The Water Police Authorities of one of the world most important harbor area puts focus on safety and equipment quality for crewmen and awarded Weatherdock with an order of an AIS-SART/MOB with integrated, full DSC for the entire staff.
“We want to increase the safety of our crewmen out there on duty in one of the world largest harbor area. This means we want the best possible solution for MOB scenarios” the customer pointed out. “That is why we looked out for emergency beacons based on AIS with integrated full working DSC .
What does it mean “personal locator beacons with AIS and DSC?”
AIS (automatic identification system) is an automatic tracking system originally used for collision avoidance on ships and by vessel traffic services (VTS).
Since about 5 years AIS is also used for Search and Rescue (SAR) purposes by means of small transmitters, integrated into the lifejacket.
The German Weatherdock AG was the first company developing and offering such a unit with SOLAS approval for lifejackets.
Meanwhile several big European Navies do have the Weatherdock equipment integrated in their lifejackets to protect and to rescue staff members in emergency situations.
Information provided by the AIS personal locator beacons are the unique unit identification number, the position, the course and the speed. These data are displayed on electronic chart plotters. This is the big advantage of the AIS based personal locator beacons, by means of AIS the watch standing officers can track and monitor the movements of the victim.
Who else could rescue a man over board better than the own vessel?
The slightly disadvantage of the AIS based personal locator beacons, that these units do transmit the alert only in the range of about 10nm for the “easyRESCUE” products from Weatherdock, is compensated, that the devices from Weatherdock do have a full certified Class D DSC transmitter integrated. This DSC part is transmitting the DSC MOB message. This message is, according the relay functionality of the DSC GMDSS system, transmitted to commercial vessels and the base stations at the coast over hundreds of miles.
Through the DSC receiver on the electronics in the easyRESCUE-PRO device, the DSC alarm can also be acknowledged by commercial vessels or the marine coordination centers and so the unit is not blocking the DSC channel anymore after the acknowledge received.
The Water Police crewmen are well educated, but nevertheless it can happen that they go overboard. Then they need to work with reliable material quality and technologies.
This is the reason why this well advanced authority awarded the project to easyRESCUE-PRO units. The high approval level of the unit as well as the fact, that there will be a two-way-alerting functionality by means of AIS and DSC distress call has given the final decisions.
“We are proud to add this important Asian customer to our reference list. I have been there personally for the proof of concept tests with the Authorities and I saw perfect educated staff and high end equipped vessels. So even more we are happy about the decision for our product “Made in Germany”, perfect matching to the existing equipment”, so the CEO of Weatherdock, Alfred Kotouczek, stated. – Press release
