16.1.1 Radio equipment carried by a vessel shall
be capable of fulfilling the following functional requirements with
respect to distress and safety communications when the vessel is at
sea:-
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.1 Provide for the safety of the vessel by:-
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i) transmitting ship-to-shore distress alerting;
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ii) transmitting ship-to-ship distress alerting;
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iii) transmitting and receiving on-scene communications,
including appropriate search and rescue co-ordinating communications;
and
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iv) transmitting locating signals.
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.2 Assist other vessels in distress by:-
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.3 Receive navigational and meteorological warnings
and urgent safety information (Maritime Safety Information).
16.1.2 The Global Maritime Distress and Safety
System (GMDSS) was implemented on 1 February 1999. The implementation
of the GMDSS has involved the adoption of Digital Selective Calling
(DSC) for distress alerting in maritime radio frequency bands, e.g.
VHF.
Whilst the UK Coastguard will continue coverage of VHF channel
16 for the foreseeable future, the Coastguard watch on channel 16
is now a dedicated headset watch or a loudspeaker watch. Ships are
currently obliged to keep a listening watch on channel 16 only where
practicable.
For vessels where a fixed VHF is required,
it is strongly recommended that vessels are equipped with VHF DSC
with its significant benefits in distress situations.
Other
than vessels operating in Category 6, all new vessels and all those
replacing VHF radios, must have installed VHF DSC by February 2005.
Where GMDSS equipment is installed, it should be provided with automatic
position updating information from the onboard navigational receiver,
or procedures put in place to ensure positional information is manually
updated at intervals not exceeding 4 hours.