I am amazed
I keep running across people (Rudy excluded) who I thought would have a clue
about what a Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) is and the benefits of
entering those numbers into their DSC-capable radios. I am writing here
about long-time boat owners with a lot of miles under their keels. Today
was another such experience as I helped a friend install a new DSC radio.
He was replacing a same-brand and model DSC radio which had a faded LCD
screen. The old radio had been connected to the NMEA wiring of the GPS, but
I found one of the two wires pulled loose. My friend said he had never seen
GPS data displayed on the old radio in the several years he has owned the
well-equipped vessel and frankly had never known it should. My patented 5
minute lecture to the skipper and his admiral made believers out of them,
and they are now properly connected and "MMSI'd."
After a show of hands at a boating club I attend resulted in near-zero
awareness of Rescue 21 and MMSIs, I was scheduled by our commodore to
lecture them all about it at the next meeting.
Gee-whiz, there's a red button on the front of these radios marked EMERGENCY
and yet some folks clever enough to run their boats clear around the Great
Loop don't have the curiosity to open the owner's manuals for these devices
to find out what it is all about. GO FIGURE.
BTW, BoatUS now charges 25 bucks for non-members applying for MMSIs. Just
last summer when I got a new one for the new boat, it was free.
When I sold the old boat, I emailed BoatUS with the new owner's email
address along with my current MMSI website login information. They promptly
emailed back that my access was now blocked and that the new owner had been
issued his own password. Git-r-dun!
Rich Gano
FROLIC 2005 Mainship 30 Pilot II
Panama City, FL
Rich, this is an all-to-common scenario. As a long time member of
United States Power Squadrons, we continue to find boaters, some with
very expensive boats, with extensive electronics, that have no idea what
DSC is all about. Within our squadron (Richmond Sail and Power
Squadron) we use DSC all the time on our trips to keep our skills sharp,
and we teach local boaters with a demonstration unit that has two radios
and a GPS unit mounted into a pelican case. We get a lot of "deer in
the headlights" looks but probably make an impact on half the students.
We've found that comparing it to "texting" is an analogy that seems to
work with the younger folks. The DSC unit "texts" your GPS position, a
distress message and your boat's "phone number" to the USCG. They can
look up your "phone number" in a database and see details about you and
your boat. You can see their eyes get big as they suddenly understand.
We've also experienced a dramatic decrease in boaters who are interested
in taking boating classes that teach piloting skills. With the
widespread availability of inexpensive chartplotters, few boaters feel
the need to learn piloting skills because they feel fully capable with
the picture of the waterway with their boat on it--and use it the same
way they use their car's GPS. Forget paper charts, a compass and dividers!
There is a lot of work to be done to get boaters to the point where they
will use DSC as it was designed--not just for emergencies (though that
is the most important function) but for making calls without tying up Ch16.
Frank Timpano
Tiara 3700 Open "Buoy Scout"
On 3/23/2016 7:52 PM, Rich Gano via Trawlers-and-Trawlering wrote:
I keep running across people (Rudy excluded) who I thought would have a clue
about what a Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) is and the benefits of
entering those numbers into their DSC-capable radios. I am writing here
about long-time boat owners with a lot of miles under their keels. Today
was another such experience as I helped a friend install a new DSC radio.
And I thought it was only over "here" that they were stupid.
Many of my local boaters (Greek and Turks, throw in a few Russians,
and very few Mid-east people) have no clue what that red button is
for, what they are suppose to do with the # the government gave them
etc etc etc. For sure, it is not entered into their radio(s).
However, many of the Western European boaters do have it set up.
If the boat is registered in Delaware, they are even more clueless
because they do not have a number.
I thought part of the problem was that most of the manuals are not in
their first language.
I also thought, especially for the Turks, that they told their radio installer
(long story but buying a VHF/HF radio for a Turkish flagged yacht
requires government permission…… do not care to delve into why)
not to put in that number in thinking they were "preventing" the
government from bugging them.
And, on a related note, many of the same have brand new EPIRBs in the
box, with the registration papers IN THE BOX.
So, I see the problem is not just on my end……
Lee
Izmir, Turkey
Rich, I read somewhere, maybe BoatUS magazine, that nationally, a very low
percentage of boaters use DSC. In my case, my DSC Raymarine radio will not
play with my Garmin GPS. (I know the new radios come with internal GPS
integrated to the DSC, but I have not found that enough motive to spring for
several hundred bucks to buy another VHF radio when the old one otherwise
works fine.) The perception by many is that the DSC system is a solution in
search of a problem. The wise guys in the govt foisted it on us and nobody
uses it. I know, I know there can be benefits if properly functioning, but
for most of us, it is not worth the hassle.
David Sorenson
Duluth, MN