GMDS

Global Maritime
S
Distress and Safety
System

Group 2

Table of Content
GMDSS > Global Maritime Distress and Safety System
History of GMDSS
How GMDSS System works?
Facilities of GMDSS
FOUR Sea Areas
The 2 main Sub-system
The 9 Communication Functions of GMDSS

GMDSS
Global Maritime Distress and Safety System

TheGlobal Maritime Distress and Safety System(GMDSS) is

an internationally agreed-upon set of safety procedures,
types of equipment, and communication protocols used to
increase safety and make it easier to rescue distressed ships,
boats and aircraft.
GMDSS consists of several systems, some of which are new, but
many of which have been in operation for many years. The
system is intended to perform the alerting (including position
determination of the unit in e following functions:
distress),search and rescue coordination, locating (homing),
maritime safety information broadcasts, general
communications, and bridge-to-bridge communications.
Specific radio carriage requirements depend upon the ship's
area of operation, rather than itstonnage. The system also
provides redundant means of distress alerting, and emergency
sources of power.

History of GMDSS

Since theinvention of radioat the end of

the 19th century, ships at sea have relied
onMorse code, invented bySamuel
Morseand first used in 1844, for distress
and safety telecommunications. The need for
ship and coast radio stations to have and use
radiotelegraph equipment, and to listen to a
common radio frequency for Morse encoded
distress calls, was recognized after the
sinking of the linerRMSTitanicin the North
Atlantic in 1912.

RADIO OFFICER with Radio

Telegraph

TheU.S. Congressenacted legislation soon after,

requiring U.S. ships to use Morse code radiotelegraph
equipment for distress calls. TheInternational
Telecommunications Union(ITU), now a United
Nations agency, followed suit for ships of all nations.
Morse encoded distress calling has saved thousands
of lives since its inception almost a century ago, but
its use requires skilled radio operators spending
many hours listening to the radio distress
frequency. Its range on themedium frequency(MF)
distress band (500 kHz) is limited, and the amount of
traffic Morse signals can carry is also limited.

 Not

all ship-to-shore radio

communications were short range. Some
radio stations provided long-range
radiotelephony services, such as
radiotelegrams and radiotelex calls, on
the HF bands (330MHz) enabling
worldwide communications with ships.
For example,Portishead Radio, which
was the world's busiest radiotelephony
station, provided HF long-range services.

 In

1974, it had 154 radio operators who

handled over 20 million words per year.
Such large radiotelephony stations
employed large numbers of people and
were expensive to operate. By the end
of the 1980s, satellite services had
started to take an increasingly large
share of the market for ship-toshore communications.

For these reasons, theInternational Maritime Organization(IMO), a

United Nations agency specializing in safety of shipping and preventing
ships from polluting the seas, began looking at ways of improving
maritime distress and safety communications. In 1979, a group of
experts drafted theInternational Convention on Maritime Search
and Rescue, which called for development of a global search and rescue
plan. This group also passed a resolution calling for development by
IMO of a Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) to
provide the communication support needed to implement the search and
rescue plan. This new system, which the world's maritime nations are
implementing, is based upon a combination ofsatelliteand terrestrial
radio services, and has changed international distress communications
from being primarily ship-to-ship based to ship-to-shore (Rescue
Coordination Centre) based. It spelled the end of Morse code
communications for all but a few users, such asamateur radio
operators.

The GMDSS provides for automatic distress alerting and

locating in cases where a radio operator doesn't have time
to send anSOSorMAYDAYcall, and, for the first time,
requires ships to receive broadcasts of maritime safety
information which could prevent a distress from
happening in the first place. In 1988, IMO amended the
Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention, requiring ships
subject to it fit GMDSS equipment.

 Such

ships were required to carry NAVTEX and

satellite EPIRBs by August 1, 1993, and had to
fit all other GMDSS equipment by February 1,
1999. US ships were allowed to fit GMDSS in
lieu of Morse telegraphy equipment by
theTelecommunications Act of 1996.

February

2005. Government have undertaken to

ensure that the necessary shore installations will
be in place in order to provide the required
communication services.

How IT Works

GMDSS enables a ship which is in distress to send a

message in various ways and be virtually certain that
it will be heard and acted upon. The distress or
safety message is picked up by ships in the area and
by shore stations within range if sent on MF and VHF
or by shore stations if transmitted using HF,
Inmarsat or COSPASSARSAT. While ships can
transmit an alert using any or all of the distress
equipment available on board, ships transmit a
shiptoship alert on MF or VHF and a shiptoshore
alert in areas A3 or A4, as appropriate, by a ship
earth station, HF digital selective calling (DSC)
communications or a satellite EPIRB as appropriate.

Ships sailing in area A2 should at least be capable of

transmitting a shiptoshore alert on 2,187.5 kHz
using DSC and satellite EPIRB and ships sailing in
area A1 should at least be capable of transmitting a
shiptoshore alert on 156.525 MHz (Channel 70)
using DSC.The system means that distress messages
are received much more reliably than before and with
the SAR Convention of l979, search and rescue
operations are better coordinated. In the event of
an incident, the whole operation is coordinated by a
designated rescue coordination centre (RCC) which
is informed of the.

 The

search itself is conducted according to

procedures laid down by the SAR Convention and
amplified in the IAMSAR manual. The GMDSS, for
its part, provides the means of communications
regardless of the area in which the ship is located.
For ships equipped with an Inmarsat ship earth
station (SES) sending a distress alert is both simple
and certain. It only involves pressing a special
distress button or using an abbreviated dialling
code. This automatically gives priority access to the
system and establishes contact with a coast earth
station (CES) via the Inmarsat satellite.

 The

message automatically gives the ships name and

position. The CES, being part of the international
search and rescue system, will for its part
immediately inform the rescue co ordination centre
(RCC) located nearest to the ship in distress and
thereby initiate a search and rescue operation.
Although satellite communications provide a primary
means of sending distress messages for ships fitted
with an Inmarsat SES, the latter can also use other
features of the system if desired for example they
can establish direct contact with an RCC by telex or
telephone.

Facilities of GMDSS

The FOUR Sea Areas

The FOUR Sea Area

Sea Area A1
An area within the radiotelephone coverage of at least one VHF coast
station in which continuous digital selective calling
(Ch.70/156.525MHz) alerting and radiotelephony services are
available. Such an area could extend typically 30 nautical miles (56km)
to 40 nautical miles (74km) from the Coast Station.
Sea Area A2
An area, excluding Sea Area A1, within the radiotelephone coverage of
at least one MF coast station in which continuous DSC (2187.5kHz)
alerting and radiotelephony services are available. For planning
purposes, this area typically extends to up to 180 nautical miles
(330km) offshore during daylight hours, but would exclude any A1
designated areas. In practice, satisfactory coverage may often be
achieved out to around 400 nautical miles (740km) offshore during
night time.

 Sea

Area A3
An area, excluding sea areas A1 and A2, within the coverage
of an Inmarsatgeostationary satellite. This area lies
between about latitude 76 Degree NORTH and SOUTH, but
excludes A1 and/or A2 designated areas. Inmarsat
guarantees their system will work between 70 South and 70
North though it will often work to 76 degrees South or
North.
Sea Area A4
An area outside Sea Areas A1, A2 and A3 is called Sea
Area A4. This is essentially the polar regions, north and
south of about 76 degrees oflatitude, excluding any A1 or
A2 areas.

The 2 Sub-system of
GMDSS
Satellite communications
The use of satellite communications to improve maritime safety is particularly
important for introduction of the global system and for establishing reliable
communication network.
Satellite communications will be used in both ship-to-shore and shore-to-ship
directions. The INMARSAT satellite system (see annex A for details),which
employs geostationary satellite and operates in 1.5 and 1.6 GHz frequency
bands, will provide a means of alerting from ship by using ship earth stations or
satellite EPIRBs* and a capability for two way communications using radiotelex
and optionally radiotelephone. Broadcast of marine safety information for ships
using radiotelex will also provided through INMARSAT system using either
standard ship earth station and associated equipment or dedicated facilities.
A near polar-orbiting satellite EPIRB service (COSPAS-SARSAT system) (see
annex A for details), operating in the 406-406.1MHz frequency bands, will
provide a main means of distress alerting and determining the location of float
free satellite EPIRBs operating through system.

Terrestrial communications
Long range service
HF will provide long range service for use in the
ship-to-shore and shore-to-ship directions. In
areas covered by INMARSAT it can be used as an
alternative satellite communications and outside
these areas it will provide the only long range
communication capability. Frequencies has been
designated in the 4,6,8,12 and 16MHz bands to
provide means for transmitting and receiving
distress alerts and safety calls and for passing
distress and safety traffic.

Medium range service

A medium range service will be provided on
frequencies in the 2 MHz band. In the ship-to-shore,
ship-to-ship, and shore-to-ship directions 2187.5 kHz
will be used for distress alert and safety calls by
DSC, and 2182 kHz will be used for distress and
safety traffic by radiotelephony, including SAR
coordinating functions and on scene communications.
2174.5 kHz will be used for distress and safety
traffic radiotelex (NBDP).
Frequencies near 500 kHz will be used in the shoreto-ship directions. The frequencies 518 kHz will be
used to transmit navigational and meteorological
warning in the NAVTEX system.

 Short

range service
VHF will provide a short-range service
in the following frequencies
156.525 MHz (channel 17) for distress
alert and safety calls by the DSC, and
156.8 MHz (channel 16) for distress and
safety traffic by radiotelephony,
including SAR coordinating functions
and on scene communications

The 9 Communication
Function

The 9 Communication
Function
Ship-to-shore

distress alerts will alert through coast

stations and coast earth stations rescue co-ordinations
centres that a ship is in distress using transmission
through satellite (from a ship earth stations or a satellite
EPIRB), digital selective calling in the VHF, MF and HF
bands and by EPIRBs.
Ship-to-ship distress alerts will alert other ships in the
vicinity of the ship in distress using digital selective
calling in the VHF and MF bands.
Shore-to-ship distress alerts will be addressed as a
appropriate to a specific ship, to a selected group of
ships, to ships within specified geographical area or to all
ships.

SAR coordinating communications

In general, these are the communications necessary for
the coordination of ships and aircraft participating in a
search resulting from a distress alert and include
communications between RCCs and any on-scene
commander or coordinator surface search in the area of
the distress incident.
For SAR operations, it should be possible to transmit
messages in both directions as distinct from alerting
which is generally the transmission of a specific message in
one direction only, and distress and safety traffic by
radiotelegraphy and radio telex will normally be used for
passing such messages.

 ON-SCENE

COMMUNICATIONS
On-scene communications will normally take place in
the MF and VHF bands on frequencies designated for
distress and safety traffic by radiotelephony or radio
telex. These communications will be between the ship
in distress and assisting units and will relate to the
provision of assistance to the ship or to the rescue of
survivors. When aircraft are involved in on-scene
communications, they will normally be able to use
3023,4125 and 5680 kHz. In addition, SAR aircraft
should be provided with equipment to communicate on
2182 kHz or 156.8 MHz or both, as well as on other
maritime mobile frequencies.

LOCATING SIGNALS
Locating signals are transmissions intended to facilitate the
finding of a ship in distress or of the location of survivors. This
will be based on the use of SAR 9GHz transponders at the scene
in conjunction with the assisting units 9 GHz radar.

DISSEMINATION OF MARINE SAFETY INFORMATION

Provision has been made for ships to be advised of navigational
and meteorological warning and urgent information to shipping. At
MF, the frequency 518kHz has been made available for
broadcasts means of narrowband, direct-printing telegraphy
using forward error correction. Similarly, the information will be
broadcast via INMARSAT and also possible on HF. The new
system is intended to provide fully automatic reception of all
marine safety information, including navigational and
meteorological warnings and other urgent safety information.

 GENERAL

RADIOCOMMUNICATIONS
General radio communications in the global
system are those communications between
ship stations and shore-based communication
networks which concern the management and
operation of the ship and may have an impact
on its safety. These communications may be
conducted on any appropriate channel,
including those used for public
correspondence.

 BRIDGE-TO-BRIDGE

COMMUNICATIONS
Bridge-to-bridge communications are inter-ship VHF radiotelephone
communication for the purpose of assisting the safe movement of
ships.
A

ships in distress should transmit the distress call and message on

any one or more of the following international maritime distress
frequencies as may be available:
- 2,182kHz (radiotelephony)
- 156.8MHz (VHF channel 16 radiotelephony)

It is also recommended, in remote ocean areas, to transmit the

distress call and message in addition on a ship/shore H/F circuit to a
CRS. This should be done in all cases where distress calls on 2,182kHz
or 156.8MHz (VHF channel 16 are not replied to by other stations).