Your VHF course pre-course reading

Below are resources which are designed to prepare you for your VHF Course at Penzance Sailing Club.

The more of the content on these pages that you learn before the course, the easier you will find the course on the day.

When you come to our DSC VHF course we would ask you to bring the following items:
- A notebook
- Pen / Pencil
- One passport sized photo
- Cheque book (for RYA fee)

How DSC VHF works?
Watch this video which highlights the basics.

Pre-course Resources

During the course we will use specially adapted radios, which do not transmit. This allows us to practice all of the different types of alerts, calls and messages.

DO NOT practice sending distress, urgency or safety alerts and messages on normal radios.

LEARN: If you see the word "learn" in red on this website it indicates something you need to learn by heart before the course starts.

The Basic Controls
Learn how to turn on the radio, set it up for use and the basics of transmitting your first message.

Routine Calling - without DSC
How to make a call and pass a message. How to call someone on channel 16 before moving to a working channel.

MMSI and Inputting them into the radios memory
To learn a little about the MMSI - your radio's unique identification number. To know why and how to input these numbers into your radio's memory.

Routine Calling - with DSC
How to use DSC to initiate a routine call and to see the advantages.

Group Calling - with DSC
How to use DSC to send an alert to all radios in your "group".

Distress
To learn when and how to transmit a distress alert, call and message.

Inputting your Position
To learn why you would and how to input your position into a DSC radio.

Urgency
To learn when and how to transmit an urgency alert, call and message.

Mayday Relay
To learn when to send a mayday relay immediately. To learn that if you receive a mayday alert and/or call you must wait and then prepare to act.

Safety
To learn when a safety message would be transmitted.

EPIRB and SART
These devices are designed to aid a search and rescue situation. How do they work and how should they be used?

Navtex
A useful system for receiving weather and navigational information...but what else?

Channels
Which channels can we use and what are they used for?

Phonetics Alphabet
Sometimes we need to spell things out for clarity - this is how we do it.

Licensing and the Rules
What do we need to do to stay legal?

Books

The following book has been written with the RYA VHF Course in mind. Copies of this books will be available to borrow during the course however to order your own copies follow the link.

RYA VHF Radio Including GMDSS

Pre-Course Assessment

Before the day of your course you will need to take the Pre-course Assessment to prove that you have learnt the basics. If completed in good time we will aim to email you feedback to aid your revision before the course.

Pre-course Assessment

Feedback

The content of these pages is put together in good faith and is constantly evolving. It is possible that errors exist within this content.

If you spot an error or would like to add anything to these pages please email webmaster@pzsc.org.uk

Reading the content of these pages is not a substitute for completing a RYA SRC Course or similar.