Importance of DSC

[thomas]

I love my SH 851, had it a year now and easily the best handheld I've had, I don't use an epirb so always have it on my when I'm by myself.

[ShinyShoe]

Originally Posted by PeterM

Amazes me that still despite lots of bad outcomes the lack of LJ in comericial single handed fishing is common.

The industry has been told to sort its self out and either increase the use of LJs on open decks or reduce the incidence of fatalities associated with people going over the side by Jan 2015 or the MCA will consider taking action.

MAIB published three incidents last week. The DSC one sounds like something that could happen on any day of the week to a wooden boat. The message that needs to get out is that holding the red button for 3 seconds is quicker than transmitting even a partial but useless mayday. That would be a VERY useful exercise to do on a VHF course... get 2 students with a stop watch. Student 1 is to use the DSC set. Holds the button for 3-5 seconds then would start a voice message on 16 but perhaps at 8 seconds the instructor would tell them to stop.

Student 2 is to just go straight to voice. At the same 8 seconds instructor tells them to stop.

Then compare what information they got out there in that short time.

In the case that prompted the safety flyer the skipper's message repeated Stornoway Coastguard three times in his message, but his own boat name only once. Easy with hind sight to point out that it doesn't really matter who you are calling with your mayday so if time was really pressed Stornoway Coastguard and his boat name 3 times would have been a better solution, or even better to do Stornoway, then Boat name then position.

Actually I suspect a position with no name would have been more valuable.

Originally Posted by jyasaki

Depends on the unit, and how you activate it.

On my SH VHF, there's a menu you can select (after hitting the distress button, but prior to transmitting, I think), that will transmit a terse message about what the problem is. Pre-canned messages are undesignated, fire, flooding, collision, grounding, capsizing, sinking, adrift, abandoning, piracy, and MOB (yeah; had to look those up.)

jky

I do wonder how many times a DSC Alert is sent without designating the distress. I've always thought it made the process more complex. If I was designing it I'd allow you to scroll the menu while holding the button. Or I'd send an undesignated and then prompt for a type.

[Hightower]

Originally Posted by thomas

I love my SH 851, had it a year now and easily the best handheld I've had, I don't use an epirb so always have it on my when I'm by myself.

I'd never really thought of DSC on a handheld VHF until reading this thread, I must admit that I like the idea of one on my belt whilst being by myself or in bad weather conditions.

[chris.moody]

I bought mine just in case I got thrown out my rib when alone. Easily worth the two hundred squids for the peace of mind.

[Deekus]

I am looking to get a handheld soon and have narrowed my search down to the Icom 91D, and Standard Horizon HX 851.Apart from Icom's £60ish cheaper price tag, I can't see any real difference.
Help !!....Any advice greatly appreciated fellas

[Deekus]

Sorry the SH 851 is £60ish cheaper ........this is obviously doin my head in!!

[thomas]

SH is 6w and most others are 5.

[Chris Caton]

Originally Posted by Deekus

I am looking to get a handheld soon and have narrowed my search down to the Icom 91D, and Standard Horizon HX 851.Apart from Icom's £60ish cheaper price tag, I can't see any real difference.
Help !!....Any advice greatly appreciated fellas

Ian, I got the icom 91d for Xmas if you want to have a look at one, I think Force4 still have a good deal on, you get a 2nd battery with it

[Peter_C]

I look at it as my Nautilus Lineline DSC equipped handheld radio is for me (I carry it while scuba diving, and sometimes put it in my pocket on the boat), but my main fixed mount boat radio with DSC is for me and OTHER PEOPLE. What I mean by that is if someone on a kayak, scuba diving, or in another boat needs assistance and triggers a DSC alert, my Icom radio will output their coordinates to my Garmin chart plotter, so hopefully I may assist them. Helping others on the water is important, as I never know if one day I will require assistance.

It would be nice if ALL handhelds came with GPS but the majority do not here in the USA.

[Deekus]

Thanks Chris.......another good reason to call round

[simon23]

I bought a dsc midland vhf and conected it to my garmin 441s which was straight foward one wire on each conects together the other wire on each went to neutral..when i had to use the red button on mine it would no transmit i don't know if it was because i had put my mmsi in the contacts rather than the units id,or a fault with the areial.ended up shouting mayday down my sh.hx280 which has always been ace

[ShinyShoe]

Good possibility that it wont red button without the MMSI for the set being set up. Doubt an aerial fault would result in DSC failing if voice was working? But then you transmitted your voice by HH so hard to know. Presuming the boat survived what have you done to fix and test it?

Presumably you weren't wiring it up 5 minutes before you had to hit the button! So a test call would have revealed the MMSI wasn't set properly. (a test call does NOT mean hitting the big red for fun). You should see the position on screen so know it has that, but should be able to get another boat to position request you if in doubt.

While I think the number of radio checks in the solent is crazy, if I've installed a new set I'd certainly be using the self test function on the radio to check I could transmit and would then place a voice call (initiated by DSC) to someone a distance away such as the CG as a proper test. Then find someone to make a position request as my final config test.

[Bluerib]

Originally Posted by simon23

I bought a dsc midland vhf and conected it to my garmin 441s which was straight foward one wire on each conects together the other wire on each went to neutral..when i had to use the red button on mine it would no transmit i don't know if it was because i had put my mmsi in the contacts rather than the units id,or a fault with the areial.ended up shouting mayday down my sh.hx280 which has always been ace

No DSC radio will transmit a distress alert if the MMSI has not been properly loaded into it - putting it in the contacts list is NOT the right place!
There is usually an "MMSI check" function somewhere in the set up menu which allows you to check that you have loaded the correct number. No number = no working red button.

[simon23]

Yes the boat did survive .i have removed the whole set up as i have sold the boat .i have a new radio for the new boat and was given a 2.4 Mtr fibreglass aerial which i was going to fit which hopefully Will give me a good range as it's mounted on top of a 6' tall light /aerial pole.will do the checks you recommend when i get it set up.

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Rib.net

[gtb]

Originally Posted by ShinyShoe

Then find someone to make a position request as my final config test.

I tried that on Saturday, but didn't get a reply from Chris.

My DSC request is logged on ship-tracking.co.uk :
235910073-G (safety) from 235908002-G Position request REQ [14-01-11 10:54:30]

so I'm going to blame his end of the deal I'll have to try a different station next time.

I'm using a self-contained handheld, so it's not really a config check test, but I'm curious to see how it appears on the radio in case I do need it.

[simon23]

Originally Posted by Bluerib

No DSC radio will transmit a distress alert if the MMSI has not been properly loaded into it - putting it in the contacts list is NOT the right place!
There is usually an "MMSI check" function somewhere in the set up menu which allows you to check that you have loaded the correct number. No number = no working red button.

Yes i didn't know their was a mmsi check facility .as usual now I've done it wrong i Will go back and read the instructions . Thanks

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Rib.net

[ShinyShoe]

So I'd guess Chris doesn't have position polling enabled on his set. Or has it set to only if he says so and he decided not to reply!

It'd have alarmed on his set to reply though...

(I'm assuming he was near enough that his set would definitely have received and you would definitely have got his reply.)

Although if it was Chris's M91 you were calling the default is auto reply. Did you check it (his) was switched on and all that stuff... i.e. did he have a position?

Assuming his reply wasn't on ship-tracking.

If he got no message on his set then I'd ask him to look in his received and sent log and see if there are messages there. If there are then he sent a reply (and if didn't know he had he is set to auto) but neither you or ship tracking received it...

[chris.moody]

Originally Posted by gtb

I tried that on Saturday, but didn't get a reply from Chris.

My DSC request is logged on ship-tracking.co.uk :
235910073-G (safety) from 235908002-G Position request REQ [14-01-11 10:54:30]

so I'm going to blame his end of the deal I'll have to try a different station next time.

I'm using a self-contained handheld, so it's not really a config check test, but I'm curious to see how it appears on the radio in case I do need it.

Now I'm getting worried, perhaps my handheld is not working correctly I checked on Saturday and my Icom is set to auto respond to position requests.

Chris

[gtb]

I sent the request as we were leaving the Hamble river, and I think you were preoccupied with recovering Tigga at Calshot. I would expect to be well within range, but maybe you were in the car/whatever. We can try again another time.

[gennaro]

Originally Posted by chris.moody

Now I'm getting worried, perhaps my handheld is not working correctly I checked on Saturday and my Icom is set to auto respond to position requests.

Chris

From the icom M91 manual

D Receiving a Position Request Call When a Position Request Call is received:
➥ The alarm sounds for 2 minutes.
➥ “RCVD POS REQUEST” pops up. The LCD backlight
blinks for 2 minutes.
q Push [ALARM OFF] to stop the alarm and the blinking backlight.

When “POSITION ACK” is set to “Auto TX,” the transceiver automatically replies to the Call. In that case, both the TX and RX calls are stored in the Transmitted and Received Call Logs.

Having just bought this radio too I'm interested in what you find. There doesn't seem to be an option to transmit a position request call