DSC Call / Request Settings and Crew Safety

[GeoPowers]

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure if this has ever been mentioned here or not. I did a quick search and didn't find anything....

Being the wild man that I am and it being a Friday night, I decided to read my owner's manual for my new Standard Horizon HX851 handheld VHF. In between keg stands, of course!

I was specifically reading up on all the neat DSC features, and thinking about when/if I would ever use each one. While doing this, I noticed that the factory settings for the DSC "Position Reply" and "Individual Reply" were both set to "Automatic". The auto position reply means that if someone polled your unit, it would automatically send your lat/long to them.

This got me to thinking that someone not on the straight and narrow path could use that info for not so nice reasons depending on where you are in the world... I only know how to request a position if you already know the other vessel's MMSI number (i.e. Individual Call), but if there is a way for someone to send out a position request to All Ships, then they could "fish" for targets near them.

I changed mine to "Manual" which gives a reply only after you push a button to confirm you'd like to give out your position info. I'm not worried about pirates on the Chessie, but it also goes along with not sharing real-time personal info unless I need to.

Anyway, thought I would share that, and perhaps some of our radio guru's could comment on whether it is possible to send out a position request through a DSC All Call. If the only way to request a position is if you already know their MMSI, I would think the danger of someone's position falling into the wrong hands would be low.

Frank

[Kettlewell]

I do not believe your radio will transmit your position or your MMSI if you have it set to manual response.

[GeoPowers]

Yes, that was my point! Well, that and my VHF came set to Automatic.