Short Range Certificate

MegamanBoo

Hi, I've just bought a boat and would like to have a vhf radio. What's the story with the src license? In practice could I just go ahead and use an older non-mmsi radio in case of emergency?

I'd sooner one of the newer dsc radios but from what I can gather these require an mmsi number, which requires an src certificate.

To get an SRC certificate seems to require taking a course costing somewhere in the region of €300. Could I just teach myself and take the exam without forking out so much money for one of these courses?

AndyBoBandy

You need to do the course as part of the exam process… it’s a sort of all in 1 deal…

It really is worth doing as you will learn so much from it.

I’m sure you could find one being run locally that you could attend… I know they do them in Malahide Marina often enough

You can have a DSC VHF without inputting an MMSI, but it’s makes any potential rescue so much easier if your MMSI is in the radio.

I’m not sure if the radio would even transmit a DSC event if there wasn’t a number in it… When I got my boat the guy had programmed random numbers into it.. so I had it re-programmed with my newly acquired MMSI

spaceHopper

BOAT = burn another thousand, so in the grand scheme of things 300 isn't that big a deal. Some clubs offer cheap courses to members. Also, there are plenty of people with a VHF and no license, in an emergency they can prosecute after they rescue you.

MegamanBoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123516561#Comment_123516561

Thanks, I'm gonna go ahead and do the course. I'll have the radio in case of emergency in the meantime and I guess I'll have to take my chances with prosecution!

I can see the reasoning behind having the license, so people won't use their radio's for messing about, but at the same time with today's dsc systems I think it would be a positive to issue domestic mmsi's with no course and a minimal fee to have in emergency use.

AndyBoBandy

I'd hazard a guess that a good chunk of the small to midsize leisure craft you see out on the water that have a VHF on board, won't have an SRC holder on board.. and the smaller & smaller those craft get (speed boats/fishing punts/dinghies), the odds of there being no SRC holder would get higher & higher..

If any of them called for a rescue (which was genuine), I doubt there would be any talk of prosecution.

We were a sailing family, and my older brother & sister got the SRC back in the 90's, but I never did (probably too young, but I did get my Basic Sea Survival at 11), and I always regretted it, so when I knew I wanted to get a boat again, I knew I'd want/need the SRC, so went and did it. On June 14th 2018, on the TV's in Howth YC, France were beating Croatia in the World Cup Final. I was there, but I wasn't watching the game because I was in the other room doing my SRC assessment/test! (Incidentally about 2 months later I hired the SRC instructor from that day to sail me & my new to me boat back to Dublin from Portsmouth, a trip I gained a wealth of experience from) ).

There are 'cheat sheet stickers' you can get (RNLI might even give them out) that go through the steps to transmit a MayDay call on a VHF radio, and at the most basic of levels, this and a half decent VHF will be enough to get most people rescued, or at least the Coast Guard informed adequately…

(edit, heres the sticker, I remember now it came in the box with my Icom handheld VHF)

DSC is next level though. It wasn't a thing I was aware of when I got out of sailing about ~22 years ago, but when coming back I learned more about it. On my boat the VHF accepts a feed from the GPS so if I transmit a DSC, it sends my position as well as all the MMSI info, some VHF's have an inbuilt GPS for this.. In my opinion DSC is a must as it gets all the vital info out instantly, and sometimes all you might have is an instant…

nokiatom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123517436#Comment_123517436

Im boating 50 years and I never had an SRC and i do have a vhf and ive never heard of anyone being prosecuted. Ive often called up the nearest radio station for a radio check and they never said anything to me. A vhf can save lives so i doubt very much you would be prosecuted for not having a SRC. Its different if you use your boat for financial gain then you would have to have one. I think also that boats over a certain size must have one. My boat is only 19ft

Tabnabs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123517718#Comment_123517718

When they respond to your radio request and ask for your callsign, how do you answer that?

nokiatom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123517831#Comment_123517831

I just give them the name of the boat