StacksVerified U.S. regulatory reference

47 CFR §80.1117

Verified against eCFR.gov as of June 20, 2026View official text on eCFR.gov ↗
  1. (a)Normally, distress calls received using digital selective calling are only acknowledged using a DSC acknowledgement by a coast station. Ships should delay any acknowledgement in order to give sufficient time for a coast station to acknowledge the call. In cases where no acknowledgement has been heard and no distress traffic has been heard, the ship should transmit a distress alert relay to the coast station. Upon advice from the Rescue Coordination Center, the ship may transmit a DSC acknowledgement call to stop it from being repeated. Acknowledgement by digital selective calling of receipt of a distress alert in the terrestrial services must comply with ITU-R M.541-9 (incorporated by reference, see § 80.7).
  2. (b)Acknowledgement through a satellite of receipt of a distress alert from a ship earth station must be sent immediately (see § 80.1119).
  3. (c)Acknowledgement by radiotelephony of receipt of a distress alert from a ship station or a ship earth station must be given in the following form:
    1. (1)The distress signal MAYDAY;
    2. (2)The call sign or other identification of the station sending the distress message, spoken three times;
    3. (3)The words THIS IS (or DE spoken as DELTA ECHO in case of language difficulties);
    4. (4)The call sign or other identification of the station acknowledging receipt, spoken three times;
    5. (5)The word RECEIVED (or RRR spoken as ROMEO ROMEO ROMEO in case of language difficulties);
    6. (6)The distress signal MAYDAY.
  4. (d)The acknowledgement by direct-printing telegraphy of receipt of a distress alert from a ship station must be given in the following form:
    1. (1)The distress signal MAYDAY;
    2. (2)The call sign or other identification of the station sending the distress alert;
    3. (3)The word DE;
    4. (4)The call sign or other identification of the station acknowledging receipt of the distress alert;
    5. (5)The signal RRR;
    6. (6)The distress signal MAYDAY.
  5. (e)The acknowledgement by direct-printing telegraphy of receipt of a distress alert from a ship earth station must be given by the coast earth station receiving the distress alert by retransmitting the ship station identity of the ship transmitting the distress alert.