tobnpr
New Member
So I'm working on the boat yesterday, weather's finally been "Chamber of Commerce" for the past week...I feel like a groundhog coming out of hibernation after the coldest winter in our history.
Anyway, hoping to go get some Grouper fillets this weekend now that the season just opened and the winds are cooperating, and was doing some "pre-flight" checks around the boat.
Suddenly there's this ear-piercing alarm, scared the sh** outta me. I run up into the cockpit and it's the VHF, indicating a DSC Distress Call- had an MMSI number, but no position was broadcast:
Had my cell so I shot that quick vid so that if you've never seen it, you'll know what to expect. So, I tried to raise USCG Sector St. Petersburg; but they're out of my range. Figured I'd raise Sea Tow, inform them (if they didn't get it), and have them relay to the CG.
Sea Tow responds to the information I gave him by telling me that he had no idea what I'm supposed to do. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I was dumbfounded...here's a SAR contractor telling me has no idea what to do with a DSC Distress Call. I'm thinking about call Sea Tow corporate...
Anyway, realizing I'm dealing with an idiot I grab the cell and amazingly enough the "Yellowbook" app on my Droid actually works and pulls up the phone number for SAR at USCG St. Pete (now saved into my phone). He asks what the MMSI number is from the caller and I tell him "003669917". He explains that this is THEIR MMSI... and they had just repsonded to a DSC call sent by a vessel. I'm assuming I was out of VHF range when the original distress call was transmitted (remember- DSC is sent via your VHF and has the same range as your normal voice transmissisons).
After the CG receives a DSC Distress Call, they respond with a call that automatically switches "the" radio to ch 16 and displays their message. I always thought that when the CG acknowledged the distress call, it would signal only the caller's radio- but apparently it signals EVERY radio within range or I obviously wouldn't have gotten it (?????)
I did some checking and found a list of USCG Sectors MMSI numbers- and sho'nuff the MMSI I received was that in this chart, as the article mentions you can also program the MMSI of the Sector nearest you into your radio:
http://www.uscg.mil/acquisition/rescue21/benefits.asp
It is interesting to see the "screen" which appears on the chartplotter as well- with the press of a softkey "Go to Vessel", it will provide brg and range to the distressed vessel; hit the nav button on the autopilot and you're on the way to assist...
Hope this helps those that might not understand the Rescue 21 system; If you haven't seen it before, Boat US has a great tutorial:
http://www.boatus.com/foundation/dsc/player.html?WT.mc_id=400090
I never did find out the nature of or the outcome of the vessel that sent the distress call.
Anyway, hoping to go get some Grouper fillets this weekend now that the season just opened and the winds are cooperating, and was doing some "pre-flight" checks around the boat.
Suddenly there's this ear-piercing alarm, scared the sh** outta me. I run up into the cockpit and it's the VHF, indicating a DSC Distress Call- had an MMSI number, but no position was broadcast:
Had my cell so I shot that quick vid so that if you've never seen it, you'll know what to expect. So, I tried to raise USCG Sector St. Petersburg; but they're out of my range. Figured I'd raise Sea Tow, inform them (if they didn't get it), and have them relay to the CG.
Sea Tow responds to the information I gave him by telling me that he had no idea what I'm supposed to do. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I was dumbfounded...here's a SAR contractor telling me has no idea what to do with a DSC Distress Call. I'm thinking about call Sea Tow corporate...
Anyway, realizing I'm dealing with an idiot I grab the cell and amazingly enough the "Yellowbook" app on my Droid actually works and pulls up the phone number for SAR at USCG St. Pete (now saved into my phone). He asks what the MMSI number is from the caller and I tell him "003669917". He explains that this is THEIR MMSI... and they had just repsonded to a DSC call sent by a vessel. I'm assuming I was out of VHF range when the original distress call was transmitted (remember- DSC is sent via your VHF and has the same range as your normal voice transmissisons).
After the CG receives a DSC Distress Call, they respond with a call that automatically switches "the" radio to ch 16 and displays their message. I always thought that when the CG acknowledged the distress call, it would signal only the caller's radio- but apparently it signals EVERY radio within range or I obviously wouldn't have gotten it (?????)
I did some checking and found a list of USCG Sectors MMSI numbers- and sho'nuff the MMSI I received was that in this chart, as the article mentions you can also program the MMSI of the Sector nearest you into your radio:
http://www.uscg.mil/acquisition/rescue21/benefits.asp
It is interesting to see the "screen" which appears on the chartplotter as well- with the press of a softkey "Go to Vessel", it will provide brg and range to the distressed vessel; hit the nav button on the autopilot and you're on the way to assist...
Hope this helps those that might not understand the Rescue 21 system; If you haven't seen it before, Boat US has a great tutorial:
http://www.boatus.com/foundation/dsc/player.html?WT.mc_id=400090
I never did find out the nature of or the outcome of the vessel that sent the distress call.
