Bilgediver
Well-known member
John Boy sailed off into the blue many moons ago so any comments here are irrelevant and possibly he is now is fully qualified.
Once you get outside of Uk waters no one gives a toss whether you have an authorisation chitty or not because no one cares.
THE OLD ONES ARE THE BEST!!A 14 year old thread.
About half of all around the world sailors have either a SSB or ham radio which has been "fixed" which mean they can operate on both marine and ham bands and only a ham license, and has never run into trouble anywhere.
Bit more than that, you won't get away with not having a genuine ham call sign for more than a few moments talking over the airwaves, especially calling marine mobile. Pretty much all the hams are on the web and the call sign goes straight into a database, if it looks dodgy no one will speak to you. For a non US callsign winlink will only become an issue if you want to use US stations, they don't control the world.That might be the reality in many places. However one good resource is the Winlink system and they have had a wee bit of trouble from the boys in Washington over third party traffic so tightening up control of who gets through and who doesn't. There are now certain restrictions in place so having the right authentic call sign might be a big help!