Marine Radios Review

It really is baffling to me how, in this day and age, when everyone apparently has the same goal of marine safety in mind, can some areas of the world require the use of a VHF Marine Radio and in other parts of the world they are strongly discouraged or forbidden from use.  Fact is, it’s a law to carry one on all larger vessels in most parts of the world.  Regulators consider the VHF Radio to be of such importance that the helmsman of every commercial vessel and every vessel greater than 20m LOA is required to stand watch on Channel 13 when entering locks.  This allows Channel 16 (tuned in on another radio on board) to be exclusively used for monitoring any emergency broadcasts from the Coast Guard.  Channel 13 then is used for communicating with other vessels in the area when taking turns entering the locks.  The only place that I can think of where another channel is utilized for this purpose is in the lower Mississippi River where they monitor channel 67 instead of channel 13.