"John Gaquin" wrote in message
. ..

"Jonas Stein" wrote in message
...
Hi,

why were the letters N and C chosen for the call of emergency sign?

I don't know, but probably because in combination they would be easy to
send, even by an injured person - not complicated....dah dit, dah dit dah
dit......-- and easy to pick out and recognize by a listener. Much like
the SOS -- a clear, simple repeated signal.


This is a good question. I just spent a bunch of Google time trying to find
a definitive answer ... without success.
Here's my hunch though ....

In terms of flags .... the "C" flag is striped and means "yes". The "N"
flag has blue square symbols (looks very different than the C stripes) and
means "no".

When in an emergency, one would try to call attention to his/her vessel, so
you need to do something that does not make sense or seem ordinary. Flying
a "Yes" and "No" flag at the same time is certainly not ordinary.

Interestingly, the old school of thought was to fly the vessel's national
flag upside down as an emergency signal.
That is no longer recommended because many nations have flags that look the
same, either way.

Also, as John points out ... in Morse Code, a "C" is .- while an "N" is
..-.-

The most information I could find was from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...e_signal_flags

RCE

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