CALL button
Used to set up all types of call - Distress, Urgency, Safety and
Other (e.g. routine intership; ship's business; link calls). The types of
DSC call that may be available to you are:
Distress Alert.
Distress Relay Alert (all stations and individual).- Urgency (all stations and individual).
Safety (all stations and individual).
Other individual (routine; ship's business; telephone call). - Group Call (for calling your fleet with a single call, rather than
individually).
Geographic Area Call (allows calls to be limited to a particular
geographical area, specified by yourself, for each call)
DIRECTORY
Lets you store the name and MMSI of ships and coast stations
you call regularly, or expect to call.
RX MESSAGE LOG
A record, or log, of received DSC alerts (up to the last 100, depending
on model). Allows you to look back at previously received alerts to confirm
type of alert; MMSI of calling vessel; voice working channel requested;
and, for Distress Alerts only - position/nature of distress. Within the Rx
message log you may also be offered the facility to:
- ACK - an Acknowledge function - available for received Distress
Alerts and for routine intership calls addressed to your own vessel -
there's no point in the calling vessel going to the working channel if
the called vessel has not received (and acknowledged) your DSC Alert! - RELAY - available for received Distress Alerts only.
You should not use the Distress Ack, or the Distress Relay, unless
you have gone through the relevant procedures.
You should never 'ACK' to a vessel in Distress, on HF - neither by
voice nor by DSC.
HF Distress Relays should be sent to a particular Coast Station/
MRCC of your choice, not to All Ships.
The majority of false DSC Alerts, which have been a major
problem with the GMDSS, have been due to 'Ack' and 'Relay'
actions, from ships, which should not have been sent or were
wrongly addressed to All Stations.MARINE COMMUNICATIONS 145