U.S. Coast Guard News

Digital Selective Calling

One last chance to improve DSC standards: ITU and IEC take the lead

15 Nov 00.  The three international organizations responsible for developing DSC standards (IMO, ITU and IEC) will each be reviewing its existing standards, with a view toward updating and resolving DSC problems:

• IMO COMSAR, which is responsible for performance standards, meets 11 December 2000.   No US submissions concerning DSC have been submitted to at this meeting.
• ITU-R Working Party 8B, which is responsible for the primary technical standards defining DSC, met 18 October 2000.  It will meet again in May 2000 and October 2000.  It decided to take on the task of reviewing and updating the two primary DSC standards Rec. M.493 and M.541.   (see below).
• IEC TC80, which develops test standards for DSC equipment, plans to develop a new Class D VHF standard and update is GMDSS standard 61097-3.  The UK will sponsor Class D standards development, and the USCG updates to 61097-3.  Work on 61097-3 will likely be delayed due to a job change by the chairman.

The work program of these three organizations provides an opportunity to resolve some of the more serious DSC-related problems, noting changes will likely not affect existing radio equipment, and would have to be interoperable with existing equipment.  ITU will take the primary lead in addressing DSC problems.

Although ITU and IEC have agreed to take on this task, a shortfall in USCG resources may slow down this task, hopefully temporarily.

DSC Distress Relay Acknowledgments

14 Nov 00.  The USCG coast radio stations acknowledges DSC distress alert relays from ships using an all-ships distress relay acknowledgment protocol using and end of sequence (EOS) symbol of 122, rather that an individual distress relay acknowledgment addressed to the ship sending the relay.   ITU standards are unclear as to the correct protocol to use to acknowledge an all-ships distress relay, and as a result different Administrations use different means.  ITU Working Party 8B decided that coast stations should acknowledge the first all-ship distress relay using an EOS of 122, and should acknowledge any further relays of the same alert by voice or by an individual acknowledgment directed toward the relaying ship.  ITU should be issuing a Circular Letter clarifying the matter..

USCG Implementation Strategy for GMDSS Sea Area A2 (Acrobat PDF)

25 Sep 00.  This message outlines the US Coast Guard's strategy for integrating MF digital selective calling into their shoreside infrastructure in the continental US and declaring GMDSS Sea Area A2 operational.  The target date to complete all installations and for the USCG to declare Sea Area A2 operational for the continental US, parts of Hawaii, and Guam, but not including Alaska or Puerto Rico, has been shifted to the end of 2000.  The delay in declaring an A2 area is attributed to delays in completing landline orders.

A2 plots have been generated, and will be posted when the CG announces an A2 area.

USCG Response Policy for MF/HF Digital Selective Calling (Acrobat PDF)

29 Oct 99.  This message provides operational USCG shore units with interim policy guidance for responding to HF and MF distress alerts.

Statistics

25 Sep 00.  Statistics are now included on the GMDSS Webpage.   Note these statistics show the following trend:

• MF/HF distress relays have been reduced significantly.  The ratio of relays to distress alerts is now substantially less than 1:1.  The radio had exceeded 8:1.
• 10-20% of MF/HF DSC distress alerts have a false or unregistered identity.  Outside of the false alert rate, identity problems seem to be the most serious DSC problem.
• About 10% or more of HF alerts have no position information. 
• Few alerts have false position information.
• The false alert rate for 406 MHz EPIRBs is approximately 90%. Most other GMDSS devices have a false alert rate higher than 90%.
  

Maritime Weather Information

NAVTEX

New Worldwide Marine Radiofacsimile Broadcast Schedule

23 Sep 00. The new "Worldwide Marine Radiofacsimile Broadcast Schedules" dated August 29, 2000 , reflecting the addition of new 96 hour wind/wave and wave period forecasts from Boston and Pt. Reyes is now available from the National Weather Service radiofax webpage.

NAVTEX Boston Improvements

29 Jun 00.  NAVTEX Boston/NMF has an improved antenna, which should provide increased coverage.  NAVTEX charts reflecting Boston improvements, as well as the new site at Savannah, will be published by the end of the year.

4 MHz NAVTEX

29 Jun 00.  The USCG plans to introduce a trial operational 4 MHz NAVTEX service at New Orleans/NMG once allocation problems can be sorted out with the FCC and NTIA.

Federal Communications Commission News

15 Nov 00.  The FCC announced that on November 20, 2000, the Wireless telecommunications Bureau will implement Universal Licensing System for all ship station licensing.  For more information see http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls/.

Part 80 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

25 Sep 00.  Proposed to consolidate, revise, and streamline Rules governing maritime communications pursuant to requests from the National GMDSS Implementation Task Force and Globe Wireless, Inc. Phase out of 121.5 MHz EPIRBs and GMDSS for fishing vessels over 300 grt are included.  Comments were due 21 Aug and Reply Comments 21 Sep. Submitted comments can be viewed at the FCC's ECFS Website.   Select "Search the ECFS System:, then enter "00-48" under "Proceeding".  Dkt No.: WT- 00-48. Action by the Commission. Adopted: March 17, 2000. by NPRM & MO&O. (FCC No. 00-105). WTB Internet URL: http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Wireless/Notices/2000/fcc00105.doc .

406 MHz Personal Locator Beacons

3 Apr 00.  The FCC has released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (WT Docket 99-366) providing for the availability of a 406 MHz personal locator beacon (PLB).   The 406 MHz PLB is similar to an EPIRB, but is designed for emergency land use by persons traveling in wilderness or sparsely settled areas.  Comments can be read through the FCC ECFS service.

GMDSS Question Pool

29 Jun 00.  The FCC GMDSS Question Pool is available at http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Wireless/Informal/.

National and International Maritime Telecommunications

Satellite processing of 121.5/243 MHz emergency beacons to be terminated on February 1, 2009

16 Nov 00.  On November 3, 2000, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the processing of distress alerts on the frequencies used by Class A, B and S EPIRBs would be terminated on February 1, 2009. The International Cospas-Sarsat Program, a program that uses a satellite constellation to relay distress alerts to search and rescue authorities, announced at its 25 th Council Session that it plans to terminate satellite processing of distress signals from 121.5/243 MHz emergency beacons on Feb. 1, 2009. Mariners, aviators, and individuals using emergency beacons will need to switch to those operating at 406 MHz if they want to be detected by satellites.

New Canadian ship station radio regulations

23 Sep 00. Canada recently adopted new Ship Station (Radio) Regulations, 1999. The new Regulations, which have a coming-into-force date of April 1, 2001, apply to most commercial vessels over 8 meters in length and of closed construction and can be viewed in the Canada Gazette part II.  Note that this is a 189-page Acrobat PDF file; radio regulations begin on page 96.

New Standard Intended to Mitigate Interference to VHF Marine Radios is Available

29 Oct 99.  The Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM), has published RTCM Recommended Standards for Installed Maritime VHF Radiotelephone Equipment Operating in High Level Electromagnetic Environments, RTCM Paper 87-99/SC117-STD, dated October 17, 1999.  Marine radios constructed to this standard should avoid most interference caused by pa25 Sep 00.  Canada has published new GMDSS regulations, NOAA Weather Radio, and other high power transmitters operating near the marine VHF band, in areas such as the Lower Mississippi River and the Port of Savannah GA.  The standard was prepared by RTCM  Special Committee 117, chaired by Bob Bradley of the Federal Communications Commission, supported by studies of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Department of Commerce.  Copies of the standard are available from RTCM, 1800 Diagonal Rd, Suite 600, Alexandria VA 22314-2840, USA, Tel: +1 703 684-4481, Fax: +1 703 836-4229.

NTIA technical reports supporting this effort are available electronically:

• Evaluation of Marine VHF Radios: Performance in Savannah GA and New Orleans Port Areas
• Evaluation of Marine VHF Radios: Compliance to IEC Receiver Standards

Maritime Identities

15 Nov 00.  The USCG, FCC, BOAT US and MariTEL have negotiated means for assigning and maintaining MMSI's for recreational boaters.  There may be a nominal charge for this service.  The FCC has completed work on an MOU for collecting MMSIs, which we hope should be signed beginning November 2000.

23 June 99.  Industry Canada established an MMSI assignment capability for all of its ships, commercial, recreational and military, as well as group identities and shore stations, similar to NOAA's EPIRB registration system. Registration is mandatory. Boaters can mail or fax a form, or call in to receive an MMSI, at no charge.  For more information, see their MMSI Client Procedures Document (Acrobat PDF).  The U.S. has no counterpart to this Canadian capability. 

International Telecommunications Union

15 Nov 00.  ITU-R Working Party 8B (mobile and radiolocation) was held held 18-27 October 2000, and Study Group 8, the parent committee to WP8B, met 30-31 October.  ITU-R made the following decisions:

• AIS: The draft revision to Recommendation M.1371 was approved by WP8B and SG8.  It will now be translated (into French and Spanish) and sent to administration for adoption by correspondence.   Adoption is expected to be completed by about May 2001.  The draft revision to ITU-R Rec. M.1084, which describes frequency channel numbers used by AIS, was similarly approved. "Recommends 3 and 4" of the ITU-R standard notes that IALA is responsible for maintaining and publishing configuration of the International Application Identifier branch (software-defined messages transmitted or received by AIS), and that AIS design should take into account IALA technical guidelines.   The purpose of these technical guidelines is to clarify provisions of M.1371-1 where necessary.  
• DSC: WP8B decided to take on the task of reviewing and updating Rec. 493 and M.541 in order to help resolve several outstanding DSC problems.  In particular, Rec. M.541 will be reviewed to determine which portions should apply to persons operating DSC equipment, and which portions should apply to the design of DSC equipment, in particular the software design of DSC.  The next two meetings of WP8B, where DSC standards will be discussed, are 23-29 May 2001 and 24 Oct - 2 Nov 2001.

International Electrotechnical Commission

15 Nov 00  TC80 is planning two new working groups:

• WG 2: non-SOLAS radar
• WG 12: Class D DSC

25 Sep 00  Newly adopted IEC marine electronics standards include:

• IEC 60936-1 Shipborne radar, Part 1
• IEC 61162-1 Ed.2 Data interfaces, Part 1
• IEC IEC 61996-1 Ed.1 Voyage data recorder
• IEC 60872-3 Ed.1 Electronic plotting aid

International Maritime Organization (IMO)

SOLAS V Changes

25 Sep 00.  The 72nd session of the MSC adopted most recommendations made by the IMO 45th Navigation Subcommittee to Chapter V of the Safety of Life at Sea Convention.   This amendment to SOLAS includes vessel carriage requirements for such equipment as Global Navigational Satellite Service (e.g. GPS) receivers, voyage data recorders, automatic identification system transponders, etc. Voyage Data Recorder carriage requirements were adopted on passenger ships and new cargo ships.  A decision to required VDRs be carried on existing cargo ships was deferred until MSC 73, which meets in late November 2000.  The report of MSC 72 has been posted on the USCG Navcen IMO documents website.

Distribution of IMO publications

The Coast Guard will not post documents sold by IMO. For copies of IMO Assembly Resolutions, Conventions, Codes, the GMDSS Manual, and similar documents, please contact the IMO Publications office in London.

Input documents to IMO from other countries currently cannot be publicly posted on the Internet, but under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, neither can they be withheld. As a public service to those involved in preparing positions to meetings of the IMO, and those desiring to be involved and informed, we are posting input documents of the Radiocommunications and Search and Rescue Subcommittee, and selected documents concerning marine electronics from the Safety of Navigation Subcommittee and Maritime Safety Committee, as they become available to us. To access this folder, you need a user name and password. If you need this IMO information, please send us your request for the username and password.  At IMO's request, we must limit access to U.S. residents or citizens.

For copies of selected IMO NAV, MSC and COMSAR documents affecting marine electronics and search and rescue, see the Coast Guard's marcomms/imo subdirectory. Old documents from IMO are in Word Perfect 6.0 format; newer documents are in Acrobat PDF format.

26 Jul 99.  The IMO 19th Assembly (1995) decided that performance standards involving communications or navigation systems would be issued as MSC Resolutions rather than Assembly Resolutions.  This not only means that performance standards can be issued more frequently, it also means they will be made available free of charge.   MSC Resolutions are distributed as Annexes to the Final Report of meetings of the Maritime Safety Committee.  Most such annexes are available in the Coast Guard's marcomms/imo subdirectory.  Those that are not available will be obtained in due course.  An index describing which annex to which report has a particular MSC resolution will also be developed in due course.

IMO's documents computer has transitioned from a bulletin board to an Internet Web-based server. Documents are now in Arobat PDF format.  US, Secretariat, and COSPAS-SARSAT input documents, as well as output documents, are available from our public directory.    All other input documents are in the restricted directory.  

20 Sep 99.  GMDSS and MSC Circulars addressing maritime electronics issues are included in the new Circulars directory.  The USCG has scanned IMO COMSAR Navigation, Search and Rescue and COLREG Circulars not already available on the Internet, as well as final reports from COM Subcommittee meetings, and will soon make them available.

New, Improved or Discontinued Services

This newsletter is normally updated about monthly. However updates may be made more frequently as events warrant.

A primary purpose of the Maritime Communications library in this Internet server is not only to inform the maritime public of Coast Guard services, but to inform the public on where to call or write concerning these services, particularly when there is a problem.

The Coast Guard announces major changes in telecommunications services in the Federal Register and on selected Coast Guard radio broadcasts. We will also announce such changes here.

Comments on radio services can be addressed to the unit providing the service or to the address at the top of this page, or sent by Internet email to: cgcomms@uscg.mil

Please limit mail to matters involving telecommunications, or webpages beginning with the address "www.navcen.uscg.govmarcomms/".