Mayday Distress Call: How To

Mayday is an international marine emergency code word for distress in voice communications. The term is derived from the french term venez m'aider, which translates to, "come help me". Calling mayday over the marine VHF (very high frequency) radio signals emergency response crews such as the Coast Guard, Police, Firefighters, and Marine Assistance firms of a marine emergency. The protocol is as follows:

MAYDAY (X3), THIS IS, VESSEL NAME (X3), MAYDAY
WE ARE LOCATED (LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE)
BEARING AND DISTANCE FROM NAVIGATIONAL AID
NUMBER OF PERSONS ON BOARD (HEALTH AND PFD STATUS)
NATURE OF EMERGENCY, ANY FURTHER DETAILS
MAYDAY X3
OVER.

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[feliporivera]

this mayday call is incorect. additional information should be emmited after stating the nature of the emergency. You should say u are taking water and After that u specify what u require, u should give nr of people on board

[TowBoat911]

@feliporivera This is simply the first transmission to initiate the mayday calling sequence. You will be asked by SAR communications for more detail in later coms such as; vessel detail, personelle detail (ages, medical conditions, etc), emergency details, how you came to the problem, and readily available emergency equipment.

I am planning o re-doing the video with a more comprehensive call later in the spring.

[TowBoat911]

@cstall13 Thanks for the comment, it's much appreciated! And you're very right, in all mayday situations getting the info correct is important so almost always, you (person in distress) will be asked to repeat. However, if time isn't of the essence, any coast guard will have recorded the transmissions from the first "mayday"

[xXJeeXTeeXAyeXmanXx]

how about UHF (ADF channels) 5, 6, or 21??

[TowBoat911]

@xXJeeXTeeXAyeXmanXx Distress calls can be properly transmitted and heard on all other channels. However most first line response organizations monitor 16 for distress signals, making a call more effective when in an emergency situation, where time isn't of the essence.

[turner593]

@feliporivera what are you talking about thats a great example of a mayday call .he did say they were taking water over transom and he also said there were 3 people on board and gave lats and lons and a bearing off a point

[mistyaqua]

Well done!

[MercatorVHF]

A nice little tutorial. Bravo.

For emergency radio procedures according to the latest IMO and ITU regulations, please see my Marine VHF Radio Simulator (with audio) and my Marine VHF Radio Handbook. We are using DSC and voice, of course.

Best regrads, Mercator Publishing

[jacobtyler87]

yeah good job mate u did it all correct, just a tip though, for easier understanding for the stations that you are calling you should use the phonetic number in the case of 9 (niner) many ship stations have been confused in the past years because of that. nine rhymes with five. but yeah great job mate sounded excellent

[feliporivera]

yes good job doing this, i was merely trying to correct a small detail. it is very good. gj

[Xx599GTOxX]

brilliant!

[train672]

WOW  !!!

Many thanks for demonstrating how a Mayday call should be sent.

Don't shout, speak clearly and slowly ( remember, someone has to write this vital information down ) Wait for an acknowledgement, otherwise send the message again.

Many thanks TowBoat 911 - It's not often that we hear a MAYDAY sent correctly, I hope that people will 'take this on board' and should they need to send a MAYDAY that will do it in a calm way. If you shout, it may be impossible to undersatand you.