Hello Marin,
My only point was that your comment
"We've never done a radio check with the USCG. We figure that if we can hear on the radios they will transmit"
Could, in my opinion, be a dangerous assumption.
You're correct, or course. But with the exception of the problem noted with the radio on our fishing boat, and a flat-out "doesn't work period" problem with an earlier Icom on our PNW boat, we've never had a radio malfunction that I can remember.
We use the radio very infrequently. My guess is less than 10-15 times in a typical year. Transmitting, not listening. We occasionally have something to say to the couple we cruise with when we can get together to do that, but that is usually jut one or two calls at most per trip, usually "where are we and when will we get there" as they are considerably faster than we are.
The only other times we use the radio is to call harbors for slip assignments if we're visiting a harbor on a trip. If it's real foggy and we have to cross a shipping channel, we'll talk to the VTS folks.
That's pretty much it, but it's spread out enough throughout the year that we have a pretty good idea if our radios are transmitting or not. And we'll check them when we remember to with our handheld. We only transmit on 25 watts (other than the handheld).
We generally cruise with the radios turned way down unless we're with the aforementioned couple, we're going to use it to call a harbor, or we're working with VTS. We used to use a radio to get the weather but now with our cellular iPads and iPhones we don't need the radios for that anymore, at least in the San Juans and lower BC. We do have to use the radio for weather when we're farther north.
As you can see, we are quite "radio independent."
And actually, with the exception of the two-month long summer cruising season up here, radio chatter is very minimal in this area. During the winter we've gone the better part of a day (with the radios turned up) and maybe heard only one or two calls at most on 16.