(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 M.625-3 (incorporated by reference, see §80.7), 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.

(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; 76 FR 67618, Nov. 2, 2011]