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"I have yet to find a better overall resource (GMRS Web Magazine) for an area of communications that seems to be taking the nation by storm" Eric Force, Radio & the Internet, Popular Communications Magazine, April 2000 Edition.

PopularWireless Magazine

August 24, 2000, with updates in blue and red during May 2007

GMRS Pirates
from Across the Sea

"Just when you thought it was safe
to get back on the air."

by Doug Smith, KAF9830, and President, Personal Radio Assn., Inc

In early 2000, GMRS licensees in the San Francisco Bay Area began hearing mixed English and foreign language radio traffic on GMRS frequency 467.575. Since this is a repeater input, it was immediately assumed the radio traffic originated with unlicensed users, or pirates. Three such occurrences have been documented between January and August. One in the Oakland/San Francisco area, another in the Port of Sacramento, and the most recent at the Port of Benicia. Listening over a four day period to the Benicia pirate it was discovered the radio operators were all carrying hand-held radios aboard ship. Operators made reference to leaning over the starboard side of the boat and used other seafaring terms.

NorCal GMRS licensees, an ad-hoc group of GMRS repeater owners, user groups, and interested licensees were actively attempting to identify the source of the signals. One weekend the signal was determined to be from the area around the Port of Sacramento. Doppler DF was used to get within less than a mile of the signal until the operators stopped using their radios. At a subsequent appearance of the pirate, a beam heading taken from the Martinez, CA marina pointed directly at the docks of the Port of Benicia under the Carquinez Bridge. Given the content of the radio traffic, and the points where activity was present, NorCal assumed they were dealing with a returning vessel or multiple vessels that visit California water ways.

As luck would have it, the day that NorCal visited the Port of Benicia the radio activity on the GMRS repeater input had ceased. The boat had sailed. That wasn't the end of the story however.

As you might have guessed I was the one who made the last frustrating trip to the Port of Benicia. I was determined to find out why someone would select 467.575 as a ship-board radio frequency. It was a dumb choice since 462.575/467.575 has 4, maybe 5 very high level repeaters in the Bay Area. One on Mt. Diablo, one or two in Santa Clara, and another in the hills above San Mateo. A local radio shop would have to know a pirate like this would be noticed and challenged. I knew though, that conditions like this had not stopped unscrupulous radio companies from putting commercial business users on local repeater inputs before. NorCal has been instrumental in removing at least four prior repeater input pirates placed in service by prominent two-way radio engineering companies. This abuse of law and privilege is one the two-way radio industry's dirty little secrets.

There was something different or odd about this particular use of 467.575. Three times NorCal had heard activity near the water and twice had confirmed the activity was coming from different port locations in Central, California. It was time to do a little research. This pirate was probably a ship from Europe or the UK. The frequency 467.575 is a mandatory ship's radio channel for large boats registered in the UK. European vessels are also authorized to use it. The channel, 467.575 is one of two GMRS repeater inputs, in the USA, used for on-board ship radio traffic in other parts of the world. The other GMRS channel used by foreign shipping is 467.550.

Enter the Internet

Given my suspicions, I went to my favorite Internet search engines and looked for references to "467.575." The first site I found was a scanner enthusiast website titled "The Radio Spectrum UK Allocations. " This site listed 457.575 to 467.575 as frequencies for ship-board communication. After more searching I found the website of the European Radio Communications Office. The ERC had an official European frequency allocation document that provided detailed information about the US GMRS frequencies used as ship-board channels elsewhere in the world. This link is to the European Radiocommunications Committee ERC Report 25. You will need the Adobe Acrobat reader to view this document. (The Acrobat reader can be obtained at Adobe.com)

ERC Report 25 is formally titled, "Frequency Range 29.7 to 105 GHz and Associated European Table of Frequency Allocations and Utilisations, Brussels, June 1994, revised in Bonn, March 1995, and in Brugge, February 1998. This document makes the following reference to approved uses for 467.550 and 467.575 in Europe. I have also listed one other band of approved frequencies for reasons you will understand in a moment:

On board communications 457.525 - 457.575 MHz, (maritime).

On Board communications 467.525 - 467.575 MHz, (maritime.)

I later visited the website of Her Majesty's Maritime and Coast Guard Agency, the MCA. The UK Coast Guard had a form to fill out if a site visitor had questions about maritime regulations so I asked about use of 467.550 and 467.575 in American ports.

NTIA Information

In the meantime I located information about this allocation from an American source. The following is taken from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Office of Spectrum Management, International Table of Frequency Allocations Footnotes, Footnote Number 669-- "In the maritime mobile service, the frequencies 457.525 MHz, 457.550 MHz, 457.575 MHz, 467.525 MHz, 467.550 MHz and 467.575 MHz may be used by on-board communication stations. The use of these frequencies in territorial waters may be subject to the national regulations of the administration concerned. The characteristics of the equipment used shall conform to those specified in Appendix 20." Footnote 670 further describes the allocations, "In the territorial waters of Canada, 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 Appendix 20.

This means of course, that in the United States, foreign vessels are not permitted to use radio frequencies allocated for use by GMRS. They are allowed to use other radio channels according to Footnote 670.

A Word from the MCA

GMRS Web Magazine received a very detailed email message from Simon Cockburn, Head of Radio Safety for the MCA (UK Coast Guard) regarding the use of these radio frequencies. A copy of the letter is available as a Word document - right click here and save to your disk. Mr Cockburn said in his letter, "In the UK this frequency is used by our Department of Trade and Industry and on board ships on a primary basis." He went on to list the various international regulations associated with the use of GMRS channels in the US as maritime channels elsewhere:

• ITU Radio Regs Vol 1 Article S5.287 allocates 467.575 MHz as one of the channels for on-board communications within the Maritime Mobile Service.
• ITU Radio Regs Vol 1 Article S5.288 does not list 467.575 MHz as a preferred channel for use within US Territorial Waters.
• (UK Regs) Both MPT 1253 & 1254 state that portable equipment for on-board communications on seagoing ships shall be fitted with at least the channels 467.525 MHz, 467.550 MHz & 467.575 MHz.
• ETSI (European) specification ETS 300 720, which supersedes the UK MPT's, includes 467.575 MHz as one of six channels which must be fitted to UHF on-board communications systems and equipment.

In the opinion of Mr. Cockburn, "It would appear from Article S5.287 that the NTIA, on behalf of the US Government, can regulate the use of this frequency in US territorial waters. I assume the Office of Spectrum Management at the NTIA would be able to assist you further. "

Now Comes FRS Channel 8!

The ITU Radio Regulations citing the allocations were also provided by the MCA. There was an additional surprise contained in the rule. Family Radio Service channel 8, or 467.5625 is also allocated for on-board ship communication! "S5.287 In the maritime mobile service, the frequencies 457.525 MHz, 457.550 MHz, 457.575 MHz, 467.525 MHz, 467.550 MHz and 467.575 MHz may be used by on-board communication stations. Where needed, equipment designed for 12.5 kHz channel spacing using also the additional frequencies 457.5375 MHz, 457.5625 MHz, 467.5375 MHz and 467.5625 MHz may be introduced for on-board communications. The use of these frequencies in territorial waters may be subject to the national regulations of the administration concerned. The characteristics of the equipment used shall conform to those specified in Recommendation ITU-R M.1174 (see Resolution 341 (WRC-97)). (WRC-97) "

The ITU regulations do specify what on-board frequencies ships should be using in US territorial waters: "S5.288 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."

ITU Equipment Characteristics

There is a long list of ITU specifications for on-board stations using these frequencies. The most significant for purposes of this article are :

Output power shall not exceed two watts.

Frequencies may be used for single-frequency and two-frequency simplex operations.

The frequency deviation shall not exceed ± 5 kHz.

An antenna mounted on the ship shall not be more than 3.5 m above the level of the bridge.

If the use of a repeater station is required on board a ship, the following frequency pairs shall be used (see also RR No. S5.288 [No. 670]):

• 457.525 MHz and 467.525 MHz
• 457.550 MHz and 467.550 MHz
• 457.575 MHz and 467.575 MHz

You will notice the last two repeater pairs! If a ship enters US waters and continues to use their ship-board repeater, we could very well hear their activity broadcast from the highest point of the ship as it cruises through our ports. This explains why NorCal had heard the radio transmissions so clearly over such a wide area. The altitude of the ship's bridge is quite high compared to the land and the sea below. In relatively flat terrain where the signals were heard, the height of the antenna on the vessel could cause the signal to be heard over a significant area.

We don't know which maritime company visits the USA and continues to use 467.575, but we know more than we did when we started. It should be a lot easier to find the pirate and report them to the FCC the next time.

May 2007: Since 2000 I moved to a home within eight-hundred feet of the Chesapeake Bay on Maryland's Western Shore. Here I found that virtually every ship visiting US waters is still in direct violation of ITU regulations. Ship's Captains and Radio Officers are ignoring our regulations and even those written into ITU regulations. Not only do ITU regulations specifically state that a government (ours in this case) has the RIGHT to direct ships to use preferred channels as our own NTIA has done, but those same ITU regulations FORBID ships from interfering with our communications in our country whenever they are in our territorial waters. In addition to the prohibition against interference, there is also a station identification requirement which is never honored. I have heard ships on EVERY GMRS channel and not just the two 467 channels.

We did speak with the FCC on this matter. The FCC suggested that since a foreign flagged vessel may be difficult to contact, that GMRS licensees should notify their nearest FCC office. If a GMRS licensee has identified the vessel provide that information to the FCC. Our local Enforcement Bureau suggested it might handle the issue by a telephone call to the local harbor master. We think that is a good solution. GMRS licensees want the interference to repeaters to cease and helpful telephone contact between our government and the pirate should fix the problem.

Suspect a maritime intruder if you hear foreign language traffic on repeater inputs 467.550 or 467.575 and no identified GMRS traffic on the repeater outputs 462.550 and 462.575. If you hear signals wider than an FRS signal on 467.5625 consider that this might be a from a hand-held radio aboard a ship in a port near you!

I don't know whether these International pirates are a serious threat to GMRS. My feeling is we will get compliance if we can locate one or two of these users and have the FCC and Harbor Master contact them. My sincere thanks to Simon Cockburn, Head of Radio Safety for the MCA for providing information that was so helpful in putting the remaining pieces of this puzzle together. Also kudos to GMRS Web Technical Editor, Paul Shinn, for leading the chase in the Port of Sacramento a few months back. I would also like to thank the San Francisco office of the FCC for the wisdom and counsel on this matter.

2007: The foreign shipping pirate is a very serious intruder. We have heard from licensees across the US. Licensees have complained to the FCC Field offices for over twenty years and gotten very little assistance. The solution is in the law. ITU Regulations forbid ships from interfering with communications in countries they visit. Specific frequencies are authorized for visiting ships. This problem does not have to be. It cannot be likened to a dropped call on a cellular system, rain causing lapses to satellite reception, or an annoying natural or man-made noise source. GMRS already copes with ducting and interference from our own sources. Regulation should prevent added interference from foreign maritime sources.

2007: No thanks to the FCC, I was able to secure the assistance of the local LNG facility owned by Dominion. This company has gone out of its way to protect our interests and to protect the community. They take security seriously, unlike the FCC that has completely ignored any home-land security problem associated with ships failing to obey our laws. The PRA and I are proud to have an association with Dominion. We believe that licensees can work out similar agreements where ships dock whether or not the FCC finally chooses to do the right thing. We can't tell you if the FCC has done anything since as of late 2006 they no longer make letters available to us or the Amateur radio community. We are in the dark as far as the FCC is concerned. In closing I can only say that I continue to rely on the personal word of two people at the FCC whom I have grown to respect, Riley Hollingsworth and Kris Montieth. When they say it is so I assume it is. I can also continue to hope.

Last updated May 2007