Philippine Merchant Marine Academy

The International Code of Signals (ICS) is an international

system of signals and codes for use by vessels to communicate
important messages regarding safety of navigation and related
matters. Signals can be sent by flaghoist, signal
lamp ("blinker"), flag semaphore, radiotelegraphy, and radio
telephony. The International Code is the most recent evolution
of a wide variety of maritime flag signalling systems.

FOR VISUAL, SOUND, AND RADIO COMMUNICATIONS

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MARITIME COMMUNICATION
(MARCOM)
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MORSE CODE
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Why and how we need the bility to transmit and receive, by

Morse light, distress signal SOS as specified in Annex IV of
the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at
Sea, 1972, as amended???
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
ANNEX IV - DISTRESS SIGNALS IN NEED OF ASSISTANCE
OF
COLREG RULE 37
Distress Signals
When a vessel is in distress and requires assistance she shall use or exhibit the
signals described in Annex IV to these Regulations.
The above rule is self-explanatory. Only those signals listed in Annex IV to these
Rules may be used as distress signals. An amendment is pending with regard to
Distress Signals, that will remove reference to Rt and WT Distress Signals such
as the Radio telephone alarm etc. However, until this amendment comes into
force, Annex IV must still be learnt in its present format.
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ANNEX IV - Distress signals

1. The following signals, used or exhibited either together or separately,
indicate distress and need of assistance:
(a) a gun or other explosive signal fired at intervals of about a minute;
(b) a continuous sounding with any fog-signalling apparatus;
(c) rockets or shells, throwing red stars fired one at a time at short intervals;
(d) a signal made by radiotelegraphy or by any other signalling
method consisting of the group • • • • • • (SOS) in the Morse Code;
(e) a signal sent by radiotelephony consisting of the spoken word “Mayday”;
(f) the International Code Signal of distress indicated by N.
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy

Morse code is a method used

in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized
sequences of two different signal durations,
called dots and dashes, or dits and dahs. Morse code is named
after Samuel Morse, one of the inventors of the telegraph.
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
International Morse code encodes the 26 basic Latin letters a through z,
one accented Latin letter (é), the Arabic numerals, and a small set of
punctuation and procedural signals (prosigns). There is no distinction
between upper and lower case letters. Each Morse code symbol is
formed by a sequence of dits and dahs. The dit duration is the basic unit
of time measurement in Morse code transmission. The duration of
a dah is three times the duration of a dit. Each dit or dah within an
encoded character is followed by a period of signal absence, called
a space, equal to the dit duration. The letters of a word are separated
by a space of duration equal to three dits, and words are separated by a
space equal to seven dits. Until 1949, words were separated by a space
equal to five dits.
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Morse code can be memorized and sent in a form

perceptible to the human senses, e.g. via sound waves
or visible light, such that it can be directly interpreted by
persons trained in the skill. Morse code is usually
transmitted by on-off keying of an information-carrying
medium such as electric current, radio waves, visible
light, or sound waves. The current or wave is present
during the time period of the dit or dah and absent during
the time between dits and dahs.
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Since many natural languages use more than the

26 letters of the Latin alphabet, Morse
alphabets have been developed for those languages,
largely by transliteration of existing codes.
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To increase the efficiency of encoding, Morse code was
designed so that the length of each symbol is
approximately inverse to the frequency of occurrence of the
character that it represents in text of the English language.
Thus the most common letter in English, the letter e, has the
shortest code: a single dit. Because the Morse code elements
are specified by proportion rather than specific time durations,
the code is usually transmitted at the highest rate that the
receiver is capable of decoding. Morse code transmission rate
(speed) is specified in groups per minute, commonly referred
to as words per minute.
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
Morse Telegraphy
Telegraphy: A form of telecommunication which is concerned in any
process providing transmission and reproduction at a distance of
documentary matter, such as written or printed matter or fixed images, or
the
reproduction at a distance of any kind of information in such a form. For
the purposes of the Radio Regulations, unless otherwise specified
therein, telegraphy shall mean a form of telecommunication for the
transmission of written matter by the use of a signal code - e.g. the
Morse Code.
Radio communication by the use of Morse Code is still practised by many
ships using the HF band of frequencies.
Morse is not a requirement oft he GMDSS.