Question: I rarely receive a DSC Distress Alert directly from the
vessel in distress - but I receive lots of DSC 'Distress Relay' and
'Distress Acknowledgement', from other ships, often from many
hundreds or even thousands of miles away. How should I deal with
these Relay/Acknowledgements without condemning myself, in my
own radio log, for not doing the right thing?
Answer: When you receive a 'DSC Distress Relay' or a 'DSC Distress
Ack' - you know that another vessel, or a Coast Station/MRCC,
already knows about the problem - so there should be no need for
your own vessel to Relay or Acknowledge by DSC. You only have to
decide, according to the casualty's location, whether you are in a
position to help or not - your 'radio' action will depend on that
decision.The Master of the vessel should make sure that all officers
keeping a navigation watch understand the Master's requirements
regarding logging/reporting of Distress Alerts (and other distress
traffic). Additionally the regulations regarding the use of the 'DSC
Distress Relay' and the 'DSC Distress Acknowledgement' function
suggest that, with very few exceptions, such transmissions should only
take place after the Master has been informed of the situation and is
actively involved on the bridge.False DSC Distress Alerts
It is possible, when testing or becoming familiar with DSC
equipment, aCcidentally to send a Distress Alert. Unlike your Inmarsat
system, which delivers a Distress Alert direct to a MRCC - a DSC Distress
Alert will always be 'All Ships' - alerting a large number of people to
your 'problem' and causing them to think that there is a real distress
situation.
With Inmarsat, you made a telephone call/sent a cancellation
message directly to the MRCC that received your false alert. With DSC,
you have to get a cancellation message to every ship, and Coast Station/
MRCC, which received your false Distress Alert. The way to do this is
to make a voice call (or telex if indicated in the DSC alert), on the channel!
frequency indicated in the Distress Alert. There are a number of
possibilities, e.g:
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