Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
I am not a great supporter of SAMSA as I firmly believe that they have little or no interest in the leisure boating community.
Despite that they do on occasions, do something that will assist all those who go to sea in small boats, so here is the good news.
Installation and commissioning of new coastal radio infrastructure equipment.
Summary
This Marine Notice serves to provide notification to affected parties of the installation and commissioning of new coast station radio equipment around the South African coast.
Background:
To keep in line with international best practice and in accordance with the instruction (Resolution A.801(19) to SOLAS contracting governments (South Africa being a signatory to the convention) to provide a maritime mobile service in the bands between 156 Mhz and 174 Mhz (VHF), which service utilizes DSC on VHF Ch. 70 as its mainstay for SOLAS watch keeping and Distress/Urgency/Safety alerting.
The South African Department of Transport decided in 2013 to upgrade the coastal maritime radio infrastructure to include VHF DSC operations.
The installation and commissioning of the equipment to offer this service was delayed due to various technicalities which have now been resolved.
TelkomSA Maritime are currently busy with the installation and testing of VHF DSC radio equipment operating on VHF Channel 70 at radio coast station sites situated around the coast of South Africa.
This equipment will initially run in parallel with the previous system so that there is no break in radio coverage on VHF Channel 16.
READ THE FULL MARINE NOTICE HERE: SAMSA MN 7 of 2018
