T&T: New VHF

[Peter Bennett]

Saturday, October 11, 2008, 3:17:38 PM, Kim wrote:

KBET> Hey, what is up with the USCG and DSC anyway?  For several years we were
KBET> told the USCG did not have DSC.  To date, I have never heard the USCG ask in
KBET> a May Day situation if the caller has DSC and if so to deploy it.

You don't "deploy" DSC.  If your radio is equipped with DSC, and you
press (and hold for a few seconds) the "Distress" button, the radio
will transmit a digital distress alert signal, and will repeat that
alert every four minutes or so, until the alert is digitally
acknowledged (generally by Coast Guard).  After the digital alert is
sent, you are expected to do a standard voice "Mayday" broadcast on
Channel 16.  All DSC-equipped radios receiving your distress alert
should switch to channel 16 to hear your broadcast.

On SC-101 class DSC radios it it possible to disable the channel 70
monitoring, completely disabling the DSC receive function (but I
assume the radio can still send a distress alert - wonder if it will
then enable channel 70 reception so it can receive the
acknowledgement?)

On my Class D Icom 504, I can disable the auto channel switch, but not
the channel 70 monitor, so I will always get the distress alerts, but
can choose whether or not to switch to 16.



-- 
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI    Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Ennos 31 "Honeycomb"
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter 
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca