DSC Rant

[Robin]

The dreaded banshee alarm again. We were moored up in Lymington, quite enjoying a peaceful afternoon when the alarm went off on a nearby mobo, their speaker was up on the flbridge but they were ashore having forgotten to switch off the VHF after the forecast... It went on and on and ON until fortunately after 20 minutes the HM arrived and was persuaded to go on board to silence it, another 5 and I might have done it myself, with an axe. [/Rant]

 

[Birdseye]

Look at it another way - thats the alarm on the deck of a tramp steamer that might yet save your neck by sounding until the watchkeeper wakes up.

The problem is the mobo skipper (sorry, should have said driver) not the dsc. Its him you should use the axe on.

 

[jimg]

What's the difference between a skipper and a driver? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[fireball]

I agree .... ours went off on Saturday - it is always just as you're about to do something - I was on the foredeck just about to drop the anchor ... we weren't even going out of the harbour - ended up turning the unit off ...

I still believe you should be able to program the unit to select what alarms/alerts you receive - probably with a range selection. Eg, there is absolutely no point in me on my vessel receiving a Mayday call for someone over 6Nms (the distance I could reasonable travel within an hour) away in the confines of the solent, equally there is no point me receiving All Ships warnings for something outside my intended sailing area.

So for Mayday calls - perhaps the domestic VHF should hold off on an alert for calls outside a user-defined range unless not acknowledged by the CG or Ship within a short time period (say 30 seconds or 1minute?).
And for All Ships warnings a similar system of filtering could take place.

I never did find out what the All Ships was for ...

 

[alldownwind]

[ QUOTE ]
................Eg, there is absolutely no point in me on my vessel receiving a Mayday call for someone over 6Nms (the distance I could reasonable travel within an hour) away in the confines of the solent, ...

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes there is a point, you might conceivably be the only person to hear it. If you did not hear a response, you would then do a Mayday Relay to the CG.

 

[fireball]

Read the rest of the post .... [ QUOTE ]
So for Mayday calls - perhaps the domestic VHF should hold off on an alert for calls outside a user-defined range unless not acknowledged by the CG or Ship within a short time period (say 30 seconds or 1minute?).

[/ QUOTE ]