Communications, Signals and AIS/Inland AIS
Communications, signals and AIS/Inland AIS tests your radio procedure, your sound and light signals, and your ability to use Inland AIS as one aid rather than a substitute for looking out of the window.
Radio
- VHF channel 16 for distress, urgency and calling; channel 70 is DSC only - never speak on it. The ship-to-ship working channel on the Danube is normally channel 10; port and lock channels are published locally.
- MAYDAY (distress), PAN-PAN (urgency), SÉCURITÉ (safety); speak slowly, give identity, position by kilometre mark and bank, nature of distress, persons on board, assistance required.
- Use the phonetic alphabet and standard phrases; keep a listening watch on the prescribed channel.
Signals
- Sound: one short = altering to starboard, two short = to port, three short = engines astern, one long = warning at bends or leaving a berth.
- Lights at night under way: masthead, sidelights, sternlight; not under command: two red all-round lights; at anchor: one white all-round light.
- Shapes: black ball at anchor; blue cone by day and blue light by night = dangerous goods, keep clear.
Inland AIS
Inland AIS transmits standard AIS data plus the ENI number and blue-cone status, feeding CPA/TCPA and identity to other vessels and authorities. It is only as good as your input: a wrong ENI, wrong destination or switched-off transponder makes you invisible or misleading.
Worked example
Your engine fails mid-channel with the current setting you toward a bridge pier. Send a DSC distress alert on channel 70, then a MAYDAY on channel 16: "MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, motor vessel X, position rkm 1650 right bank, engine failure, drifting toward bridge, five persons on board, request immediate assistance." Then warn traffic on the working channel.
Traps
Chatting on channel 16; relying on AIS alone where small craft and ferries do not transmit; forgetting the blue cone; giving a position without a kilometre mark.