Distress Call
Zora takes you through a radio call step by step, with your vessel name and position already in the message. It works the same way for the four calls in the emergency list:
| Row | Subtitle in the list | Screen |
|---|---|---|
| Mayday | Crew & Vessel in Danger | SEND MAYDAY Distress call |
| PanPan | Crew or Vessel in Danger | SEND PAN-PAN Urgency call |
| Securité | Safety Issue | SEND Securite Call |
| Mayday Relay | Relay a Mayday message | SEND Mayday Relay call |
Open a call
- Tap EMERGENCY in the app bar.
- Tap the call.
The call screen opens, and the Communication panel opens beside it with your MMSI and call signs. Nothing is sent until you work through the call on your radio.
To leave without sending, tap ✕ at the top left.
Read the call
The call runs from top to bottom, one line per action, in up to three groups:
- on the DSC: the digital alert your VHF radio sends before you speak, if it has DSC. For a Mayday, that is the DISTRESS button. The Mayday Relay has no such group.
- on the VHF: high power, channel 16, press to transmit.
- Say slowly and clearly...: the spoken message, word for word. The lines in colour tell you what to add yourself, such as the nature of the distress and the help you need.
Zora fills your vessel name, call sign, MMSI and position into the spoken message, and the position keeps up with the boat while the screen is open. Without a GPS fix, the position line says so: read the position from your chart plotter or GPS instead.
Tap the vessel name or the call sign to see it spelled in the phonetic alphabet.
Work through it
- Tap a line once you have done it. It turns green, so you can see where you are. Tap it again to clear it. Folding a group, below, keeps the green lines.
- Tap the large icon at the start or end of a group to fold that group away. It then reads done. Use it to skip the on the DSC steps if your radio has no DSC. Tap the icon again to bring the steps back.
Send the call
When you have spoken the message, tap the icon at the bottom, next to tap the icon when sent. Zora writes the call in the logbook, for example Send MAYDAY Distress call, and goes back to the screen you were on.
After a Mayday or a PanPan:
- the EMERGENCY button blinks;
- the row in the emergency list shows sent at: and the time;
- the call screen shows last sent at:, and its last line reads SENT AT with the time.
They stay that way until you cancel the call. A Securité or a Mayday Relay is written in the logbook only.
Resend or cancel
For a Mayday or a PanPan already sent, open the call again from the emergency list.
- Resend: work through the call again and tap the icon at the bottom. The logbook gets Resend MAYDAY Distress call and the time is updated.
- Cancel: tap cancel in the header. The screen turns to CANCEL MAYDAY Distress call, the message that cancels the call to all stations. Say it, then tap the icon at the bottom. The logbook gets Cancel MAYDAY Distress call, and the button stops blinking once no call is left sent.
The same button, resend, turns the screen back to the call.