MMSI Distress Call

[Meriachee]

We use DSC all the time. There's nothing worse than the guy who walks the docks to see who is out, then goes out and hails each and every vessel to see what they are doing. I like the ability to call, or be called, and have a conversation without ever touching 16.

 

[Gunni]

There is a more than an insignificant number of emergency calls that are initiated by people with NO understanding of DSC or experience with radio protocols. Triggering Maydays was the intention of DSC, not making private phone calls. What this episode on the Chesapeake illustrates is that having someone push a red button is no substitute for getting a human being on the radio and getting the skinny on what is going on and where.

 

[weinie]

The problem with DSC is that you need your radio on to use it... which means you have to listen to 16 chatter all day long. The only radio on on my boat is the XM radio. VHF on only during a race or to call for the launch.

 

[Rick D]

Wow, you guys in the NE seem to have a big problem with junk traffic on VHF 16 and others...

 

[Kings Gambit]

Here's my experience. On mine (1999), and likely other older DSC-VHF radios, pressing the DISTRESS button will sound off the alarm whether or not an MMSI number has been input. More often than not I hear Sector Los Angeles (USCG) broadcast having received a DISTRESS alarm containing no information on the boat's location, its name/identifying information, or the nature of the emergency. If an MMSI number has been input, the VHF sounding off will broadcast its number to your VHF radio and to the USCG. The USCG having the MMSI number can find the name of the vessel and its hailing port from one's registration information. That is, if the skipper has input the requested information on his MMSI form including whom to contact in case of emergency, the USCG might discover the identity of the vessel sounding off and its float plan from the skipper's emergency contact person and focus its efforts in that area. For example, the USCG might announce in a PanPan having received a distress alarm from the vessel King's Gambit, a 38-ft sloop w/ white hull, teak decks, and blue canvass trim, last thought to be operating along the south coast of Santa Cruz Island. "All vessels are requested to keep a sharp look out." If an operating GPS has been coupled to the VHF, then the DISTRESS alarm will transmit the position of the vessel sounding off. The USCG might then give the position of the vessel in a PanPan along with the descriptions exampled above. Moreover, these radios are called DSC radios, which stands for Digital Selective Calling. So, it's hard to accept the claim that selective calling was not part of the impetus to develop the technology.

Moreover, it astonishes me the reluctance of skippers to install and use DSC radios, even after it's been explained how to get an MMSI number and program it into the VHF. Is it laziness or intimidation by the technology? These things are fantastic devices for use at sea. Put away those ##$!!@% cell phones, and get back into using marine communication devices for routine ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore communication!!

 

[Davidasailor26]

The problem with DSC is that you need your radio on to use it... which means you have to listen to 16 chatter all day long. The only radio on on my boat is the XM radio. VHF on only during a race or to call for the launch.

Technically if you have a radio you're required to have it on anyway.

47 CFR 80.310:

Voluntary vessels equipped with VHF-DSC equipment must maintain a watch on 2182 kHz and on either 156.525 MHz (Channel 70) or VHF Channel 16 aurally whenever the vessel is underway and the radio is not being used to communicate.

 

[shemandr]

The problem with DSC is that you need your radio on to use it... which means you have to listen to 16 chatter all day long...

I've made a habit of leaving my handheld VHF on at the helm pretty much all the time. It is on channel 16. I just like to be in tune with what's going on. We don't have a lot of chatter on channel 16. USGC is very quick about telling yackers to find another channel.

 

[njlarry]

I really don't understand why anyone would want us to put away our cell phones for NON EMERGENCY and non navigational use. Much of the time I must turn my vhf off or only watch 13, due to non stop nuscense calls, ie radio checks on 16, repeated hailing of the same vessel that doesn't respond, and worst of all boats hailing marinas always on high power transmission and always have to announce that they have "reservations ". I really don't know why marina hailing is permitted on 16. The local coast guard rarely advices hailers to do their radio checks on another channel and the other calls are better suited for cell phone full duplex communication.
VHF, with or without DSC, is primarily for safety and navigational communication. Most all of my boating friends keep their radios off. This defeats the primary reason for having one. So please when in the bay, lets call our budds and marinas with the #@%# cell phone and keep 16 clear.
Out.

 

[Jackdaw]

Maybe its an east coast thing but where we sail everyone shuts their vhf down at anchor and communicates by cell phone. Never exchanged MMSI numbers. There's enough radio chatter already in the Annapolis area. Whatever gets you through the night.

My point is you said 'very impractical' Its not. Just because you don't use, understand, or ignore the capability does not make it so. Your boat your choice, but lets stick to facts.

 

[bawlmer]

I understand why folks here avoid the VHF at anchor. In the upper Chesapeake the traffic on 16 is literally non stop at any given time on weekends. When I sail I turn the volume down as the constant audio assault gets to you. At anchor the first thing I do is turn off the VHF. If there is any possibility of weather I switch the VHF to an unused channel just to keep the weather alert scan functional. I know many on this forum know the rules for the Chesapeake actually require all recreational vessels to hail on channel 9, leaving 16 for commercial and distress use. Channel 9 is typically quiet. The DSC function alone takes up 35 pages in my 116 page VHF manual. I am the first to state I do not fully understand it. The first thing I did when I got back Sunday was crack open the manual and study what I observed that afternoon. We typically have good cell coverage on most of the upper Chesapeake. It is much easier to dial than to go through the machinations of calling someone on DSC. Just my opinion though.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

The local coast guard rarely advices hailers to do their radio checks on another channel and the other calls are better suited for cell phone full duplex communication.

I hear CG advising all that radio checks should be done on Channel 9 every single time that I hear a radio check on 16.

 

[Gunni]

Scott;
Sea-Tow operates a system of automated radio checks around the country, looks like yours is Ch.27 near Barnegat Light. Same as Annapolis. The great thing about this system is that it records your radio call and plays it back to you, so if you have a transmit problem (static, clipping) or your radio voice is difficult to understand you get instant feedback. I like to have guests make the call so that they can hear what they sound like on the radio.

Channel 09 never really caught on with boaters...probably because after DSC, the scan feature on most radios is indecipherable.
https://www.seatow.com/tools-and-education/automated-radio-check

 

[Jackdaw]

Back in 2003 the USCG created a Marine Industry working group to spec and build the Rescue 21 services, based on the existing (1999) DSC standard. Uniden and Magellan (where I running the Marine GPS technology) were both invited, and during the sessions we plotted on a super-device.

The result was the Uniden Mystic, powered by Magellan GPS and mapping technology. Released in 2004, it was a all-singing, all-dancing waterproof VHF unit with GPS, WAAS, DSC, and MAPPING. It was slightly big, slightly expensive, and glorious. Its the most feature-rich VHF handheld ever built, even to this date. I still have mine.

The point is in these meetings that the USCG TOTALLY had CH16 overloading in mind when they created their drafts for Rescue21 and how DSC should be used. While cell phones have taken some of the 'load', the individual and group calling capabilities are well designed and can (and do) relieve CH16 overloading. The team spend a lot of time making sure of that.

 

[jviss]

There is a more than an insignificant number of emergency calls that are initiated by people with NO understanding of DSC or experience with radio protocols. Triggering Maydays was the intention of DSC, not making private phone calls. What this episode on the Chesapeake illustrates is that having someone push a red button is no substitute for getting a human being on the radio and getting the skinny on what is going on and where.

Gunni, your statement is incorrect. DSC has multiple purposes, mayday calls being but one. Frm the USCG website:
"This service, called digital selective calling (DSC), allows mariners to instantly send an automatically formatted distress alert to the Coast Guard or other rescue authority anywhere in the world. Digital selective calling also allows mariners to initiate or receive distress, urgency, safety and routine radiotelephone calls to or from any similarly equipped vessel or shore station, without requiring either party to be near a radio loudspeaker. DSC acts like the dial and bell of a telephone, allowing you to "direct dial" and "ring" other radios, or allow others to "ring" you, without having to listen to a speaker."

So, private calls, yes.

 

[jviss]

The problem with DSC is that you need your radio on to use it... which means you have to listen to 16 chatter all day long. The only radio on on my boat is the XM radio. VHF on only during a race or to call for the launch.

You are mistaken to beleive that turning off the radio relieves you of the responsibility to monitor. First, it's dumb to not monitor! It could save your life, or enable you to save someone else's life; it could aid you in avoiding hazards to navigation, and hazardous local weather events; and, it will advise you as to restricted areas, and so on. But more to the point, you are required, by law, to monitor the radio if the vessel is equipped with a radio, when it's not in use for communication.
From FCC 47 CFR §§ 80.148, 80.310:

"
§ 80.310 Watch required by voluntary
vessels.
Voluntary vessels not equipped with
DSC must maintain a watch on 2182
kHz and on 156.800 MHz (Channel 16)
whenever the vessel is underway and
the radio is not being used to communicate.
Noncommercial vessels, such as
recreational boats, may alternatively
maintain a watch on 156.450 MHz
(Channel 9) in lieu of VHF Channel 16
for call and reply purposes. Voluntary
vessels equipped with VHF-DSC equipment
must maintain a watch on 2182
kHz and on either 156.525 MHz (Channel
70) or VHF Channel 16 aurally whenever
the vessel is underway and the
radio is not being used to communicate.
Voluntary vessels equipped
with MF-HF DSC equipment must have
the radio turned on and set to an appropriate
DSC distress calling channel
or one of the radiotelephone distress
channels whenever the vessel is underway
and the radio is not being used to
communicate. Voluntary vessels
equipped with Inmarsat A, B, C, M or
Fleet F77 systems must have the unit
turned on and set to receive calls
whenever the vessel is underway and
the radio is not being used to communicate."

 

[jviss]

Put away those ##$!!@% cell phones, and get back into using marine communication devices for routine ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore communication!!

Good post, but around here, the USCG will often ask for cell phone digits to get off the radio. Moble phone numbers are in the MMSI record, too.

 

[Kings Gambit]

I hear CG advising all that radio checks should be done on Channel 9 every single time that I hear a radio check on 16.

Likewise; the response from the CG is immediate to conduct checks on Ch 9, and it is a bit stronger than an advisement. However, I hear only two to three of those in a day of sailing.

 

[jviss]

My point is you said 'very impractical' Its not. Just because you don't use, understand, or ignore the capability does not make it so. Your boat your choice, but lets stick to facts.

It's not that we users who eschew DSC for private calling don't understand this. It's that many DSC radios have awful user interfaces. I have an Icom IC-M501. It is just the klunkiest, most irksome thing to use. Compared to a smart phone, it's like banging two rocks together. In addition, I can ALWAYS reach my buddies around here via cell phone, via VHF - not so much.

 

[Kings Gambit]

Good post, but around here, the USCG will often ask for cell phone digits to get off the radio. Mobile phone numbers are in the MMSI record, too.

Yeah-- I use mine (cell) too sometimes; certainly if the USCG, Vessel Assist, or whomever has contacted me (or vice-versa) and wishes to "chat" or exchange text messages. That makes sense if a few boats are travelling together and wish to exchange information, or talk to a dock master. I'm talking more about using the cell as your principal means of contact when at sea, such to the point--as some have said--that the VHF is off or turned too low to be heard that you cannot be contacted unless everyone has your cell number. Although I do typically leave my VHF on most of the time while at anchor, that is not required by the rules.

 

[jviss]

I hear CG advising all that radio checks should be done on Channel 9 every single time that I hear a radio check on 16.

That would fly around here, people asking for checks on 9 are often advised to use the automated radio check service:
https://www.seatow.com/tools-and-education/automated-radio-check