I am cruising along the Oz east coast, at night, & I pick up a big tanker on my AIS heading my way!!
I sus him out & give him a call on Ch 16 VHS to see if he has me on his radar.
He responds to my call on 16.
What channel do I tell him to switch to so we can continue without hogging the emergency channel??
Is there a preference?
Hasn't happened yet but I'd like to be prepared 
Cheers,
Larry
In your case for clarification for safety I would probably go to 13 so as not be interrupted by working ship to ship. Eg. Trawlers.
"
Channel 13 is designated for use on a worldwide basis as a navigation safety communication channel, primarily for intership navigation safety communications. It may also be used for the ship movement and port operations service subject to the national regulations of the administrations concerned."
I know that the instigator of the call designates the channel to move to, but you can ask the callee.
i. e. "Which channel should we move to?"
It is not an uncommon thing to do.
Gary
72 seems to be the preference up here. Not that I've ever needed to use the radio.
Select to expand quotesamsturdy said..
Once both parties have gone to the designated channel, who speaks first ??.
The caller obviously as the callee has no idea why or for what he/she was called about. Unless of course the callee says to the caller first "Wadda ya want".
72 is a reasonable choice as designated for commercial ,fishing & recreational .
Cheers
Bristol
Thanks for the response - very informative as always
I would probably be on Dual Watch on the VHF using 16 & 72 anyway listening to any chatter.
I do like the idea of using 13 in my scenario above which would probably be very quiet.
I'd use 72, 73 or 77 if I just wanted to have a natter!!
I've been down past Gladstone in the dark & watched one of these monsters weigh anchor & head into port - they don't muck about. I didn't have a functioning VHS that time tho!!
It is my understanding that all vessels over a certain length 35? ( I know it's 20 in the US ) must have 13 on standby for bridge to bridge navigation safety
I would hail on 13 direct as no need to go to another if no answer go to 16 and hail
amsa
"Channel 13 is designated for use on a worldwide basis as a navigation safety communication channel, primarily for intership navigation safety communications. It may also be used for the ship movement and port operations service subject to the national regulations of the administrations concerned."
If you Google VTS vhf you can find all the Vessel Transit Services for the bigger ports, they nearly always use ch10-13, (not that you really can miss them if you're in the area! )
Examples:
VTS Brisbane port is ch12.
VTS Gladstone port is ch13.
VTS Sydney Harbour is ch15.
It's going to vary a bit from area to area. I scan 14 and 72 for the local fishing vessels, amateurs have started using 14 too but there is often interesting useful information to be found re weather and currents. I would switch to 14 to chat.
69 is the navy, they talk in plain language these days and it's helpful to hear what they are up too when your near operational areas. Apart from that if I was travelling the coast I would check out Rob's planner and see what channels are used by different groups and continuously scan the appropriate ones.
bluepeteraustralia.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/passageplanner2011.pdf
If it looks like a foreign registration sometime I ask them what channel they want to use.
Select to expand quote
There are updates to Rob's book at Skipr.net that now take it up to Lizard Island.
