5.5 Survival Craft Portable VHF (SCT) Requirements

5.5 Survival Craft Portable VHF (SCT) Requirements

Quick Answer: A survival craft transceiver must work on Ch-16, be simplex voice, be watertight, have a permanently affixed antenna, and have one watt minimum transmitter power. It may talk survival craft to survival craft, to ship, and to rescue unit. Two traps: Ch-13 is NOT required, and it does not operate simplex on Ch-70.

Official sub-topic 1-D-23 (Survival Craft VHF) is unusual in the Element 1 pool because two of its six items are "which statement is NOT true" questions. That inverts the normal study approach: you must know the required characteristics and the plausible-sounding non-requirements the pool plants as answers.

The required characteristics

Note the two power figures are different quantities and the pool uses both. One watt is the answer to "What is the minimum power of the SCT?" 0.25 W is an effective radiated power minimum stated in performance requirements. If a question says "minimum power of the SCT," answer one watt; if it says "effective radiated power should be a minimum of…," that is the 0.25 W statement, and in the pool it appears as a true statement inside a NOT-true question.

Trap 1: Channel 13

"Which statement is NOT true regarding the requirements of survival craft portable two-way VHF radiotelephone equipment?" → "Operation on Ch-13."

Channel 13 is a genuinely important number (section 4.4)—it carries the required bridge-to-bridge navigational watch in most of the continental United States. That is exactly why it works as a distractor: candidates learn it as important and assume important means required everywhere.

Think about the use case. A survival craft handheld exists so survivors can talk to the ship they left, to other liferafts, and to arriving rescue units. Bridge-to-bridge navigational safety traffic between two ships under way has nothing to do with a liferaft. Ch-16 is required; Ch-13 is not.

Trap 2: simplex on Channel 70

The other NOT-true item keys to "Operates simplex on Ch-70 and at least one other channel."

This one is false for a reason worth understanding rather than memorising: Channel 70 carries no voice at all. It is reserved exclusively for digital selective calling (section 4.4). A "simplex voice on Ch-70" claim is self-contradictory. The distractors alongside it—watertight to 1 metre for 5 minutes, 0.25 W minimum ERP, fixed non-removable antenna—are all true requirements, which is what makes the item work.

Who may a survival craft transceiver talk to?

With what other stations may portable survival craft transceivers communicate? All of the above — that is:

1. Between survival craft — liferaft to liferaft, keeping a dispersed group coordinated
2. Between survival craft and ship — back to the parent vessel or to any assisting ship
3. Between survival craft and rescue unit — to the SAR vessel, helicopter or lifeboat

The inclusive answer is correct because restricting a survivor's radio to one counterparty would be indefensible. Watch for options that name only one or two of the three.

Two "all of these" items

Two pool items in this sub-topic key to an all-inclusive answer:

• "Equipment for radiotelephony use in survival craft stations under GMDSS must have what characteristic(s)?" → operation on Ch-16, watertight, permanently affixed antenna — all of these
• "With what other stations may portable survival craft transceivers communicate?" → all of the above

But a third, similar-looking item is not inclusive: "Equipment for radiotelephony use in survival craft stations under GMDSS must have what capability?" keys to operation on Ch-16 alone, with 457.525 MHz and 121.5 MHz offered as distractors and "any one of these" as the trap. Read whether the stem asks for a capability (single) or characteristics (plural) before reaching for the inclusive option.

Those two distractor frequencies are real but belong elsewhere: 457.525 MHz is in the on-board UHF communications band, and 121.5 MHz is the aeronautical emergency and legacy EPIRB homing frequency (sections 4.4, 5.2). Neither is a survival-craft VHF requirement.

Practical picture

A survival craft transceiver is deliberately the simplest radio on the ship: a few channels, a single power level or a high/low switch, no DSC, no scan lists, no removable parts. It is designed for a cold, wet, frightened person with poor fine motor control. Every requirement above traces back to that user—fixed antenna because things get dropped, watertight because everything is wet, Ch-16 because it is the one channel everyone monitors, simplex because push-to-talk is the simplest possible interface.