What Is the Short Range Radio Licence (KMT/SRC)?
The certificate for lawful, correct use of a VHF marine radio — its real value is that it properly teaches the distress-calling procedure, just once, but properly.
The Short Range Radio Certificate (KMT, SRC internationally) is the operator licence required to use a VHF marine radio. The exam covers radio procedures, channel structure, DSC use and distress calls (MAYDAY, PAN PAN, SECURITE), as well as the phonetic alphabet.
On a boat with a radio, an unlicensed operator is a legal issue, but the real point is competence: being able to deliver the MAYDAY format correctly (who, where, what, how many people) saves seconds, not minutes, in a panic.
Skill side
You have the certificate, but no practice: forgetting the MAYDAY format years after the exam; keep a written card of the format by the VHF set.
Family gap: if only one person holds the certificate and that person is the skipper, then if the skipper falls overboard nobody else can use the radio; at least one other person should learn the basic distress call.
Handheld VHF is not an exemption: a handheld set is subject to the same rules and requires the same certificate.
Take it at the same time as the ADB, then do two small jobs: put a MAYDAY format card by the VHF and a label with the boat’s MMSI-name-callsign details, and once a year run a five-minute 'radio drill' with the crew. The best place to keep an emergency procedure is not in memory, but on the card beside the radio.