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DIGITAL SELECTIVE CALLING
The U.S. Coast Guard offers MF/HF radiotelephone service to mariners as part of the
Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. This service, called digital selective calling
(DSC), allows mariners to instantly send an automatically formatted distress alert to the
Coast Guard or other rescue authority anywhere in the world. Digital selective calling also
allows mariners to initiate or receive distress, urgency, safety and routine radiotelephone
calls to or from any similarly equipped vessel or shore station, without requiring either party
to be near a radio loudspeaker. DSC acts like the dial and bell of a telephone, allowing you
to "direct dial" and "ring" other radios, or allow others to "ring" you, without having to listen
to a speaker. New VHF and HF radiotelephones have or soon will have DSC capability.
History
On February 1, 1999, the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention, a treaty document, will
require all passenger ships and most other ships 300 grt and larger on international
voyages, including all cargo ships, to carry DSC- equipped radios. Ships were allowed to
turn off their 2182 kHz radio listening watch on that date, and may be allowed to turn off
their VHF channel 16 listening watch sometime in the future. The International Maritime
Organization has extended indefinitely plans to suspend this VHF watch on ships. It had
originally planned to suspend this watch on February 1, 2005.
Because of the safety problems that lack of communications interoperability would cause
between SOLAS-regulated vessels (mostly cargo ships) and other vessels (recreational
boaters, commercial fishing vessels, etc.), the Coast Guard petitioned the Federal
Communications Commission in 1992 to require all marine radios made or sold in the U.S.
have a DSC capability. The Coast Guard had also asked the Radio Technical Commission
for Maritime Services (RTCM), a non-profit professional organization, to develop a standard
which would allow incorporation of DSC in a marine radio without affecting the low-end
market price of that radio. The FCC solicited comments on that petition in 1992 and 1993,
and prepared a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on that and other maritime
radiocommunications matters in early 1994. The FCC requested comments concerning that
rulemaking from May to November 1995. On 27 June 1997, the FCC adopted a Report and
Order requiring radios type accepted on or after 17 June 1999 to include this minimum DSC
capability.
USCG Response Policy
USCG Response Policy for MF/HF Digital Selective Calling is outlined in this PDF
document.
US Coast Guard DSC-Equipped Shore Stations
Station Type Remote Site MMSI
Digital Selective Calling - USCG Navigation Center

CAMSLANT Chesapeake MF/

-- 003669995
VA HF
MF/ Remoted to
COMMSTA Boston MA 003669991
HF CAMSLANT
MF/ Remoted to
COMMSTA Miami FL 003669997
HF CAMSLANT
MF/ Remoted to
COMMSTA Belle Chase LA 003669998
HF CAMSLANT
MF/
CAMSPAC Pt Reyes CA -- 003669990
HF
MF/
COMMSTA Honolulu HI Remoted to CAMSPAC 003669993
HF
MF/
COMMSTA Kodiak AK -- 003669899
HF

Many USCG Group offices operate MF DSC on a trial basis. The Coast Guard plans to
declare a Sea Area A2 (have an operational MF DSC service) for the Contiguous US coast
and Hawaii after 1 October 2002. The US currently does not have a declared Sea Area A2.

GMDSS Sea Area A2 (MF) coverage charts

Once a GMDSS Sea Area A2 is declared in the USA (after 1 October 2002), coverage will
be as follows. The digital transmissions of DSC travel further than a voice transmission. The
establishment of voice communications is essential to the successful follow-up of a DSC
transmitted distress alert. The gray areas show predicted 2182 kHz voice coverage and
form what the Coast Guard considers GMDSS Sea Area A2. The dotted lines indicate
predicted DSC-only coverage. Predictions were made in accordance with Recommendation
ITU-R M.1467. The following coverage plots are available:

Washington to Oregon, Maine to New Jersey, California, New Jersey to North Carolina,
Texas to Florida, and South Carolina to Florida (Puerto Rico coverage is voice only).

USCG Implementation of GMDSS Sea Area A1 (VHF)

The USCG plan to implement GMDSS Sea Area A1 is one element of the USCG National
Distress and Response System Modernization Project, now called "Rescue 21", which
replaces the whole USCG VHF distress system beginning in October 2003, and completed
by 2006. On 24 September 2002, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta announced
the award of this $612 million contract to General Dynamics Corp.

Until this system is installed, the Coast Guard cannot reliably receive VHF DSC distress
calls.

Interconnection to a GPS Receiver

All DSC-equipped radios, and most GPS receivers, have an NMEA 0183 two-wire data
interface connector. That NMEA interface allows any model of GPS to be successfully
interconnected to any model of radio, regardless of manufacture. Although NMEA has no
standard for the type of connector used, many if not most DSC and GPS receiver
manufactures use bar wire connections. These wires are simply connected between the

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radio and the GPS by twisting the wires (some people solder) and tape (some people use
waterproof heat shrink tubing). Note also that NMEA 0183 and IEC 61162-1 data interfaces
are identical.

The Coast Guard urges, in the strongest terms possible, that you take the time to
interconnect your GPS and DSC-equipped radio. Doing so may save your life in a
distress situation!

Distress Relays

The single largest operational problem of the U.S. Coast Guard concerning DSC had been
responding to the large number of MF/HF DSC distress relays being sent by ships. ITU
regulations require each relay to be individually acknowledged. The Coast Guard treats
each distress alert relay as if it were a separate distress. Worse, certain radios insert the
identity of a ship sending a relay, rather than a ship sending a distress, into the menu of a
relay message, and ship operators are transmitting this relay falsely identifying the ship in
distress to Coast Guard rescue coordination centers. The USCG requested that vessels
not relay any DSC distress message which has already been acknowledged. If you do
relay a distress message, make sure the identity of the vessel in distress is correct, and
send the relay to a USCG radio station using an identity such as 003669999, rather than
sending it to all ships.

Since this problem was identified, radio operators have cooperated to reduce the number of
relays transmitted. Consequently, this is far less of a problem now.

If we were to identify the single largest operational problem of the U.S. Coast Guard
concerning DSC today, it would likely be the lack of follow-up voice communications after
transmission of a DSC call.

Other DSC problems and plans to correct them

Continuing DSC problems include:

the lack of follow-up voice comms after transmission of a DSC call, particularly a
distress call

Unnecessary and frequent alarms

Distress alerts without accurate location information

Distress alerts with unregistered MMSI identification

Limited use of DSC for routine communications

Inconsistent and illogical software menu defaults

Alarms disrupting ongoing radiocommunications

In 2001 the International Telecommunications Union, in addressing these problems, began

a major update to their DSC standard Rec ITU-R M.493 to address these problems.
Changes should be adopted in late 2003 and published in early 2004. The Safety of Life at
Sea Convention now requires radios be interconnected to electronic position fixing devices
(e.g. GPS receivers). Radios meeting these new requirements should show significant

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improvement over earlier models, and many problems listed above should no longer occur.
Of course, new radios will be designed to be fully interoperable with older radios.

IMO Flowcharts

The International Maritime Organization Communications and Search & Rescue

Subcommittee released COMSAR Circular 25 of 15 March 2001, which includes simplified
flowcharts on the actions a person on a ship should perform on receipt of a distress alert
using DSC-equipped radios. The documents is in Acrobat PDF format.

DSC Forum

As a result of delays and questions associated with the implementation of DSC, the US
Coast Guard has agreed to host a web-based Internet discussion forum on DSC technical
and operational issues. We are encouraging the technical experts around the world who
helped design and who use DSC to participate in this forum, and we encourage those who
have used the system to also participate. The forum is "threaded", which means that
comments from different individuals on a given subject are grouped together, with replies
connected to the message being replied to. The purpose of establishing this forum is to
help identify and resolve problems associated with DSC discovered during its
implementation.

By participating in the Forum, you agree to act in a courteous and professional manner. Do
not post offensive or inappropriate material, or engage in personal attacks on other
participants.

An alternative, and more active forum is the GMDSS email list sponsored by Densham and
Associates, Australia.

Vessel tracking and position fixing

The new Universal Shipborne Automatic Identification System will be backwards compatible
to DSC, allowing countries having GMDSS A1 areas to establish AIS operating frequencies,
and additionally identify and track vessels equipped with AIS.

Classes of Digital Selective Calling

The DSC protocol is defined by ITU-R Recommendation M.493 (series), available from the
International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Switzerland. DSC operation is defined
by ITU-R Recommendation M.541 (series).

Class A:

All DSC options provided. Required on MF/HF and VHF radios used by SOLAS-regulated
ships. Class A includes polling and vessel tracking, data, and numerous other functions in
addition to voice.

Class B:

Required on VHF and MF radios used by SOLAS-regulated ships, though most such radios
in fact meet Class A. Class B required capabilities include:

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Distress call

All-ships call

Individual station call

Semi-automatic/automatic service call

Use of distress, urgency, safety and routine priorities

Nature of distress

Distress coordinates

Time for last (distress) position update

Type of subsequent communications

Distress relay

Distress acknowledgment

Test call (for MF/HF only)

Radio frequency or channel

Display

Receive geographical area calls

Alarm

Optional means for canceling a distress alert

Class C:

Only capable of transmitting a distress alert. No longer recognized by the ITU or FCC.
CAUTION: The U.S. Coast Guard does NOT recommend purchase or use of a radio
having this class of DSC.

Class D:

Minimum DSC capability for VHF marine radios carried by recreational boaters, commercial
fishing vessels, and other non-SOLAS regulated vessels. Class D required capabilities
include:

Distress call

All-ships call

Individual station call

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Use of distress, urgency, safety and routine priorities

Nature of distress

Distress coordinates

Time for last (distress) position update

Type of subsequent communications

Radio VHF channel

Display

Receive distress relay and distress acknowledgment calls

Alarm

Class E:

Minimum DSC capability for HF marine radios carried by recreational boaters, commercial
fishing vessels, and other non-SOLAS regulated vessels. Class E required capabilities
include:

Distress call

All-ships call

Individual station call

Use of distress, urgency, safety and routine priorities

Nature of distress

Distress coordinates

Time for last (distress) position update

Type of subsequent communications

Radio channel or frequency

Display

Receive distress relay and distress acknowledgment calls

Alarm

Class F: (Class F has been discontinued by ITU and is not recognized by

the FCC)

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VHF. Similar to Class D, but cannot make an individual or routine call, and does not require
a display. Voice calls default to channel 16. Not recommended for use in U.S. on other
types of radios. Class F required capabilities include:

Distress call

All-ships call

Use of distress, urgency, and safety priorities

Distress coordinates

Time for last (distress) position update

Receive acknowledgment of its own distress calls

Class G: (Class G has been discontinued by ITU and is not recognized by

the FCC)

Similar to Class F, but applies to MF/HF. Voice calls default to 2182 kHz. Not recommended
for use in U.S. Class G required capabilities include:

Distress call

All-ships call

Use of distress, urgency, and safety priorities

Distress coordinates

Time for last (distress) position update

Receive acknowledgment of its own distress calls

RTCM SC101

RTCM Recommended Minimum Standard for DSC, Version 1.0, 10 Aug 1995, RTCM Paper
56-95/SC101-STD. Applies to VHF and to MF/HF. This standard, which is recognized by
the FCC but is not generally recognized outside of the U.S., should be soon replaced by
ITU Class D and E. SC101 required capabilities include:

Distress call

All-ships call

Individual station call

Use of distress and routine priorities

Use of safety priority (MF/HF only)

Distress coordinates

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Time for last (distress) position update

Acknowledgment or unable to comply response

Receive distress relay and distress acknowledgment calls

Receive Geographical area calls

Test call (MF/HF only)

Alarm

ITU-R Rec. M.825-3:

DSC transponder system for Vessel Traffic Services or ship- to-ship interrogation and
identification. Rec. M.825 is superceded by the Universal Shipborne Automatic
Identification System.

ITU-R Rec. M.821:

Optional expansion to DSC protocol. Perhaps the most important M.821 expansion, which
soon will be incorporated in all new DSC-equipped radios, improves the accuracy of
distress position from 1 mile to the accuracy of your interconnected GPS receiver (about 13
meters).

More information concerning DSC

USCG Notice to Mariners MF/HF DSC Guidelines (pdf)

DSC Operational Procedures for Ships

How Digital Selective Calling Works

Maritime Mobile Service Identities Explained

Why Coast Guard Supports DSC on Marine Radios

USCG Home | Webmaster | Disclaimer & Privacy | Back to Top | Updated: July 2, 2003

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