Can I get a clear definition of "Pan-Pan", who and when may it be declared.

I have hard the USCG declare "Pan-Pan", followed by a requirement that all
none "Pan-Pan" traffic on channel 16 traffic be suspended.

Can an individual boat declare "Pan-Pan", say when a crew member is lost
overboard, etc??

I fairly sure I understand when I could send a "May Day" but, to me, Pan Pan
is something more recent and I must have missed out on earlier definition..

Thanks

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

It is used to signal urgent information, such as when
someone has fallen overboard, or a boat is drifting into the
shore or a busy shipping channel.

An individual boat can definitely declare it. In other
words, it is not reserved only for USCG use.

MAYDAY is only to be used when a person, or boat is
threatened by grave or imminent danger, and requires assistance.

In the end, of course, it is the skipper's judgment whether
a situation is "grave" or "danger" is "imminent". My
understanding is that PAN conveys information whereas MAYDAY
requests assistance. Crew overboard could fall into either
category.

Chuck








Steve wrote:
Can I get a clear definition of "Pan-Pan", who and when may it be declared.

I have hard the USCG declare "Pan-Pan", followed by a requirement that all
none "Pan-Pan" traffic on channel 16 traffic be suspended.

Can an individual boat declare "Pan-Pan", say when a crew member is lost
overboard, etc??

I fairly sure I understand when I could send a "May Day" but, to me, Pan Pan
is something more recent and I must have missed out on earlier definition..

Thanks

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

In article , chuck
wrote:

It is used to signal urgent information, such as when
someone has fallen overboard, or a boat is drifting into the
shore or a busy shipping channel.

An individual boat can definitely declare it. In other
words, it is not reserved only for USCG use.

MAYDAY is only to be used when a person, or boat is
threatened by grave or imminent danger, and requires assistance.

In the end, of course, it is the skipper's judgment whether
a situation is "grave" or "danger" is "imminent". My
understanding is that PAN conveys information whereas MAYDAY
requests assistance. Crew overboard could fall into either
category.

Chuck

Nice explanation Chuck.

I would add just a few thoughts to the above.

First: Radio Prodceedures are covered extensivly in 48CFR80 starting at
80.311. Only the Master, of a US Flagged vessel, or the person
responcible for the vessels Radio Station, (Radio Officer) may
authorize the transmission of a Distress Signal, or Urgency
signal. (Mayday, Pan Pan)
Second: Urgency Siganls differ from Distress Signals in that Urgency
Siganls are messages that carry Distress Information that are
about another Station, and NOT the Transmitting Station. That
is why USCG use the "Pan Pan" Urgency Signal preceeding any
message that concerns a "Reported ship in Distress", and it
means that the information passed is in regard to a MayDay
Call received and reported. This is opposed to a MayDay Relay
Signal which is sent by a vessel that is relaying an initial
Mayday Signal for a Distressed Vessel, that may not have been
received and a Acknowledged by the appropriate Agency. (USCG
for US Waters)
Third: The Silence Signal (Seelonce Mayday) is used by the sender
of the Distress Signal, to initiate a Quiet Frequency for
the purpose of passing Distress Traffic. It may apply to
individual Stations, OR All Stations. The Distressed
Station MAY deligate control of the Frequency to another
Station at its discression. It is resinded by sending the
Silence End Signal. (Seelonce Feeenee, or Pru-donce)
Fourth: Order of Priority is:
1. Mayday (Distress Signal)
2. Pan Pan (Urgency Signal)
3. Sellonce Mayday (Silence Signal)
4. Securite (Security Signal)
5. all other traffic


Bruce in alaska wondering if this is going to start another jackieboy
rant.......
--
add a 2 before @

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 19:46:25 GMT, Bruce in Alaska
wrote:

snippage

Nice explanation Chuck.

I would add just a few thoughts to the above.

First: Radio Prodceedures are covered extensivly in 48CFR80 starting at
80.311. Only the Master, of a US Flagged vessel, or the person
responcible for the vessels Radio Station, (Radio Officer) may
authorize the transmission of a Distress Signal, or Urgency
signal. (Mayday, Pan Pan)
Second: Urgency Siganls differ from Distress Signals in that Urgency
Siganls are messages that carry Distress Information that are
about another Station, and NOT the Transmitting Station. That
is why USCG use the "Pan Pan" Urgency Signal preceeding any
message that concerns a "Reported ship in Distress", and it
means that the information passed is in regard to a MayDay
Call received and reported. This is opposed to a MayDay Relay
Signal which is sent by a vessel that is relaying an initial
Mayday Signal for a Distressed Vessel, that may not have been
received and a Acknowledged by the appropriate Agency. (USCG
for US Waters)

In Canada, we use "Mayday Relay" to relay a message from a distressed
vessel (and a US book I have also uses "Mayday Relay" for this
purpose).

Normally, when a vessel makes a Mayday call, the Coast Guard will
respond and verify the details, then do a "Mayday Relay" to
re-broadcast the distress message.

A "Pan Pan" or Urgency message indicates that the vessel has an urgent
message concerning the safety of a ship, aircraft or other vehicle, or
the safety of a person. The Coast Guard will also use a "Pan Pan"
message to relay a vessel's Urgency message.

In practice, the Urgency call is used when a vessel requires
assistance, but is not in grave and imminent danger (the requirement
for assistance is often not particularly urgent, but we don't have any
lesser grade of call.)

Although "Mayday" officially indicates the _vessel_ is in grave and
imminent danger, you are unlikely to be shot if you use it for man
overboard or serious medical emergencies. Even if Urgency is used for
these situations, I expect they will be handled with top priority.

Third: The Silence Signal (Seelonce Mayday) is used by the sender
of the Distress Signal, to initiate a Quiet Frequency for
the purpose of passing Distress Traffic. It may apply to
individual Stations, OR All Stations. The Distressed
Station MAY deligate control of the Frequency to another
Station at its discression. It is resinded by sending the
Silence End Signal. (Seelonce Feeenee, or Pru-donce)
Fourth: Order of Priority is:
1. Mayday (Distress Signal)
2. Pan Pan (Urgency Signal)
3. Sellonce Mayday (Silence Signal)

A "Seelonce" message doesn't have a place in the priority list - it is
just a message indicating that a Top Priority (Distress) situation
exists.

4. Securite (Security Signal)
5. all other traffic


Bruce in alaska wondering if this is going to start another jackieboy
rant.......

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

Hi Peter!

I do not disagree with you on the matter that CGs will procees a Pan Pan or
Mayday according to the emergency of the situation if described, but when I
got my operator licence, them calls were clearly described as such:

Mayday: Life threatening emergency.
Pan Pan: Non-life threatening emergency.

I do not believe the boat is the greatest concern to rescue people and CGs.
So I believe asking the question "Is someone's life in danger?". That's the
only thing one should ask himself. Yes: Mayday, Nope: Pan Pan and that's it.

Another good thing is that you can't get shot by a Canadian CG as they don't
carry guns! ;-)

Jean
Montreal

Hoping you guys in BC have a better summer than the winter was for you! That
applies also to you US West coast people!

Peter Bennett wrote:

Although "Mayday" officially indicates the _vessel_ is in grave and
imminent danger, you are unlikely to be shot if you use it for man
overboard or serious medical emergencies.

On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 11:33:59 -0500, Jean Dufour
wrote:

Hi Peter!

I do not disagree with you on the matter that CGs will procees a Pan Pan or
Mayday according to the emergency of the situation if described, but when I
got my operator licence, them calls were clearly described as such:

Mayday: Life threatening emergency.
Pan Pan: Non-life threatening emergency.

I do not believe the boat is the greatest concern to rescue people and CGs.
So I believe asking the question "Is someone's life in danger?". That's the
only thing one should ask himself. Yes: Mayday, Nope: Pan Pan and that's it.

The CPS Maritime Radio Course manual states that a Distress (Mayday)
call can only be sent if the _vessel_ is in grave and imminent danger,
or is aware of another vessel that is in grave and imminent danger -
no mention of people.

However, I have a US book that does include "person" in the above
definition, and I recall seeing something from a Canadian Coast Guard
website that indicated that a person in danger could justify a Mayday.

I always teach that whether a person in danger is a justifies Mayday
or not, it will be handled with the highest priority, regardless of
how the originator of the call started it.


Another good thing is that you can't get shot by a Canadian CG as they don't
carry guns! ;-)

this is true...

Jean
Montreal


--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 17:37:33 -0800, Peter Bennett
wrote:
///

Although "Mayday" officially indicates the _vessel_ is in grave and
imminent danger, you are unlikely to be shot if you use it for man
overboard or serious medical emergencies.
///

There is something about this note on Mayday that doesn't seem quite
right to me. Mayday is (in my view) associated with imminent
danger to life. A ship, a sail boat, or an airplane may be lost, but
if life is not in question, the degree of attention is not the
highest, as I see it.

Brian Whatcott Altus, OK

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Can I get a clear definition of "Pan-Pan", who and when may it be
declared.

I have hard the USCG declare "Pan-Pan", followed by a requirement that all
none "Pan-Pan" traffic on channel 16 traffic be suspended.

True. Pan-Pan (pronounced Pon-Pon) is a non-life threatening emergency.

Can an individual boat declare "Pan-Pan", say when a crew member is lost
overboard, etc??

Any vessel can call Pan-Pan. A crew member lost overboard would be a MAYDAY
however.

I fairly sure I understand when I could send a "May Day" but, to me, Pan
Pan is something more recent and I must have missed out on earlier
definition..

Thanks

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

Some examples may help from my own experience with my 33 ft sailboat..
Once I was in the shipping channel very close to Golden Gate bridge.
Suddenly my ruddeer breaks off and i am without steering. My boat
cannot be steered without the rudder. There is a lot of current and
also some very heavy container and ther large ships. Even though the
boat was not sinking, I felt my life was in imminent grave danger from
the rocks and possible being hit by a big boat which have no room for
maneuver. I called Mayday and the coast guard obviously agreed with my
judgement. They came out and towed me to a small yacht harbor. At this
point the emergency was over and they left after giving my vessel a
safety inspection.

If I would have been some other place where there is no shipping
traffic and no rocks, this would have been a call to a towing service,
which is neither Pan, nor an urgency call. Running out of gasoline is
not normally a Mayday ( no people in imminent danger ) nor a Pan, nor
an urgency call. It is simply a telephone call to atowing service to
bring gasoline or tow to a pump. The coast guard will not respond in
this case.

In San Francisco Bay we get a lot of securitee calls from the coast
guard, which advises people of floating logs in the water.




Doug Dotson wrote:
"Steve" wrote in message
...
Can I get a clear definition of "Pan-Pan", who and when may it be
declared.

I have hard the USCG declare "Pan-Pan", followed by a requirement
that all
none "Pan-Pan" traffic on channel 16 traffic be suspended.

True. Pan-Pan (pronounced Pon-Pon) is a non-life threatening
emergency.

Can an individual boat declare "Pan-Pan", say when a crew member is
lost
overboard, etc??

Any vessel can call Pan-Pan. A crew member lost overboard would be a
MAYDAY
however.

I fairly sure I understand when I could send a "May Day" but, to
me, Pan
Pan is something more recent and I must have missed out on earlier
definition..

Thanks

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

"Rolf" wrote in message
ups.com...
Some examples may help from my own experience with my 33 ft sailboat..
Once I was in the shipping channel very close to Golden Gate bridge.
Suddenly my ruddeer breaks off and i am without steering. My boat
cannot be steered without the rudder. There is a lot of current and
also some very heavy container and ther large ships. Even though the
boat was not sinking, I felt my life was in imminent grave danger from
the rocks and possible being hit by a big boat which have no room for
maneuver. I called Mayday and the coast guard obviously agreed with my
judgement. They came out and towed me to a small yacht harbor. At this
point the emergency was over and they left after giving my vessel a
safety inspection.

Good call.

If I would have been some other place where there is no shipping
traffic and no rocks, this would have been a call to a towing service,
which is neither Pan, nor an urgency call. Running out of gasoline is
not normally a Mayday ( no people in imminent danger ) nor a Pan, nor
an urgency call. It is simply a telephone call to atowing service to
bring gasoline or tow to a pump. The coast guard will not respond in
this case.

I would dissagreed here. I think a Pan-Pan would be reasonable because
being adrift with no control can quickly deteriate into a dangerous
situation.
One should first attempt to summon help via phone, radio, handwaving, etc
but if that is unsuccessful then declaring a non-lifethreatinging emergency
is reasonable.

In San Francisco Bay we get a lot of securitee calls from the coast
guard, which advises people of floating logs in the water.

Same here on THE bay.




Doug Dotson wrote:
"Steve" wrote in message
...
Can I get a clear definition of "Pan-Pan", who and when may it be
declared.

I have hard the USCG declare "Pan-Pan", followed by a requirement
that all
none "Pan-Pan" traffic on channel 16 traffic be suspended.

True. Pan-Pan (pronounced Pon-Pon) is a non-life threatening
emergency.

Can an individual boat declare "Pan-Pan", say when a crew member is
lost
overboard, etc??

Any vessel can call Pan-Pan. A crew member lost overboard would be a
MAYDAY
however.

I fairly sure I understand when I could send a "May Day" but, to
me, Pan
Pan is something more recent and I must have missed out on earlier
definition..

Thanks

Steve
s/v Good Intentions