DSC issue GX1500 and HX890

[Coquina]

I just got a HX890 and my installed radio is a GX1500.
DSC Call and Test work both ways. I can do a position poll from the GX1500 to the HX890 and it works. It even shows up on my plotters What does NOT work is position polling from the 890 to the 1500. There is no reaction whatsoever I have gone through the menus and auto-answer is turned on. I have no idea why this doe not work. MMSIs are not the same between radios either.
A few more observations:
1. My S-H CP180 plotter shows a dialog box every time it gets a new position. OpenCPN does not do anything obvious, the position shows up in the AIS target list. It does plant a little green square where the DSC target is, but if you are testing sitting on your boat it ends up UNDER the own-ship icon and you go nuts checking connections to see why it doesn't work. Not that I did that
2. One brief range check with the call function seems to show voice range considerably greater than DSC range. Have to do more checking, but that is kind of disappointing if true
3. Does anyone even use DSC? I have had DSC radios for years and besides for one of my buddies calling me a couple of times. I have got exactly ONE alert in maybe 10 years and that was an ALLSHIPS sent by accident All the PAN PAN be on the lookout for messages never have a vessel name or location like you would expect from a DSC distress call.I wonder how many DSC saves, if any, there have been?

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by Coquina

I just got a HX890 and my installed radio is a GX1500.
DSC Call and Test work both ways. I can do a position poll from the GX1500 to the HX890 and it works. It even shows up on my plotters What does NOT work is position polling from the 890 to the 1500. There is no reaction whatsoever I have gone through the menus and auto-answer is turned on. I have no idea why this doe not work. MMSIs are not the same between radios either.
A few more observations:
1. My S-H CP180 plotter shows a dialog box every time it gets a new position. OpenCPN does not do anything obvious, the position shows up in the AIS target list. It does plant a little green square where the DSC target is, but if you are testing sitting on your boat it ends up UNDER the own-ship icon and you go nuts checking connections to see why it doesn't work. Not that I did that
2. One brief range check with the call function seems to show voice range considerably greater than DSC range. Have to do more checking, but that is kind of disappointing if true
3. Does anyone even use DSC? I have had DSC radios for years and besides for one of my buddies calling me a couple of times. I have got exactly ONE alert in maybe 10 years and that was an ALLSHIPS sent by accident All the PAN PAN be on the lookout for messages never have a vessel name or location like you would expect from a DSC distress call.I wonder how many DSC saves, if any, there have been?

Well I can't tell you why it's not working, but I use it with some friends. I find most people have not set it up and don't have a clue how it works. I did get one real distress call once just below the Verrazano Narrows bridge in NY harbor. It was from a boat 10 miles off of Atlantic City, NJ. There must have been some weird atmospheric conditions going on because even the CG at Cape May didn't hear it. When I didn't hear the CG respond I gave them a call and relayed the GPS coordinates to them. They sent out a boat and found two guys in a boat with a dead engine. I don't know why they couldn't raise them or didn't get the alert on their systems. Maybe even the CG doesn't know how it works since it's used so seldom.