VHF Working Channels: When to Leave Channel 16

What traffic belongs on Channel 16?

Channel 16 carries distress, urgency, very brief safety communications and calling used to establish other communications. It must remain available, so a routine conversation should not continue there after contact has been made.

Listen before transmitting, identify the station being called and your own vessel, keep the initial call brief, and use low power when appropriate for routine nearby traffic.

How is a working channel chosen?

Use the channel allocated to the service and situation. A coast station may direct the vessel to a working channel. Inter-ship routine traffic in UK waters uses suitable authorised inter-ship channels, while port operations and ship-movement channels are restricted to relevant operational and safety messages.

Harbours and marinas publish their own working channels. Check current harbour information rather than assuming that a channel used elsewhere is available or monitored locally.

What changes when DSC is used?

For an individual DSC routine call, select the other station's MMSI and an appropriate working channel where the procedure permits. After acknowledgement, the voice conversation takes place on the working channel, not on Channel 70.

Channel 70 is reserved for DSC digital signalling. A voice transmission on Channel 70 is incorrect and will not create an ordinary radiotelephony conversation.

When should the vessel return to Channel 16?

End the routine conversation on the working channel using the appropriate final proword, then restore the listening watch required for the vessel and circumstances. On many small craft, that means returning to Channel 16 when practicable.

Dual-watch or scan functions do not remove the need to understand which channel is selected for transmission. Before pressing PTT, confirm the display, power setting and purpose of the call.