THE GLOBAL MARITIME

DISTRESS AND SAFETY

SYSTEM (GMDSS)

 The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System came into force
in 1999 and is part of the International Convention concerning
the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).
Its main objective is to prevent accidents by providing Marine
Safety Information and at least minimize consequences of marine
accidents by means of effective communication.
GMDSS will enable a vessel to communicate with coastal
stations and other vessels at any time and under any
circumstances.

Communication according to the Global

Maritime
transmission Distress
of distress alerts
shore-based
stations, including
andtoSafety
System
locating (homing) of the vessel in distress;
comprises:
reception of shore-to-ship alerts;
transmission and reception of ship-to-ship alerts;
transmission and reception of messages concerning Search and
Rescue Operations and On- Scene

 Communications during a SAR operation;

transmission and reception of radio-signals to indicate
or determine positions;
transmission and reception of safety messages
(Maritime Safety Information broadcasts);
intership-communication, by which is understood
communication between vessels.

 GMDSS distinguishes four sea-areas:

Sea Area 1
An area within radiotelephone-coverage of at
least one VHF-coast station, in which continuous
VHF-DSC-alerting (channel 70) and
radiotelephony services are available. This area
extends 30 miles off shore.

 Sea Area 2
An area, excluding Sea Area Al, within
radiotelephone-coverage of at least one MF-coast
station, in which continuous DSC-alerting (2187.5
kHz) and radiotelephony services are available.
GMDSS-vessels travelling this area must carry a
DSC-equipped MF radiotelephone in addition to
equipment required for Sea Area A1. This area
extends 200 miles off shore.

 Sea Area 3
An area, excluding sea areas Al and A2, within
coverage of an Inmarsat geostationary satellite, in
which continuous alerting is available. This area
extends between 70 degrees latitude North and 70
degrees latitude South.
Ships travelling this area must either carry an Inmarsat
A, B or C ship/earth station or a DSC-equipped HF
radiotelephone/telex in addition to equipment required
for an A1 and A2 Area.

 Sea Area A4
The areas outside A1, A2 and A3 are A4-Sea Areas.
Ships travelling these Polar Regions must carry a
DSC-equipped HF radiotelephone/telex, in addition to
equipment required for areas A1 and A2. This area
does not have Inmarsat-, but COSPAS-SARSAT
coverage.

 RADIOTELEPHONY
A VHF-transceiver (transmitter + receiver) transmits
and receives radio signals. The VHF is used to bridge
short distances, is easy to operate and is allowed to
be used both in territorial waters and inland
waterways.

 Its receiver has a "push-to-talk button". If the installation is

a "simplex" radio, speaking and listening cannot be done
simultaneously. When you wish to speak, you push the button;
when you wish to listen you release it. Before changing from
speaking to listening, you say "over".
If the installation is a "duplex" radiotelephone, speaking and
listening can be done simultaneously. Most coast-stations are
equipped with semi-duplex installations, with which speaking
and listening can be done simultaneously, while the receivingend has a simplex- installation. VHF radio-communication can
bridge about 40 miles. MF- or HF radiotelephony is used to
bridge 150 miles (MF) to 2000 miles (HF).

 Reception of radio signals will not always be of high

quality, and coverage will not always extend to the
desired areas.
This may of course have consequences for the
safety of the vessel and her crew.
These disadvantages of communication through
speech has led to the introduction of Digital
Selective Calling in maritime communication

 DIGITAL SELECTIVE CALLING

Digital Selective Calling on VHF-, MF- and HF-maritime radios is part of
the GMDSS.
DSC is intended to digitally announce and initiate ship/ship, ship/shore
and shore/ship radiotelephone- and radiotelex calls. After the
announcement has been digitally acknowledged by the receiving
station or ship, communication is usually continued on VHF.
To transmit a DSC-call, a GMDSS-operator enters the required
commands to address the station or ship with which he wishes to
communicate, and the priority of the call.

DSC-priorities are:
- DISTRESS
URGENCY
SAFETY
ROUTINE

 A DSC distress-alert consists of a pre-formatted distress

message and is used to announce and initiate emergency
communications with vessels and Rescue Co-ordination
Centres (RCC's). Natures of distress that can be entered
into the format are: "fire/explosion", "flooding", "collision",
"grounding", "listing", "sinking", "disabled and adrift" and
"piracy". An "undesignated distress" is an alert that has not
been formatted (no indication as to the type of distress has
been given).
Distress alerts are automatically addressed to all stations.
A DSC-controller is fitted with a distress-button (indicated
by SOS, ALARM, EMER or DISTRESS), which allows the
transmission of a distress call with minimum delay.

 Urgency, safety and routine calls can be addressed to all

stations or ships, an individual station or ship, or a group of
stations or ships.
Once the call has been composed, the CALL-button is pressed
on the DSC controller and the information is transmitted. It is
recommended that DSC controllers be interfaced to Global
PositioningSystem-receivers for an updating of position- and
time information, which is automatically included in the
message.
After an alert by DSC and the acknowledgement that the alert
has been received, communication is normally carried out by
RadioTelephony (speech) or radio-telex.

 MARITIME MOBILE SERVICE IDENTITY CODE

A DSC-installation on board a vessel or at a coast station has
been programmed with a unique nine-digit identification code,
known as "Maritime Mobile Service Identity" (MMSI).
The MMSI is sent automatically with each DSC-transmission.
The first three digits of the MMSI are known as the Maritime
Identification Digits (MID).
The MID represents the country of registration of the vessel,
or the country in which the DSC shore station is located.

 In the voice-transmission that may follow after the DSCannouncement and acknowledgement, the vessel or station may be
identified by the MMSI-code, which should then be pronounced in
groups of three digits.
Like so:, this is two two foursix eight fivezero zero zero".
Note that in spoken communication the use of the vessel's MMSI is
only applied in Distress -, Urgency - and Safety messages.

 INMARSAT
Satellite systems operated by the International Mobile Satellite
Organisation (Inmarsat) are very important elements of the
GMDSS. Inmarsat-satellites are geostationary, which means that
their positions in space with respect to the earth remain the
same. Communication by means of Inmarsat-satellites extends in
an area between 70 degrees latitude North and 70 degrees
latitude South and has been divided into 4 Inmarsat-regions:
Atlantic Ocean Region West (AOR-W)
Atlantic Ocean Region East (AOR-E)
Indian Ocean Region (IOR)
Pacific Ocean Region (POR).

 The Inmarsat-A and B installation provide ship/shore, ship/ship and

shore/ship telephone, telex and high-speed data services.
The Inmarsat-C provides ship/shore, shore/ship and ship/ship, storeand-forward data and telex messaging and can send preformatted
distress messages to a Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
Communication by means of speech is not possible with Inmarsat-C.
The Inmarsat-C SafetyNET service is a satellite-based world-wide
maritime safety information broadcast service. It works similarly to
NAVTEX in areas outside NAVTEX coverage.

 NAVTEX
NAVTEX is a component of the World Wide Navigational
Warning Service (WWNWS) and must be installed on
GMDSS-vessels in order to be able to receive Maritime
Safety Information-messages. It is a telex-receiver that
can print MSI-messages. These navigational messages
are addressed "to all vessels" and contain information
concerning meteorological warnings, SAR-operations and
other important and urgent data.

 EPIRB
An Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon is a small
radio-transmitter able to transmit VHF-distress signals.
These signals are received by satellites and relayed to
Rescue-Co-ordination Centres. An EPIRB will be released
from the vessel-in-distress by hand, or automatically by a
hydrostatic release mechanism once the beacon has been
submerged for a few metres in case of shipwreck. It will be
activated automatically and will start to transmit a distress
alert to Rescue-Co-ordination Centres via satellite, giving
position and identification of the vessel.

 SEARCH AND RESCUE RADAR TRANSPONDER

The GMDSS installation aboard vessels includes two or more
Search-and- Rescue Radar Transponders. A SART will be
activated by the radar of a passing vessel. It will then start to
transmit an alert that will create a series of dots on the RRI
(Plan Position Indicator - radar display) of the same vessel,
which will then have the means to locate the distressed raft or
vessel. The detection range between SART and SAR-Unit
depends on the height of the ship's radar mast and the height of
the SART in the survival craft.

 COSPAS-SARSAT
COSPAS-SARSAT is an international satellite-based search and
rescue system, established by Canada, France, the U.S.A. and
Russia. Unlike the Inmarsat-satellites, these satellites are not
geostationary, but orbit the earth on a North/South- and
South/North path, passing closely over both poles. It is the only
system that offers a means to contact distant stations. The
system offers a satellite Emergency Position-Indicating Radio
Beacon (EPIRB).

COMPREHENSION
I. Answer the following questions:
a) What is GMDSS?
b) What is the aim of GMDSS?
c) What is the difference between Simplex- and
Duplex VHF?
d) What is the main difference between INMARSAT
satellites and COSPAS/SARSAT satellites?
e) What does a Navtex message generally contain?

II. Mention the communication equipment required in

the GMDSS Areas
A1, A2, A3 and A4.

 III. Explain the working of an EPIRB and

SART.
IV. Match the image to each of the
following: DSC, NAVTEX, EPIRB.