RYA VHF HANDBOOK

It goes without saying that the distress messages are considered the critically important function of any marine VHF; however, it shall be noted that they distress messaging is not the sole purpose of having the VHF on board ship. The VHFs are widely used for preventing distress situations - this is achieved by allowing ships to warn each other about various potential dangers.

Another function is receiving the safety info, including but not limited to the weather forecasts and navigation related warnings. Most of the radio messages are quite mundane and are send/received to cover different aspects of day-to-day operation, these would typically include planning, searching for fuel and berth etc. The present publication was prepared by RYA specialists. The list of topics covered in its pages opens with the description of types of messages, users and equipment.

The next chapter provides readers with the explanation of the working principle of any radio while the third chapter is dealing with the applicable regulations and rules including licensing and type approval. There are useful instruction on proper operation of the marine VHF radios, VHF channels and voice procedures as well as GMDSS and DSC. Of course, this is not a full list of what has been addressed in this book…