"Wayne.B" wrote
"Jack Painter"
wrote:

Is this clear what your first steps should be, ie: obtaining an owner's
manual, determining what your radio is capable of, then registering an
MMSI
via phone and programming or letting a BOAT-US associate do it for you,
then
hooking up your GPS according to the instruction manuals, and operating
your
radio in accordance with it's instruction manuals?

===========================

It's very clear thanks, but it doesn't really address my concern.

My concern is that there doesn't seem to be anyway to test it and see
if it's actually working as intended. My 40+ years of experience with
things electronic has lead me to believe that nothing should be
assumed to work unless it gets tested periodically.


Understandably. And aside from finding equipment such as Bruce mentioned
that could "read" the output sent to a dummy-load, there is no way to know
if your distress button will really take a valid output from your GPS, add
it to the programmed MMSI, and transmit it on Ch-70. That's the way it is,
and if you can come up with a convincing argument to change that, which
won't overload the whole system, by all means do so.

When HF-DSC was tested daily by the rule, it overwhelmed the whole HF-DSC
system worldwide. It took ITU a long time to amend that to require weekly
testing, and several months later, the system is still inundated with
testing.

There is a fair amount of "testing" VHF-DSC that goes on anyway, and unless
the boater or ship who did it acknowledges it was a test (almost never
happens), the USCG must devote significant time and effort before it can
finally be classified as an uncorrelated mayday and cancelled. While it is
unauthorized use of a transmitter to make any kind of live VHF-DSC distress
testing, the cost to the USCG in search time when the sender does not
acknowledge his "test" can be substantial. I don't know of a case in 5th
District where anyone was prosecuted even for not acknowledging their
"test", and we often do find them. So at least admitting to a "test" would
be an honorable thing to do, and probably not result in any repercussions
unless it became a habit.


Jack