VHF radio listening from home?

[Pirate Lady]

View attachment 95875
My handheld picks up the local traffic from home. We are just a quarter of a mile from Lake Michigan. We used to live on Spring Lake so just a 100 feet from boat traffic. Other than the weather channel there is not much worth listening to. Occasionally there is Coast Guard traffic that its interesting but not often. VHF has gotten to be a little like the CB channels as time goes by. Traffic used to be professional, but now, not so much.

OMG sbw, so true, back in the 90's you couldnt get on a clear channel to hail a buddy. i got out of boating for about 10 years while focusing on kids, got back in this year and cant believe how dead the vhf is. nobody on even on weekends. wondered why i bothered getting one, its all cell phones now. one saturday morn in july i left my cell phone in car, no clock on boat, so i got on ch 9 or 15 and asked for a time check, it was about 5 minutes before anyone got back to me. boating just aint the same any more.

 

[Pirate Lady]

16, not 15.

 

[Soulshine]

I thought about this just for the weather broadcast.

Not only is it dead nuts accurate but it would be a great thing to hear over the winter. That “guy” is a big part of summer.

 

[joeyleggz]

View attachment 95875
My handheld picks up the local traffic from home. We are just a quarter of a mile from Lake Michigan. We used to live on Spring Lake so just a 100 feet from boat traffic. Other than the weather channel there is not much worth listening to. Occasionally there is Coast Guard traffic that its interesting but not often. VHF has gotten to be a little like the CB channels as time goes by. Traffic used to be professional, but now, not so much.

Around these parts South Shore Long Island it’s practically like a talk show, I enjoy talking and listening to the people on channel 68 while I am trolling between hook ups. It would be awesome to wake up in the morning to be able to tune in and hear what’s going on out there

 

[BEH]

Around these parts South Shore Long Island it’s practically like a talk show, I enjoy talking and listening to the people on channel 68 while I am trolling between hook ups. It would be awesome to wake up in the morning to be able to tune in and hear what’s going on out there

Get yourself a handheld VHF.

 

[joeyleggz]

Get yourself a handheld VHF.

Don’t think handheld has enough Receiving power and I would need to have an antenna on my roof to reach out 10+ miles inland. when I did buy my handheld I did mess around with it at home when I first purchased and actually was able to pick up a few conversations here and there

 

[BEH]

Don’t think handheld has enough Receiving power and I would need to have an antenna on my roof to reach out 10+ miles inland. when I did buy my handheld I did mess around with it at home when I first purchased and actually was able to pick up a few conversations here and there

I didn’t realize you were so far inland.
When I used mine in Ft Lauderdale we were renting a condo right on the ICW.

 

[Creekwood]

In case anyone wants a VHF usage reference document, I have enclosed the Study Guide for the Restricted Operator's Certificate that was issued in Canada a while ago when you could self-study and write a test to get a VHF certificate. The process has changed and virtually no one gets a certificate any more, but the guide is pretty good and 99% of it is universal rules for VHF radio operation.

 

[dtfeld]

In the US you just apply and pay the fee