Subelement D: Distress, Urgency & Safety Comms— Topic :
Question 26D2
Element 7R (GMDSS-RO)If your vessel has suffered a casualty severe enough to disable both ship’s power and the GMDSS console RSE you should:
Explanation
When ship's power and the GMDSS console fail, the vessel has lost its primary means of communication and distress alerting.
Option A correctly identifies the essential backup procedures. An **EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon)** is designed to be self-sufficient and automatically transmit a distress alert, containing vessel identification and position, to rescue authorities via satellite. Concurrently, a **Survival Craft Transceiver (SCT)** is a portable VHF radio specifically for emergency use. A "Mayday" call made via the SCT on **Channel 16** is the international voice distress frequency, alerting any nearby vessels or shore stations listening.
Option B is incorrect because UHF transceivers have extremely limited range and are not designated for international maritime distress alerting.
Options C and D are incorrect because a voice "Mayday" call is *never* made on Channel 70. Channel 70 is exclusively reserved for **Digital Selective Calling (DSC)** distress alerts. While a DSC radio would initiate a digital alert on Ch-70, a voice call follows on Ch-16. Channel 06 is a working channel, not a primary distress channel.
Related Questions
25D6 Which of the following situations would normally use the Safety priority?26D1 Which of the following steps should be taken, if possible, when the vessel must be abandoned because of a Distress situation?26D3 DSC is used primarily to:26D4 The vessel’s GMDSS operator fails to properly record the particulars of an incoming DSC Distress alert. Which statement is true?26D5 What action(s) should be taken when abandoning ship?