Two separate licences sit behind a marine VHF radio, and almost every sailor I meet has muddled them at least once. There is a licence for the person operating the radio, and a licence for the radio itself. France can ask about both, and a foreign-flagged boat needs to have its paperwork in order before it relies on a fixed set for anything more than shouting "mayday". Here is how the pieces fit, written for a UK or other foreign boat heading into French waters.
Two licences, not one
The first is the operator's qualification. For a leisure VHF with Digital Selective Calling, the relevant certificate across most of Europe is the Short Range Certificate, the SRC. It is the internationally recognised operator ticket for a DSC-equipped VHF used within range of a coast station. The principle, in the UK and in France alike, is that you may not operate a marine VHF without the appropriate operator certificate, other than to send a genuine distress call. Anyone can grab the handset to save a life; only a certificate holder may make routine and safety calls.
The second is the ship radio licence, which licenses the radio equipment installed on a particular vessel. In the UK this is issued by Ofcom and comes in two forms: a Ship Radio Licence tied to a specific UK-flagged boat, and a Ship Portable Radio Licence for a handheld set you move between boats. To hold an Ofcom radio licence the vessel must be registered in the UK, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. Other flag states run their own equivalent, and you carry your own.
You need both. An operator certificate without a ship licence, or a ship licence with nobody qualified aboard, leaves a gap that France is entitled to notice.
The MMSI: not a third licence, but a number you must have
A DSC radio is useless until it carries a Maritime Mobile Service Identity, the nine-digit MMSI. It is not a separate document. It is an identifier assigned alongside your ship radio licence and then programmed into the set. Press the red distress button and the radio sends a digital burst containing that MMSI, your GPS position and the nature of the emergency.
Two warnings. First, an unprogrammed DSC radio cannot send a proper digital alert, so do not leave the MMSI field blank because the menu looked fiddly. Second, when you sell a boat or change radios, the MMSI follows the licence, not the buyer's whim; reprogramming a set with someone else's MMSI sends rescuers the wrong identity. Get this right before you cross to France, because you cannot sort an Ofcom MMSI from a French anchorage.
How DSC and the channels actually work in France
The channel logic is the same in French waters as anywhere under the international system. Channel 16, on 156.8 MHz, is the voice channel for distress, safety and calling. Channel 70 is reserved exclusively for the DSC data bursts. When you trigger a DSC distress alert, the digital signal goes out on channel 70 with your MMSI and position; the coastguard and any nearby DSC-equipped boats then move to channel 16 to talk to you by voice.
In France the coastguard you are calling is CROSS, the regional operations centres for surveillance and rescue that cover the French coast. A DSC distress alert reaches them automatically with your identity and position attached, which is exactly why a programmed MMSI matters more than any other single radio setting. For routine traffic, French marinas and harbour offices each publish their working VHF channel; you will hear and use those alongside 16 and 70.
Does a foreign boat really need all this in France?
Yes, and for once the answer is less murky than the equipment question. France expects a fixed VHF from the semi-offshore category upwards under its safety regulation, which I cover in the Division 240 guide for visiting boats. But the requirement to be licensed to operate radio equipment is an international one that travels with you regardless of which country's water you are floating in. Your home administration licenses your set and your operator certificate; France recognises that you should hold the equivalent your flag state requires.
This is the same principle that governs competence to sail, where France points back to your flag state's rules, a logic I set out in whether French rules apply to foreign boats. For radio specifically there is no fudge: hold the operator certificate, hold the ship licence, carry both documents, and program the MMSI.
What to carry and have ready
Keep the operator certificate, the SRC card or your flag state's equivalent, where you can produce it. Keep the ship radio licence document aboard, paper or digital, since it lists the MMSI and the equipment it covers. Have the MMSI written down somewhere independent of the radio, because if the set dies you may still need to quote it. A French officer who asks about your radio is usually satisfied by seeing a working DSC set with a programmed MMSI and a certificate holder aboard.
Getting the SRC before you go
If you do not yet hold the operator certificate, sort it before the season rather than hoping nobody asks. The SRC is a one-day course followed by a short practical and written assessment, run by recognised training centres in the UK and across Europe, after which the certificate is yours for life with no renewal. The syllabus covers exactly the things that matter in French waters: how to send a DSC distress, urgency and safety alert, how Channel 16 and Channel 70 divide the work, and the discipline of the airwaves. It is the single most useful day a cruising skipper can spend ashore, because the radio is no use if the person holding it freezes over the procedure.
Crew benefit too. If more than one person aboard holds the certificate, you are not the single point of failure in an emergency, and on a long passage you can share the radio watch without breaking the rule that only a certificate holder makes routine calls.
Handhelds, backup and the offshore kit
A fixed VHF runs off the boat's batteries and feeds a masthead aerial, giving the best range, often 20 nautical miles or more boat to shore in good conditions. Its weakness is obvious: lose the batteries, the aerial or the boat itself and it goes silent. A handheld VHF in a grab bag is the answer, and the better ones now include their own DSC and GPS. If you register that handheld with its own MMSI, it becomes an independent distress transmitter you can take into the liferaft, which is why it sits so naturally alongside the offshore items in the Division 240 equipment list. Treat it as part of the same family as your flares and EPIRB: redundant ways of saying "here I am" when the primary system has failed.
A few habits that keep you out of trouble
Do a DSC test call to a coast station or a buddy's MMSI occasionally so you know the set actually transmits, not just receives. Never use channel 16 for a chat; it is for distress, safety and brief initial calls only, and France monitors it. Never trigger a DSC distress alert as a test, because it launches a real CROSS response and a false alert is an offence. Keep a handheld VHF as backup, ideally with its own DSC and a registered MMSI, which also slots neatly into the offshore safety kit. And if your radio is not yet DSC-capable, treat upgrading it as the single best safety improvement you can make before a French season, because a programmed MMSI turns "somebody is in trouble somewhere" into "this boat, this position, right now".
The radio is one of the four things French officials check most often, alongside lifejackets, fire-fighting gear and flares. Pair this with the lifejacket and harness rules for France and the guidance on carrying and disposing of flares in France, and you have the safety side of a French cruise covered.
Sources: Ofcom ship radio licence guidance (ofcom.org.uk); RYA licensing onboard electronics (rya.org.uk); international VHF channels 16 and 70 / DSC and MMSI specifications; CROSS (French maritime rescue, mer.gouv.fr).
