We are often asked to supply ship equipment for Coast Stations. 

Whilst this may seem a cheap alternative, using ship equipment in shore installations has a number of disadvantages:

• shipboard DSC systems are not designed for shore station use - they do not offer all functions required by a Coast Station, the displays are too small and the equipment is often complex to operate;

• the transmitters are not designed for the high duty cycle required by Coast Stations - long broadcasts and continuous operation;

• the transmit and receive frequencies are not programmed for shore station use (i.e. the duplex channels are programmed 'backwards'); and

• the equipment is often not designed to be remote controlled.

 The other extreme is to use high specification (and high price) commercial radio equipment -        'traditional' Coast Station equipment.  Whilst this will work very well, it is often overkill.  Many of the functions offered by the high specification radios are simply not used in modern GMDSS Coast Stations. 

So, what a modern GMDSS Coast Station needs is simple, reliable equipment that is suited to the job and offers the best value for money.

Suitable equipment

Of course, the core of any GMDSS Coast Station is the Digital Selective Calling (DSC) system.  We use the TransOceana DSC system exclusively - it is simple to use, reliable, provides excellent performance and (most importantly) offers a price/performance ratio that can not be beaten. 

YouTube videos of a TransOceana system receiving messages off air may be found here.

We have been using the Barrett Communications 2050 MF/HF radio system on a lot of projects.  The Barrett is flexible - it can be configured as a transceiver, a receiver or a transmitter.  It offers output powers of 125W, 500W or 1 kW, and can be remote controlled over normal links or IP (the internet).  Of course, it is very price competitive.

We also needed a VHF transceiver for DSC and radiotelephone use in our Sea Area A1 stations.  We have used the Tait TB7100 VHF base station on a number of recent projects, and have found them to be reliable and rugged.

They are a very compact 1 RU rack mounted unit, with a built in AC/DC power supply and 50W output power. 

Your equipment

For those stations with existing equipment - we can integrate our systems with almost any equipment as required.

GMDSS station configurations