Resistance to DSC VHF

[goboatingnow]

To receive a "proper" MMSI, you do need a radio license , but its does not require any examination. (form 605) . This form provides both the Operator License and the ships license.

Most foreign countries expect you as an operator to have an operators license, a ships radio station license and a valid MMSI no.

Dave

[Me-and-Boo]

What a great post and thread. Everybody from the "old world sailing the world with a lodestone compass is the only way" to "at six radios along with automatic flare guns are best" to "I want my youngster to be found if we sink but don't let them know I was here".

I just bought a new VHF with DSC and remote today. Reading through what this radio can do just makes my techie heart race with joy. The grandmother in me is very happy knowing that I have a very good way to contact the CG and others for help if I ever need it when sailing with family. The sailor in me is comfortable knowing I will have great communications and if necessary, emergency calls.

Technology advances, sometimes faster than we can pay for. Compared to the radio this is replacing is looking at several generations of marine radio technology. That radio was top of the line for 1984. That was a very long time ago, an extremely long time ago in electronics. And even though it was a great tool 27 years ago, it is a minimal tool today. Just because something works does not mean it should not be replaced.

[cal40john]

You're making me think back to when I started in 1976. Our club boats had no radios, they were too expensive and probably used too much power for a boat that had an outboard with no charging system. A friend I made shortly after joining had a crystal channel VHF on his boat. Closest I've found so far is that synthesized came out sometime after 1972. The boat I was on for my first ocean trip in 1980 had a Loran. It looked exactly like a big oscilloscope. You turned the knobs to match the waveforms then read the time differences. The charts had TD lines on them. It was broken though so we used celestial.

John

Originally Posted by Me-and-Boo

What a great post and thread. Everybody from the "old world sailing the world with a lodestone compass is the only way" to "at six radios along with automatic flare guns are best" to "I want my youngster to be found if we sink but don't let them know I was here".

I just bought a new VHF with DSC and remote today. Reading through what this radio can do just makes my techie heart race with joy. The grandmother in me is very happy knowing that I have a very good way to contact the CG and others for help if I ever need it when sailing with family. The sailor in me is comfortable knowing I will have great communications and if necessary, emergency calls.

Technology advances, sometimes faster than we can pay for. Compared to the radio this is replacing is looking at several generations of marine radio technology. That radio was top of the line for 1984. That was a very long time ago, an extremely long time ago in electronics. And even though it was a great tool 27 years ago, it is a minimal tool today. Just because something works does not mean it should not be replaced.

[AussieGeoff]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

To receive a "proper" MMSI, you do need a radio license , but its does not require any examination. (form 605) . This form provides both the Operator License and the ships license.

Most foreign countries expect you as an operator to have an operators license, a ships radio station license and a valid MMSI no.

Not sure about elsewhere, but in Oz, you need a Marine Radio Operators Certificate of Proficiency to use VHF and HF Marine, or Marine Radio Operators VHF Certificate of Proficiency to use VHF Marine Only.

The 27Mhz Marine band (27.880 - Ch 88 - is the distress/calling frequency) requires no license, permits or anything else, it's covered by a class license like CB (27mhz or UHF)

The Certification is pretty easy, a day course. You pay for the cert to be issued (not by the govt but by a 3rd Party registered training organisation, in this case the Australian Maritime College. It's a photo id thing like a drivers license and is forever - no expiry.

MMSI issue needs you to apply for it to the SMA, and if you have HF in the boat, that requires an Apparatus License, not sure what it costs, but it's cheap.

As someone else said, Marine Rescue in Oz is handled entirely by Volunteer organisations, which vary from state to state. In SA, the State Emergency Service has the most facilities, with rescue boats in 4 locations, but no base facilities that are manned 24/7. Volunteer Coast Guard (Australia does not have a military Coast Guard service at all, just the Navy) Air Sea Rescue and Sea Rescue Squadron make up the rest.

Volunteer Coast Gaurd man watch stations all over the place, so a call on 88 or 16vhf or even UHF CB Ch 11 will get someones attention most places. If you are out of range, a good mobile phone with a mast mount antenna works to about 50 miles out to sea.

Lot of boaties use UHF CB because it's also a class license and you don't need an individual one - it has repeaters as well - the local one covers most of the top part of Spencer Gulf pretty well. Ch 11 range is about the same as marine VHF.

My VHF set doesn't have DSC but it's old and tired and when I replace it I will put in a DSC radio, but other than volunteers, there is no single govt entity that is responsible for marine radio communications or have facilities for it, so the usefullness of it is limited and not mandatory, or at least not yet. That's entirely or almost entirely done by volunteers and volunteer rescue organisations, which is better than nothing, as they do a pretty good job.

AussieGeoff

[sctpc]

Originally Posted by AussieGeoff

Not sure about elsewhere, but in Oz, you need a Marine Radio Operators Certificate of Proficiency to use VHF and HF Marine, or Marine Radio Operators VHF Certificate of Proficiency to use VHF Marine Only.

The 27Mhz Marine band (27.880 - Ch 88 - is the distress/calling frequency) requires no license, permits or anything else, it's covered by a class license like CB (27mhz or UHF)

The Certification is pretty easy, a day course. You pay for the cert to be issued (not by the govt but by a 3rd Party registered training organisation, in this case the Australian Maritime College. It's a photo id thing like a drivers license and is forever - no expiry.

MMSI issue needs you to apply for it to the SMA, and if you have HF in the boat, that requires an Apparatus License, not sure what it costs, but it's cheap.


AussieGeoff

$50 a year for callsign so I sold it on eBay