4 ms·

Life jacket is good, but in higher seas one of the main problems (assuming the crew remaining on board is actually competent) is visibility - consider investing

Life jacket is good, but in higher seas one of the main problems (assuming the crew remaining on board is actually competent) is visibility - consider investing into something like a dan buoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMGWk6s9G4k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMGWk6s9G4k

nradov 12y ago
Better visibility is helpful but even that doesn't do much in rough conditions or at night. Many of us scuba divers now carry Nautilus radios which include a GPS receiver and 2-way VHF marine radio with distress beacon. I bring mine whenever I go out on the ocean, even when I'm not diving. http://www.nautiluslifeline.com/nautilus_lifeline http://www.nautiluslifeline.com/nautilus_lifeline
- shiggerino 12y ago
  DSC (digital selective calling), which that radio uses to transmit distress signals with coordinates, is an excellent but sadly under-used technology. Everyone should be equipped with it and be familiar with all the menus and options on their transceivers, and regularly test that the equipment is working by making routine calls. The problem with DSC is that the transceivers are really badly designed and downright user-hostile. The receiver usually gets a loud horn going of in their ears which only trains a reflex to reach for the silence button. It's pretty much only used for tests, and before anyone dares initiate a DSC call they call the receiving ship in advance the old-fashioned way, or they will get yelled at. When the whole point of DSC is that you merely enter the recipient's MMSI number, open a channel and just speak, without cluttering up channel 16 which is should be left for distress traffic only. Think Uhura in Star Trek. This is a huge risk to safety of life at sea that the industry urgently needs to deal with. But yes, do carry the equipment and do use it in an emergency, because it does work and it frees up yours and your rescuers' workload to worry about more important things than trying to get your coordinates across by voice. I would also suggest getting a SART and an EPIRB. A SART is a radar beacon, which shows up as a distinctive pattern on surrounding ships' radar displays, and requires no special receiving equipment. An EPIRB is a beacon that is locatable by satellite, so that's the fastest and most reliable way to get the attention of a rescue control centre. These three technologies are part of the GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety System), which means commercial ships and emergency services are by law required to carry and use equipment to receive their signals.
  - endgame 12y ago
    In Australia, to call the Rescue Coordination Centre on HF, you HAVE to use DSC: http://www.amsa.gov.au/search-and-rescue/distress-and-safety-comms/amsa-hfdsc-network/ http://www.amsa.gov.au/search-and-rescue/distress-and-safety... > If a vessel wishes to conduct a radiotelephony communication with the network, it is necessary to make initial contact via a DSC call. For safety or routine messages a shift to a working frequency is normally required. When I did my training, they pushed DSC very hard. Nit: You mention ch16 as being for distress traffic only, but my radio handbook also lists it for carrying urgency and safety messages, and as a routine calling channel (and then you move to a working channel and get out of the way). Also: What crazy part of the world plays clutters ch16 with music?
    - shiggerino 12y ago
      Yes, that is true, 16 is also for urgency and safety messages, but ideally channel 70 should supersede 16 as the routine calling channel. Of course, for that to happen the equipment has to be made actually user friendly. It would be trivial to implement the software to let the OOW simply click an AIS target on the ECDIS to have that target's MMSI entered into the transceiver and a call initiated. If ships were running on free software someone would have already done that, sent a pull request to the ECDIS software maintainer, have it pass perfectly repeatable and transparent integration test suites to make sure the patch won't make the ship go keel up, and Bob's your uncle. But for some reason people seem afraid of this proposition. As for music, last time I heard that was in the Java sea, but Americans aren't much better, making securité calls when moving their Bayliners, or the USCG with their incessant babble about irrelevant things.
      - endgame 12y ago
        Not everyone's got AIS and ECDIS though. The places where I trained really pushed DSC for fishing and recreational use, by making it relevant to the little guys too: "If you'd just found a good fishing spot or a nice quiet place, why would you go blabbing to everyone about it on ch16? Call your mate up on DSC instead." They also made a point of telling people to spend that bit extra to get a radio that doesn't suck. Buying a cheap transceiver and having to input a MMSI using up/down/enter/back is really annoying and doesn't help take-up at all. Speaking of AIS, did you see this thing from a couple of years back: http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/vulnerabilities-discovered-in-global-vessel-tracking-systems/ http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/v... ?
dzhiurgis 12y ago
It's 2015. Just get a life jacket with integrated EPIRB.

nradov 12y ago

Better visibility is helpful but even that doesn't do much in rough conditions or at night. Many of us scuba divers now carry Nautilus radios which include a GPS receiver and 2-way VHF marine radio with distress beacon. I bring mine whenever I go out on the ocean, even when I'm not diving. http://www.nautiluslifeline.com/nautilus_lifeline http://www.nautiluslifeline.com/nautilus_lifeline

shiggerino 12y ago
DSC (digital selective calling), which that radio uses to transmit distress signals with coordinates, is an excellent but sadly under-used technology. Everyone should be equipped with it and be familiar with all the menus and options on their transceivers, and regularly test that the equipment is working by making routine calls. The problem with DSC is that the transceivers are really badly designed and downright user-hostile. The receiver usually gets a loud horn going of in their ears which only trains a reflex to reach for the silence button. It's pretty much only used for tests, and before anyone dares initiate a DSC call they call the receiving ship in advance the old-fashioned way, or they will get yelled at. When the whole point of DSC is that you merely enter the recipient's MMSI number, open a channel and just speak, without cluttering up channel 16 which is should be left for distress traffic only. Think Uhura in Star Trek. This is a huge risk to safety of life at sea that the industry urgently needs to deal with. But yes, do carry the equipment and do use it in an emergency, because it does work and it frees up yours and your rescuers' workload to worry about more important things than trying to get your coordinates across by voice. I would also suggest getting a SART and an EPIRB. A SART is a radar beacon, which shows up as a distinctive pattern on surrounding ships' radar displays, and requires no special receiving equipment. An EPIRB is a beacon that is locatable by satellite, so that's the fastest and most reliable way to get the attention of a rescue control centre. These three technologies are part of the GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety System), which means commercial ships and emergency services are by law required to carry and use equipment to receive their signals.
- endgame 12y ago
  In Australia, to call the Rescue Coordination Centre on HF, you HAVE to use DSC: http://www.amsa.gov.au/search-and-rescue/distress-and-safety-comms/amsa-hfdsc-network/ http://www.amsa.gov.au/search-and-rescue/distress-and-safety... > If a vessel wishes to conduct a radiotelephony communication with the network, it is necessary to make initial contact via a DSC call. For safety or routine messages a shift to a working frequency is normally required. When I did my training, they pushed DSC very hard. Nit: You mention ch16 as being for distress traffic only, but my radio handbook also lists it for carrying urgency and safety messages, and as a routine calling channel (and then you move to a working channel and get out of the way). Also: What crazy part of the world plays clutters ch16 with music?
  - shiggerino 12y ago
    Yes, that is true, 16 is also for urgency and safety messages, but ideally channel 70 should supersede 16 as the routine calling channel. Of course, for that to happen the equipment has to be made actually user friendly. It would be trivial to implement the software to let the OOW simply click an AIS target on the ECDIS to have that target's MMSI entered into the transceiver and a call initiated. If ships were running on free software someone would have already done that, sent a pull request to the ECDIS software maintainer, have it pass perfectly repeatable and transparent integration test suites to make sure the patch won't make the ship go keel up, and Bob's your uncle. But for some reason people seem afraid of this proposition. As for music, last time I heard that was in the Java sea, but Americans aren't much better, making securité calls when moving their Bayliners, or the USCG with their incessant babble about irrelevant things.
    - endgame 12y ago
      Not everyone's got AIS and ECDIS though. The places where I trained really pushed DSC for fishing and recreational use, by making it relevant to the little guys too: "If you'd just found a good fishing spot or a nice quiet place, why would you go blabbing to everyone about it on ch16? Call your mate up on DSC instead." They also made a point of telling people to spend that bit extra to get a radio that doesn't suck. Buying a cheap transceiver and having to input a MMSI using up/down/enter/back is really annoying and doesn't help take-up at all. Speaking of AIS, did you see this thing from a couple of years back: http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/vulnerabilities-discovered-in-global-vessel-tracking-systems/ http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/v... ?

dzhiurgis 12y ago

It's 2015. Just get a life jacket with integrated EPIRB.