{"data":{"id":"us/50-cfr-600.1503","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"50 CFR 600.1503","heading":"Position report data formats and transmission.","body":"Unless otherwise specified, this subsection applies to all VMS units, MCSs and bundles. Units that can operate as both an EMTU and EMTU-C must meet the requirements for both an EMTU and an EMTU-C in order to gain type-approval as both. To be type-approved in any given fishery, a VMS unit must also meet any additional positioning information as required by the applicable VMS regulations and requirements in effect for each fishery or region for which the type-approval applies. The VMS unit must meet the following requirements:\n(a) Transmit all automatically-generated position reports, for vessels managed individually or grouped by fleet, that meet the latency requirement under § 600.1504.\n(b) When powered up, must automatically re-establish its position reporting function without manual intervention.\n(c) Position reports must contain all of the following:\n(1) Unique identification of an EMTU/EMTU-C and clear indication if the unit is an EMTU-C.\n(2) Date (year/month/day with century in the year) and time stamp (GMT) of the position fix.\n(3) Date (year/month/day with century in the year) and time stamp (GMT) that the EMTU-C position report was sent from the EMTU-C.\n(4) Position fixed latitude and longitude, including the hemisphere of each, which comply with the following requirements:\n(i) The position fix precision must be to the decimal minute hundredths.\n(ii) Accuracy of the reported position must be within 100 meters (328.1 ft).\n(d) An EMTU/EMTU-C must have the ability to: (1) Store 1,000 position fixes in local, non-volatile memory.\n(2) Allow for defining variable reporting intervals between 5 minutes and 24 hours.\n(3) Allow for changes in reporting intervals remotely and only by authorized users.\n(e) An EMTU/EMTU-C must generate specially identified position reports upon:\n(1) Antenna disconnection.\n(2) Loss of positioning reference signals.\n(3) Security events, power-up, power down, and other status data.\n(4) A request for EMTU/EMTU-C status information such as configuration of programming and reporting intervals.\n(5) The EMTUs loss of the mobile communications signals.\n(6) An EMTU must generate a specially identified position report upon the vessel crossing of a pre-defined geographic boundary.","path":["Title 50—Wildlife and Fisheries","CHAPTER VI—FISHERY CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE","PART 600—MAGNUSON-STEVENS ACT PROVISIONS","Subpart Q—Vessel Monitoring System Type-Approval"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-50.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:26:39Z","sha256":"5ff8292e527d6b895abd850f8d1846f75de003170e85a8287e8f353e3438ab3c","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/50-cfr-600.1502","next":"us/50-cfr-600.1504"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}