Most of the recreational radios scan 70 most all the time, so if there's
anybody within range with a recent radio, DSC is going to get their
attention.
And if you are out of range of VHF, you're out of range, DSC or not.
The selective calling thing works, though ICOM's human factors to use it
suck. SH's human factor are great -- both radios get set to the working
channel, ring like a telephone, pick up the mike and talk. That's it.
"Larry" wrote in message ...
"RB" wrote in news
l5Lf.25391$Ly6.24795
@bignews5.bellsouth.net:
What is the DSC term used with marine VHFs?
A half-assed, 1980's digital technology invented to call one ship from
another so shipping companies can eliminate the expensive crew position of
radio officer the unions used to force upon them with government
intervention. It was poorly planned, draggedly implemented causing its
effectiveness to be very poor in emergency conditions.
The attempts to implement it in yacht transcievers with only a one-push-
button emergency mode plus a one-at-a-time selective calling feature is
nearly useless as the radios only switch to Channel 16 for FM voice if
someone within the 10-15 miles of VHF range happens to be listening to
DSC's channel 70, which only the ships are, forced by international law to
do so.
If you're "out there" and cannot see a ship on the horizon and are further
than 20 miles at sea, noone will hear the call....so don't think DSC is
going to save you any more than channel 16 is under these conditions. Buy
a 406 Mhz EPIRB with a GPS receiver in it and properly register it.
"They" are listening to it because "they" are using it to save their own
asses. http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s1199.htm