Installation manual

Introduction
Thank you for choosing McMurdo for your VHF communication requirements.
McMurdo has supplied the maritime market for many years with communication
products of high quality and excellent design, and considers it of utmost importance
that all products are safe and easy to operate.
The product
The McMurdo F1 DSC VHF radiotelephone is designed to meet the high quality
standard required for a product that plays an important role in the safety of the ship
and its crew. The F1 DSC VHF radiotelephone is easy to operate and gives the
user high quality effective radio communication to other ships as well as to shore
based stations. Installation and maintenance is made very simple and can be
carried out by untrained personnel.
A CD-ROM simulating the operation of the F1 DSC radiotelephone can be obtained
from McMurdo on application. This, when installed on a PC-compatible computer,
simulates the operation of the F1 radio together with a simulation of a second
station for exchange of DSC messages.
VHF DSC Radios
VHF radios communicate on fixed frequency bands called channels. There are 57
public channels, numbered 1 to 28 and 60 to 88. (The system is different in US
waters; setting the radio to US changes to that system.)
Some channels are reserved for particular functions:
Channel 16 is reserved for verbal distress calls and for ‘All Stations’ calls.
This channel must NOT be used for other purposes.
Channel 70 is a channel reserved for digital data (DSC).
DSC (Digital Selective Calling) is a digital function which permits a caller to alert a
particular DSC radio (or group of radios) that a standard radio communication is
requested on a specific channel. In this respect, it is similar to a standard telephone
call in that a specific number can be called; however, once the call is accepted,
communication uses normal radio procedures.
DSC also permits automatic distress call alerting; where the appropriate information
is available from external equipment, the alert includes the vessel’s MMSI number,
its position and the exact time of the distress alert. (The distress call is still made
using conventional radio procedures; the DSC function only alerts other radio users
to the intended call.)