Distress coordinates

[mrtopknight]

What coordinate format should you use to report distress coordinates? Degrees, Degrees/Min., D/M/S, or UTM?

 

[Sea Gull]

One minute of Latitude is one nautical mile. Will they find you in one square mile? Use at least minutes and seconds or decimals if you are in a dense area where they may have trouble finding you.

 

[mrtopknight]

I would think it would be better to just call out Decimal Degrees (28.4103) rather than the confusion of degrees and minutes or degrees, minutes, and seconds.

One thing is for sure; I want to make sure I call the correct format if I ever have to.

 

[Sea Gull]

You will not be misunderstood if you use degrees, minutes and seconds.

 

[Wotty]

I think you'll find the correct international vhf radio procedure is
degrees, minutes and seconds. That the format that the receiving
radio operator will be expecting in the case of a Mayday.

so the position

24 degrees 31 mins 56 secs North

81 degrees 47 mins 24 secs West

should be spoken over the radio as:

Two Four degrees, Three One minutes, Five Six seconds North
Eight One degrees, Four Seven minutes, Two Four seconds West

Or using the above position you could say you were
## miles due south of Key West or identifiable landmark

Hope this help :thumbsup:

 

[wastinaweigh]

Mike,

I have heard CG Group St. Pete acknowledge both ways. Just be clear about which system you are using. Using Wotty's example above, if you radio:

Two-Four Decimal Five-Three-Two-Two North

Eight-One Decimal Seven-Nine-Zero-Zero West

the CG will understand that you are talking about the same location as above.

I would like to think that most boaters can also use both systems to locate a position on a chart, but I somehow doubt it.