Marine

Communications
Aim and Objectives
 Aim: To summarize marine communications
 Associated Objectives, by the end of the session
you should be able to:
• to understand the services offered by VHF
• to understand the principles of GMDSS
Why Marine Communications?

 Although telecommunications technology is

improving quickly, ships at sea do not have
access to the same telecommunications
infrastructure persons ashore have.
Why Marine Communications?

 Mariners not only need to access international shore

telephone and data public switched networks, they
need to be able to
• communicate with other ships of any size or
nationality,
• to receive and send urgent maritime safety
information,
• to send or receive distress alerts in an emergency to
or from rescue co-ordination centres ashore and
nearby ships anywhere in the world.
Why Marine Communications?

 Unlike cellular telephones and land mobile radios

used in the United Kingdom, maritime
telecommunications systems must be
internationally interoperable, even in United
Kingdom coastal waters, where numerous foreign
ships sail.
Why Marine Communications?

 Bringing new telecommunications technology to

mariners can be difficult, since to be
interoperable, the technology must be affordable,
acceptable and available to most ships and
maritime countries.
Administration of Marine
Communications
 Two United Nations-chartered organisations, the
International Maritime Organisation and the
International Telecommunications Union, are
responsible for defining and regulating maritime
telecommunications systems.
 The most current system adopted by these two
organisations is the Global Maritime Distress and
Safety System, or GMDSS.
An Overview of GMDSS

 Since the invention of radio at the end of the 19th

Century, ships at sea have relied on Morse code,
invented by Samuel Morse and first used in 1844,
for distress and safety telecommunications.
An Overview of GMDSS

 The need for ship and coast radio stations to have

and use radiotelegraph equipment, and to listen
to a common radio frequency for Morse encoded
distress calls, was recognised after the sinking of
the liner Titanic in the North Atlantic in 1912.
 An Overview of GMDSS

 The U.S. Congress enacted legislation soon after,

requiring U.S. ships to use Morse code
radiotelegraph equipment for distress calls.
 The International Telecommunications Union
(ITU), now a United Nations agency, followed suit
for ships of all nations.
An Overview of GMDSS

 Morse encoded distress calling has saved

thousands of lives since its inception almost a
century ago, but its use requires skilled radio
operators spending many hours listening to the
radio distress frequency.
 Morse’s range on the medium frequency (MF)
distress band (500 kHz) is limited, and the amount
of traffic Morse signals can carry is also limited.
An Overview of GMDSS

 Over fifteen years ago the International Maritime

Organisation (IMO), a United Nations agency
specialising in safety of shipping and preventing
ships from polluting the seas, began looking at ways
of improving maritime distress and safety
communications.
 In 1979, a group of experts drafted the International
Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, which
called for development of a global search and rescue
plan.
 An Overview of GMDSS
 This group also passed a resolution calling for
development by IMO of a Global Maritime Distress
and Safety System (GMDSS) to provide the
communication support needed to implement the
search and rescue plan.
An Overview of GMDSS

 This new system, which the world's maritime

nations, including the United Kingdom, are
implementing, is based upon a combination of
satellite and terrestrial radio services.
 It has changed international distress
communications from being primarily ship-to-
ship based to ship-to-shore (Rescue Co-
ordination Centre) based.
An Overview of GMDSS

 It spelled the end of Morse code communications

for all but a few users, such as Amateur Radio.
 The GMDSS provides for automatic distress
alerting and locating in cases where a radio
operator doesn't have time to send an SOS or
MAYDAY call, and, for the first time, requires ships
to receive broadcasts of maritime safety
information which could prevent a distress from
happening in the first place.
 GMDSS

 The GMDSS consists of several systems, some of which are

new, but many of which have been in operation for many
years.
 The system will be able to reliably perform the following
functions:
• alerting (including position determination of the unit in distress),
• search and rescue co-ordination, locating (homing), maritime
safety information broadcasts,
• general communications,
• bridge-to-bridge communications.
GMDSS

 Specific radio carriage requirements depend

upon the ship's area of operation, rather than its
tonnage.
 A ship's area of operation is defined as follows:
 Sea area Al. An area within the radiotelephone
coverage of at least one VHF coast station in
which continuous DSC alerting is available as
defined by the International Maritime
Organisation.
GMDSS
 Sea area A2. An area, excluding sea area Al, within
the radiotelephone coverage of at least one MF coast
station in which continuous DSC alerting is available
as defined by the International Maritime
Organisation.
 Sea area A3. An area, excluding sea areas Al and A2,
within the coverage of an INMARSAT geostationary
satellite in which continuous alerting is available.
 Sea area A4. An area outside sea areas Al, A2 and A3.
VHF Radio Principles

 The VHF is the most common and cheapest form of

radio communication available for marine use.
VHF Radio Principles

 If travel of more than a few miles offshore is to be

undertaken, consideration should be made for the
purchase of an HF radiotelephone or mobile
satellite telephone, an EPIRB, and a second,
portable VHF radio or cellular telephone as well.
 VHF Radio Principles
 Mobile satellite telephones are becoming more
common and more inexpensive. The mobile
satellite will provide easier and clearer
communications than the HF radiotelephone, but
the HF radiotelephone will provide high seas
marine weather warnings.
VHF Radio Principles

 VHF radio can operate on frequencies between 30

and 300 MHz but certain areas of this wide
frequency band or reserved for selected users.
 The standard marine VHF frequencies are
between 156 and 163 MHz. 156.8 MHz has been
designated as the calling and distress frequency
on which all vessels and coast radio stations
listen to. A table of International channels is
available.
VHF Radio Principles

 For ease of use the VHF channels have been

designated a number from 1 to 88, the distress
and calling channel is Channel 16.
 The table of frequencies and channels shows that
some frequencies are missing. These have been
designated for private use, these have a
frequency range of 162.05 MHz to 174.00 MHz.
VHF Radio Principles

 They are allocated by the relevant maritime

government to its nationals on a private and
exclusive basis. These private channels are
utilised by ferry companies, towing and salvage
operators, surveying and diving companies.
VHF Radio Principles

 An example of a private channel is the frequency

157.85 MHz. this has been designated by the
British Government for British marinas a yacht
clubs and is known as Channel M or 37.
 This is a private British channel which only
operates in the UK and only British marinas, yacht
clubs and British yachts are authorised to use it.
VHF Operation

 VHF radios can be operated in Simplex or Duplex

mode.
 The Simplex method means that only one party in
a two way exchange can talk at one time, at the
end of the conversion the user has to say "over" to
indicate it is the other party's turn to speak.
 Simplex is the most common form of VHF.
VHF Operation

 Duplex utilises two channels, one to receive and

one to transmit.
 The channels are selected automatically through
a single channel number.
 The Duplex system is mainly used for telephone
links.
VHF Operation

 VHF radio provides the user with slightly greater

than line-of-sight communications.
 There is therefore a requirement for the antenna
of the transmitting radio to be visible to the
receiving aerial without the curvature of the earth
or physical and geographical features interfering
with the signal.
VHF Operation

 The transmitted signal follows the curvature of

the earth very slightly thus increasing range form
line of sight.
 To obtain maximum range the antenna needs to
be as high as possible.
VHF Operation

 On small craft VHF range will be limited due to

relatively low antenna heights resulting in vessel
to vessel range of 10 - 15 miles whereas vessel to
shore range is about 40 miles and figures in
excess of this can be achieved given the right
conditions.
Services available through VHF
radio
 Channel 16 and priority of signals
 Distress - MAYDAY
 Communication with other vessels
 Communication with the Coastguard
 Communication with Harbourmasters
 Communication with Marina and Yacht Clubs
 Communication with Coast Radio Stations and Ship-to-
Shore calls
 Broadcasts by Coast Radio Stations
Summary

 Why Marine communication

 Administration of Marine communication
 GMDSS
 VHF Radio Principles
 VHF Operation