{"data":{"id":"us/47-cfr-80.1117","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"47 CFR 80.1117","heading":"Procedure for receipt and acknowledgement of distress alerts.","body":"(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).\n(b) Acknowledgement through a satellite of receipt of a distress alert from a ship earth station must be sent immediately (see § 80.1119).\n(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:\n(1) The distress signal MAYDAY;\n(2) The call sign or other identification of the station sending the distress message, spoken three times;\n(3) The words THIS IS (or DE spoken as DELTA ECHO in case of language difficulties);\n(4) The call sign or other identification of the station acknowledging receipt, spoken three times;\n(5) The word RECEIVED (or RRR spoken as ROMEO ROMEO ROMEO in case of language difficulties);\n(6) The distress signal MAYDAY.\n(d) The acknowledgement by direct-printing telegraphy of receipt of a distress alert from a ship station must be given in the following form:\n(1) The distress signal MAYDAY;\n(2) The call sign or other identification of the station sending the distress alert;\n(3) The word DE;\n(4) The call sign or other identification of the station acknowledging receipt of the distress alert;\n(5) The signal RRR;\n(6) The distress signal MAYDAY.\n(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.","path":["Title 47—Telecommunication","CHAPTER I—FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION","SUBCHAPTER D—SAFETY AND SPECIAL RADIO SERVICES","PART 80—STATIONS IN THE MARITIME SERVICES","Subpart W—Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS)"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-47.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:26:28Z","sha256":"ef979ba37585b06dea6e44f9cab1d600f982378a126895511f6726683f7a7d53","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/47-cfr-80.1115","next":"us/47-cfr-80.1119"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}