Since the passage of hurricanes IRMA and MARIA, the SNSM station of Saint-Martin has been called upon more than ten times for EPIRB type distress beacons; but each time it was a false alarm!
Our volunteer team members leave their home or work immediately and still go out each time. As mentioned in our article of last December 11, one cannot not go there, because one is never 100% sure that it is not a sailor in real danger.
As soon as they are triggered (manual or automatic depending on the model), the beacons send an identification signal to the satellite (frequency 406 mHz) coded (MMSI number of the boat), which the satellites receive and pre-process, before transmitting it on the ground to the CROSS (Regional Operational Surveillance and Rescue Center) or other similar centers, which send the alert, depending on the position of the boat, to the nearest rescue station which will dispatch the necessary operational resources.
The coverage is global (24 hours a day) and the accuracy of the locations is of the order of 24 to 1 miles for a beacon not equipped with GPS and a few tens of meters if it is provided with one. The intervention trigger time is less than 3 minutes if the beacon is fitted with a GPS. The MMSI code makes it possible to immediately know the identity of the vessel. This code is assigned by the National Frequencies Agency (ANFR), and it is the same as that of the VHF ASN.
We therefore ask ALL boat owners who have sunk or are no longer in a condition to sail (declared a wreck) to cancel the registration of their EPIRBs with the ANFR.
At the same time, we ask the owners of all vessels located in our waters with EPIRBs to send the following information by E-mail to the SNSM station in Saint Martin (SNSMSTMARTIN@YAHOO.COM):
OWNER'S NAME :
PHONE. :
SHIP NAME:
FLAG STATE OF THE SHIP:
EPINB UIN / HEX ID NUMBER:
CURRENT CONDITION of the vessel & its beacon (dry, in service, under repair, sunk, missing, etc. and any other useful information) in order to be able to establish an updated list of EPIRBs of our local vessels.
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