PAN-PAN and Securite

PAN-PAN is used for urgent situations such as engine failure near a lee shore, a serious but stable medical problem, or a vessel disabled but not in grave and imminent danger. For the MCA small-craft DSC procedure, send an All Ships urgency announcement nominating a working channel, make the PAN-PAN urgency call on Channel 16, then transmit the message on the nominated working channel.

Securite introduces safety information such as a navigation warning, defective light, severe local weather, or other hazard to shipping. To pass safety information to HM Coastguard using the MCA small-craft procedure, make an individual DSC call with safety priority if the set supports it, accept the acknowledgement, and wait on the working channel indicated. If the radio does not support that call, make the voice call on Channel 16. Follow current Coastguard and local instructions rather than assuming every safety message uses one identical channel sequence.