French Radio - DSC??

[poter]

New boat located S of France, Need a new VHF radio, what do I buy?
are DSC radios in use? do french coastguard moniter channel 16?
or am I completely off track?
Is there an emergency frequency?


poter

 

[Roberto]

Hi Poter,

funny situation now in France: dsc radios are already in use, the ANFR (french equiv of Offcom) has issued ship licences for DSC stations
but
until now, the ministry hasn t indicated the program to get the dsc update for the operator certificate, this means that french pleasure vessels with dsc equipment are somewhat illegal as their operators have not the relevant dsc certificate

However, if you have a British SRC certificate, you would not have any problems. Just keep in mind that for the moment DSC equipment is more a big ship thing than pleasure boats'.

CG monitors ch16 of course

 

[Sea Devil]

Not only does the DSC system not really impact on French pleasure boats but many actually carry their mobile telephones as the primary system for getting help - seems to work quite well.

French cc do indeed monitor ch16 - all marinas monitor 9 I would just buy any good set but not bother to enable it for DSC

 

[Anonymous]

[ QUOTE ]
Not only does the DSC system not really impact on French pleasure boats but many actually carry their mobile telephones as the primary system for getting help - seems to work quite well.

[/ QUOTE ]Sailing around Brittany, Normandy and the Channel Islands we have often found that the mobile signal (Orange and O2) is unusable. I wouldn't start off by trying the mobile if I was in trouble!

 

[Mike_Martin]

Poter,

Rather than listening to "opinions" on here contact the French Coastguard centre where the boat is and ask them>

Mike