Page 25: of Marine News Magazine (December 2015)

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Credit: Savox Communications

Aerials mounted high can give a ‘ship to ship’ VHF range of over 50 nautical miles. Range between small boats with low aerials can be less than 5 nautical miles in certain con- ditions. This limited range of VHF is a bene? t in crowded waters as it reduces the overlap of radio traf? c between small vessels. A vessel in distress wants other vessels in range to come to their assistance, as they will often be ? rst on the scene in areas where there is limited rescue coverage.

Mariners on small craft are still trained in VHF tech- niques with focus on the mayday distress call. Digital Se- lective Calling (DSC) capability allows a distress signal to be sent with a single press button on the radio which can be integrated with onboard GPS to transmit position.

There is now a strong link between GPS and communica- tion as the digitally generated location is expected to be more accurate than human error interpreting a position or confusion from spoken words and numbers in a voice only distress call. www.marinelink.com

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