If you're new to PopularWireless, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed. Also visit our forums to meet the many regular users of the PopularWireless community. Thanks for visiting!

(Annapolis, MD) A member of the Personal Radio Association today reported that from one or more of the three foreign ships anchored below the Annapolis Bay Bridge radio transmissions were heard on GMRS repeater inputs 467.575, 467.650, and 467.700 MHz. One ship seen arriving at about 1030 hours was using 467.575 to handle anchoring procedures.

Ships in US waters are NOT permitted to use these radio frequencies yet some ship’s masters and radio officers remain clueless of applicable international agreements. Ships operating on these channels frequently interfere with LICENSED GMRS users of the radio channels. PopularWireless.com coined the problem “Foreign Shipping Interference,” or FSI. The General Mobile Radio Service is used by American families to coordinate their family activities and personal business. In Europe and Asia GMRS is allocated to the maritime service.

The United States Government, through the Federal Communications Commission revised the list of AUTHORIZED frequencies for use by foreign vessels in 2005. These were negotiated by ITU countries in 2003.

” 5.288 In the territorial waters of the United States and the Philippines, the preferred frequencies for use by on-board communication stations shall be 457.525 MHz, 457.550 MHz, 457.575 MHz and 457.600 MHz paired, respectively, with 467.750 MHz, 467.775 MHz, 467.800 MHz and 467.825 MHz. The characteristics of the equipment used shall conform to those specified in Recommendation ITU-R M.1174-1.”

“Ships have been quiet lately as they sail past PRA HQ at Plum Point, Maryland, ” said Doug Smith, President of the PRA, Inc., Board of Trustees. “It appears the compliance to international treaty may only be within radio range of PRA HQ. The PRA has had similar reports from New York Harbor and the San Francisco Bay Area,” said Smith. A log of FSI complaints is maintained at the Personal Wireless BBS at PopularWireless.com.

The Republic of the Marshall Islands alerted their ship personnel in writing about Foreign Shipping Interference. The FCC is at work behind the scenes. This public document was found on the Internet. It is a WORD document. Link in the FSI links on this page.

————————————————————–

MARINE SAFETY ADVISORY NO. 34-06

The following was provided by the Enforcement Bureau of the U.S. Federal Communication Commission, District Director, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau has received complaints that foreign flag ships in United States ports are using radio transmitting equipment on frequencies between 462.550 MHz and 467.725 MHz. In the United States these frequencies are authorized for licensed land mobile radio users in the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). To avoid causing interference to radio users licensed in the U.S., ships should avoid using these frequencies in U.S. waters.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) addresses this issue in the ITU Rules and Regulations with the following note: “5.288: In the territorial waters of the United States and the Philippines, the preferred frequencies for use by on-board communication stations shall be 457.525 MHz, 457.550 MHz, 457.575 MHz and 457.600 MHz paired, respectively, with 467.750 MHz, 467.775 MHz, 467.800 MHz and 467.825 MHz. The characteristics of the equipment used shall conform to those specified in Recommendation ITU-R M.1174.”

Foreign ships in U.S. territorial waters should use the preferred frequencies listed above and avoid using the frequency range from 462.550 MHz to 467.725 MHz.

Perhaps this is why I never recall hearing an Australian registered vessel on US General Mobile Radio Service channels while the ship is in US waters. Even the FCC regulations are not this precise. Thank you Australia!

This paragraph is taken from Australian radio regulations: (Word file)

2.5 Operation outside Australia

(1) The licensee of a maritime ship station operating outside the territorial sea of Australia must operate the station in accordance with:

(a) the Radio Regulations; and

(b) if the station is in the territorial sea of another country — the radiocommunications requirements of the country.

(2) If a maritime ship station is to be operated outside Australia on a frequency specified in the Manual for use by the Maritime Mobile and Maritime Mobile-Satellite Services, published by the International Telecommunication Union and as in force from time to time, the licensee must only operate the station to communicate with one of the following stations:

(a) a coast station operated in another country;

(b) a coast earth station operated in another country;

(Huntingtown, MD) It is possible to identify an in-transit ship as the most likely source of FSI (Foreign Shipping Interference) in the GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service.) Using an AIS - Automatic Identification System receiver and a directional antenna the signal from ship’s AIS transponder will tell you the ship’s name, it’s ITU MMSI registration, call sign, country of registration and destination. Using the MMSI look up at the ITU you can determine what company owns the ship.

On the Chesapeake Bay near Plum Point, MD the PopularWireless AIS receiver has so far identified three ships using GMRS channels while in US waters. Vessels from Norway, Vanuatu, and Singapore are currently on the Foreign Shipping Interference Log. The Norwegian vessel was docked and easily identified with a directional Yagi antenna at some twelve miles distant. The ships from Vanuatu and Singapore passed PopularWireless on the Chesapeake Bay and each was followed with the directional antenna as they sailed by.

The requirements are pretty simple but there is an investment in equipment. The first AIS receiver was an ICOM IC-R8500 receiver. A wide variety of inexpensive scanner receivers can be used as long as the one selected can be modified to take audio directly from the radio discriminator. The receiver was changed that to an SR-161 AIS receiver purchased for $189 from Milltech Marine. The power requirements are very low. An older three-amp power supply was used successfully. The antenna is a VHF antenna with LMR400 cable at about 60 feet above sea level and of course the higher the better. Use good low-loss feed line. The SR-161 serial data from is connected to a computer with Ship Plotter software installed. The switch to serial data from an audio feed to the sound card restored another analog audio input on the computer used for recording ship transmissions on the unauthorized channels also via the ICOM R-8500. The ShipPlotter software is about $30. The payment is processed in Europe so the price is up and down a bit based on the current exchange rate.

Using the ShipPlotter software you can super impose the ship on marine navigation charts or photographs from Google Earth. It is possible to zoom in on a chart to determine where a ship is berthed or moored. A bearing from the chart to your location can be compared to the bearing determined from the directional antenna. ShipPlotter has an active Yahoo Group where the program author and active users provide some support for users of the software. It is even possible for a group of licensees to create their own server and share local data using this product.

Now if you don’t have the cash to purchase an AIS receiver you can purchase the AIS software at Shipplotter.com and watch the feeds from various ports around the United States. There are many ShipPlotter users sending regular data on many US ports that a GMRS licensee could use to help identify Foreign Shipping Interference from a ship illegally using GMRS channels in US waters. Ports in Delaware, Virginia, Texas, California, Washington, and even the Great Lakes are covered. Licensees will also find that many other websites that display AIS ship data on line. Another good one is ShipPlotting.com.

Once the name and owner of the ship is known the GMRS licensee can attempt to contact the ship owner directly by email or mail. My first attempt to contact a ship owner in Singapore was unsuccessful. This did not surprise me given the lack of cooperation from ship’s Captains I have encountered on both coasts. Should the licensee be unsuccessful, a Personal Radio Association GMRS Interference form can be completed (available at PRAWEB.ORG) and sent to the FCC GMRS address in Gettysburg (See Part 95) directly or through the PRA along with the AIS data and the directional methods used to verify the source of the radio signals was the ship in question.

Licensees curious what ships are in or around the area of Southern Maryland can check the AIS Map of the Chesapeake Bay generated at PopularWireless HQ through the courtesy of Shipplotter AIS software and unique scripts written by Shipplotting.com.

At PopularWireless two ICOM-R8500’s and one RadioShack PRO-2006 monitor GMRS, FRS, and international shipping frequencies to assist in the identification of FSI. On any complaint audio files can be recorded and sent to the offending company as evidence. All three scanners are controlled by Spectrum Manager, a ScanStar product. Spectrum Manager is an outstanding product and is very useful for this purpose. A PC audio card conversion to the M-Audio Delta 1010LT purchased from SweetWater will allow recording up to eight computer controlled radio receivers.

(Huntingtown, MD) - Despite continued attention to the problem by the PRA, and even an inter-agency memo from the FCC to the Coast Guard in October 2006 as a result of the PRA pushing back on the FCC, GMRS piracy remains a serious problem on the Chesapeake Bay.

In the first week of May 2007 foreign ships were heard operating on 467.600, 467.675, 467.550, and 467.575. Add this activity up with the crane operator in Dorchester County, MD illegally using 467.725 for crane/tower operations and you have one hell of a mess. Local repeater owner Larry Norris, KAE4617 regularly has vessel audio sneaking through squelch tails on his 462.575 system in Leonardtown, MD.

Only a very small part of the problem remains under control. One local industrial port managed by Dominion Inc. routinely works with local licensees to mitigate interference from ships docked at their facility. Dominion takes facility security and community security very seriously. Local licensees appreciate Dominion’s continued responsiveness. In today’s world getting and keeping the attention of a big company on a local problem is not always easy. Dominion remains a great neighbor.

FCC Special Counsel Riley Hollingsworth, at the direction of Kris Montieth FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief wrote the Coast Guard an inter-agency memo asking Coast Guard’s help in this matter. To date on the Chesapeake Bay between Plum Point and the Port of Baltimore the Coast Guard memo has had no apparent effect. A local source close to this problem said that as of January 2007 the local Coast Guard officer that routinely boards visiting vessels was completely unaware of any FCC communication regarding this issue. That was pointed out to the FCC.

PopularWireless does know that ITU Regulations clearly state that governments have the RIGHT to specify which radio frequencies are used by foreign ships visiting their ports. In the United States our NTIA specifies those frequencies as 457.525 and 457.575 MHz. Those same ITU regulations clearly state that foreign ships may NOT interfere with communications when visiting foreign ports and must identify their transmitters. Not one ship this weekend has identified with a call sign and none of them is doing their part to avoid interference to GMRS repeater operations in Southern Maryland. We do have to be fair to some boat captains. PRA monitoring of the above 457 MHz treaty frequencies does indicate some ships are using the allowed channels. Some ships however use those as well as channels in the GMRS.

Nationwide this has been a problem for twenty plus years. It was first written about at this magazine in the year 2000. (See the previous link for information updated in 2007.) The Personal Radio Association, Inc. still wants to hear from every victim of foreign shipping interference - FSI. In late 2006 a repeater owner in the New Orleans, LA area filed a PRA complaint against a prominent cruise line that used 467.575 in port causing severe interference to his repeater. While we have not seen a copy of the letter, Riley Hollingsworth told the PRA Enforcement Team that a letter was sent to the cruise line. Hollingsworth also said in emails to the PRA that letters were going out to various ports, Pilot associations, and addresses of foreign shipping associations that had already responded to the PRA in 2005.

Obtaining the cooperation of shipping companies, boat captains, and boat radio officers has not been easy. Routinely, attempts to communicate with vessels on the air are ignored. Sometimes the ships change frequencies but often they just change to another GMRS input. In Maryland the company that has had the greatest influence is again Dominion.

It remains a busy weekend on GMRS repeater inputs in Southern Maryland and the activity is not that of GMRS licensees. Along the Chesapeake, pirates rule the waves. Why this piracy problem is a homeland security issue with a private energy company and not with our national government remains a mystery.