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R E K

"With Iridium GO texting, Starlink, increased mobile phone coverage, most people SMS, message, or call. Frankly, this is crazy. The VHF is our lifeline to each other and fastest and best way to contact boats nearby. How can someone come to your aid, or you help a fellow cruiser, if no one is listening on 16?"

Bruce fears this will only get worse as more and more boats choose to have 24/7 internet access and use texting and calling to communicate with each other...

3 comments
R E K

He asks, “Please turn your radio on - it ties our community together. Don’t let the other technologies destroy that.”

Sourced from Noonsite.com newsletter

418 I'm a Teapot

@rek funny that, today i get to hook up the masthead antenna, but even before i had the vhf hooked up to the ais antenna on the pushpit to keep a radio watch. not many of us do that here, sadly...

CadeJohnson

@rek Even back in 2002, I was traveling up the Colombia coast from Panama to Venezuela (not a route I'd recommend) and there was no VHF traffic even in the busy port of Barranquilla - ship agents and port staff were all talking to each other on cell phones! We always kept a "working channel" for harbor chat and it was vital!

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