MMSI can of worms....

[Last Tango]

Originally Posted by HDAV

Like I said a can of worms I have so far met at least 2 people with DSC sets and no programmed MMSI who are under the impression that in and emergency all they have to do is press the red button.....and the Calvary come running...

Ofcom give you MMSI numbers with your licences so presumably they either don't have licences for the sets or they didn't bother their 4rse programming them with the numbers they were given.
I'm no fan of bureaucracy but this really isn't complicated.

[HDAV]

Well as there is no need to produce licence to buy and these are sold over the counter and online I dont know if they have licence, have an old licence or no licence but have an SRC or don’t have an SRC I didn’t ask...

And it’s not like I go around asking people if they do one handheld owner was tellingly me all about his new radio and how it has gps and automatic distress function. The other was a boat I helped launch asked if I knew anyone who wanted to buy his old one as he had upgraded.

I mentioned MMSI to both and got completely blank looks back

[Last Tango]

Originally Posted by HDAV

Well as there is no need to produce licence to buy and these are sold over the counter and online I dont know if they have licence, have an old licence or no licence but have an SRC or don’t have an SRC I didn’t ask...

And it’s not like I go around asking people if they do one handheld owner was tellingly me all about his new radio and how it has gps and automatic distress function. The other was a boat I helped launch asked if I knew anyone who wanted to buy his old one as he had upgraded.

I mentioned MMSI to both and got completely blank looks back

I believe in some countries the dealer has to "pre-load" the MMSI number at the point of sale. The same policy here might hammer home the need to license the equipment and ensure it's "fit for purpose" but that's going to make the buying options more complex and I for one am never in favour of more regulation.
Bearing in mind DSC is part of, and has to integrate with the existing GMSS stack, I can't think of a solution the IMO could have come up with that would have make it any less complicated. The "instructions for use" for any DSC equipment I've bought has been pretty explicit about loading an MMSI number, but again maybe they're not reading the instructions.
So where does that leave us. The "blank looks" you got concerns me, they've learned enough about DSC to know about the "red button" but obviously not enough to know about the MMSI they need to make it work so where did the incomplete knowledge come from?
I don't think it's "a can of worms" but maybe there's an argument that access to the system requires training.......Compulsory SRC ?

[HDAV]

Just had a thought...thinking of replacing/upgrading my handheld.

If I keep the current one a backup/spare do they both get the same MMSI or does every hand held need a separate MMSI and then both MMSI get registered to me?

[ShinyShoe]

Probably depends on how you intend them to be used.

If you will only ever use it as a spare second unit if the first failed, you could have the same MMSI.

If you actually are thinking two sets could be in use at once - calling each other - they need two MMSI

If you are putting one in your pocket and one in your wives pocket and both of you ended up in the water - you'd want both MMSI..

[boristhebold]

From memory, but may be a little vague now, when I bought a handheld with DSC as soon as switched on it went into the setup routine which asks for an MMSI number to be programmed in before going any further, not sure if this could be by passed or not, makes sense if it could not be bypassed before use.

If so agree could be an issue if people dont read manual and dont set it up before going out to sea.

Other issue might be if someone buys one second hand and does not realise about the MMSI number as it may be registered to someone else which may cause confusion in an emergency use.

[HDAV]

My hx851 can be used as normal radio with no MMSI entered of course no dsc functionality.

So I have an MMSI in current unit registered to me, if I had 2 fixed vhf on same boat they would both have the same MMSI logically

If I have 2 hand helds then should they have same MMSI? Or not? Both are registered to me so would pull up my details on Data base. So I guess it could be either but better is they there own MMSI as the unit A could call unit B.

If you have a fixed and hand held they have different MMSI (as handheld have a specific prefix) but thinking of a larger vessel it would be normal for multiple person on board to have individual MMSI.