Location and use of life-saving equipment and communication devices
What this domain tests
You must know what each locating and communication device does, where it is kept and how it is switched on, because in a craft you may have only seconds to make yourself seen.
Devices and their jobs
- EPIRB: 406 MHz distress beacon, float-free on the bridge with a hydrostatic release, picked up by the COSPAS-SARSAT satellites, with 121.5 MHz for homing. Register it to the ship; use the self-test, never a live 406 MHz test.
- SART: 9 GHz X-band radar transponder. When interrogated by a searching radar it paints twelve dots on the screen, giving range and bearing. Switch on, hoist as high as possible in the craft and keep it out of the sea.
- Two-way VHF radiotelephone: channel 16 for survival craft, with channel 6 often used on scene; keep it dry and save the battery for the emergency.
- Pyrotechnics: parachute flare (red, about 300 m high, 40 seconds), hand flare (red, about 1 minute), buoyant smoke (orange, about 3 minutes). Fire downwind, when an aircraft or ship is in sight.
- Also: torches, whistle, heliograph mirror, dye marker and radar reflector.
Worked example
A search aircraft is heard but not seen. You keep the SART switched on and hoisted, listen on channel 16, and hold the parachute flare until the aircraft is visible. Firing it into empty sky wastes the one signal that could fix your position.
Traps
- Describing the EPIRB as a radar device or the SART as a satellite beacon.
- Testing the EPIRB by transmitting on 406 MHz.
- Leaving the SART lying in the bottom of the raft.
- Firing flares upwind or before a rescuer is in sight.