It’s easy to forget how primitive recreational boating was when Soundings was founded 60 years ago. Today, marine VHF radios are everywhere, but until the 1960s, when it came to marine communication, recreational boaters had very few options. For thousands of years sailors relied on speaking trumpets to amplify their voices. In 480 BC, the Athenian Thermistocles used one to direct his 37 oar-driven boats to defeat 1200 Persian ships, but that trumpet only worked in close proximity to other vessels. By the early 18th century, flags were being used to communicate ship-to-ship, and in 1836 morse code allowed the use of blinker lamps to communicate line-of-sight messages. But over the horizon, or when visibility was poor, the only means of communication was to fire a cannon. It was Guglielmo Marconi who changed that when he developed wireless communication around the turn of the 20th century. Using the dots and dashes of morse code he laid down the groundwork for radio telegraphy, but it took until the 1920s for vacuum tube radiotelephony to finally deliver voice communication. During prohibition, the U.S. Coast Guard helped accelerate the development of voice radio when it worked with the nascent electronics industry to develop one of the first “radiotelephones,” the T-1 radio. Those T-1s worked but because the signals were amplitude modulated (AM) they were subject to interference by atmospheric and man-made noise. VHF Marine radios have their roots in World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic when American and British convoy escorts used Talk-Between-Ships (TBS), which operated in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) and Very High Frequency (VHF) bands for line-of-sight communication over distances of less than 25 miles. The short range of the signal lowered the chance of detection by German U-Boats, and the VHF and UHF bands provided a clearer signal. After the war, some recreational boaters used surplus military radio equipment, but the low frequency AM signals would sometimes skip off the ionosphere and land hundreds of miles away instead of with a boater just a few miles away. Marine communication for recreational boaters finally changed dramatically in the 1960s when transistors allowed smaller, less expensive and more reliable electronic devices to be built. 

Early 1960s

The Commercial Telecommunications Satellite Act is passed. It allows satellites to be sent into space to aid in telecommunications worldwide. It will take decades before the technology trickles down to recreational boaters.

Cruisers begin to use Single Sideband (SSB) for long distance communication. More energy efficient and clearer than using AM radios, it allows sailors in the middle of the ocean to talk to someone thousands of miles away. Sailors share crucial information regarding weather and sailing conditions, although some violate the rules by also sharing their favorite recipes. 

1962

The FCC encourages all pleasure craft and commercial vessels to use the newer 18-channel Very High Frequency/Frequent Modulation (VHF/ FM) marine band for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication, in part to alleviate congestion on 2182kHz (the safety and calling station). New VHF radios use transistors instead of vacuum tubes, making them smaller and more affordable.

1973

Using a handset that weighs 2.5 lbs.that he helped invent, Motorola’s Martin “Marty” Cooper calls his competitor at AT&T using the world’s first handheld mobile phone. In 1979, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone will launch the world’s first cellular network in Japan. In 1983, AT&T installs the first cellular network in the U.S. in Illinois. Almost a half century later, boat owners will be able to use cell phones at sea and allow them to use cellular networks from land to check on their boats on the water.

 Regency Electronics, Inc. introduces a portable, hand-held, battery-operated marine radio called the Aqua-Com. An advertisement says the solid-state radiotelephone is “weatherized against air and water and the printed circuit boards are sealed with a special silicon compound to prevent corrosion.” Powered by a ni-cad battery it delivers 2.2 watts of power, but only has 5 channels, not 55. 

Mid 1970s

Citizen Band (CB), which uses AM frequencies and only has a range of about 5 miles, explodes in popularity. The technology is most popular on land but boaters als0 use it (that’s Burt Reynolds on a CB in 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit).CB is inferior to VHF, but the lower price makes it an attractive alternative to boaters. Electronics manufacturers make Marine CBs with a weather band (WX). The Coast Guard doesn’t want to have to monitor CB radio, but relents for safety reasons. In the late 1980s it discontinues the practice. 

1977

Amplitude Modulation (AM) marine radio usage ceases by law. All high seas communications must be done via VHF/FM and SSB. 

1979

Inmarsat ship-to-shore satellite communication comes online. It allows for simple long-distance ship-to-shore communication, although it is cost-prohibitive for recreational sailors. 

1992

Digital selective calling (DSC), a part of the Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS), provides the functionality of voice-only equipment while using a unique identifier known as a Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI). It includes a button for automatically sending a digital distress signal and has built-in GPS receiver capability so the user’s location may be transmitted automatically along with a distress call. DSC will eventually find its way into VHF radios. 

1996

Jim Corenman and Stan Honey develop SailMail, an email communications system. Eventually it will use every internet-capable communications device available on the ocean, including Iridium, Inmarsat, VSAT, Globalstar, Thuraya, terrestrial WiFi, terrestrial cellular networks, or SailMail’s own network of SSB-Pactor radio to allow users to have connectivity almost anywhere on the planet. Two years later they found the SailMail Association, a non-profit organization to maintain Sailmail. 

1998

Iridium launches a satellite phone network, allowing people all over the world to make phone calls from anywhere. It works at sea, but for early adapters the cost is an issue, and so is establishing a connection. Offshore sailors often wait with bated breath as the modem tries to make a data connection. Speed is also an issue as it downloads GRIB files and emails at sub-dialup speeds. 

1999

The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) is fully implemented, coming almost exactly 100 years after the first use of Marconi’s wireless technology to aid a ship in distress. It spells the end for the use of morse code, and also for most ship’s radio officers, a job that was created to handle Marconi’s invention. No longer required by law, the 24/7 radio officer position falls victim to the numerous advancements in technology. 

2007

Steve Jobs introduces Apple’s first iPhone. The device and other smartphones like it will eventually revolutionize at-sea communication via satellite, a multitude of apps, WiFi and cellular networks. 

2013

SES of Luxembourg becomes the first satellite operator to trust SpaceX with the launch of a multimillion-dollar geostationary communications satellite aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. It’s the onset of a race that will soon send thousands of small communications satellites into low orbit and make worldwide communication from sea a more affordable option for recreational boaters. 

2020

Starlink, a satellite-based communication service from Elon Musk’s SpaceX comes online for beta users. A year later the service is opened to the public in the U.S. and Canada. A special marine version is marketed, but many cruisers turn to the less expensive land-based version. Starlink puts thousands of satellites in space with the goal of eventually using 40,000 satellites to cover the entire planet for non-stop communication. 

Today

Over the past 60 years VHFs have become standard equipment on boats while newer digital technologies and the internet continue to change marine communication. New devices now allow boaters to switch seamlessly between satellites, super-fast cellular systems and marina WiFi signals to make calls and connect to their boats. Satellite bandwidth may still lag behind terrestrial signals, but 5G is coming to space as thousands of low-orbit satellitesand a smaller number of medium orbit satellites are sent into space by OneWeb, GalaxySpace, Starlink, Iridium, Inmarsat and others, all in an effort to improve bandwidth and outdo the competition. Streaming a Netflix movie at sea is becoming a reality and using WhatsApp and Starlink you can now reassure your mom from the middle of the ocean that your boat is still afloat. Sixty years ago, when Soundings was founded, that would all have been unthinkable. 

This article was originally published in the May 2024 issue.