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    ASK SAIL

    Jan 15, 2019 5 minutes

    A QUESTION OF MOB TECHNOLOGY

    Q: I am confused by all the new kinds of man-overboard beacons now on the market. Which ones do what?

    —R. Hutchinson, Seattle, WA

    GORDON WEST REPLIES

    A Maritime Survivor Locating Device (MSLD) is a manually activated digital beacon that sends a local distress message of “man overboard” or “sinking” via the marine VHF AIS channels, which allows all boats with a turned-on AIS receiver in the area to begin their search.

    Another type of MSLD could be manually activated to send a distress alert over marine VHF DSC channel 70, similar to a VHF submersible handheld with GPS and the DSC distress red button. In either case you need to hope that the mother ship and any other ships in the area have their marine

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