Global Maritime Distress and Safety Systems (GMDSS)

MCA deck officer certificate, Full-time, School of Marine Operations

Course overview

The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) is primarily a vessel-to shore alerting system where Rescue Coordination Centres (RCCs) receive distress alerts from vessels and then co-ordinate an appropriate rescue response. Vessel-to-vessel distress alerting is also a feature of GMDSS and operates in a similar way to the current distress system. GMDSS also provides Urgency, Safety and routine communications and safety information broadcasts (navigation warnings, weather forecasts and search and rescue messages, etc). GMDSS is designed to provide an automatic means of transmitting and receiving distress alerts either by using Digital Selective Calling (DSC) via conventional radio or via the Inmarsat satellite system. DSC communication is much faster and has a greater probability of reception than the existing manually operated distress system.

Course entry qualifications

No Pre-Requisites

Start date

TBA

Duration

10 Days

Course content

Introduction to GMDSS
Radio Theory
Frequencies and Antennae
Radio Communication
Digital Selective Calling
INMARSAT
Maritime Safety Information
EPIRBs and SARTs

Additional notes

Mandatory for Deck Officers

Contact

Lyndsey Rossborough / Ian Cheshire. Tel: 0141 565 2711. Email: marine.short.courses@gcns.ac.uk

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