ICOM M802 DSC antenna?

[TLSparks]

I believe that is not correct. The display may make you think that as it tunes to a voice channel and says Distress Waiting for ACK. But the frequency is a voice hailing frequency not a DSC frequency. Also when a DSC Acknowledge is sent, everyone gets it, not just the the Distress sender so it has to come in on the DSC receiver.

Since you are in the US, maybe you cauld call a SAR team and ask if the Distress ACK is returned on what frequency. I believe it is the same band/frequency they received the Distress Call (e.g. the DSC Emergency Reception Antenna and receiver), but if not I would really like to know so I can pass it along to the folks here heading south.

Regards
Terry

Originally Posted by Auspicious

Not relevant. If you send a DSC Distress call (main transmitter) the Ack will be picked up by the main receiver, not the DSC receiver unless I completely misunderstand the logic path in the Icom radio.



Because I did want to hear a DSC alert if it was close enough for me to help, I just didn't want to hear them from thousands of miles away.

I now have an inline low gain low noise pre-amp in the DSC receive circuit. With it powered up I do hear DSC through the DSC receiver from great distances. With it turned off it acts as an attenuator and in most conditions I only hear DSC alerts within about 500 miles.