RECALLING Article 15(j) of the Convention on the International
Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Assembly in
relation to regulations and guidelines concerning maritime safety,
RECALLING ALSO regulations IV/10.2.1,10.2.2, 10.2.4 and 14.1 of the 1988 amendments to the International Convention for
the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, concerning radiocommunications
for the global maritime distress and safety system (GMDSS), which
require, respectively, that ships be provided with a MF/HF radio installation
capable of voice communication, narrow-band direct printing and digital
selective calling, and that such MF/HF radio installations shall conform
to appropriate performance standards not inferior to those adopted
by the Organization,
RECOGNIZING the need to prepare performance standards for
MF/HF radio installations capable of voice communication, narrow-band
direct printing and digital selective calling to be used in the GMDSS
in order to ensure the operational reliability of such equipment and
to avoid, as far as practicable, adverse interaction between such
equipment and other communication and navigation equipment on board
ship,
HAVING CONSIDERED the recommendation made by the Maritime
Safety Committee at its sixty-fifth session,
1. ADOPTS the Recommendation on Performance Standards
for Shipborne MF/HF Radio Installations Capable of Voice Communication,
Narrow-Band Direct Printing and Digital Selective Calling set out
in the annex to the present resolution;
2. RECOMMENDS Governments to ensure that shipborne
MF/HF radio installations capable of voice communication, narrow-band
direct printing and digital selective calling which will form part
of the GMDSS:
-
(a) if installed on or after 23 November 1996,
conform to performance standards not inferior to those specified in
the annex to the present resolution;
-
(b) if installed before 23 November 1996, conform
to performance standards not inferior to those specified in the annex
to Resolution A.613(15);
3. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety Committee to keep
these Performance Standards under review and to adopt amendments thereto,
as necessary.