- V8V2222 -
HF/SSB radio services


Cruising this side -

Making contact in a Distress or Emergency situation.

The HF/SSB Maritime Emergency frequencies remain the official maritime distress & emergency communication medium used by MRCCs to manage and direct search and rescue operations in open sea. Ships and aircraft which could be directed to search for and assist a yacht in distress also have radios fitted with these official marine communication frequencies.

Satellite phones are not part of the official distress and emergency communications service for marine communications. Search and Rescue resources - such as ships and planes - are not required to fit satellite phones to communicate with yachts in distress. They fit VHF and HF (SSB) radios using the official marine communication frequencies.

The official HF/SSB Marine Distress/Emergency frequencies are:

       2182   4125   6215   8291  12290  16420 

If your yacht does not have a marine communications service, HF/SSB radio, with the Marine Emergency frequencies, you make it very difficult for the MRCC, aircraft, ships and other yachts to help you in an emergency. 

Here is an important reminder from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) website:

If close to shore and major ports, towns etc, the appropriate VHF Marine Emergency channel used by many MRCCs, ports and other authorities in SE Asia, the Pacific and Indian Oceans - ch16 - can be used. But offshore, the only choice is HF/SSB radio.

However, since the late 90's introduction of GMDSS for commercial vessels over 300 tonnes, the monitoring of the official HF/SSB Maritime Emergency frequencies around the world for voice calls - Mayday, Pan-Pan and Securite - has almost disappeared.

It's increasingly difficult to initiate contact with an MRCC or related Coast Station by making a Mayday, Pan-Pan or Securite voice call on the Marine emergency frequencies.  Many governments have chosen to forget that the GMDSS service was designed for a relative minority of offshore vessels - ie: commercial vessels over 300 tonnes - and installed a DSC only watch for emergency calls on the official maritime distress frequencies.

A few MRCCs and/or their related Coast Stations (eg: Taupo Radio-New Zealand, Seychelles Radio and  MRCC PNG) still maintain 24/7 voice monitoring on some or all Marine Emergency frequencies for Mayday, Pan-Pan and Sucurite calls to initiate contact. (See our MRCC contact page.)

In Australia, State governments now operate a limited voice monitoring service for MAYDAY and PAN-PAN calls on 4125, 6215 & 8291 only.

MRCC Australia has two powerful radio bases with large antenna systems that provide effective HF/SSB coverage over most of the central and western  South Pacific, NW Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean; including SE Asia and most of BRUNEI BAY RADIO's email service area. However, MRCC Australia only monitors for DSC  calls to initiate contact; there is no operator listening for voice calls of Mayday, Pan-Pan or Securite. But, once MRCC Australia is alerted, these powerful HF/SSB radio systems are used to manage an incident using voice communication - to the yacht, potential rescue ships in the region, search aircraft etc - on the official marine distress frequencies.

All MRCCs in SE Asia monitor only for DSC alerts, they do not maintain a voice listening watch on the official distress/emergency frequencies. But once alerted, they will use their HF radio equipment for voice communications on the official marine HF/SSB distress/emergency frequencies, to manage the incident.

Because of this change, many countries - eg; in Europe, and Australia - now require new radio installations in small-craft - including recreational yachts -  to be DSC equipped HF (SSB) - and VHF - radios.  This ensures recreational vessels have access to use the GMDSS/DSC distress monitoring systems if they have an emergency, and it also makes recreational vessels additional valuable assets in the maritime safety network, because they can be easily contacted to assist other mariners in distress:

• A significant advantage of DSC radios in cruising yachts is they conveniently allow you and your yacht to become a useful resource in the maritime safety and support network, without needing to listen 24/7 to all the routine calls, noise etc on the emergency frequencies. Maintaining an on-board DSC watch for alerts from other vessels or MRCCs is done with the radio speaker muted, so the peace of a beautiful anchorage and the open sea can be maintained. When a DSC alert is received, the radio speaker un-mutes and the radio comes to life, announcing that a distress is occurring within radio range.

• By maintaining a 24/7 DSC watch on board, you can be contacted by other (DSC equipped) vessels in distress, or an MRCC looking for nearby vessels to assist a vessel, aircraft etc that has notified them of a distress situation. It could be that your yacht is the closest to people in distress and you could save lives. 

• By installing a DSC equipped HF/SSB radio, and maintaining a 24/7 watch for DSC alerts, you make your contribution to the safety and security of the maritime community. You and your yacht become easily contactable by MRCCs and other vessels so you can become an important asset in helping those in distress; just like you expect other people and vessels to be contactable so they will willingly sacrifice their time, money and well-being to come to your assistance if you have a problem.

DSC equipped HF/SSB radios are more expensive and there are extra costs and installation requirements because the DSC receiver requires a second, separate, HF antenna. In addition, only a few radio brands/models are suitable for small-craft, in terms of physical size, power consumption, operating voltage and price. But it's a relatively small proportion in the overall cost of boat ownership/operation. And it's a relatively minor inconvenience to link into the maritime safety network for your potential benefit, and the benefit of other mariners who do the same for you.

For those vessels - recreational or commercial - without a DSC equipped HF/SSB radio, the practical options to initiate contact with an MRCC or related  Coast Radio station have become either email, or a satellite phone call. Many yachts or small commercial vessels now have low-cost HF radio email - such as SailMail or Brunei Bay radio's BBRemail - and carry a hand-held satellite phone as a backup.

Email or a satellite phone call can be effective to initiate contact with emergency authorities regarding a problem. In most instances, voice communication will then occur on the official HF/SSB Maritime Emergency frequencies, to manage the incident.

The reasons that marine HF/SSB radio remains the optimal communications medium for distress and emergency communications include:

• The MRCC does not need to keep track of which yachts, tugs, fishing trawlers, big ships and aircraft are in their SAR area, their present position, and their individual satellite phone numbers, in order to contact them individually to request they assist a nearby vessel.   The MRCC can simply broadcast the details of a distress situation - or send a DSC alert call - because these potential rescue resources are already monitoring the distress frequencies for voice or DSC alerts.

• It's far more practical, efficient, faster and much lower cost than satellite phone communications during emergencies.

• The rescue co-ordination centres (or their associated Coast Station) can broadcast simultaneously to all ships, yachts, planes, helicopters etc involved.

• All ships aircraft etc can listen to conversations between the MRCC and the vessel in distress, or the MRCC and resources assigned to assist.

• This open communication allows everyone to know what is happening, what tasks have been assigned to particular resources, and so all involved can consider how each might be able to adapt or integrate their efforts and resources.

For the MRCC to separately call each individual yacht, ship, aircraft etc via satellite phone - or cell-phone in the case of inshore incidents - to assign tasks would be very time consuming. And to separately call each each vessel, helicopter etc to tell them what all the others are doing would be frustratingly slow and risk errors. And potentially important resources - like a nearby yacht or fishing vessel - might not be able to advise the MRCC they can help, because they don't have the financial capacity to make numerous satellite phone calls, or their call credit has expired.

Voice communications using the official Marine Emergency frequencies is designed to get the identical message to everyone immediately, and to speed the co-ordination and task assignment process; without the complications imposed by satellite phone cost, zero account credit or and needing to maintain a database of hundreds of thousands of satellite phones and make hundreds of (expensive) separate calls to individual vessels, planes etc

BRUNEI BAY RADIO conducted a survey of MRCC services and related Coast Radio stations in the BBR service area. This revealed:

1. All countries in SE Asia now maintain  an emergency communications watch on HF/SSB only for DSC calls.  There is no voice monitoring of the emergency frequencies for Mayday, Pan-Pan and Securite calls.

2. All MRCCs or related Coast Radio Stations now maintain a 24/7 watch for emergency EMAILS or PHONE calls. These two methods now appear to be the most reliable means for small-craft without DSC equipped HF/SSB radios to initiate contact with rescue authorities in an emergency which does not warrant switching on an EPIRB.

3. Once the MRCC is alerted, they - or their related Coast Station - will most likely communicate by voice using HF/SSB radio (or VHF if very close) on the official Marine Emergency frequencies to co-ordinate the response.  Some MRCCs - eg: Seychelles, India, PNG - report they prefer to use email for ongoing communications.

While email  - or low-power satellite handphones - are not officially endorsed as methods to contact emergency services, they have become the default option in many areas for small-craft - recreational or commercial - without DSC capability to initiate contact with an MRCC. Some considerations of using HF/SSB radio email in distress situations:

1. Yacht owners with HF/SSB radio email know their radio email can normally get through even when voice communications is difficult.

2. In the case of an emergency that requires confidential communications (eg: a situation where a yacht believes they are being pursued/followed, and these vessels they may be monitoring the emergency frequencies), email or satellite phone communications may be preferable to broadcasting the vessel's location and intentions on the radio.

3. From the perspective of communication during an incident, some email services have the capacity for simultaneously broadcast to multiple recipients; keeping everyone quickly updated with identical information, if they also have email on board, and the email addresses are known.

4. Small-craft equipped with SailMail or BBREmail, can use the RELAY function to quickly distribute one email to multiple email address recipients. This allows a vessel to simultaneously communicate with multiple MRCCs to initiate contact, and to send identical information to the controlling MRCC and tasked vessels or other resources, during an incident. For information about using the RELAY feature in SailMail or BBREmail, send an empty email to relayinfo@saildocs.com .   RELAY emails with the correct list of MRCC email addresses for the present sailing area can be created in advance as drafts, and stored for possible use.

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