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Such ease and privacy
are key to fishermen. On a nice day off the Cape when the big stripers
are around, there are a lot of people scanning their VHFs for clues to
where the action is. If you want to help a friend without attracting a
fleet, and you’re busy with fish yourself, this DSC-to-plotter connection—which,
by the way, hardly adds any cost to radio or plotter—can’t be
beat. Of course this is not just a regional phenomenon; a California fisherman
told me that within his “code group,” and before DSC, a VHF
call about heading over to “X ledge” really meant “Y reef.”
And who knows how many cellphones have been lost or ruined when busy fishermen
tried to use them for privacy?
Cutting to the chase,
sport fishermen around the country are getting into DSC. Besides, radios
with DSC features ranging from distress only to Standard Horizon’s
full suite have been selling for years now; they’re out there in
numbers, even if under-used and under-appreciated. I think we’re
en route from one hand clapping to another lesson in communications known
as Metcalfe’s law, named for the man who invented Ethernet. His theorem,
credited with predicting the Internet and e-mail explosions, is that “the
usefulness of a network equals the square of the number of users.”
In less mathematical terms, if last season there were ten boats in your
VHF area who might hear your DSC distress call and this season there are
100, that’s a lot more than ten times better. If one or more of them
happens to be a fisherman who can instantly plot your position and speed
to your rescue, well that’s excellent. If enough of your friends
learn to use DSC and your MMSI, which may eventually be a new line on
your business card, might you be tempted to turn down the chatter on your
own radio and just answer when it rings? How cool would it be on a group
cruise to be able to privately call/plot each or all with a couple of
commands?
It certainly looks as
though marine electronics companies are anticipating a Metcalfe-like exponential
growth in DSC importance and hence in new radio sales. The competition
is getting intense, and the plotting feature that Standard Horizon pioneered
is becoming almost generic. Last winter Icom introduced its rugged M602
that includes NMEA DSC output; at this season’s shows it was demoed
showing DSC calls on plotters from Garmin, which supports the function
on all its recent models. The new Raymarine C Series Displays (see page
56) can also plot NMEA DSC input, particularly impressive, I think, as
none of the company’s own radios provides the output (yet).
Lastly, the Coast Guard
really is building a DSC-enabled communications network, on its own, independent
of any high-tech bubble companies, called Rescue 21. Big towers are going
up as I write, and the specifications suggest that it will be a truly
powerful safety system, especially for those boaters who get a DSC radio
properly installed and running.
Standard Horizon
Phone: (800) 767-2450. www.standardhorizon.com.
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