RYA SRC Pre Course Reading

Prior to attending your SRC (Short Range Certificate) Course there are five areas we need you to read and learn in advance. Don't worry if you do not fully understand them, they will be explained on your course, but you will find the day much easier if you are already familiar with some of the terms, channels  and the distress call

 

• Definitions
• The Distress (Mayday) call
• Abbreviations
• Some of the more important VHF channels
• The phonetic alphabet

 

These subjects are covered below and you will need to learn them thoroughly before the course

DEFINITIONS

Distress Call - Used when there is grave an imminent danger to a life or vessel and immediate assistance is required (i.e. a vessel on fire, a vessel sinking, a person overboard or a potentially fatal injury on board)

 

Urgency Call- Used when a vessel requires assistance but is not in distress (i.e. a vessel is broken down and requires a tow or when there is a non life threatening injury on board

 

Safety Call- Used to provide navigational safety or meteorological information (i.e. warning of a partly submerged hazard or of a gale warning)

 

Routine Call- Everyday calling between two stations that is not one of the above three sorts of call (i.e. race management, calling a marina to arrange a berth or calling a friend to arrange to meet up).

 

DISTRESS CALL

 

"Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is (vessels name three times, call sign and MMSI)

Mayday this is (vessel's name, call-sign and MMSI)

Position is (lat. & long. or range & bearing from a charted object)

I am (nature of distress, i.e. sinking or on fire)

I require immediate assistance

I have (total number of people) persons on-board

(any other relevant information, i.e. abandoning the vessel)

Over"

 

ABBREVIATIONS (the ABC of DSC)

There are a number of abbreviations used on the SRC (Short Range Certificate) course, to give you a head start a number of them are detailed below. Their meanings will be explained on the course.

 

SRC: Short Range Certificate

VHF: Very High Frequency

DSC: Digital Selective Calling

MMSI: Maritime Mobile Service Identity

GMDSS: Global Maritime Distress & Safety System

AIS: Automatic Identification System

ATIS: Automatic Transmitter Identification System

DW: Dual Watch

PTT: Press To Transmit

EPIRB: Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon

SART: Search & Rescue Radar Transponder

 

SOME OF THE MORE IMPORTANT VHF CHANNELS

 

16: Distress, Urgency & calling channel

06, 08, 72, 77:   Inter-ship working channels

12, 14: Most common Port Operations Channels

67: Small Craft safety Channel or Coastguard's working channel (UK only)

80: Marina Channel (UK only)

M, M2: Yacht club, sailing school and marina channels (UK only)

13: Bridge to bridge channel

70: DSC channel

 

PHONETIC ALPHABET

Letter	Word	Pronounced as	Letter	Word	Pronounced as
A	Alfa	AL Fah	N	November	no VEM ber
B	Bravo	Brah voh	O	Oscar	OSS cah
C	Charlie	CHAR lee or SHAR lee	P	Papa	pah pah
D	Delta	DELL tah	Q	Quebec	keh BECK
E	Echo	ECK oh	R	Romeo	ROW me oh
F	Foxtrot	FOKS trot	S	Sierra	see AIR rah
G	Golf	GOLF	T	Tango	TANG go
H	Hotel	hoh TELL	U	Uniform	You nee form or OO nee form
I	India	IN dee ah	V	Victor	VIK tah
J	Juliet	JEW lee ETT	W	Whiskey	WISS key
K	Kilo	key loh	X	X-ray	ECKS ray
L	Lima	lee mahl	Y	Yankee	YANG key
M	Mike	mike	Z	Zulu	ZOO loo

PHONETIC NUMBERS

0	zero
1	wun
2	too
3	tree
4	FOW er
5	fife
6	six
7	SEV en
8	ait
9	NIN er

 

Larger numbers should be broken down into single digits except from whole units of a thousand.

 

31	tree wun
247	too FOWer SEVen
2188	too wun ait ait
600	six zero zero
6000	six thousand
60000	six zero thousand

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