DSC

[narked]

Actually looking at it the Silva is a "cheap and cheerful" jobbie with extra stuff thrown in I don't want. The Simrad RD68 looks pretty good, so I might consider that along with a seperate GPS unit once I finally get sorted with a boat. Anyone used one?

Cheers,
Matt

[gingercoastie]

I think the Simrad unit is the one used for the DSC instruction on the "Short Range Certificate"

[Charles]

Ever heard the expression - 'Short term gains, long term liabilities?' Do yourselves a favour and buy only the best DSC unit, either Simrad or my personal choice, ICOM.

[gingercoastie]

Charles,

Good choice with the Icom, I have the M601, big buttons, big display and very easy to use with my gloves on.

Even Reece my youngest can use it. He normally takes the seat next to driver so is in charge of comms and navigation.

[Alex Brown]

I really like my Icom 503, and DSC 100 units - massive buttons on the 503 unit, and pretty large buttons on the 100 unit (apart from the numbers that is). It's loud enough to overpower the engine at WOT, not that the engine is that noisy really compared to the wind battering the ears.

Although it cost a bit more for the separates, I had also thought about getting 2 aerials for it - having 2 means a backup incase one breaks while at sea. Whilst this would obviously render one part of the units useless, it's relatively easy to swap em over - plus, having 2 aerials on the a-frame does look good too

-Alex

[Scubakid]

Have a look at the "Standard" units, they have a DSC and a GPS and they interface together so that if a call comes in the GPS will show the caller's position and if you want will plot a course for you. The plotter is on sale in the UK but have not seen the DSC. Does anyone know if a US DSC is OK in the UK ?

John

[Jelly]

On the comercial units they have an alrm that goes off every 4 hrs to remind you to update the position if you don't have the GPS interfaced.
(After a few days you suddenly get this urge to interface the GPS and shut the wretched thing up )
Jelly

[Garygee]

Got DSC fitted, fully intergrated to the GPS and have used it a few times. ICOM 503 and DSC100.

Liked seperates as the displays are less cluttered, less confusing and many buttons are single function.

As far as Alex says, I thought you had to use two areials with the M503/DSC100 combination ?.

The main problem is often not knowing other boats MMSI number unless you talk to them often.

To be honest the main use i see at the moment is distress as we receive almost no general traffic on it.

Regards Gary

[Tekkie]

Coastie, Sorry mate MCA have announced that from 00.01 on Sep 22nd headphone watch will go and only be used if background noise etc justifies it. Not well advertised but try http://www.rya.org.uk/Cruising/defau...tentID=2785458 for more info.

Cheers Brian

[Alex Brown]

Yeap, Gary, I do have two aerials.... my point being that if one snaps, or dies, at least there's a spare, and the dsc unit can be disconnected easy enough to get the main transceiver working. I also have my dsc unit wired into the gps unit which gives accurate info to it (I assume!!).

We get a lot of traffic down here during busy days on ch16 (probably nothing compared to solent) which is why I can see the dsc stuff coming in quite nicely.
As my friends here get dsc, I will program in their details to the unit which will save calling them on ch16 in the future, and provided others do that too, it will ultimately clear a lot of traffic off 16 I'd guess, which 'should' therefore make picking up a distress on that channel even more noticeable.

-Alex

[gingercoastie]

Sep 22nd headphone watch will go

Look at that, go on leave for 2 weeks and they go and change your job

[chrisallse]

Seems to me they may be a few synical people about. with the latest technology available to us why would we want to stay in the past... it must be better that by pushing a button for 5 Seconds you can alert the rescue services and give them your EXACT position. this is a major step forward improving safety for both the mariner AND the rescue services. I think it is also wrong to compare the Coast guard and RNLI with the Fire Service, i cant remember the former two going on strike. I once had the misfortune to be under attack by a Mob of 20 yobs carrying Knives, Baseball bats etc in inner London and myself and my colleges made 8 (yes 8) 999 calls and we had NO responce at all.

I think one should also stop to think of the huge investment that is required to provide this high tech service, not much room for cuting costs i suspect......Thats it i feel better now ..

Thanks for the info Ginger.

[wavelength]

OOeer Too busy to read the forum for a while (now that really is sad) and look what is going on!
I teach/examine SRC courses and when it first came in I thought no way am I going to put this onboard until I have, but I have changed my mind as there are, or will be, real advantages. In my area every fishing boat out in winter (and there are loads of them) will be listening ch08 or 06 No-one is on ch16. A shout the other day from a boat in distress had no replies except from the emergency services cos no one else local to him was on ch16. Now consider the situation if everyone had a DSC set. They are still listening ch08 or whatever for all the latest gossip. As soon as someone hits a distress button all the dsc sets in the area, unless they are actually transmiting at the time of the call, will be auto switched to ch70 for the digital alert and then auto switched to ch16 ready for the voice call which is coming next. Now I rather like that.

[Biggles]

Just done my One day VHF Course today.

My views on DSC are.

a) You really need GPS attached to it to make the most use out of it other wise you might as well stick to plain old vanilla VHF.

b) DSC is brilliant if you want to call a regular bunch of you with the Group calling.

c) Its great if you want to set up an initial call.

d) It might just save your life if:-

i) You have GPS fitted and connected to it.

ii) The Coast Guard are not listening on Channel 16 VHF Voice channel.

Otherwise I feel that this is an opportunity missed. Yes it is good but it could have been so much better. Apparently it was first designed at the beginning of the 80s and it shows.

20 years on and so much else can be done with electronics. The overseers of this format haven't really kept up with modern communications.

I actually thought that prior to doing the above course I would be able to call someone up and be able to speak to them on a secure channnel. No you xcan't.

On the course I also believed that Hey, DSC is perfect for sending text messages. But No you can't.

What we need is DSC 2

Yes DSC is the way forward, in 1995, but this is 2003, and we want and expect more.

[Richard B]

Your point a) isn't quite right, Biggles. Read the last sentence of Dave Mallett's post above - that's the real advantage of DSC. Particularly on a RIB. If you're zipping along at 20kts + in an open boat, then you'll probably not be able to distinguish between routine calls and emergency calls, assuming that you're on ch16 anyway. With a DSC set, the claxon sounds and you know that something is going on in the area. GPS or no GPS, in a fast planing craft, you're less than 30 mins from the incident.

[Brian]

Dave says........."if everyone had DSC..."
Yes Dave, but they haven't have they? And they wont have for a long, long time. Now what? It is now too late to do anything as Ch.16 headset watch stopped on 22nd.
And anyway, even if everyone had DSC, and everyone was connected to a working GPS, isn't that like saying I dont need to keep an eyeball watch because I've got RADAR?
I am not saying DSC is not useful, it is, but the technology should be used to augment what we have, not to replace only a little bit of it because we dont feel we ought to fund a proper, full, Coastguard service.

[wavelength]

yes but the cg are not ceasing a watch on ch16 - they are listening to the speaker in the room as well as DSC so thats several sets of ears listening-and at present it is only at the discretion of the watch officer that the headset watch will not be on- they have not always had a dedicated headset watch and from personal experience at the sharp end out on the coast with comms to the MRSC during casualty working there have been times when we have not been able to get thru on a variety of channels cos nobody had switched the headset back to....but thats another story and not for public consumption pehaps!! Yes I agree not everyone has dsc so it will not take their sets to ch 70 then 16 - but thats the situation we have already and a mayday on ch16 following a ch70 alert will certainly have no less chance of reaching the local boating populace than before.
What worries me more is not being able to raise an Irish ferry on ch16 as I can do now even when I dont know the boat name.
As dsc sets are now less than £200 there will be dsc sets around within the next year or so. In fact I must go and order one now cos my b****y icom is playing up again!!
And why does anyone want a secure channel on vhf radio-get a sat phone or inshore use the mobile if you want to have a secret conversation.

[DM]

Originally posted by Brian
but the technology should be used to augment what we have,

Eureka. This is what I was trying to say but too often technology is used as an excuse to do away with quality service. It will take a long time to convince me that a room full of 'ears', all busy with other duties, is going to be an improvement on a skilled dedicated headset watch.

And of course when everyone applies for a MMSI number for the new DSC they've shelled out for to replace a perfectly good radio, they'll probably have to provide a VHF licence number thereby stopping all those naughty boys who use the airways illegally.

A double whammy.

DM

[Biggles]

What I really meant with that point was :-

I felt that if I didn't have GPS attached to the DSC I wouldn't be keeping my Co ordinates updated.

I know they say you should up date them manually every 4 hours at least, but I don't think that is a working solution. Not only is going to go out of date pretty rapid as you zot off somewhere else at 30 mph, it also means you have to carry charts with you to keep on putting the co ordinates in.

And as I just said, lets say at 1030 hrs you enter the co ordinates in to the DSC, at 1035 hrs you could be a couple of miles away from that location, and if you issue a distress alert in an emergency then abandon ship those co ordinates could be pretty misleading to any one co ordinating a rescue.

I rest my case.

I said DSC doesn't really work without GPS and the above example proves that.

They started looking at this problem in the 70's and had a long time to get it right prior to releasing it on Joe Public.

At least if they are going to foist something upon us and expect us to buy lots of expensive gadgets then they should at first make sure they have covered all the options.

What DSC should have had from the very first release to the public.

Was DSC with GPS and Text facilities. No Less. 30 years of research wasted again.

[Richard B]

Originally posted by Biggles
I know they say you should up date them manually every 4 hours at least, but I don't think that is a working solution.

You're right about that bit - realistically this isn't going to get done, is it?