Introduction
Emergency Messages and
Distress Procedure
For Example
“Mayday — Mayday — Mayday”
“This is Corsair — Corsair — Corsair” [or “IL 1234 AB,” repeated three (3) times]
“Mayday Corsair (or IL 1234 AB)”
“Navy Pier bears 220 degrees magnetic — distance 5 miles”
“Struck submerged object and flooding — need pump and tow”
“Four (4) adults, three (3) children aboard — no one injured”
“Estimate we will remain afloat one-half hour”
“Corsair (or IL 1234 AB) is 26 ft sloop with blue hull and tan deck house”
“I will be listening on Channel 16”
“This is Corsair (or IL 1234 AB)”
“Over”
It is a good idea to write out a script of the message form and post it where you
and others on your vessel can see it when an emergency message needs to be sent.
Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) Alerts
•
The MR HH450 DUAL radio is capable of receiving Specific Area Message
Encoding (SAME) Alerts. During an NWR weather SAME alert, a code for your
specific location will alert you to deteriorating weather conditions in a
preprogrammed specific area or a specific event such as a Severe Thunderstorm
Watch or Tropical Storm Warning. There are over 900 National Weather Radio
(NWR) service stations using broadcast frequencies that transmit SAME alerts. You
must program your county, parish or independent city or marine area into the radio.
NOTE
DO NOT program your radio for a louder or clearer station not designated as
a SAME channel. You will not receive the local desired alerts.
The NWR service will then alert you only of weather and other emergencies for all
areas programmed on this radio.
• When an NWR office broadcasts a warning, watch or non-weather emergency,
it also broadcasts a digital SAME code that may be heard as a very brief static
burst, depending on the characteristics of the radio. This SAME code contains
the type of message; county(s) affected, and message expiration time.
• If programmed correctly, this radio will receive the weather channel so you
can listen to the NWR SAME message. You will hear the 1050 Hz warning
alarm tone as an attention signal, followed by the broadcast message.
• At the end of the broadcast message, you will hear a brief digital end-of
message static burst followed by a resumption of the NWR broadcast cycle.
SAME coverage areas are defined within the “NWR Broadcast Service Area” and are
comprised of named counties, boroughs, metropolitan areas or portions thereof. NWR
“Broadcast Service Area” coverage by State can be found at
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr or by telephone at 1-888-NWRSAME (1-888-697-7263).
The information at the following website,
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/indexnw.htm#sametable, will help to program the SAME
alert county codes and respective frequencies into this radio. This site also lists SAME
code Marine zones for bounded and named water areas.
