The Black Box

Friday saw us aboard a large mixed bulk carrier updating software on an AIS, annual survey on a SVDR as well as piping in two video feeds for said SVDR to show the X and S band radar screens.

So what prey tell is a VDR or SVDR? Glad you asked that question cause I’m about to tell you. This subject is huge and I won’t bore you to death with minute details but I’ll give you enough information and photos just to make it bearable! Sitting comfortably? Good we’ll begin.

VDR = Voyage Data Recorder

SVDR = Simplified Voyage Data Recorder

Under the terms of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a vessel over a certain tonnage and usage is to be equipped with one of these devices. Like commercial aircraft, a ship also has a black box recorder that that can be retrieved in the event of an accident or sinking that will help determine the cause of the accident or who was a fault which is the bit the layers just love.

It’s pretty comprehensive stuff in that the system records radar or radar images, AIS data, speed, heading, rate of turn, course over ground, rudder position, door and/or cargo door alarms, VHF radio traffic and even the crews voices at various positions on the bridge and bridge wings.

Once a year, this equipment needs to be inspected to ensure that it all works as advertised and a certificate issued, depending on the classification society and flag the vessel operates under. It’s what’s called an Annual Survey or APT and is usually an all day affair to check connections, recordings, batteries etc. At the same time an APT is (usually) also carried out on the radio equipment but that is another subject for another day.

The IMO has decreed that stricter controls are necessary on this SDVR molarky because there are more and more instances of incomplete data present following an incident so tighter checks are on the way from classification societies I’m sure.

These survey’s are a great opportunity to get under the skin of ships communications and procedures and you get to see how well or, ahem unwell a vessel is managed and maintained.

This one was in great shape and a credit to her Captain, crew and owners and a pleasure to be involved with. Thanks for reading.

Cool, I got a new Laptop!

There I was complaining about not having a laptop and getting withdrawal symptoms the other day when along comes the boss man who quietly presented me with his personal IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad to use for the time being. What a nice chap, he could see I needed one to effectively do my job.

What’s more I was given a copy of Office Enterprise 2007 and told in no uncertain terms that I was to install whatever I needed on the machine, including Itunes, antivirus, Photoshop, Blackberry software etc. Wow, this guy’s liberal or what?

The cherry on the cake is that I get to learn a whole new language in the process. Uh huh that’s right, you see, my boss is Norwegian and the machine in question is, you guessed it, Windows XP Norske complete with Norske keyboard. So with one deft swipe of the keyboard I can make character’s like Ø, ¤, Å, æ and Æ.

And the usual windows commands like Cut and Copy become, or translate to, Klipp Ut and Kopier as well as Properties becomes Egenskaper. It’s pretty easy really; let’s have a go shall we.

English – I don’t have a clue how to operate this computer.
Norwegian - Jeg har ikke en anelse om hvordan du skal betjene denne datamaskinen.

There you have it, your first Norwegian lesson. To show my appreciation, I’ve installed all my programs in English except for the Spanish anti virus, Chinese character map and the USA keyboard short cuts. If I could just add a South African plug to the mains adapter the whole schizophrenic ensemble would be complete.

Bianary Withdrawal Symptoms

About ten days ago, my laptop decided to up sticks and shuffle its digital consciousness off this mortal coil. Happily I had backed up everything including my Outlook PST file, all ITunes music and downloaded movies (did I say Bootleg???). Other files I l keep on a USB stick and for really old archived stuff I keep it on an external hard drive…….Oh sorry it’s called an external storage device. Hmph yeah whatever!

The point is that I am at present computer-less so I’m blagging Osita’s Dell for the odd task whilst I decide what to do about mine. Any normal person would just go and purchase a new l slaptop and be done with it but mine was an older Dell inspiron that had, wait for it, a 9 pin Dsub serial port. Oooh, WOW, Jeepers, not that old chestnut I hear you say.

Hey, in my line of activity I need one of those because every manufacturer of marine electronics seems to think that the rest of the world only uses said I/O protocol. USB it seems has yet to arrive in the marine world. There’s the odd fire wire port to be found on VDR’s but on the whole, serial is the norm and even the fire wire is of the 6 pin variety and most slaptops come equipped with the four pin breed which is no good since we need the other two pins to carry voltage.

I’m due to receive a new one at some point from the company but we are searching for that elusive serial port version so it’s not going to happen overnight. Yes, there are USB to serial converters but they don’t always work and we need a decent brand name as our machines have a hard life on and off ships and slung under cranes to get kit aboard when transferring from harbor launches.

In the mean time, I’m missing MY stuff easily accessible on MY computer including work files, podcasts, movies and synchronizing contacts and stuff. If this goes on much longer I’m going to have to go for therapy, I’m getting grumpy.

Thanks for reading again.