Tagged: Personal
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RYA SRC Part 1 — GMDSS, Sea Areas, and Why the SRC Exists
An exam-grade walk through the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System — the four Sea Areas, the players that regulate it, and why a UK boater needs an SRC to legally key the PTT.
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RYA SRC Part 10 — How to Pass the SRC Exam: Structure, Timing, and Day-of
A practical guide to actually passing the SRC — eligibility documents, the £76 fee, what's in the written paper and the practical assessment, a two-week study plan, the common gotchas the examiner watches for, and what to do on the day.
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RYA SRC Part 11 — Practice Exam: 50 Questions (Paper A and Paper B)
Two 25-question practice papers covering the full RYA SRC syllabus — multi-choice and short-answer, with full worked explanations in the answer key. Sit each paper timed (45 minutes), mark honestly, revise the misses.
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RYA SRC Part 2 — VHF Channels, Frequencies, and Propagation
The VHF marine band channel-by-channel — what CH16, CH70, CH13, CH67, CH80 and the M channels are for, why CH70 is sacred, how to estimate range from antenna heights, and the simplex/duplex distinctions that come up in the exam.
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RYA SRC Part 3 — The VHF Set: Controls, Antennas, and Power
Front-panel by front-panel — squelch, hi/lo power, dual-watch, the DSC distress button under the flap, why antenna height matters more than antenna gain on a sailboat, and the battery routines that keep a handheld working when you actually need it.
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RYA SRC Part 4 — DSC and MMSI: How the Radio Calls Other Radios
Digital Selective Calling unpacked — the four call priorities, the four call types, the nine-digit MMSI structure and what each prefix means, the nature-of-distress menu options, and what happens if a small craft tries to acknowledge a distress alert in Sea Area A1 (don't).
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RYA SRC Part 5 — Distress: DSC Alerts, MAYDAY, and MAYDAY RELAY
The full distress procedure end to end — pressing the DSC button, the voice MAYDAY format you'll be examined on, who controls distress traffic, what SEELONCE MAYDAY and SEELONCE FEENEE mean, and when to send a MAYDAY RELAY for someone else.
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RYA SRC Part 6 — Urgency, Safety, and Routine Voice Procedure
PAN-PAN, SECURITE, and the routine voice procedure — when to use which, the radio-medical call, the IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases, the NATO phonetic alphabet, prowords, and what to do with an unanswered or garbled call.
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RYA SRC Part 7 — EPIRBs, SARTs, and NAVTEX
The rest of GMDSS that the SRC syllabus covers — 406 MHz Cospas-Sarsat EPIRBs and how to register them, the difference between AIS-SART and Radar-SART, PLBs and MOB beacons, and the NAVTEX message format including which letter codes you can never reject.
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RYA SRC Part 8 — Protecting Distress Frequencies: False Alerts, Testing, and Guard Bands
The rules that keep the distress system credible — what's protected on CH16 and CH70, why CH15, 17, 75 and 76 are low-power guard bands, how to test a DSC set without launching a lifeboat, and the exact procedure for cancelling a false distress alert.
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RYA SRC Part 9 — Regulations: Licences, Watchkeeping, and Who Makes the Rules
The regulatory layer of the SRC syllabus — ITU, CEPT, Ofcom, MCA and what each does; the operator licences (SRC, ROC, LRC, GOC) and the station licences (Ship Radio Licence vs Ship Portable Radio Licence); watchkeeping obligations, record keeping, secrecy, and the prohibited transmissions list.