Satellite phone vs SSB radio?

[thefishingfreak]

I just called Commercial Fishing vessel safety officer Mr. Plowman from the USCG Northern New England CFVS, commercial fishing vessel safety office.

A Couple things that apply to my individual situation, As a state registered (not documented) Commercial fishing vessel.
As of this moment, As a state registered commercial fishing vessel, I'm not even required to have a radio, at all.
Now as a charter boat I am, but VHF will do for that.

( For Documented Commercial Fishing Vessels) Sat Phones are acceptable 100+ miles. as are 2-27.5 MHZ SSB radios


My other question was about having a 4 man Inflatable buoyant apparatus for 100+ miles (which is legal for me) and then getting caught on the bank with 8 people on board. Not an Issue as far as the regs go because charter boats are not required to have a raft. At all, anywhere.

There is a change to the regs coming soon that will remove the differentiation between state registered and documented Commercial fishing vessels, but He's not sure when it will go into action.