DSC - Channel Busy Behavior

[kurt]

Hello everyone,

Been testing out my DSC/AIS radio (Standard Horizion 2100) with a masthead antenna specifically issuing position requests and position reports.  9 times out of 10 the receiver deems the channel (70) as busy and holds DSC transmission until the channel is no longer so.  Most of the time this takes less than a minute but sometimes more.  When I listen to channel 70 directly, typical non-digital white noise is in the background but it is difficult to squelch it out at any levels lower than max and even then oftent times this does not do the trick.    I also have a handheld DSC radio and this does not show similar behavior.

Location is SF Bay area and thus a busy area.  I can't find a local vs. distance sensitivity control on the radio and manual doesn't seem to note one. 

Is this normal DSC radio behavior?  Obviously, connecting the dots I am a bit concerned that if one ever needs to press the DSC emergency button and the "channel busy" hangs the transmission for minutes... 

Thx,

Kurt

[Ron Hill]

Guys : Here we are in the "age of technology" and in my new ICON radio (#442?) I had to attach a GPS positioning wire link from my chart plotter to that radio radio. 
The fact that it also needed to have a dedicated ground wire was a real bummer - 2 wires.

Here's the kicker - ALL cell phones MUST have (by Law) a GPS locater, you'd think that the VHF radio guys could install one for the DCS capability in the radio so DCS would already be - "ready"!! 

A thought

[Stu Jackson]

So, you're running a company that makes VHF radios, GPSs, and AISs.

You can choose to incorporate all the handy dandy bells & whistles into ONE unit, which would make sense.

OR, you can choose to continue to produce separate units, sell more of 'em, and make more money.

Gee, hard choice, eh?