Emergency Communications
What this domain tests
This domain tests your alerting sequence - what you press, say and activate, and in what order, when things go wrong fast.
The alerting toolkit
- DSC distress alert: lift the cover, press and hold the red button for about five seconds. The alert goes on Ch 70 with your MMSI and, if the set is interfaced to GPS, your position and time.
- Voice MAYDAY: follow on Ch 16. If no DSC acknowledgement arrives within roughly five minutes, transmit the voice Mayday anyway - do not wait indefinitely.
- EPIRB (406 MHz): registered free to the vessel with RCCNZ, detected by satellite, with a 121.5 MHz homing signal for search aircraft. A PLB does the same job for a person.
- Telephone: 111 and ask for Police, who link to the rescue coordination system. Coverage is coastal only - never the primary plan offshore.
Cancelling and standing down
A false DSC alert must be cancelled immediately: voice call on Ch 16 naming the vessel, MMSI and the fact that it was accidental, then telephone RCCNZ to confirm. Un-cancelled alerts divert real search assets.
Worked example
You press the DSC button by mistake while cleaning the console. Reasoning: the alert has already transmitted with your identity. Do not switch the set off. Go to Ch 16, transmit "all stations, this is [name, callsign], I have transmitted a false distress alert on DSC, please disregard", then phone Maritime Radio or RCCNZ and cancel formally. Record the time and the action taken.
Traps that cost marks
- Believing a DSC alert on its own has summoned help - the voice Mayday and EPIRB activation complete the picture.
- Testing an EPIRB casually or failing to register it.
- Abandoning the radio and the EPIRB in the liferaft; they are portable and should travel with you.
- Using a mobile phone as the sole means of alerting beyond cell coverage.