DSC

Get with the Program

At a recent seminar I asked attendees if any of them had replaced their VHF radios in the past two years. One had. Two had replaced theirs in the past five years and 42 were operating with VHFs more than five years old. None had ever replaced their antennas. Even more interesting six of the boaters didn’t have a working VHF on board. They relied on their cell phones!
Modern VHFs are so versatile and inexpensive they continue to be one of the best safety features a boat owner can have. Anyone looking at a refit or upgrade should put the acquisition of a new VHF and antenna right near the top of their list.
When I started boating there were no VHF marine radios. When they came onto the market they were quickly recognized as one of the most useful marine safety devices available. By modern electronic standards they were primitive and very expensive.
It’s not surprising that many boat owners are operating with old VHFs. In most cases even the oldest units continue to operate well and many owners are of the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” school. In my opinion, a VHF without Digital Selective Calling  (DSC) is broke, especially now that the emergency response system, called Rescue 21, is now in place on virtually all of the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
One of the most useful safety features currently available only on newer VHF radios is DSC. This feature, when connected to an operating GPS, will send a distress message to the Coast Guard, or other DSC-equipped receivers, like a 911 call, containing, among other things, the vessel’s coordinates. While this won’t replace an EPIRB for offshore cruising, it will dramatically reduce emergency response time for near shore users and continues to broadcast even if the skipper is incapacitated.
Fixed base VHF radios, complete with DSC, can be bought for as little as $100. If you have a windy or noisy wheelhouse, you might have a look at the Cobra Fixed mounts with the speaker in the same housing as the noise canceling microphone, and it’s submersible, too. Have multiple stations? Garmin makes a “black box” unit, the VHF 300 DSC where the radio’s guts are mounted out of sight but running up to three remote stations with mic and speaker. With multiple stations, you can use it as an intercom.
Many of the modern VHF radios are equipped with the NOAA weather alert monitoring system. This around-the-clock feature provides instant access to hazards and weather information and is invaluable in voyage planning decisions.
If the only VHF radio you will have on your boat is a handheld, you’ll find a smaller selection  of DSC-equipped units, but they are a good investment. Standard Horizon’s HX471S DSC VHF is multi-band, GPS-equipped and submersible, and talk about clever, it has a built-in strobe light SOS signal that can be seen over a mile away.

Take if from the top
Without a good antenna a VHF simply won’t work. Antenna manufacturers say their products generally last up to 10 years, depending on the location of the vessel. In hot, sunny climates, the sun’s UV rays break down the fiberglass coatings of many antennas and a five-year life span is all that can be expected.
Inexpensive VHF antennas cost about $60 and the most expensive about $400. The higher a VHF antenna is above the waterline, the longer its range, so there are a number of antenna extenders on the market ranging in price from about $30 to $150 depending on quality and length.
The cost of a good quality DSC VHF radio, including a new fiberglass antenna, can be as little as $300. I paid four times that much for my first VHF and it had only six, fixed, channels. The antenna cost me an extra $250.
Note: The Coast Guard has recently issued a marine safety alert related to DSC-equipped VHF radios. It appears that many radios will automatically switch from a working channel to the emergency channel when the radio receives a DSC call and remain there. The Coast Guard says that a vessel operator may not realize this has happened and thus, unknowingly, put his vessel in danger, particularly if the skipper is involved with a bridge clearance procedure or monitoring nearby vessel traffic.
The Federal Communications Commission has mandated that all U.S. DSC-equipped VHF radios certified after March 25, 2009, have such a method of disabling the auto switch over.