Silva DSC & alarms - east coast sailors

[tugela]

Having viewed the recent posts re dsc alarms and some not so recent posts re the silva s15 -

and - having recently purchased the silva s15 vhf dsc with navtex before having read all these!

- I have two questions:

1) has anyone sailing the east coast (Suffolk to Kent) had the same problems with incessant and unnecessary alarms on the dsc?

2) Has anyone who has got the s15 got anything positive to say about it?

 

[wicked]

Yes, the best thing about the S15 is the little wire wrap bag ties that come wrapped around the power cables etc. They are really useful for tying up the tops of your bin bags before you put them out for collection.

Dave

 

[tugela]

ok, that has come in handy, thankyou.

Now that my wife is happy about my attention to domestic refuse....

Is there nobody using dsc on the east coast?

Is there nobody happy with a silva s15?

 

[davidwf]

I use DSC on East Coast not had too many alerts yet certainly not enough to cause me to switch it off. I seem to remember that at one point last year or perhaps the tail end of 2003 the coastguard were using it for their weather forecast but then seemed to give up on it. Did have one when I was sat at chart, table nearly gave me a heart attack.

No real experience of Silva, had a Simrad RD68 and just bought an Icom for new boat.

 

[RivalRedwing]

Agree, DSC fairly quiet on the East Coast, only irritating on one weekend last season and then only for a few hours (hourly broadcast by coastguard looking for a stolen boat). One could make some suggestions as to why but it might cause offence!

 

[AlexL]

yeah I've had problems with DSC alarms - like people have said its fairly quiet then one weekend theres loads of them - then nothing for months - on the few weekends when theres loads I turn off the radio. Remember with the Navtex built into the radio you cannot leave the radio on permanently like most people do with navtex's to collect data whilst you're of the boat. If you leave the radio on and a DSC alarm occurs whilst you are away from the boat you will not be very popular - in fact I should imagine that someone would access your boat (legally or otherwise) to shut it up

 

[wicked]

Actually you can with the latest software for the S15 leave te radio on in order to collect the NAVTEX without the DSC alarms causing a problem. What you have to do is select External Speaker Only output, then unplug the external speaker. NAVTEX still works but the radio remains silent when unattended.

Dave