Little Dorrit
Well-Known Member
Does anyone know how much I should expect to pay to change the MMSI number on an Icom M411 VHF?
MMSI Number Change
- Thread starter Little Dorrit
- Start date
mikemanor
Well-Known Member
About £30 + vat
VicMallows
Well-Known Member
Perhaps you should also ask if anyone happens to know of a 'secret' process (often a specific sequence of button presses) to enable you to do it yourself on that particular radio.
I consider it outrageous that the MMSI is not supposed to be changeable by the user once entered. I cannot think of any sensible reason why this requirement was written into the specifications and can only conclude it was a clever ploy dreamt up by the manufacturers for profit and successfully 'sold' to the authorities
I consider it outrageous that the MMSI is not supposed to be changeable by the user once entered. I cannot think of any sensible reason why this requirement was written into the specifications and can only conclude it was a clever ploy dreamt up by the manufacturers for profit and successfully 'sold' to the authorities
PaulR
Well-Known Member
we bought an icom from force 4 and they programmed it in the shop - took a couple of minutes- don't know if same set up allows them to reprogramme but could be worth asking
Pye_End
Well-Known Member
Perhaps you should also ask if anyone happens to know of a 'secret' process (often a specific sequence of button presses) to enable you to do it yourself on that particular radio.
I consider it outrageous that the MMSI is not supposed to be changeable by the user once entered. I cannot think of any sensible reason why this requirement was written into the specifications and can only conclude it was a clever ploy dreamt up by the manufacturers for profit and successfully 'sold' to the authorities
Read somewhere that it was for anti-theft reasons.
ShinyShoe
Well-Known Member
Icoms need a programming cable and Software.
No secret button presses.
Rationalle for it not being changable is that the US wanted the sets to be supplied programmed, thereby enforcing registration and so when someone pressed the red button they were traceable. The programme once feature was adopted as a compromise. Afterall would you want someone to programme up their radio with say a MMSI for an official vessel, call you up and give you some official instruction that causes you danger or allows them to attack you etc and then reprogramme to be undetectable.
You can probably pick up the lead from ebay. There are some quite cheap (<£10) on there that list the IC-M421 that I suspect fit the 411 as well but without having a 411 in front of me I cant tell.
BUT the software is from iCOM and costs £90 a pop... and is specific to the model - CSM411
No secret button presses.
Rationalle for it not being changable is that the US wanted the sets to be supplied programmed, thereby enforcing registration and so when someone pressed the red button they were traceable. The programme once feature was adopted as a compromise. Afterall would you want someone to programme up their radio with say a MMSI for an official vessel, call you up and give you some official instruction that causes you danger or allows them to attack you etc and then reprogramme to be undetectable.
You can probably pick up the lead from ebay. There are some quite cheap (<£10) on there that list the IC-M421 that I suspect fit the 411 as well but without having a 411 in front of me I cant tell.
BUT the software is from iCOM and costs £90 a pop... and is specific to the model - CSM411
superheat6k
Well-Known Member
Try PRSComms. Excellent service at reasonable price. Find them on EBay
prv
Well-Known Member
...which seems odd because 'Murricans don't require a station license or operator's certificate in their home waters, and the MMSI numbers for leisure vessels are handed out by BoatUS which seems to be a combination insurance company, magazine publisher, and maritime breakdown operator. Hardly a state surveillance apparatus.
Pete
ShinyShoe
Well-Known Member
But to use a DSC set (to its full potential) it has to have an MMSI. So you can back door registration without the constitution being thrown at you.
BoatUS is a Boat Owners Association. They do sell insurance. They do have a breakdown scheme. Not sure about the publishing, is that just their own newsletter?
This wasn't about state surveillence. This was about stopping someone putting in 1234567890 as a number then hitting the big red button and no-one being able to work out who hit the button. Bear in mind there is no requirement to have a current position, so you can have people firing off mayday calls left right and centre and be virtually untraceable. Made worse because the data burst is short so direction finding is not possible.
The more times an MMSI is entered the more times it might be entered wrong. So if you could swap sets between boats - maybe you have a yacht and a motor boat and you want to flip between MMSIs and move the radio back and forth at some point you might key it wrong. That means they may think MMSI 1234567899 is sinking which just so happens to be a cruiseliner when in fact 1234567890 is sinking which is a 16ft motorboat. The two will get very different responses...
Its NOT a surveillance apparatus to know who's doing what. Its a tool that means if 1234567899 is sinking they know who and what they are and have landline contact details to try and rule out false alarms.
BoatUS is a Boat Owners Association. They do sell insurance. They do have a breakdown scheme. Not sure about the publishing, is that just their own newsletter?
This wasn't about state surveillence. This was about stopping someone putting in 1234567890 as a number then hitting the big red button and no-one being able to work out who hit the button. Bear in mind there is no requirement to have a current position, so you can have people firing off mayday calls left right and centre and be virtually untraceable. Made worse because the data burst is short so direction finding is not possible.
The more times an MMSI is entered the more times it might be entered wrong. So if you could swap sets between boats - maybe you have a yacht and a motor boat and you want to flip between MMSIs and move the radio back and forth at some point you might key it wrong. That means they may think MMSI 1234567899 is sinking which just so happens to be a cruiseliner when in fact 1234567890 is sinking which is a 16ft motorboat. The two will get very different responses...
Its NOT a surveillance apparatus to know who's doing what. Its a tool that means if 1234567899 is sinking they know who and what they are and have landline contact details to try and rule out false alarms.
VicMallows
Well-Known Member
So we are stuck with a system where, if you make an error when entering the MMSI the one and only time allowed, you are stuck with a wrong MMSI for ever (unless you pay an exorbitant fee to a dealer.
I wonder how many get entered wrongly and the owner never gets around to doing anything about it because it is such a palava. Remember that we can no longer buy non-DSC fixed sets, so some people will have them because they primarily want a voice radio and are not particularly bothered about the added safety benefits of DSC.ShinyShoe
Well-Known Member
Some sets will let you change it once or twice, but all are limited in someway. The 411 manual says its a once only program but some other icom's allow twice programming. It would be worth checking it doesn't do the same as the 402 did - you could access the DSC programmer by holding down the DSC button while turning the set on on the 402, so just double check you can't on the 411 by holding down MENU while turning it on..
If you know you can only get one shot you'll be more careful when entering it.
But I agree the M411 is a pretty bad UI and I think there will be a risk of entry error. But its a bad UI across the board. Why anyone ever designed a LCD screen that should be used for dialing a 9 digit number that couldn't show all 9 digits I'll never understand. Added to that its not capable of showing a full Long Lat on screen at once...
If you know you can only get one shot you'll be more careful when entering it.
But I agree the M411 is a pretty bad UI and I think there will be a risk of entry error. But its a bad UI across the board. Why anyone ever designed a LCD screen that should be used for dialing a 9 digit number that couldn't show all 9 digits I'll never understand. Added to that its not capable of showing a full Long Lat on screen at once...
coaster63
Well-Known Member
my standard horizon 1500e has managed to loose its MMSI & of course won't allow me to re-enter No. so unless its a sequence of button presses to self program, its staying as a voice radio only for now as I'm not inclined to return to Winchester for a 2minute £30 fix!