DSC Radio Alarm

[Black Sheep]

If you have your alarms set up properly, then any time it sounds there is an emergency so a good time to pay attention.

Unfortunately it has the opposite effect. When the alarm sounds, I am unable to hear the Mayday because it is completely blotted out.

With my old fashioned Icom M401e, I can listen to ch 16 uninterrupted and am much more likely to hear a Mayday.

 

[Roberto]

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Please don't use the transmit button to silence it, you could be interrupting a Mayday.

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No way: a class D vhf set (like possibly 99.9% of pleasure vessel vhf) has no way to formally acknowledge a mayday call, a push on the transmit/PTT button has no effect on the mayday procedure, it just silences the local alarm; the mayday issuing station will keep to the regular procedure (repetitions etc) until a proper acknowledgement is received, usually by higher dsc class sets than pleasure yachts.

 

[lustyd]

Unfortunately it has the opposite effect. When the alarm sounds, I am unable to hear the Mayday because it is completely blotted out.

Realistically you can silence the alarm before the speaking starts, since the person sending the mayday must press and hold the button etc. to send the DSC and then separately start the voice Mayday call afterwards. The Mayday call starts with Mayday three times, so you're really not missing much at the start while you press that single button to silence the alarm. As I said above, if you have it set up with a plotter you don't need to hear most of the message since you can see if it's a Mayday or PanPan, and you can see the location and vessel name on your screen. All you need to listen for is what the problem is.

 

[lustyd]

No way: a class D vhf set (like possibly 99.9% of pleasure vessel vhf) has no way to formally acknowledge a mayday call, a push on the transmit/PTT button has no effect on the mayday procedure, it just silences the local alarm; the mayday issuing station will keep to the regular procedure (repetitions etc) until a proper acknowledgement is received, usually by higher dsc class sets than pleasure yachts.

I meant that you will interrupt the voice call, possibly while they are speaking their position. Since you'd know there's a Mayday, you're also required to NOT press the transmit button, it's not optional.

 

[Roberto]

I meant that you will interrupt the voice call, possibly while they are speaking their position. Since you'd know there's a Mayday, you're also required to NOT press the transmit button, it's not optional.

Not sure how long people wait before trying to silence the alert, it can wake up dead people so it's usually a matter of seconds after one rushes to turn it off, well before formal acknowlegments, or more likely people switch their radios off altogether.

 

[Black Sheep]

Realistically you can silence the alarm before the speaking starts, since the person sending the mayday must press and hold the button etc. to send the DSC and then separately start the voice Mayday call afterwards. The Mayday call starts with Mayday three times, so you're really not missing much at the start while you press that single button to silence the alarm. As I said above, if you have it set up with a plotter you don't need to hear most of the message since you can see if it's a Mayday or PanPan, and you can see the location and vessel name on your screen. All you need to listen for is what the problem is.

Realistically, no I can't.
If I'm at the helm, hand steering, and the radio with all its fiddly buttons is below, then no, I can't just let go the tiller and deal with the radio. What's happening to the boat all this time?
And no, I don't have a plotter all nicely set up and connected to the radio.
Single handing I often don't use the ship's radio anyway - a handheld is adequate for most purposes. If I hear a Mayday load & clear then I know its local. Last time it happened, as soon as he mentioned the vessel name I knew immediately where to steer as I was aware of his position.

 

[lustyd]

So yes, poorly set up boats will obviously struggle. That's the case with everything on boats, if you set your boat up to be hard to use, it'll be hard to use. Fit a remote cockpit mic next to the tiller and your problem is completely solved. Fit the main radio, which is likely waterproof, next to the tiller and your problem is solved.

What's happening to the boat all this time?

The same thing that would be happening while you're below calling in your own Mayday.

 

[Black Sheep]

So yes, poorly set up boats will obviously struggle. That's the case with everything on boats, if you set your boat up to be hard to use, it'll be hard to use. Fit a remote cockpit mic next to the tiller and your problem is completely solved. Fit the main radio, which is likely waterproof, next to the tiller and your problem is solved.

Sorry, you're starting to get quite offensive. My boat is well set up for my purposes. You have no idea of the size shape or nature of my boat, or how I use it, so to start suggesting that it is "poorly set up" or "hard to use" is sheer arrogance.

One of the aspects of the boat that makes it easy to use is a simple and fit-for-purpose radio setup

 

[lustyd]

I'm sorry if you're choosing to take offence, none was intended. If you're not able to use your ships radio while using the ship that's poorly set up, it's not offensive it's stating a truth you're not prepared to hear. A ships radio is not an ornament it's a piece of safety and communication equipment and needs to be accessible and usable in an emergency, otherwise it serves no purpose.

 

[Black Sheep]

I'm sorry if you're choosing to take offence, none was intended. If you're not able to use your ships radio while using the ship that's poorly set up, it's not offensive it's stating a truth you're not prepared to hear. A ships radio is not an ornament it's a piece of safety and communication equipment and needs to be accessible and usable in an emergency, otherwise it serves no purpose.

I can use my ships radio perfectly well thank you.
If I were you, I'd stop digging.

 

[lustyd]

I can use my ships radio perfectly well thank you.
If I were you, I'd stop digging.

It was your post that said you couldn't. If you can, then great, I assume the below doesn't apply after all. I don't care either way, I was just highlighting that one installation which doesn't allow access from the helm does not mean that DSC is a failure, it's not.

Realistically, no I can't.
If I'm at the helm, hand steering, and the radio with all its fiddly buttons is below, then no, I can't just let go the tiller and deal with the radio

 

[Black Sheep]

And there you go again, putting words into my mouth.
I have never claimed that DSC is a failure. Merely that it has some big usability problems. It is not suitable for my circumstances, so I choose not to use it. I have explained why, but you have seemed to be incapable of accepting that but choose instead to make judgements on my setup from a position of profound ignorance.

 

[James_Calvert]

Obviously what every boat needs is a trained professional radio operator for their VHF.

Anything less is a compromise of some kind.

We do however have in our coastal waters a comprehensive system of professional shore based operators, the coastguard, who can largely cover our amateurish shortfalls.

 

[lustyd]

Obviously what every boat needs is a trained professional radio operator for their VHF.

It's barely more complex than a toaster, there are just a lot of people on these forums unwilling to put in the 5 minutes of effort to understand and properly install and configure it simply on the basis that it's "new" technology.

 

[James_Calvert]

No you're wrong.

A toaster is on when it's pushed down and has one rotary knob for adjustment.

Additionally it sits on a solid unmoving surface.

We have a new DSC AIS VHF. Barely used it last year, only used it for a few weeks this year. Has handy soft keys to get into the programming one way or another. But if you choose the wrong route you don't get where you thought you would.

In short it's like office computers were some decades ago, or video players of a similar era, when you could be effective if you used them daily, or were a 10 year old boy.

And these VHF courses don't do much more than tell you what you should be able to do, plus a little practice on their dummy sets. You need much more than that on your own set to be competent. So much easier for example to use your mobile phone on WhatsApp to keep in touch with your fellow sailors. So that's what we do and don't practice using DSC.

 

[Jamie Dundee]

Every day during the winter while the boat is on the hard and I’m working on it I send a dsc call from my ship’s radio to my handheld or visa versa. Now fairly up to speed with how things work, not difficult but practice does make things easier.

 

[Jamie Dundee]

So much easier for example to use your mobile phone on WhatsApp to keep in touch with your fellow sailors.

Good luck with WhatsApp if you ever come here. Various places where there is no mobile signal, I wouldn’t want to lose my engine in Calf Sound and rely on mobile comms.

 

[ashtead]

I am grateful to the many contributors here as I have pondered long and hard how to rid my set of alarm noise short of pressing button each time it goes off which thankfully is not too often .Curiously it also leads to an earlier unplugging of handset on arrival at destination than perhaps you used too with a non dsc set but in days of yore they had channel 0 crystals if you listened on a second hand set to activity I seemed to recall from my days of youth.

 

[Gary Fox]

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[Gary Fox]

Realistically, no I can't.
If I'm at the helm, hand steering, and the radio with all its fiddly buttons is below, then no, I can't just let go the tiller and deal with the radio. What's happening to the boat all this time?
And no, I don't have a plotter all nicely set up and connected to the radio.
Single handing I often don't use the ship's radio anyway - a handheld is adequate for most purposes. If I hear a Mayday load & clear then I know its local. Last time it happened, as soon as he mentioned the vessel name I knew immediately where to steer as I was aware of his position.

Spot on Black Sheep.