MF/HF Equipment tests:

how to do it and actions in

case test fails ?
Written by Capt Rajeev Jassal on May 15, 2016

There were days when only radio officers operated

radio equipments. Deck officers had nothing to do

with the radio equipments. With GMDSS equipments

all deck officers are radio officers now.
With this new responsibility, came new challenges.
Deck officers have since tried their best to fill the gap
of radio officer and they have done pretty good.
But there are always few things we never find in
book. We call these things practical experiences.
Many of these were lost with the radio officers but not
all.
Deck officers now need to know everything about how
to make best use of GMDSS equipment. But GMDSS
equipments are of no use, if these wont work when
required.
There are many functional requirements of GMDSS
equipments. We can only be sure if these will perform
or not by testing these at regular interval. Each
GMDSS equipment has a testing interval
and procedure to test.

Familiarity with the GMDSS equipments is also

essential to avoid PSC detentions.
In this post I try to solve this problem with testing of
MF/HF equipment and what to do if test fails.
Lets Begin

MF/HF equipment
MF/HF equipment is for sending distress alerts over
long range. We need to test MF/HF equipement to be
sure of its functionality. Lets see what all test we need
to do on MF/HF equipment.
I will show this on JRC equipment MCU-331F. If you
have worked on this system, it has a remote mode
and local mode. The options to select the tests can be
accessed from both modes.

1. Daily Test
Depending upon the equipment make, we need to do
few of the daily tests on MF/HF. Whatever the
equipment, the test generally involves

checking of internal connections (called Modem

Loop test),

checking printer and

checking display of MF/HF equipment

Besides some makers may have few other daily tests

specific to the equipment. Lets see how each of these
daily tests are done.
Modem Loop test
What does a successful loop test signify ? If the
modem loop test is OK, it means that on receiving a
message on MF/HF, it would definitely be processed
by the equipment. In other words, it means that
received message will not be lost in the loop of the
equipment.
In the modem loop test, the equipment send and
receives a message internally. If all the loops of the
equipment are OK, the message will be transmitted
and received without any trouble.
To Perform a Modem loop test on JRC equipment

From Local Mode

Go to Menu#2 -> READOUT & SET UP -> press 4 ->
press ENT. This displays the SELF TEST screen.
Select the Modem Loop test and press ENT. Menu#2
is accessed by pressing Menu twice.

From Remote mode

Go to FUNC -> Test -> Modem Loop test and press
enter on keyboard.

If the test is successful, OTHERS LED will light up and

buzzer will sound. Press STOP to stop the buzzer.
We can then file the print out of the Modem loop test
either in separate file or in GMDSS log book.
Printer test
On receiving a MF/HF message, We tend to look at the
print outs than in the screen of the MF/HF equipment.

It is convinient to look at the print outs and there is no

doubt about that. This makes the printer an important
part of the MF/HF equipment. Print outs are also
important for record keeping of distress
communication. Testing of printer thus is important.
Printer test checks the connection between MF/HF
equipment and printer.
To do the printer test, in the Local mode
Go to Menu#2 -> READOUT & SET UP -> press 4 ->
press ENT. This displays the SELF TEST screen.
Select the printer test and press ENT.
From the remote mode
Go to System -> Self Check -> Printer and press enter
on keyboard

If the printer prints all the characters, printer test is

pass.
Other Daily tests
As I said earlier, there can be other equipment specific
daily tests and vessel should do these test as per
Makers manual.

2. Weekly tests

Most of us think that weekly test is only DSC test with

shore station. We must understand that DSC is only
one mode of distress communication. We also need to
test our R/T and NBDP every week. Lets see how we
should do these weekly tests.
Weekly DSC test with coast station
Every week, we need to test the DSC operation with
the coast station.
In Local Mode

Go to Menu#1

Choose option 11 (Test Call)

Enter the Shore station ID

Choose Telecommand -1 as TEST by side arrow

Choose the Tx/Rx frequency and Press call

If doing this in remote mode

Go to FUNC -> Edit/Send -> Safety test Call and then
edit the message if required.

On prompt to transmit the call, Choose option yes.

This will send the DSC test call to shore station. Test
will pass if you receive the response back with EOS
as ACK BQ.
It is important that these test calls are not made on 2
MHz frequency and are not made as an all station
call.

What to do if you do not receive the

acknowledgment from shore station ?
Well most of us would agree that this is common
situation. And many of us leave it thinking that shore
station is not answering. We fail to acknowledge that
the problem could be with our equipment.
Some of us believe that filing the test with remarks
No response from shore station is OK but it is not
OK.
Another few has a file with Typed message similar to
the test with shore response. They just take printout
of this message to forge the record to show that the
test was done. Whereas actually either it was not
done or was done with no response from the shore.
It is very easy to catch if the record was forged or the
test was actually done.
So here is how we should proceed in case we do not
receive acknowledgment from shore station.

First try again with other stations and on other

frequencies. If you are trying to send a DSC call to a
nearby station on higher frequency, chance are that
they will miss it. This is because, all frequencies has a
blind spot near to the transmitter. Higher the
frequency, larger is the blind spot distance.
Lets assume that with all your efforts, you still could
not get the shore acknowledgment. Next you should
try to test the DSC call with a ship station. Testing with
ship station is similar to testing with coast
station. We just need to change the ID to the ships
MMSI number of the ship you are testing the DSC with.
If possible we should do this ship to ship test on nondistress frequency.
If we still did not get the acknowledgment from the
ship, ask the other ship if they received your test call.
If they did receive, your transmitter if OK. If they did
not receive your test call, expect problem with your
transmitter.

Now ask the other ship to send you the test call. See if
you can receive her test call. Try it on lower
frequencies like 4 MHz. If you do not receive the other
ships test call, your receiver is not OK.
Now that you know if the problem is with your
receiver, transmitter or both, lets troubleshoot it
further.
Problem with Transmission
If MF/HF is not transmitting, the JRC manual just ask to
call for the service engineer. But there are few other
things we can do to avoid this.
1) if you were able to test the DSC with ship but
could not test with shore station.
Though this is acceptable sometimes but if your all
the last few tests are with ship, it is not acceptable as
this can be interpreted as a defect.
In this case transmission of MF/HF is OK, but the
transmission power is greatly reduced. This is how you
can proceed to solve this problem.

Check the output power setting

On some equipments you can change the power
output to low and high. We need to make sure that the
output power is set to high for testing. To do so on JRC,
Press Menu on the MF/HF controller -> scroll the dial
to go to Power option -> set the power to High ->
press Enter.

Check the Antenna

Even after setting the power to High, still you may not
get acknowledgment from shore station. In this case
first switch off the MF/HF equipment and clean the
transmitting antenna. This Antenna is located on the
Monkey island.

The transmitting antenna is connected with the

antenna tuner. The connection between antenna and
antenna tuner is with a copper wire. In most of the
cases you will find this wire to be of green color which
is not its original color.

Remove this wire from all the connections and clean

with emery paper to remove the green deposits. Do
not put anything (grease, Varnish etc) on the wire
after cleaning it. Connect the wire again and test the
DSC with shore station. Most cases, you will be able to
test with shore station.

2) If you did not get acknowledgment from ship

station as well as shore station
If you were not able to get the acknowledgment from
ship as well as shore station, check if the antenna is
tuning. Different equipment has different ways to
show if the antenna is tuned or not.
Some equipments shows message Tune Not OK on
the screen. Others like JRC, will have the TUNE

blinking on the screen. If you see any of these, tune

the antenna, by pressing ANT TUNE button. If this
does not tune your antenna, suspect problem with
Antenna tuner.
Antenna tuner is either located in the wheel house or
on the monkey island. If the tuner is on money island,
and if the sealing of cover is not appropriate, there are
chances of burnt PCB. Switch off & isolate the GMDSS
station and open the cover of Antenna tuner. Check
for any obvious burnt PCB signs.
If there are no visible signs, you need to communicate
with maker highlighting the problem of antenna not
tuning.

Problem with reception

If you have found the problem with the receiver, you
can troubleshoot as follows
The first sign for a poor receiver is no sound on the
MF/HF equipment. Tune into any R/T frequency and
increase the volume. Do you hear any sounds ?

If you do not hear any sound, try adjusting RF gain.

If you still do not hear anything, MF/HF is not receiving
anything.
Another way to know if your receiver is OK is to check
the time signal. If you do not receive time signal from
any stations, you can assume problem with your
MF/HF receiver.
In case of poor receiver, you can check and clean the
connection of the reception antenna. The MF/HF
reception antenna is usually placed on the forward
mast.
If you still do not get anything, most likely the problem
lies in one of the PCB of the MF/HF receiver. You
should communicate with the maker and if required
request for their attendance.

R/T and NBDP weekly Test

Apart from DSC test, we also need to test if our R/T

and NBDP are working as these also form part of the
MF/HF equipment.
You can test the R/T with a ship station.
To test R/T, Switch to a non-Distress R/T frequency and
talk to a passing ship. Follow same with the testing of
NBDP. Switch to a non-distress NDBP frequency and
communicate with a ship on NBDP.

Monthly Test
Monthly test of MF/HF equipment include the
inspection of aerials and insulators. It is important
that Electrical officer and 2nd mate check condition of
aerials and insulators atleast every month. While
checking the condition look for following

Any broken aerial or insulator. If any insulator or

aerial is broken, order it and replace it.

Any salt deposits on the aerial. It is a good

practice to clean the aerials with fresh water every
month.

Connections on the aerial are intact and clean. It

is important that all the connection are clean, free of
rust and other deposits. If these are not clean, it can
reduce the transmission/receiving power of MF/HF
drastically. We already discussed one example of this
with the wire connecting aerial with the tuner.

Conclusion
MF/HF equipment is a very important part of GMDSS
and bridge equipments. If a similar equipment was on
board Titanic, it is possible that not a single person
would have died.
Keeping this in a perfect shape is the responsibility of
ship staff. Testing MF/HF regularly and religiously
helps us achieve that. In case of unsuccessful test, we
should find the reason for that and correct it.