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Dan's adventure
Dean Bumstead 12/12/22 #32856
Dan – that is quite a story, and glad it had a happy ending and you retained the majority of your cognitive ability. That said…..I have a nice inflatable you can use to chase me around in. Even the score a bit since you’ve been doing a secret weight lifting program. On a more serious note, I’ll be looking for a handheld VHF DSC capable radio if anyone has suggestions and also a fatter boat.
Dean
David Scherrer 12/12/22 #32857
This seemed to be a good deal Dean……https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08X12XK96/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
D.
Paul Reavley 12/12/22 #32861
The HX890 is what I have and this seems to be as good a time as any to revisit the manual (lots of interesting stuff there!)
I have not found anything about automatic position resending so far in the HX890 manual. However there is a lot of stuff about tracking and polling functions. Much of this may be difficult or impossible to manage on the water, but I can see some potential for once someone is back on land or in a more stable vessel. The HX890 has an individual MMSI (the required US registration numbers used to uniquely identify our radios for DSC) directory (holds 100 entries I think) where we can enter our friend's MMSI numbers along with their names. This allows for individual and group tracking as well as navigation to radios that have registered MMSI numbers. With such an MMSI number the HX890 can poll for the position of the corresponding radio. A radio (at least the HX890) receiving a polling request can be setup to automatically respond by sending its position or setup to manually choose to respond or not. I suspect that I should set my radio to automatically respond to such polls. I would also like to know if the CG tries to use such polling once they have the MMSI number from a distress call?? (most of these functions have test modes where you can test between individual radios)
You can also initiate individual calls that ring the receiving radio and request the receiving radio to respond and switch to voice communication over a channel other than 16. This of course may be difficult or impossible for the receiver to respond to (I suppose I am probably most interested in the position polling function already mentioned). Receiving HX890s can be setup to automatically respond to such a call and switch to the requested channel. But then you may still have the difficulties of voice communication over noise.
The HX890 is quite a bit bigger than the handy HX40s, but I can just fit it in either of my front Vaikobi (older style) pockets with the antenna sticking out (there is a loop to leash it to inside the pocket). The zipper stays up and the radio does not seem to interfere with my paddling or remounts (you probably want to check this for yourself). Anyone is welcome to take a look at it.
One final comment directed at myself as much as anyone else. All of our technology, techniques, safeguards, equipment etc. have less chance of working if we (I) do not practice and get proficient in their use. And often they can't really be fairly evaluated for usefulness or effectiveness in adverse conditions if we haven't practiced and tested them. If we have done so then any judgement we might make about the range of their usefulness in adverse conditions begins to have a more reasonable basis in fact. And I sure as hell don't want to think I have some safety shield if I am just carrying along stuff with me that I haven't practiced/tested using (my VHF radio would be an example of one device I haven't practiced enough with or learned as much as I should about)
Paul
