VHF _ DSC Alarm yesteday - what is it?

In the intervening decade the use of DSC seems to have considerably expanded to the point where we have to turn the set off.

It's almost entirely Spanish coastguard announcements about everything from the weather to migrant boats. I really don't think it's an appropriate use of DSC. This stuff should be done with routine calls not triggering a bloody alarm on every boat.

Sadly I still have to go below to ignore them.
 
Might be worth buying a cheap plotter for the cockpit to save your sanity. Of course then you may have to merge NMEA versions if your VHF is too old as I just discovered that new plotters dropped old NMEA a while ago
 
Cockpit Ram Mike makes cancelling a dsc alert effortless. It's hardly difficult to press a button?
Like others , it's so easy to do a course then years later forget most of it.
On board electronics often come with more features than needed and often supported by thick user manuals.
The difficult part is trying to remember how everything works !
 
Not exactly cheap though.
The standard horizon ram Mike is £150 for the cordless or corded.
Has every function the base unit has and has an amazingly loud and clear speaker.
Can use it to navigate to way points, see sog, cog, compass, lat and long , intercom between base and ram (very handy on a small boat ?)
It does solve the problem of whether to have an external or internal mounted vhf.
 

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VHF_ DSC Alarm



I'm going to ask this question again because i cant see a straightforward answer yet.
I passed my dsc licence 3 years ago but until 3 weeks ago i didnt have a dsc set. If i was told how to respond to a dsc alert on the course, i have forgotten. Ive even dug out my course notes and my hand written notes but they seem to concentrate on mmsi numbers and when to press the mayday/ distress button. I now have an icom 411. Please, if the alarm goes off, what do i do, which buttons do i press?

Thank you


Manual page on subject, complete manual here http://www.bdsac.org.gg/manuals/VHF.pdf
Edit: I don't understand this sentence "While monitoring Channel 70 and a ...." as a DSC radio should always monitor the DSC channel.

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The standard horizon ram Mike is £150 for the cordless or corded.
Has every function the base unit has and has an amazingly loud and clear speaker.
Can use it to navigate to way points, see sog, cog, compass, lat and long , intercom between base and ram (very handy on a small boat ?)
It does solve the problem of whether to have an external or internal mounted vhf.
Rappey, does the RAM unit allow you to have a silent base unit below decks when its speaker is switched on? Or do alarms and calls sound on both? I guess the volume below could at least be turned right down if you're listening in the cockpit.
 
The standard horizon ram Mike is £150 for the cordless or corded.
Has every function the base unit has and has an amazingly loud and clear speaker.
Can use it to navigate to way points, see sog, cog, compass, lat and long , intercom between base and ram (very handy on a small boat ?)
It does solve the problem of whether to have an external or internal mounted vhf.
I think mine was £20 on ebay. The benefits of embracing older technology....tends to work.....cheap. none of this nmea2000 rubbish..haha
 
We have got to the point of turning our cockpit VHF speaker off now in the Solent - due the listening to crap and these alarms. For night watches sleeping it has become a nightmare to be woken by these often irrelevant alarms. An improvement would be for the actual VHF unit speaker to be turned off (for night watch sleepers) but this is not possible at least on our SH2200. You can only switch the external speaker on and off by fitting an extra swith.
 
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