Title: Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS)
1Global Maritime Distressand Safety System(GMDSS)
2Basic Concept of the GMDSS
- The fundamental difference between the old and
the new distress system is that the new system is
shore centred/coordinated and moves emphasis from
ship to ship alerting to ship to shore alerting.
The new system is quicker, simpler and, most
importantly, more efficient and reliable than the
old manual Morse Code and radiotelephone alerting
system. GMDSS is specifically designed to
automate a ships radio distress alerting
function, and consequently, remove the
requirement for manual (human) watch-keeping on
distress channels.
3- The basic concept of the system is that search
and rescue authorities ashore, as well as
shipping in the immediate vicinity of the ship in
distress, will be rapidly and automatically
alerted to a distress situation so that they can
assist in a co-coordinated SAR operation with
minimum delay. The system also provides for
urgency and safety communications, and the
promulgation of maritime safety information (MSI)
including- navigational and meteorological
warnings and forecasts, and other urgent safety
information to ships. In other words, every ship,
fitted appropriately for GMDSS, is able,
irrespective of the area in which it operates, to
perform those communication functions, which are
essential for the safety of the ship itself and
of other ships operating in the same area.
4Before
5Now
6Now
7The GMDSS Equipment
8GMDSS Concept
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9Functional requirements
- The GMDSS regulations (chapter IV of the
International SOLAS Convention), require that
every GMDSS equipped ship shall be capable of
10- 1. Distress alerting Ship to shore
- EPIRB
- Digital Selective Calling (DSC)
- INMARSAT
112. Distress alerting Shore to ship
123. Distress alerting Ship to ship
134. Search and Rescue Co-ordinating Communications
145. On-Scene Communication
156. Locating
167. Transmission/Reception of Maritime Safety
Information
178. General Radiocommunications
189. Bridge-to-Bridge Communications
19Application
- The GMDSS applies to vessels subject to the SOLAS
Convention - that is - Commercial vessels of 300 Gross Registered Tons
(GRT) and above, engaged on international
voyages. - The GMDSS became mandatory for such vesselsas at
February 1, 1999.
201 February 1992 ships may comply with the GMDSS
requirements
1 August 1993 ships must comply with satellite
EPIRB and NAVTEX requirements
1 February 1995 ships built on or after this
date must fully comply with the GMDSS requirements
1 February 1999 ships must comply with the
GMDSS requirements
21Equipment vs Operational requirements
- The major difference between the GMDSS and its
predecessor systems is that the radio
communications equipment to be fitted to a GMDSS
ship is determined by the ship's area of
operation, rather than by its size.
22- Because the various radio systems used in the
GMDSS have different limitations with regards to
range and services provided, the new system
divides the world's oceans into 4 areas - Sea Area 1
- Sea Area 2
- Sea Area 3
- Sea Area 4
23GMDSS Sea Area 1
- This area of GMDSS is within the radiotelephone
coverage of at least one VHF coast station in
which continuous DSC alerting is available. Such
area could extend typically 30 50 nautical
miles from the coast station.
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25GMDSS Sea Area 2
- This area of GMDSS is an area excluding sea area
A1, within the radiotelephone coverage of at
least one MF coast station in which continuous
DSC alerting is available. Such area could extend
typically about 50 400 nautical miles from the
coast station
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27GMDSS Sea Area 3
- This area of GMDSS is an area excluding sea area
A1 and A2, within the radiotelephone coverage of
at least one HF coast station in which continuous
DSC alerting is available. This area lies between
about latitudes 70º North and South.
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29GMDSS Sea Area 4
- This area of GMDSS is an area outside sea area
A1, A2 and A3.