I now never turn on my VHF radio...

[harvey38]

... because I'm sick of the all too frequent ear-piercing DSC alarms that go off - and require me to go below to cancel them!

If I need to use the VHF (say to call ahead to a harbour) then I'll turn it on, wait a few minutes to check there is no other (urgent) traffic, then make my own call, after which I'll turn it off again.

It doesn't help being Solent-based of course!

I think the problem is more with your set up than the DSC alarms.......

I have a command mic on the upper helm, if a DSC is triggered, I look at the plotter and if I can help I will do, if not I can easily cancel the alarm, all over in less than five seconds.

If you turn your set off, why do you have a DSC unit? If you did need the assistance of others, you may not have the time to go below, turn it on, wait for GPS acquisition then hope that not everyone else took you attitude and only turned on the VHF when they wanted something.

 

[ylop]

Slightly off topic…. If you have a small boat with limited electrical resources, very simple systems and a hand held VHF as the only radio, are you obliged to keep it switched on at all times to monitor 16? Or is it ok just to switch on when you need to use it yourself? Basically talking about limited inshore cruising, mostly in daylight.
What do you think ? Is it irresponsible only to have a h/h do you think?

Obliged is a strong word. In/near some ports/harbours you may be required to monitor a channel (not usually 16).

Twice this year I've been the "third closest" (and least appropriate!) boat to PanPan calls. I was not needed but both had potential to develop to Mayday calls if someone had not been close at hand. Even your small boat may be some reassurance or assistance if someone else's day has gone bad.

Sea kayakers often don't turn their VHF on (if they carry one), the chances they will be able to help others is very low, but I've heard calls about them where someone has thought they were in trouble when they were not, or even "all ships" messages from the CG asking if anyone has seen X today - again they might have information, etc.

A handheld "listening only" uses very little power (a DSC one with gps built in will use considerably more but still should last for a full day of inshore, daylight sailing - DSC ones will take longer to "wake up" when you turn them on too). Even with simple electrical systems it is not difficult to charge a h/h whilst afloat if you are doing longer passages, and small solar panels, USB power banks etc really mean "saving battery" is really a bit of a thing of the past.

So if it was me, I would have it turned on.

 

[Irish Rover]

I'm based in the Eastern Aegean Sea but I cruised through the Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Island this year. I take the boat out locally here almost every day and longer trips a few times every year. I've had a DSC enabled VHF for 12 years or so. I think I've heard maximum 4/5 DSC alarms in that time and none this year. Is it just a UK problem.

 

[capnsensible]

I'm based in the Eastern Aegean Sea but I cruised through the Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Island this year. I take the boat out locally here almost every day and longer trips a few times every year. I've had a DSC enabled VHF for 12 years or so. I think I've heard maximum 4/5 DSC alarms in that time and none this year. Is it just a UK problem.

Try the Western Med, Gib Straits and all around the Canary Islands. Main illegal immigrant routes.

 

[B27]

I have no idea what WYC ribs are like - but I've tried calling quite a few YC ribs on Ch16 rarely with success (Including on one occasion to tell them I had one of the dinghies they were supposed to be watching in tow as they had broken their rudder!). I know of one crew who seemed surprised that the lifeboat were called to tow in a small yacht when they could easily have done it... but when I asked "no we only have the radio on M1".
.....

I'm surprised people who've done a VHF course, and got a certificate and all that, don't know that shore stations like Sailing Clubs are mainly only licensed for Ch M1. That's why they're all using it for race management.

In many places, M1 is much busier than 16.
Some other places, it's more useful to listen on the port control channel.

 

[Irish Rover]

Try the Western Med, Gib Straits and all around the Canary Islands. Main illegal immigrant routes.

Unfortunately I'm also in an irregular migrant hotspot where the separation between Türkiye and Greece is as narrow as 1,000 metres. I hear plenty of VHF exchanges between the Turkish and Greek coast guards regarding migrant boats but zero DSC alerts. Who's making the DSC calls in the western Med?

 

[capnsensible]

Unfortunately I'm also in an irregular migrant hotspot where the separation between Türkiye and Greece is as narrow as 1,000 metres. I hear plenty of VHF exchanges between the Turkish and Greek coast guards regarding migrant boats but zero DSC alerts. Who's making the DSC calls in the western Med?

Coastguard Radio Stations.

 

[Boathook]

I'm based in the Eastern Aegean Sea but I cruised through the Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Island this year. I take the boat out locally here almost every day and longer trips a few times every year. I've had a DSC enabled VHF for 12 years or so. I think I've heard maximum 4/5 DSC alarms in that time and none this year. Is it just a UK problem.

UK and France just recently. A few years ago the French seemed to be using the dcs alert for shipping forecasts but recently I've been noticing more alerts from them for panpans and I'm sailing around Poole Bay.

 

[Irish Rover]

Coastguard Radio Stations.

Sorry for my ignorance, but to what end? Who are the calls directed at?

 

[wonkywinch]

Sorry for my ignorance, but to what end? Who are the calls directed at?

The coastguard pings everyone ("all ships") with an alert call to draw attention to a voice message on CH16 that then tells them to listen to another channel, usually 62 for a warning, weather report etc.

This happens several times a day in the Solent and I automatically press cancel alert, check the MMSI (CG is usually 0023 instead of 2320/2350 etc for vessels) then close the message. I never used to check the MMSI number until I missed a DSC from a mate a few months back. Unfortunately the alert sound cannot be set for different types of alert/distress hence why it's annoying the OP.

 

[MontyMariner]

I bought a DSC VHF radio to upgrade, but reading how much grief people get from DSC alerts, I'm now tempted to retain ye olde non-DSC one (except the new one has a command mike for the cockpit which won't work with the old radio).

If you don't want DSC alarms / functionality don't program the VHF with your MMSI, it will then behave like your old set.

 

[Telstar26]

No longer being a Solent sallor, I've only ever had one DSC alarm. But are there really that many distress calls in the Solent? Or are the alarms for All Ships (safety/urgency) calls? In which case the alarm sound can probably be turned off - it can on my Standard Horizon GX1400: Setup / DSC / Beep.

 

[st599]

I have no idea what WYC ribs are like - but I've tried calling quite a few YC ribs on Ch16 rarely with success (Including on one occasion to tell them I had one of the dinghies they were supposed to be watching in tow as they had broken their rudder!). I know of one crew who seemed surprised that the lifeboat were called to tow in a small yacht when they could easily have done it... but when I asked "no we only have the radio on M1".

M1 and M2 are often used on a Coastal Station Licence by YCs without the operators needing an SRC. They can be used for race control, berthing etc. and often the YC will get the radios locked to only those 2 frequencies.

 

[wonkywinch]

If you don't want DSC alarms / functionality don't program the VHF with your MMSI, it will then behave like your old set.

The problem is you can't alter the MMSI once programmed (OFCOM regs) so unless it's never been programmed, this is not an option. I have a fairly old B&G V50/H50 set and it offers the option to disable DSC although warns against doing so.

 

[st599]

I'm based in the Eastern Aegean Sea but I cruised through the Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Island this year. I take the boat out locally here almost every day and longer trips a few times every year. I've had a DSC enabled VHF for 12 years or so. I think I've heard maximum 4/5 DSC alarms in that time and none this year. Is it just a UK problem.

In the Solent, you quite often hear a Radio Check call every 15 mins or so. DSC alarms probably every hour or so. The Coastguard use them to tell you their four hourly weather forecast is coming up on Channel 62, they also relay every Pan Pan and Mayday they get which on a windy summer day, can be many. (Round the Island Race day is a favourite - I think the record was 19 concurrent Maydays being dealt with by Coastguard and RNLI)

 

[st599]

The problem is you can't alter the MMSI once programmed (OFCOM regs)

ITU Regs

 

[LittleSister]

If you don't want DSC alarms / functionality don't program the VHF with your MMSI, it will then behave like your old set.

I may try that.

I previously had a DSC set [I think I had programmed the MMSI], and aside from normal incoming alarms (which didn't seem horrribly frequent, but it was quite a few years ago), the set would sound off the alarm itself often (every hour?) to warn me it didn't have a GPS position. (That was because I didn't then have a GPS! )

 

[Mister E]

DSC alerts in the Lake Solent often comes up. A non disclosure handheld solves that problem.
Just watch out if you fall in and use your handheld to call for help you could get run down in the stampede.

Meanwhile it the rest of the more civilised sailing areas these alerts are not where near as numerous.

Ps some of this is slightly tongue in cheek.

 

[rotrax]

My personal US perspective. Not sayin' it's right, not trying to persuade anyone. Just reporting what I do.

• I use VHF to call draw bridges. Not often, but every year.
• If I'm calling a harbor or marina I use the phone. Why would I want everyone listening?
• I have never used VHF to call a boater. I have their cell phone number. But mostly, sailing is time AWAY from the phone.
• I will listen in areas with heavy commercial traffic and in canals.
• I have used a cell phone to call the USCG twice (non-emergency--one possible health problem with crew, the other related to markers off-station). They called me back via cell phone. Much better than VHF. If I had an emergency call, I would use the phone as the connection is much better. I would have the VHF available.
• I used to use it for weather, but a smart phone is better, so that use is obsolete.

Sometimes I listen, but mostly only in the off season, when the traffic is less, the idiots clogging the airwaves are fewer, and problems more likely to be serious with fewer responders. But the DCS other useless chatter is too much. 95% is junk.

Perhaps it is time to pivot away from using VHF for any purpose that does NOT involve all of the boaters around you. No calling friends, marinas, non-emergency calls, restaurants, reporting the fish you caught, or anything other than navigation or some state of distress. The private calls are better handled by cell phones.

If VHF was distress and nav only I would leave it on. I think many feel that way. I always felt, starting in my first boating days 40 years ago, that the VHF was not a toy for chatter. Only vital stuff.

https://navcen.uscg.gov/sites/defau...orce/Use_of_Cell_Phones_for_Alerting_Rev2.pdf

I have noticed in busy US areas, mostly when charter fishing, the lack of Radio Ettiquette as we are taught here in Europe. Lots of chattering on 16, mostly fishing buddies talking about how its going or good timers boasting how many chicks/cans of beer/donuts/chicken wings they have on board.

We dont get too much of that, but the incessant "Solent Coastguard - radio check please!" does get a bit wearing around here.

I call up NCI on 65 if I need a comms check.

Spent 10 weeks on board this year, radio traffic appeared much less than normal. East as far as Littlehampton, West as far as Falmouth, South as far as Cherbourg. DSC alarms not a problem for us as the set is in the pilothouse alongside the wheel.

 

[ylop]

I'm surprised people who've done a VHF course, and got a certificate and all that, don't know that shore stations like Sailing Clubs are mainly only licensed for Ch M1. That's why they're all using it for race management.

In many places, M1 is much busier than 16.
Some other places, it's more useful to listen on the port control channel.

I do understand this (although to be honest I don't actually remember it being covered on the course). They could be on M1 or M2. I've no issue at all with them using M1/M2 for their event chatter - that's the purpose. But their safety boats aren't shore stations. Am I supposed to guess if they are on M1 or M2? Is the coastguard calling all stations in X area supposed to make a special call to them (who might be the best equipped boat nearby!) on M1 then try M2 if no response? Modern radios (anything new enough to be waterproof!) all support dual watch. Back in ye olden days with lots of local MRCCs they might have had a clue who was likely to be out racing and a phone number - but with far fewer MRCCs and the potential that the working has been switched to an alternative MRCC due to call volume its unlikely they even know if theres likely to be a club rib around.

I regularly listen on both 16 and the VTS/Port Control Channel, either dual watch or with main set + handheld on different channels.

M1 and M2 are often used on a Coastal Station Licence by YCs without the operators needing an SRC. They can be used for race control, berthing etc. and often the YC will get the radios locked to only those 2 frequencies.

I don't think any safety boat should be operating with just M1/2 - they should have Ch16 there is always the possibility that they, or one of the boats in their charge, will need to make a distress call. It might be a training issue, or a "lets keep the focus on our race not the public" issue, but can you imagine explaining to the MAIB/coroner that your Safety Boats don't keep a listening watch on the internationally accepted distress channel so were unaware that a member of the public was in trouble just 1/2 mile from you until the CG chopper turned up?