The choice that will be exercised is more likely to be for equipment
used for day-ta-day 'other' communications - whether to use the Marine
MF/HF Radio for telephone/telex/e-mail services; whether to fit
additional Inmarsat (A/B/M/Mini-M) - or some other non-GMDSS
satellite communications equipment; or whether to use both SSB Radio
and satcom equipment, for different tasks.
Commercial vessels not subject to SOLAS - including commercial
fishing vessels and commercial yachts - are likely to be instructed on
the type/amount of radio/satcom equipment to be fitted by their
country of registration. Equipment required may have to meet full
SOLAS 'type approval' or may, at the discretion of the administration,
be of a lesser standard to that required by SOLAS vessels.A summary of the most common type of equipment required and
available for fitting for GMDSS purposes, according to Sea Area of
Operation, is shown below.
Vessels operating in Sea Area
Al A2 A3 A4
Marine VHF radio transceiver with DSC,
including a Ch70 watch receiver (Note 1)
" " " "
NAVTEX receiver (Note 2)
" "
MF/HF MSI receiver (Note 3)
" " "
EGC receiver (Note 4)
EPIRB (Note 5) " " "
SART (Note 6) " " " "
Survival craft hand-held VHF sets (Note 7) " " " "
" " " "
Hand-held VHF radio sets (Note 8)
Marine MF IHF SSB radio with DSC, " " " "
including MF/HF scanning receiver (Note 9)
Inmarsat-C transceiver (Note 10) "
Airband transceiver (Note 11) "
Fast rescue craft (FRC) helmets (Note 12) " " " "
" " " "
In addition to the above, vessels may be fitted with Inmarsat-A;
Inmarsat-B; Inmarsat-M/Mini-M; regional cellular/satellite systems (e.g.,MARINE COMMUNICATIONS 225