Say this on the radio
Your position in the format the Coast Guard expects, next to a landmark a rescuer already knows, in type you can read in sunlight. Set it up now, on a calm day, so it is ready.
- Your position comes from the phone’s own GPS chip, which works with no signal and no data.
- The landmarks are compiled into the app. Nothing on this page is fetched while you use it.
- Your vessel name and crew count are saved on this phone only. They are never sent anywhere.
One thing has to happen first: open this page once, in range, so your phone keeps a copy. It will then open again with no bars. Worth doing now rather than later.
In order. Nothing here is medical guidance — this is the radio procedure and only that.
- 1Channel 16, high powerMake sure the radio is on channel 16 and set to 25 watts, not 1 watt.
- 2“MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY”Three times. That is what makes every radio in range stop and listen.
- 3“This is” + your vessel name, three timesThen your call sign if you have one.
- 4Your positionThe landmark first, then the numbers. That is the line this page writes for you.
- 5What is wrongPlainly: taking on water, fire, engine failure in a seaway, person in the water.
- 6How many people are on boardThe second thing they will ask. Say it before they have to.
- 7“OVER” — then let go of the buttonNobody can answer you while you are transmitting. Release the key and listen.
- If nobody answers, say it all again. Keep going.
- If your radio has a red DSC distress button under a cover, holding it sends your identity and, on most sets wired to a GPS, your position — automatically and repeatedly. Use it as well as the voice call, not instead of it.
- MAYDAY is for grave and immediate danger to life or vessel. For a problem that is serious but not life-threatening — a dead engine in safe water, a tow — call the tow service on 16 rather than making a distress call.
A dead engine in safe water is a tow, not a mayday. Both of these monitor channel 16 as well, so you can hail them on the radio using the same sentence.
- TowBoatUS24-hour national dispatch800-391-4869
- Sea Tow24-hour national dispatch800-473-2869
Numbers as the services publish them. Nothing here is dialled for you.
Reference material. In an emergency, hail the Coast Guard on VHF 16 or call 911 first — do not spend time in an app. This page composes a sentence from your phone’s own GPS and the landmark list shipped with the app. It offers no medical guidance of any kind, and a phone fix is not a navigation instrument.