VHF Radio Channel 16/22a Pan-Pan Call

It's curious that the vhf radio caller below, off Dutch Island/Fort Getty, Rhode Island, didn't respond to the capsized boaters himself. The day sounds like a calm one, the capsize not very dangerous. I'm curious why the caller didn't simply aid the capsized boaters himself.



Instead, he contacts Coast Guard Station Castle Hill, Rhode Island on marine VHF channel 16, the internationally-recognized distress channel.

His call is probably best described as a pan-pan - a distress call in which someone is in jeopardy but not immediate life-threatening danger.

The caller doesn't fool with the pan-pan distinction. He simply hails the Coast Guard.

Castle Hill station's watchstander tells the caller to stand by while two other resources that are tough to identify - they sound like state or local patrol boats - parse the situation.

To my ear, either impatient or impressed with himself, the caller, Sun Dog, breaks in off standby to make sure the watchstander copied.

At that point the watchstander asks the caller to switch to channel 22, likely to keep ch. 16 open and free for onwater resources that seem ready to respond to the case.

One element worth noting is that when we make low-level calls to the Coast Guard on channel 16, we should be ready to be asked to switch to channel 22a.

Another is that, once we're asked by the Coast Guard to stand by, we should. Chances are the watchstander and vhf radio officer have other, more important issues to deal with at the moment. On summer days such as the one above they often have multiple low-level recreational boater cases to deal with at once.

If you're shopping for a VHF radio, here's a link to decent a price (about $125) on the Standard HX 500S:



If you don't have a VHF radio yet and curious about their use, see links below for audio files I edited and transcribed from the US Coast Guard's media site. The files open a door on what VHF radio communications sound like, particularly on distress channel 16:

mayday
grounded vessel's call is picked up by two Coast Guard stations
scuba mayday
a fatality; caller's understandable panic garbles communications
mayday
sinking vessel gives broad local descriptors of its location
pan-pan
caller is switched to channel 22a, as protocol, by the Coast Guard
false distress call
caller was arrested, indicted, fined and jailed
VHF radio's utility in paddllers' rescue by a Coast Guard helicopter

audio courtesy US Coast Guard; other copyrights 2008 North American Kayak Fishing.