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 be offered the facility to:- ACK - an Acknowledge function - available for received Distress
Alerts and for individual calls addressed to your own vessel. There is
no point in the calling vessel going to the working channel if the
called vessel has not received {and acknowledged} the DSC Alert!
RELAY - available for received Distress Alerts only.
You should not use the Distress Ack nor the Distress Relay unless you
have gone through the contact procedures detailed in Chapter 5. 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.
Test
The only test which should be carried out on your VHF DSC
equipment is the daily internal test, without transmitting live Signals.
There should be no need to conduct live test calls on Ch70 if you are
using DSC on a regular basis to make contact with other vessels/coast
stations.
Manual position
If your equipment is not interfaced with and receiving regular
position updates from a G PS unit, you should update your position,
manually, at least once each watch {i.e. at least once every four hours}
when at sea.Date/time
All received DSC Alerts will have the date and time receivedMARINE COMMUNICATIONS 133