The Assembly
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - Resolutions - Assembly - IMO Resolution A.803(19) – Performance Standards for Shipborne VHF Radio Installations Capable of Voice Communication and Digital Selective Calling – (Adopted on 23 November 1995) - The Assembly

The Assembly

 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/7.1.1, 7.1.2 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 VHF radio installation capable of voice communication and digital selective calling and that such VHF radio installations shall conform to appropriate performance standards not inferior to those adopted by the Organization,

 RECOGNIZING the need to prepare performance standards for VHF radio installations capable of voice communication 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 VHF Radio Installations Capable of Voice Communication and Digital Selective Calling set out in the annex to the present resolution;

  2. RECOMMENDS Governments to ensure that shipborne VHF radio installations capable of voice communication 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.609(15);

  3. REQUESTS the Maritime Safety Committee to keep these Performance Standards under review and to adopt amendments thereto, as necessary.


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