Survival craft transceiver
Very high frequency survival craft transceivers are lightweight, portable, two-way, handheld VHF transceivers capable of radiotelephone on-scene communication between rescue units and the survival craft. Essentially these are hand-held VHF radios that are used in any survival craft, such as a life boat or life raft. SCTs with re-chargeable type batteries may be used for on-board communications as well.
The International Maritime Organization requires the following from SCTs:
- Must be able to be operated by unskilled personnel
- Must be able to transmit and receive on 156.8 MHz and 156.3 MHz
- Withstand a drop of 1 meter on a hard surface
- Watertight to a depth of 1 meter for 5 minutes
- Power Minimum of 0.25 watts
- A power reduction switch to less than 1 watt must be available where power exceeds 1 watt
- Antenna must be vertically polarized and omni-directional
- Battery power capacity for 8 hours on a 1:9 duty cycle