About two weeks ago, to took a course on VHF and DSC radio procedures for my radio license in Canada. Prior to this I had purchased a Standard Horizon Quest + (plus) radio with DSC and polling; this meant nothing to me. From another thread, some one was surprised to hear that monitoring of channel 16 will be phased out by both the Canadian and American coast guard over time. For Canadians, it is my understanding an upgrade to their current radio license will be required to use DSC. When I took the exam last week, the DSC section was included so my license authorizes me to use DSC. I won't go into the complexities of it as there are others here much more qualified to do that. What I have done is provided a link to a Canadian government link discussing DSC. The fact that it is a Canadian link shouldn't bother you as the techniques are the same in both countries. There are two DSC radios, one for the big boys and one for us pleasure boaters. The big boy's DSC radios are really two radios in one so conversation can go on much like on a telephone, instead of the one way talking that normally occurs on past VHF radios. The little guy's radio, like the Quest + I have is just one radio so only one way communications can still occur. Polling as I stated above that my radio has means if I have your "specific number" assigned to you for your radio, I can dial you up, much like a telephone and only your radio will respond. Since I know some will be out of the loop on this feature - like I was just weeks ago - I thought this might be a good place to discuss this feature; and mention that the goal is to eventually have channel 16 not be the primary "Mayday" channel. What will happen currently is that you push for 5 seconds, the DSC button; your name, boats name, type of boat, location and time (if GPS is hooked up to it) is transmitted over channel 70. When the coast guard receive it, they will acknowledge and request you go to channel 16 to discuss the nature of the mayday. Some radios have a menu of "Mayday" and "Urgent" scenarios in the menu; so for example, you could select "boat sinking" in your DSC distress call. Anyways, Cheers
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Alarm Calls
Digital Selective Calling is great but has user acceptability problems. Whenever anyone specifically calls your boat the alarm sounds to wake you up. IMO regulations require that this alarm cannot be silenced nor turned down so you get it full blast. The alarm also sounds every time the Coastguard put out a weather bulletin, when they have any other Maritime Safety Information, whenever anyone puts out an All Ships call, a Pan Pan and, of course, a Mayday. In the South of England the frequency of these alarm drives people mad so they turn their sets off. Seems somewhat counter productive! As a result there has been a very poor take up of DSC radios worldwide despite them being the only type one can buy in the UK for the last three years. I have two DSCs - they are both at home - whilst my ICOM non DSC is just fine on the boat - also counter productive. Further, at the most recent IMO meetings, they decided to continue with CH 16 as a safety and calling channel worldwide so we will be spared for a few years yet. As you say the great thing about DSC sets is their ability to "phone" a specific vessel, though the conversation still continues on one of the public channels.
Digital Selective Calling is great but has user acceptability problems. Whenever anyone specifically calls your boat the alarm sounds to wake you up. IMO regulations require that this alarm cannot be silenced nor turned down so you get it full blast. The alarm also sounds every time the Coastguard put out a weather bulletin, when they have any other Maritime Safety Information, whenever anyone puts out an All Ships call, a Pan Pan and, of course, a Mayday. In the South of England the frequency of these alarm drives people mad so they turn their sets off. Seems somewhat counter productive! As a result there has been a very poor take up of DSC radios worldwide despite them being the only type one can buy in the UK for the last three years. I have two DSCs - they are both at home - whilst my ICOM non DSC is just fine on the boat - also counter productive. Further, at the most recent IMO meetings, they decided to continue with CH 16 as a safety and calling channel worldwide so we will be spared for a few years yet. As you say the great thing about DSC sets is their ability to "phone" a specific vessel, though the conversation still continues on one of the public channels.
DSC Use
Altho many boaters have DSC units, not many take advantage of the calling feature. It is annoying and I find I leave my DSC radio off and use the non-DSC exclusively. I have a list of maybe a couple of dozen friend's boats programmed in, but I find we continue to monitor our local frequencies, so the calling feature isn't used much. RD
Altho many boaters have DSC units, not many take advantage of the calling feature. It is annoying and I find I leave my DSC radio off and use the non-DSC exclusively. I have a list of maybe a couple of dozen friend's boats programmed in, but I find we continue to monitor our local frequencies, so the calling feature isn't used much. RD
Monitoring Ch 16 will Continue
From the US Coast Guard NAVCEN GMDSS FAQ at Link submitted by author#channel GMDSS ships will be allowed to cease guarding VHF channel 16 on February 1, 2005, and have already ceased watchkeeping on 2182 kHz. Is that safe? How will ships not equipped with GMDSS (i.e. digital selective calling) be able to contact such ships in an emergency? That question was raised at the International Maritime Organization. It was to prevent this interoperability problem that the date GMDSS ships may cease to guard VHF channel 16 was deferred six years, until 2005. DSC should be common on new radios, and presumably, on ships not subject to GMDSS, by that date. 2182 kHz watchkeeping is another matter. In that case, an interoperability problem already exists. Most SOLAS-regulated ships guarding 2182kHz do so using an autoalarm receiver, which can only be triggered by an autoalarm signal transmitted on 2182 kHz. Autoalarm receivers and signal generators are not new;SOLAS-regulated ships have been using them for decades. Since few ships not subject to GMDSS carry an autoalarm generator, they could not initiate contact on 2182 kHz with most SOLAS ships. Extending the 2182 kHz watchkeeping date on those ships would benefit no one. For that reason IMO decided to allow GMDSS-regulated ships to discontinue watchkeeping on 2182 kHz on February 1, 1999, as originally scheduled. The U.S. Coast Guard will, of course, continue a listening watch, with a live watchstander, on both VHF channel 16 and 2182 kHz. From the Canadian DFO Site http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/backgrou/2003/hq-ac68a_e.htm VHF-DSC eliminates the need for persons on a ship’s bridge or at a coastal station to continuously guard radio voice channels. However, for the foreseeable future, the Coast Guard will continue providing service to vessels that are not equipped with VHF-DSC radios. The Coast Guard’s MCTS centres will continue monitoring Emergency Channel 16 on VHF and 2182 kHz on MF for distress
From the US Coast Guard NAVCEN GMDSS FAQ at Link submitted by author#channel GMDSS ships will be allowed to cease guarding VHF channel 16 on February 1, 2005, and have already ceased watchkeeping on 2182 kHz. Is that safe? How will ships not equipped with GMDSS (i.e. digital selective calling) be able to contact such ships in an emergency? That question was raised at the International Maritime Organization. It was to prevent this interoperability problem that the date GMDSS ships may cease to guard VHF channel 16 was deferred six years, until 2005. DSC should be common on new radios, and presumably, on ships not subject to GMDSS, by that date. 2182 kHz watchkeeping is another matter. In that case, an interoperability problem already exists. Most SOLAS-regulated ships guarding 2182kHz do so using an autoalarm receiver, which can only be triggered by an autoalarm signal transmitted on 2182 kHz. Autoalarm receivers and signal generators are not new;SOLAS-regulated ships have been using them for decades. Since few ships not subject to GMDSS carry an autoalarm generator, they could not initiate contact on 2182 kHz with most SOLAS ships. Extending the 2182 kHz watchkeeping date on those ships would benefit no one. For that reason IMO decided to allow GMDSS-regulated ships to discontinue watchkeeping on 2182 kHz on February 1, 1999, as originally scheduled. The U.S. Coast Guard will, of course, continue a listening watch, with a live watchstander, on both VHF channel 16 and 2182 kHz. From the Canadian DFO Site http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/backgrou/2003/hq-ac68a_e.htm VHF-DSC eliminates the need for persons on a ship’s bridge or at a coastal station to continuously guard radio voice channels. However, for the foreseeable future, the Coast Guard will continue providing service to vessels that are not equipped with VHF-DSC radios. The Coast Guard’s MCTS centres will continue monitoring Emergency Channel 16 on VHF and 2182 kHz on MF for distress
yeah...but...
boats sailing beyond 25 miles off shore would rely on other ships in the area to relay a distress call to USCG. If all commerical shipping is nolonger listening to 16, then they are of no help to boaters without DSC. Bummer because even coastal cruisers go more then 25 miles off shore all the time.
boats sailing beyond 25 miles off shore would rely on other ships in the area to relay a distress call to USCG. If all commerical shipping is nolonger listening to 16, then they are of no help to boaters without DSC. Bummer because even coastal cruisers go more then 25 miles off shore all the time.
So Franklin
I guess you'll have to spend an evening with your manual and figure out how to use the DSC.
I guess you'll have to spend an evening with your manual and figure out how to use the DSC.
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