Acknowledging a distress call

Distress calls must only be acknowledged if the call continues without acknowledgement from a CRS, you are close enough to the distressed vessel to be of assistance and are prepared to relay the distress to a CRS by any means possible. Class D DSC radios are forbidden from automatically acknowledging distress calls. Acknowledgement must only be made by voice message on channel 16.

After receiving a distress call that has gone unanswered:

  1. Switch to channel 16 to listen for the distress voice message.
  2. Wait for the CRS to acknowledge the call.
  3. If the distress call is not acknowledged by another station then acknowledge the call as follows:

    MAYDAY

    (MMSI of the vessel in distress)

    Name of vessel in distress <repeated 3 times>

    Call sign of the vessel in distress

    This is <MMSI of your vessel>, <name of your vessel repeated 3 times> <call sign of your vessel>

    RECEIVED MAYDAY

  4. You MUST then notify the shore authorities by any means possible to relay the distress call.