§  80.1119   Receipt and acknowledgement of distress alerts by coast stations
and coast earth stations.

   (a) Coast stations that receive a distress alert should defer
   acknowledgement for a short interval so that receipt may be
   acknowledged by a Rescue Coordination Center. Where an acknowledgement
   is not forthcoming within 3 minutes, the coast station in receipt of
   distress alerts must ensure that they are routed to a Rescue
   Coordination Center as soon as possible. Coast stations must provide
   assistance for distress communications when requested to do so by the
   U.S. Coast Guard. (This subpart does not specify any radio watches for
   coast stations.)

   (b) Coast earth stations in receipt of distress alerts must ensure that
   they are routed as soon as possible to a Rescue Coordination Center.
   Coast earth stations must relay, as soon as possible, an
   acknowledgement of a distress alert from a Rescue Coordination Center.

   (c) Certain messages must be carried without charge, regardless of the
   means by which they are transmitted:

   (1) Distress alert messages;

   (2) Search and rescue coordination messages;

   (3) Medical assistance messages where an imminent danger to life is
   present, or

   (4) Urgent meteorological or navigational danger messages passed in the
   ship-to-shore direction.