All crew should be competent in the operation of the marine radios onboard, know the frequencies dedicated to distress and safety and be able to properly format and transmit distress and safety messages. Under federal regulations, operators of VHF and HF radios are required to hold an operating certificate; the normal certificate for recreational operators is the Marine Radio Operators Certificate of Proficiency (MROCP). Many Coast Guard and Volunteer Marine Rescue stations provide this course or may advise where a local course is available. Check our links pages for Coastguard and Volunteer Marine Rescue Organistaions. Operators of 27 MHz equipment are not required to hold a certificate but are strongly recommended to obtain one. Information about licensing of radios and operators, can be found at the Australian Communications and Media Authority website at http://www.acma.gov.au/*.

Standard radio procedures are used by boats of all nationalities.

When making a standard call to another boat or volunteer group state clearly:

1. the boat/group you are calling — spoken three times
2. this is — name of your boat — spoken three times
3. message
4. over
5. await response.
   

The distress call 'mayday' may be used only if the boat is threatened by grave and imminent danger and immediate assistance is required. This distress call has absolute priority over all other transmissions and may only be transmitted on the authority of the skipper or the person responsible for the safety of your boat.

Distress Call procedure:

1. mayday   mayday   mayday
2. this is — name and radio call sign of boat in distress —  spoken three times
3. mayday
4. name and radio call sign of boat
5. details of boat's position
6. nature of distress and assistance required
7. other information including number of people on board.
   

The urgency call should be used when you cannot justify use of the distress call but have a very urgent message to transmit concerning the safety of your boat or the safety of a person. Once again, you may only make an urgency call on the authority of the skipper or person responsible for the safety of your boat.

Urgency Call procedure:

1. pan pan   pan pan   pan pan
2. hello all stations   hello all stations   hello all stations
3. this is — name and radio call sign of boat — spoken three times
4. details of the boat's position
5. details of assistance required and other information.
   

The safety call should be used if you wish to broadcast an important navigational warning to other stations. For example, you have sighted a large floating object that could damage the hull of a boat.
A safety call is more likely to be made by a coast station or a limited coast station operated by a marine rescue association and may include important weather warnings such as severe thunderstorm, gale and cyclone warnings.

Safety Call procedure:

1. say-cure-e-tay   say-cure-e-tay   say-cure-e-tay
2. hello all stations   hello all stations   hello all stations
3. this is — name and radio call sign of boat or shore station — spoken three times
4. details of the warning.
   

You may make the initial safety call to all stations on a distress frequency. However, you should change to a working frequency to make the broadcast of the safety message.

MF/HF transceivers:

• Distress and calling 4125, 6215, 8291 KHz.
• Navigational warning 8176KHz.
  

VHF transceivers:

• Channel 16 with channel 67 as a supplementary.

27MHz transceivers:

• 27.88MHz (channel 88) with 27.86MHz as a supplementary.

This is the universal way to break up a series of letters with words beginning with the character It helps operators and receivers know exactly what letter your discussing. This system is used by the aviation and marine industry to overcome difficulty in understanding letters pronounced via radio due to static interference,  peoples voice accents etc.

A - Alpha
B - Bravo
C - Charlie
D - Delta
E - Echo
F - Foxtrot
G - Golf
H - Hotel
I - India
J - Juliet
K - Kilo
L - Lima
M - Mike
N - November
O - Oscar
P - Papa
Q - Quebec
R - Romeo
S - Sierra
T - Tango
U - Uniform
V - Victor
W - Whisky
X - X-Ray
Y - Yankee
Z - Zulu

I hope this helps give you an overview of the importance of marine radios and  that they are not that hard to operate. Radios are a worthy investment on your families safety when at sea. For a quote to supply and install a radio don’t hesitate to call John Crawford Marine and have our workshop install one for you. We proudly supply radios and aerials supplied by GME Standard Communications.

Regards

Sales team at John Crawford Marine