Furuno FM-8900S Manuel D’Utilisation

DSC is an acronym meaning Digital Selective Calling. It is a digital distress and gen-
eral calling system in the VHF band used by ships for transmitting distress alerts and 
general calls and by coast stations for transmitting the associated acknowledgements.

For DSC distress, safety and urgency callings in the VHF band, the channel is 70.

DSC calls are roughly divided in two groups: distress messages and general (safety, 
urgency and routine) messages. Below are the types of DSC messages.

*SPECIAL MSG: To send these messages, set [SPECIAL MSG] to [ABLE]. See 
section 5.17.

DISTRESS ALERT

Your ship sends distress message.

DISTRESS RELAY 
ALL

Your ship relays distress call to all ships.

DISTRESS RELAY 
INDIVIDUAL

Your ship relays distress call to a coast station or all ships.

MEDICAL MSG*

Inform areas that your ship is carrying medical supplies.

NEUTRAL MSG*

Inform areas that your ship is not a participant in armed conflict.

INDIVIDUAL MSG

Call to a specific address.

PSTN MSG

Call over Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

TEST MSG

Send test signal to a station to test your station's functionality.

GROUP MSG

Call to a specific group.

ALL SHIPS MSG

Call to all ships.

POSITION MSG

Your ship requests position of other ships.

POLLING MSG

Confirm if your ship is within communicating range with other ships. (Re-
ceive and answer only)

TRANSCEIVER 

UNIT

Distress, Safety, Urgency and Routine DSC Calls

Distress, Safety, Urgency and Routine DSC Calls

ANT

CH70 RX ANT