400 minute allowance during the month. It’s not like we are a challengingly abusive customer that taxes the system! We are taxed to death like everyone else earning much less than $250K per year. Excuse me politicians are you reading this? Hello! But I digress.

There is a data charge of .40 cents but we use no data.

Had we used text messages each one would have cost .20 cents each sent and received. We don’t text.

There is the State of Maryland 911 surcharge of 25 cents and the Calvert County surcharge of 75 cents. Oh and this will really get you thinking. Because cellular service in and around my home has always been poor any calls that do connect go to towers across the Chesapeake Bay and we are connected with 911 centers outside of our area who must transfer our calls to Calvert County 911. Needless to say, we have learned not to count on our telephones for 911 service.

So the real price of a two cellular family plan is $109 and some cents. It may be time to re-evaluate our service. Have you looked at your cellular bill recently? What are the mystery fees and surcharges like with your cellular carrier?

(via DIGG.COM) Congressman Pete Stark represents California, but where is he paying taxes?

Congress loves to tax us but when it comes to paying taxes themselves, well that’s another matter…

See also this information at Bloomberg.com.

(Ed Note: This is usually a tech blog but since I used to live in California and now live in Maryland this egregious silliness really yanked my chain. Thanks to The 912 Project website for alerting us to this. Maryland tax authorities are looking into Stark’s “primary residence” and I hope they consider criminal charges.

Californians, your esteemed Congressman claims he lives in Maryland full time? What is this politician doing representing you eh? If you really want Stark take him home please!)

read more | digg story

I was always curious why cellular sales climbed from 2001 to 2003 and into 2004 and then over night seemed to cease almost immediately. Granted I was working for a retailer that switched carriers but if you listened to all of the sales hype the carrier should have made no difference to sales.

The blame always fell on the poor sales clerk. You can’t sell cell phones, you’re a zero, you’re not working enough. This even though sales had tanked nationwide and cellular carriers were busy taking obvious cost cutting measures.

The business tanked for a myriad of reasons. Here are a few I have thought of:

1. As cellular handsets grew in number and popularity so did the number of used handsets. This created an obvious market for used handsets. The big advantage to the used handset was that you could purchase one at a huge cost savings and activate it on your current plan often with no fee and not have to renew your contact for another year or more. This was and still is a very attracive option. Cellular companies knew this was a new competitive market as evidenced by the fees they began charging for activating a used handset when many had charged nothing before. Even with the fee customers still preferred a used handset to avoid having to renew a contract.

In my discussions with cell phone reps that visited stores I found that the cell phone industry reported its progress not in cell phone activations but in activations with NEW or RENEWED contracts. The preference of stock holders and boards of directors was always new or contract renewal business with the sale of a new handset.  Keeping customers on a month to month was not considered progress oddly enough. That kind of squared with the level opf service I have come to expect from my own cellular carrier or ones that I was selling. When sales of celluar service tanked so did customer service. Aggressive sales techniques increased but once they had you were often frustrated just trying to speak to your carrier.

2. Cellular companies did a horrible job with customer service. They grew so quickly they never learned how to treat a customer fairly and with respect. The company’s entire effort was sales and marketing based. Once you had your phone you learned you couldn’t depend on the carrier for help. Sooner or later the carriers were all transferring customer service to scripted representatives in Asia and Latin America.  Business that is sales and marketing based with no service or element of customer care included angers customers and eventually makes the marketplace and ugly place for customers. A place they would just as soon stay away from. I think this poor service, moreso than price, is what drove customers to the used cellular handset market.

3. The many local retailers and cellular kiosks that were once successful also lost business when the major carriers moved stores in next door or down the street.

4.  It was suggested to me that because cellular technology is old by moder standards and 4G isn’t widely available people are not interested in new phones.  In my view this wouldn’t bring in much new business just draw in more renewal business of current customers at the high end of the technology consumer pyramid. The vast majority of cellular customers were not, in my opinion, high tech Internet users.

5. Everyone who needed or wanted a cellular telephone had one by 2004. AFter that time it was one carrier trying to take business from another.  A local rep explained this was actually one major reason for their own economic downturn.

6. Cellular service is still too expensive. Every month I get my own bill I ask myself why I need this phone I rarely use. The major reason now of course is there is no longer an option. When was the last time you saw a pay telephone? Cellular companies make pay-as-you-go phones pricey as well. Look at what some people pay to use these telephones and you will quickly ask yourself why people bother.

The cellular companies know exactly why they stopped selling as many phones as before.  The product has become a commodity available at supermarket and grocery check stands. You can’t get competent help when you need it, and contracts keep you a virtual prisoner to the shoddy service. WHy would anyone in tehir right mind want to upgrade.

It’s why my wife and I still use two-way radio when we are within ten miles of each other. Quaint huh?

I get this email. It says that I am a Network Solutions GOLD VIP Program member. I get special access to Tech Support and huge discounts on service.

Since PopularWireless.com has today been plagued with INTERNAL SERVER ERRORS, INTERMINABLE LOAD TIMES, and in general damned poor service, I decided what the heck I’ll try the special 800 number.

What I get is the PHILIPPINES. Network Solutions is based in the USA but I, a valued GOLD VIP PROGRAM MEMBER get support from a third party company in the Philippines. Nothing has changed. Service as usual. They could CARE LESS, as usual.

There is NO dedicated team to resolve the DAY LONG SITE ISSUES that any reputable company of Network Solution’s size would have detected on its own. There is no priority issue handling as claimed because everybody at Network Solutions is at HOME over the weekend. I did not notice ENHANCED on-line account tools either.

It doesn’t matter how loud you yell, or how strong the language is anymore. American companies just no longer give a damn about about service. The one I work for is of course excluded from that broad brush. Just don’t tell me you work for Network Solutions, because if you do I will HANG UP on your sorry self.

The Internal Server Errors experienced today, the LONG LOAD TIMES are all courtesy of NETWORK SOLUTIONS.

…and PNC Bank is also on my list of financial institutions that could care less about the average Joe.

Apparently when you travel to a foreign country INCLUDING CANADA VIA turns off your ATM card. My wife is currently traveling in Toronto and has NO ACCESS TO HER ACCOUNTS.

When I called my BANK, PNC Bank based in Maryland, and D.C. all they could do was tell me to call a VISA 800 number.

This has been going on for TWO DAYS and she has yet to be able to access an ATM there.

This was NEVER a problem beofre and now it apparently is a VERY BIG problem.

I am POISED to take all of my accounts out of my current bank PnC Bank for their INABILITY and UNWILLINGNESS to help my wife access her funds a few hundred miles outside of the USA.

When you travel to Canada be SURE to call VISA AND TAKE AMERICAN EXPRESS. I am calling American Express Gold Card people next!

I am SO TIRED of being treated like SCUM by so-called American businesses. Damn tired.

You idiots.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6135389.html?%5E$

In some years April Fools Day is better skipped. When your day is already ruined it really yanks your chain when you find a joke blue-screen-of-death program on your company-wide computer network courtesy of a brain-dead fool at a multi-billion software company. In this day and age it amounts to corporate sponsored terrorism.

MicroSoft and Sysinternals created a JOKE program that simulates the infamous blue screen of death. It was installed on a network I use until we figured out from a McAfee warning and a subsequent Google search what it really was. I solicited an employee confession so the offending program could be removed.  I don’t want to be a stick in the mud, but in this day and age this type of joke is really reaching to the bottom of a scummy pond of smelly amoebic slime.

Companies coping with this joke today ought to send MicroSoft the BILL and send McAfee a check.

Microsoft you’re getting my invoice you clueless dopes- not funny.

The license terms for the company’s Safari Web browser on Windows include a curious restriction: “The software allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time.”

(Smarmy marketing behavior 101: This ALL got started when Apple sent an install of Safari through the Itunes automatic update. Many of us didn’t really get it until it was done. I thought Safari was part of Itunes. Silly me. Safari is Apple’s browser! Itunes users everywhere were tricked into installing a new piece of software. Couldn’t Apple think of a better way to encourage others to use their browser using polite competitive marketing technique instead of trickery and deceit?

Interestingly the smarmy marketing people FORGOT to update the product eula that said Safari could be installed on Apple products only. Ooops they were caught! They changed the eula within hours of the world noticing the discrepancy. What was noticed was the trickery. Why does a big company marketing group behave in a smarmy way? Are there smarmy universities that teach smarmy? The world would be a much better place without smarmy.)
read more | digg story

We’re curious what you you think so we have added a poll feature to the blog. In the next column a few inches down you will find four questions that readers are curious about. By all means let us know what you think. You can expand on the points raised by using our forums. Take our polls please!

Call me cynical I guess. The touted tax rebate is a meaningless gesture and will do nothing for the majority of property owners in Maryland. That rebate will not even cover the increase in property taxes we have seen over the last two years. Thirty percent. It will have no “spending effect” for my family. We are taxed by Maryland governments, state and local to the max with no hope in site of relief. The FIRST tax rebate was swallowed up in the same way. The tax money is simply being reallocated to the states!

The politicians are all about spend, spend, spend. When they run out of money they just come get more at the tax payer’s expense. The problem is spending discipline. There is no discipline in Annapolis and there is obviously none in Washington.

The so-called tax rebate is a joke. As one person testifying before Congress put it, it’s like pouring a glass of water in the ocean hoping it will make a difference. The tiny income made from advertising on this website does not come close to even covering the new taxes we have endured in addition to soaring energy costs and gasoline costs.

The economy is a nightmare and the politicians and the American lending businesses  are largely responsible for the problem! This rebate is nothing more than an election year ploy. Count me as one conservative that is completely unimpressed. A tax rebate my foot. Phooey.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Consumer confidence fell to an all-time low as worries about jobs, energy bills and home foreclosures darkened people’s feelings about the country’s economic health and their own financial well-being.

According to the RBC Cash Index, confidence tumbled to a mark of 56.3 in early January.

Click “read more” and visit BreitBart.com for the rest of the story.

read more | digg story

(PopularWireless – Huntingtown, MD) We link to content at other sites. The Internet has always been a place to do that. Niche communities like this one have a way to direct readers to other web sites when the content at those other places is cool enough to link to. Our blog roll is built on the same premise.

Our own content is also posted on these pages. Using the blog format to create content is so much easier than developing a website using the formats we all grew fond of in the 90’s. More articles have appeared here than in the past because of the switch to blogging. PopularWireless began as GMRSWEB.COM in 1997. We may look new but we are ten years old. Blogging brought our community up to date. Maybe we should call it magazine-ing?

It did not take long to discover that the new blog format attracted what lurked beneath the pond-scum of the Internet – spammers and sploggers. We have had our content swiped and linked back to us by splog sites. Over one-hundred comment and track back spams have been attempted but blocked. Thankfully, comment spam and track back spam is easier to control because of Akismet. None of it has gotten through to perplex, insult, and annoy our readers.

The whole situation has made us think whether or not linking to content not our own is even a good idea anymore. Why not just let our readers find their own interesting stuff? The site would seem a much lonelier place and finding interesting content would be dependent upon reader participation in social networking sites and using the search engines. No independent thought would go into building a list of interesting stuff for our readers.

We are looking for an honest way to remain an informative site during a time when the sleaze drive what we do and how we do it more so than perhaps our readers do. What we have done with many of our shared posts from other sources is identify the post as being from another valued source and to encourage our readers to visit the site where the original content lives. Many of our referrals come from DIGG so we bold the “read more” link and italicize our own comments beneath the shared content used to tease the reader into clicking “read more.”

We’re open to other suggestions, because as a serious site we want visitors to keep coming back and we certainly do not want to offend.

PopularWireless is a community website. We’re not not just a blog. The blog is actually new. Our users tend to gravitate more toward the bulletin board community and if you take the time to visit the Personal Wireless BBS you’ll find out why.  We are a community of regular users interested in wireless hobbies, two-way radio, gadets, consumer issues, cellular telephones, you name it. If it has no wires we talk about it here.

The blog is the place to catch up on interesting stories from around the web or to read our own content. We invite YOU to be a part of our wireless community even iof your computer is connected by  wires

(Old News) The manufacturer’s take over of GMRS began with the creation of the twenty-two channel bubble pack. In 2003 TWICE chronicled the major shift by the big guns in the consumer radio toy industry to the bubble packs from real FRS radios.It’s old news but today’s GMRS licensees should never forget. This was written almost five years ago when the manufacturers made the business decision to forget about GMRS licensing  and full speed ahead with the confusing bubble-pack.

read more | digg story

This U.S. Coast Guard approved 2-Way Radio Life Vest features dual, 14-channel two-way radios that are integrated into the chest area of the life vest, with another unit located on a boat or on shore for instant communication purposes no matter the situation.

(Click read more below to read the article referred to.)

(PopWireless: This radio escaped the radar of this magazine since the advertisement makes no mention whatsoever of the radio service in which these devices operate. We suspect this an FRS radio being sold to the public as a save-your-life radio.

At the magazine we have a problem with this device. There is no emergency frequency in the Family Radio Service that we know of but we suspect this is indeed a Family Radio Service radio. The Family Radio Service is now cluttered with levels of radio interference so high in some urban, park, and recreational areas that controlling that interference in order to monitor and find a person gone over board would probably result in tragic circumstances. It is absolutely bizarre that any clear-thinking company or the Coast Guard would would suggest this radio is good for, “instant communication purposes no matter the situation.” A tragic suggestion.

The maritime enthusiast should always have a marine VHF radio on board to signal the Coast Guard in an emergency. We suspect that the Coast Guard’s radio-direction finding resources are focused in the marine VHF service. We do not know for sure how they would respond to a person missing wearing an FRS radio. The person gone over board would be far more likely to attract attention if they broadcast for help on Marine Channel 16 than if they broadcast on a Family Radio Service channel. This radio is all about marine rescue on the cheap. We feel differently about the value of your life.

Where we see this vest having some utility is for skier to boat communication. Any situation where you can see and wave to someone wearing this vest is a great place to use a radio to also hear them. “We’re coming around to pick you up, or Are you OK after that wipe out,” are likely scenarios. In each case you can get immediately back to the swimmer. What an FRS radio is not is a radio to make up for lack of planning or to use in lieu of common sense an acceptable practice or out of visual range!

Explore the use of this vest but be careful how you choose to use it. We would also love to know why the advertisers of this life-saving device failed to disclosed the frequencies on which the device operated. Odd indeed.)

read more | digg story

Gary Forsee steps down as CEO of Sprint Nextel

(Click read more below to read the original story.)

(Popwireless: How come? The behavior of of the cellular companies never ceases to amaze. The cellular market is SATURATED. Everyboby who has a cellular telephone has a cellular telephone. The vast numbers, huge growth, and big profits are PAST PERFORMANCE. Stock holders should have seen this down turn coming. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. Harassing and replacing CEO’s or pushing sales people to extremes will NOT force a market change. The cellular market should now focus on keeping the customers they already have and in wooing customers from competitors with that service. Sprint is one of those companies that has out sourced customer service off shore to GREAT DETRIMENT. The stock holders should be asking the Board of Directors WHY in no uncertain terms. A company that has PIONEERED cellular as they have has no business being in the business of yanking customer’s chains. This move just tells us that SPRINT has just not seen the light. SPRINT and national retailers acting as agents for SPRINT think that sales today should be the same as two and three years ago – same gains same profits. That rate of growth is simply over. The paradigms are shifting and no one is noticing.

One major shift that we see coming is a consumer shift away from the big store to the neighborhood cellular store. The smaller cellular vendors have the time, inclination, and the motivation to serve their cellular customer. From a truth-in-disclosure perspective I sell cellular telephones and I frankly believe SPRI NT is one-cool company. The company is feeling what every retailer in America that sells cellular is feeling – a loss of cellular business. I do however believe and have always believed that customer are often better served by the ombudsman-like qualities of the local vendor as opposed to the carrier’s vendor.

It has been extraordinarily hard for local vendors to survive when the big vendors build company stores a few miles away. We continue to be amazed though at the number of customers to return based entirely on the local guy’s ability to deliver service and results. The consumer has some serious choices to make when they elect to get a cellular upgrade. )

read more | digg story

ICOM did what Motorola, Cobra, and RadioShack did not do and that was continue to market a license-free Family Radio Service two-way radio for families. The others might all refer to the GMRS/FRS hybrids as FRS radios but we all know that is not true. The companies that sell twenty-two channel hybrids are all bargaining that the FCC declares GMRS license free by rule. ICOM, however, is living up to its name as a real and quality-radio company with a serious concern for the radio services as each currently exists under the FCC Rules. ICOM is selling a real Family Radio Service radio. No license required.

When the FCC OET unilaterally authorized the twenty-two channel bubble-pack radio with no objections from the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau the assault on the General Mobile Radio Service began. It was the first time in history that a licensed radio service was combined with an unlicensed radio service. What did the FCC expect the major national retailers to do? Wow what a gift! We believe the FCC expected and even anticipated what has actually happened. The assault on the General Mobile Radio Service was planned by American marketers on behalf of off-shore manufacturers and executed by the bureaucrats of the FCC in Washington D.C. It was all about economy building.

The moment the twenty-two channel bubble-pack radios hit the market GMRS was doomed and the FCC knew it and frankly didn’t care. They decided long ago GMRS should be licensed by rule whether or not the individuals licensed to use GMRS had a chance to publicly argue the merits of the move. Walk into a local retailer and ask them if a license is required to use any of the channels in the twenty-two channel bubble packs. We believe the majority will say no or tell the customer that no one will care. Ask the retailer if a school or business is allowed to use the twenty-two channel bubble pack and the answer will be sure no problem! Most retailers now have no clue that the ONLY license-free channels in most twenty-two channel bubble-pack radios are FRS channels eight through fourteen. There are actually SEVEN FEWER license-free channels in the GMRS/FRS hybrid bubble-packs!

Do not suggest that the market place made the decision, that the hand writing was on the wall. or that at the end of the day it’s what the people wanted. This was planned and executed before a GMRS advocacy group like the Personal Radio Association, Inc. could object on behalf of GMRS licensees. People always want something for nothing. Manufacturers and retailers gave away something that did not belong to them because no one was there to object. This was ultimately a for-profit spectrum grab, nothing more nothing less. A grab that the FCC thought was cool! This was one spectrum grab the government bureaucrats felt was socially acceptable so they engineered a way for it to come true for all radio retailers – eventually.

Had the truth been told to the customer at the point of sale, and had stores observed the licensing laws the big three could have continued to sell license-free radios and license-required GMRS radios. That idea was never explored. The nation might now be building new nation-wide GMRS radio repeater systems. Imagine if the public had access to radio systems other than subscription cellular service. Families could be using radio repeaters, base stations, mobile radios, and hand-held radios in national parks, state parks, amusement parks, tourist areas and even in America’s neighborhoods. The American public believes a cellular subscription is necessary to communicate effectively and exclusively with family members!

Keeping the license-free FRS radios would have meant that a TRUE license-free option was available for families desiring simple no-hassle personal radio communication. Instead we now have interminable interference problems in the GMRS related to the illegal use of the twenty-channel bubble packs radios by everyone and anyone. Families have no clue how to use their new GMRS hybrid radios or how to comply with licensing laws.

The retailers – AMERICAN BUSINESS EXECUTIVES made the choice to co opt GMRS. This was a move to do the wrong thing looking at future business quarters of climbing profits. The retail industry had its eyes on GMRS and they were taking it over. Their fingers were crossed behind their backs and the FCC was giving them the wink.

Interestingly enough the FCC OET and WTB did not approve requests for a dual band LICENSE-FREE radios using MURS and FRS! Draw your own conclusions. We DO NOTE that OET approved a marine VHF radio with FRS included but not before the Personal Radio Association objected through channels to rumors of a combined marine GMRS/FRS combo units. Mark our words. We believe that that the Marine/FRS combo radios are going to appear on the nations ski slopes. The FCC OET has opened Pandoras box and now the Marine Radio Service is in serious trouble. The public is going to ASSUME that the license free FRS channels mean using the marine channels on land is no big deal either! You guessed it. Using marine channels on land is not legal unless you have a special license to permit such operation.

Thousands of licensees in the General Mobile Radio Service who have millions of dollars invested in their family communication or personal-family-business systems do care. I believe that every licensee takes notice of ICOM being the only major radio manufacturer still selling a license-free Family Radio Service two-way radio. Every licensee that has ever given up trying to communicate with a family member because little Johnny and Sally were using the GMRS Mr. Microphone to sing silly songs cares a lot. We think ICOM rocks!

In a way it makes sense. I own quite a bit of ICOM’s stuff. Two R8500 receivers and an ICOM 756 PRO III at the high end and a hand-held ICOM GMRS radio at the low end. Their radios have always impressed me as has their customer service. It just doesn’t get any better than ICOM! A company with this kind of quality would as a matter of course do the right thing by the laws of the United State.

Thanks to Motorola, Cobra, Audiovox, and RadioShack American consumers no longer have lots of license-free FRS radio options. Now it’s a trust issue. You sell the 22-channel bubble pack radio and cross your heart that your customer will only use SEVEN of the 22 channels to stay legal. It is absurd. Only seven of the of the channels in most of these radios are actually license free and those channels are FRS 8-14. FRS 1-7 in a bubble pack are often now at GMRS power levels making the channel ineligible as a license free channel.

By the way, not one of the radios we are talking about is even made in the United States. The 22-channel bubble pack boom never benefited anyone BUT foreign manufacturers and the pocket books of US based marketing folks.

None of the major retailers ever bought into helping build GMRS the right way. The little guys under them like AudioVox and Garmin followed in lockstep pushing the 22-channel radios which have devastated the GMRS with horrendous interference levels in urban areas. The FCC is marching alongside. While license applications have gone up and continue to rise the numbers don’t equal radio sales. Humans follow the path of least resistance just like electrons. Most people will not (and have not) license a 22-channel bubble pack.

We think that individuals, businesses, or organizations considering the purchase of license-free radios should consider the ICOM FRS radio before any other. You can use it without a license. You will not be tempted to operate without a license and if you want to upgrade the licensed radio service will still be there waiting for you. Truth be told, the higher powered bubble packs do not provide the significant mileage claimed by the manufacturers. That is unsupported marketing hype. It always has been and always will be marketing hype. Dropping the license free radios and manufacturing only 22 channel bubble packs was also a marketing decision. One that focused on the future – asking the FCC to license GMRS by rule. A future that we believe will doom GMRS to the same fate as CB radio.

We might already be doomed but until then we think you should buy ICOM FRS if you need a license-free option. You can choose your own ICOM dealer or our preferred ICOM dealer, PopularWireless advertiser NSI Communications. We suggest that RadioShack redeem their own reputation after having helped create FRS by selling a REAL FRS radio and then properly train all of their employees. Retailers should STOP referring to the GMRS hybrids as FRS radios! These are NOT FRS radios they are GMRS radios that require a license for FIFTEEN out of the twenty-two available channels. Signs in stores should tell customers that an FCC license  is required and that there is a fee. Until then contact NSI Radio. NSI is the the dealer doing the right thing by the GMRS community and the FCC Rules.

The ICOM IC-4088 is still available:

With rapid charger $145
With overnight charger $124
Radio only, no charger $95

ICOM is a TOP manufacturer of two-way radio equipment and systems. This radio is not a GMRS chew toy. It is a quality product that will give you or your organization excellent service and utility. NSI Radio is ready to take your orders so you can stay license free!

Around 4AM this morning I heard a large passenger ship and a cargo ship talking about a much smaller vessel in the deep water shipping lane of the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Choptank River. This smaller boat was actually in some peril because both big boats were converging upon the smaller boat at about the same time. In order to avoid a collision, the big boats had to determine how to pass each other and then guess how the smaller boat would react. They needed to know the intentions of the smaller craft. This maritime radio-ballet is heard many times during the day at all hours. The dance is however a lot more successful if all parties on the dance floor are aware of each other or more accurately on the same radio channel so they can enjoy the dance together.

There was some real life drama to this event. Why isn’t the operator of the little boat listening? Why isn’t he responding? Is he intentionally causing a problem or is he just an inexperienced boater? Is something big about to happen and am I listening a fateful event about to unravel. Leaning into the radio I turned up the volume.

Both big boats hailed the operator (I hesitate to use the word captain) of the smaller boat for a good twenty minutes on VHF marine channels 16, 13, and 9. In the Bay, large vessels have to monitor channel 13 for navigation purposes. Finally the smaller boat answered up on channel 16. One big boat heard the smaller boat and the other big boat did not. The first big ship asked the small boat to move out of the way off to the west immediately and to stay out of the shipping lane as the big boats passed. The Master of the second big ship was more firm. He told the small boat operator to PAY ATTENTION to and to MONITOR the correct channels on his VHF marine radio if he was going to sailing in the real world and to better yet stay the heck out of the deep water shipping lanes with his tiny vessel! It was a classic butt chewing for an amateur seaman that made everyone else’s life more dangerous.

The little boat got out of the way and the big ships sailed on. Thank you captains!

Failing to keep a proper watch on VHF marine radio really is a big problem on our waterways here, and one problem the Coast Guard and local law enforcement should worry about more. It is, in my view, an obvious security vulnerability as well as a threat to basic safety and the continued safety of maritime commerce. The local mariners that do not understand navigation or how to use a VHF marine radio for navigation safety should be back in boaters school learning what they need to know before being allowed back on the water.

It is incredulous to hear on our water ways that the policing of bad habits is predominantly self policing. The Masters of larger ships, some from foreign countries, are educating local residents in smaller boats on the finer points of inland navigation and boating safety. Local law enforcement officials remain mysteriously absent. We see the Coast Guard aircraft patrolling the Bay on weekends. Occasionally we hear the Coast Guard boarding pleasure craft conducting inspections. You don’t often hear officials chasing down the errant sailor that put the lives of everyone aboard two large ships at risk by failing to keep a radio watch.

FCC Part 80 Rules do say that a VHF marine radio is not required on pleasure craft of a certain size but if the vessel is equipped and the radio is on the operator MUST maintain a watch. Perhaps the rules should read if you plan to play with the big dogs you best be ready to chat with them at a moment’s notice!

Do you live in a marine community? Are you listening to marine VHF radio to find out how safe your waters are? Are you a boater? Are you teaching everyone in your family how to maintain a radio watch? Do they know the purposes of the various marine channels? Are you the master of your vessel or just a local nuisance? Good questions.