Digital Selective Calling; General; Maritime Mobile Service Identity Mmsi - Standard Horizon HX851E Owner's Manual

7 DIGITAL SELECTIVE CALLING

7.1 GENERAL

This radio is designed to generate a digital maritime distress and safety
call to facilitate search and rescue. To be effective as a safety device,
this equipment must be used only within communication range of a shore-
based VHF marine channel 70 distress and safety watch system. The
range of signal may vary but under normal conditions should be ap-
proximately 20 nautical miles.
Digital Selective Calling is a semi-automated method of establishing a radio
call, it has been designated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO)
as an international standard for establishing VHF, MF and HF radio calls. It has
also been designated as part of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety Sys-
tem (GMDSS). It is planned that DSC will eventually replace aural watches on
distress frequencies and will be used to announce routine and urgent maritime
safety information broadcasts.
This system allows mariners to instantly send a distress call with GPS position
to the Coast Guard and other vessels within range of the transmission. DSC
will also allow mariners to initiate or receive Distress, Urgency, Safety, Rou-
tine, Position Request, and Position Send, and Group calls to or from another
vessel equipped with a DSC transceiver.

7.2 MARITIME MOBILE SERVICE IDENTITY MMSI

7.2.1 WHAT IS AN MMSI?
An MMSI is a nine digit number used on Marine Transceivers capable of using
Digital Selective Calling (DSC). This number is used like a telephone number
to selectively call other vessels.
THIS NUMBER MUST BE PROGRAMMED INTO THE RADIO TO OPERATE
THE HX851E DSC FUNCTIONS.
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