Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 49 Part 2.djvu/511

 TELECOMMUNICATIOX CONVENTION. DECEMBER 9, 1932. 2527 rM] § 7. (1) As a general rule, a ship or aircraft at sea shall signal its position in latitude and longitude (Greenwich), using figures, for the degrees and minutes, accompanied by one of the words NORTH or SOUTH and one of the words EAST or WEST. A period shall separate the degrees from the minutes. In some cases, the true bear- ings and the distance in nautical miles from some known geographical point may be given. r8/i] (2) As a general rule, an aircraft flying over land shall signal its position by the name of the nearest locality, its approximate distance from this point, accompanied according to the case, by one of the words NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, or WEST, or, in some cases, words indicating intermediate directions. r86] § 8. The distress call and message shall be sent only by order of the master or person responsible for the ship, aircraft, or other vehicle carrying the mobile station. [387] § 9. (1) The distress message must be repeated at intervals until an answer has been received, and especially during the periods of silence provided for in article 19, § 2. [388] (2) The alarm signal may also be repeated, if necessary. rS9 ] (3) The intervals must, however, be sufficiently long so that stations preparing to reply may have time to put their trans- mitters in operation. l3go] (4) In case the on-board station in distress receives no answer to a distress message sent on the 500-kc (600-m) wave, the message may be repeated on any other available wave by means of which attention might be attracted. [391] § 10. Furthermore, a mobile station which becomes aware that another mobile station is in distress, may transmit the distress mes- sage in either of the following cases: [3~2J (a) when the station in distress is not itself in a posi- tion to transmit it; re3] (b) when the master (or his relief) of the vessel, air- craft, or other vehicle carrying the station which intervenes, believes that further help is necessary. [394] § 11. (1) Stations which receive a distress message from a mobile station which is unquestionably in their vicinity, must ac- knowledge receipt thereof at once (see §§ 18 and 19 below), taking care not to interfere with the transmission of the acknowledgment of receipt of the said message by other stations. [a96] (2) Stations which receive a distress message from a mobile station which unquestionably is not in their vicinity, must wait a short period of time before acknowledging receipt thereof, in order to make it possible for stations nearer to the mobile station in distress to answer and acknowledge receipt without interference. AfIf.r. p. 2M3.