Talk:Maritime Mobile Service Identity

Notes

Can someone please define the following for those of us not familiar with the system:

• Ship station identities,
• Group ship station identities,
• Coast station identities,
• Group coast station identities.

A 'ship station' is a ship.

also; Need to add note that due to the shortage of number MMSI numbers are recycled, therefore whilst they are unique at any given moment, they are not unique over time to a given ship or other station.

A new (recycled) MMSI number will be issued to a ship when the ownership changes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Severndroog (talk • contribs) 13:15, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Well explained at MARITIME MOBILE SERVICE IDENTITY at the USCG Navigation Center. The "station" is the receiving/sending unit on a ship or shore facility. Each has its own identity and may be a member of a group identity. The group would be like a distribution list for multiple stations in one message. The page explains:

Groups of Ships

Group ship station call identities for calling simultaneously more than one ship use the format quot;>01M2I3D4X5X6X7X8X9, where the first figure is zero and X is any figure from 0 to 9. The MID represents only the territory or geographical area of the administration assigning the group ship station call identity and does not prevent group calls to fleets containing more than one ship nationality.

No process currently exists to assign non-federal group ship station identities. However, users having an MMSI assigned by FCC license, all of which have a trailing zero, may create a group identity by inserting a zero before the identity and removing the trailing zero (e.g. a user having an MMSI of 366123450 is allowed to use the group identity 036612345).

The U.S. Coast Guard group ship station call identity is 036699999.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Palmeira (talk • contribs) 18:00, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Does a vessel's MID MSSI ever change?

Hulls are identified by the IMO number which never changes when a vessel's name changes, it's re-flagged, etc. Are there similar rules for the MSSI? --Marc Kupper|talk 21:08, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Although this question was answered before it was put (search for "recycled" in the above), there does seem to be more to say. The ship HMS Iron Duke (F234) has apparently had three different MMSIs – without change of ownership – between Feb and Mar 2014: they were recorded at Iron Duke on marinetraffic.com (archived 2014-03-24). Is this something that happens to military ships for security reasons? Wellset (talk) 11:47, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Section needed for getting an MMSI?

I'm thinking we need to add something like this:

If you buy an AIS transponder you will also need to get an MMSI or station for your vessel if you don't already have one.

In the United States there are two routes for getting this.

• If your vessel will be traveling outside of US domestic waters (including Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas), you will need an MMSI assigned by the FCC: Wireless Services: Ship Radio Stations: Licensing.
• If your vessel will remain in the USA you can get an MMSI from either BoatUS, Sea Tow, United States Power Squadrons (USPS), or Shine Micro. If later want to travel outside of US domestic waters then you will need to get a new MMSI from the FCC.

In the UK you get the MMSI from Ofcom.

In Australia you get the MMSI from Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).

In Canada you get the MMSI from Industry Canada.

I'm not adding this as it's skirting on the edge of procedural how-to which we should not have on Wikipedia. The key point is every AIS transponder is required to have a unique MMSI. I've listed the regulatory authorities where you can get this for some English speaking areas. --Marc Kupper|talk 23:39, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

References

History of the MMSI

This article needs a section on the history of the creation and adoption of the MMSI. Grr (talk) 18:52, 31 December 2022 (UTC)