50 BASIC POWERBOATING. SAFETY & RESCUE FOR SAILING INSTRUCTORS Typical Transceiver Controls


Your VHF marine radio, whether an installed unit or a hand-held portable, is a combination transmitter and receiver; hence, it is technically called a transceiver. Most VHF transceivers have the following controls: E Volume Control: It functions very much like the volume control on a standard radio, except that its use must be coordinated with the squelch control. On some radios, it is possible to set the volume so high that an incoming signal cannot break squelch. This is usually the on/off switch as well. The volume control affects the receive volume only.


E Squelch: This control allows you to select the strength of the incoming signal that your receiver will receive. It is adjusted to eliminate unnecessary background noise and activate the receiver, only when a sufficiently strong signal is received. When transmitting to another station, it is important to hold your microphone button down for about one second to activate or “break” their squelch.


E USA/INT: This switch selects between the USA special frequencies and international frequencies. In the USA position, you still receive most of the international channels, except those that are switched to simplex operations and those designated international only.


E High Power/Low Power: This switch is provided to allow the user to select a high or low power transmitter setting. On some radios even when in the low power setting, the transmitter is automatically set to high when switched to Channel 16. Operations on Channel 13, Bridge-to-Bridge, should normally be set to low. In fact, most operations should be attempted on low power and then only turned to high if required. Switching to low power will provide much clearer communications. Low power output is set at 1 watt while high power output is restricted to 25 watts maximum. Hand-held VHF transceivers normally operate in the 4 to 6 watt range in high power.


E Channel Selector: VHF transceivers come with a variety of channel selectors. They may be manual or electronic with a digital display. Not all VHF radios come equipped to monitor a complete range of channels. Most have a switch that allows the operator to switch immediately to Channel 16. Newer VHF transceivers also allow immediate switching to Channel 9. Others have a dual watch capability that allows them to monitor Channel 16 and another channel essentially simultane- ously. The channel selector also allows the user to switch and receive the NOAA weather channels.


When using Marine VHF, the following guidelines and rules should be followed: E Must identify self, using station call sign at the beginning and end of a series of transmissions, or every 15 minutes during the transmission.


E All transmissions must be kept to the minimum length. E Log all distress calls with pertinent information. E Do not use profanity. E Transmissions on the calling channels are limited to determining a working frequency, and any one transmission must not take more than 30 seconds, with no more than two minutes for a single series. If no reply is received, wait two minutes before trying again. After three attempts, wait 15 minutes.


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