RYA VHF Courses - Archive

VHF Radio - Short Range Certificate Syllabus

For award of an SRC students must be able to:

A. Distress situations
1. Define a distress situation.
2. Initiate a DSC Distress Alert, with position and time input manually or automatically.
3. Send a Mayday call and message by voice.
4. Respond appropriately to a DSC Distress Alert and to a Mayday call and message,
including relay of a distress message.
5. Know how to deploy an EPIRB and a SART.

B. Urgency Situations
1. Define an urgency situation.
2. Initiate a DSC urgency alert.
3. Send a Pan Pan call and message by voice.
4. Respond appropriately to an urgency message.

C. Safety Situations
1. Identify a situation in which a safety message is appropriate.
2. Input a DSC safety alert.
3. Send a safety message by voice.
4. Receive Maritime Safety Information by NAVTEX.

D. Routine Communication
1. Initiate a DCS routine alert.
2. Establish communication and exchange messages with other stations by voice on
appropriate channels.
3. Test the radiotelephone by means of an appropriate test call.
4. Initiate a DSC self test.
5. Enter a DSC group and Individual MMSI.
6. Maintain an appropriate listening watch on DSC and voice channels.
7. Use the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Written test
A written test must be given to each student and will include areas of the syllabus not covered by the
practical assessment.