§  80.1131   Transmissions of urgency communications.

   (a) In a terrestrial system the announcement of the urgency message
   must be made on one or more of the distress and safety calling
   frequencies specified in § 80.1077 using digital selective calling and
   the urgency call format. A separate announcement need not be made if
   the urgency message is to be transmitted through the maritime
   mobile-satellite service.

   (b) The urgency signal and message must be transmitted on one or more
   of the distress and safety traffic frequencies specified in § 80.1077,
   or via the maritime mobile-satellite service or on other frequencies
   used for this purpose.

   (c) The urgency signal consists of the words PAN PAN. In radiotelephony
   each word of the group must be pronounced as the French word “panne”.

   (d) The urgency call format and the urgency signal indicate that the
   calling station has a very urgent message to transmit concerning the
   safety of a mobile unit or a person.

   (e) In radiotelephony, the urgency message must be preceded by the
   urgency signal, repeated three times, and the identification of the
   transmitting station.

   (f) In narrow-band direct-printing, the urgency message must be
   preceded by the urgency signal and the identification of the
   transmitting station.

   (g) The urgency call format or urgency signal must be sent only on the
   authority of the master or the person responsible for the mobile unit
   carrying the mobile station or mobile earth station.

   (h) The urgency call format or the urgency signal may be transmitted by
   a land station or a coast earth station with the approval of the
   responsible authority.

   (i) When an urgency message which calls for action by the stations
   receiving the message has been transmitted, the station responsible for
   its transmission must cancel it as soon as it knows that action is no
   longer necessary.

   (j) Error correction techniques, in accordance with ITU-R
   Recommendation M.625–3, “Direct-printing Telegraph Equipment Employing
   Automatic Identification in the Maritime Mobile Service,” with Annex,
   1995, as specified in § 80.1101, must be used for urgency messages by
   direct-printing telegraphy. All messages must be preceded by at least
   one carriage return, a line feed signal, a letter shift signal and the
   urgency signal PAN PAN. ITU-R Recommendation M.625–3 with Annex is
   incorporated by reference. The Director of the Federal Register
   approves this incorporation by reference in accordance with 5 U.S.C.
   552(a) and 1 CFR part 51. Copies of this standard can be inspected at
   the Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th Street, SW.,
   Washington, DC (Reference Information Center) or at the National
   Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the
   availability of this material at NARA, call 202–741–6030, or go to:
   http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/code_of_federal_regulations/ib
   r_locations.html. The ITU-R Recommendation can be purchased from the
   International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Place des Nations, CH–1211
   Geneva 20, Switzerland.

   (k) Urgency communications by direct-printing telegraphy should be in
   the ARQ mode when communicating directly to the Coast Guard or other
   coast stations on channels which they normally guard. Other distress
   communications, including those on simplex channels provided for that
   purpose, should be in the broadcast forward error correction mode. The
   ARQ mode may subsequently be used when it is advantageous to do so.

   [ 57 FR 9065 , Mar. 16, 1992, as amended at  68 FR 46981 , Aug. 7, 2003]