RYA SRC Part 10 — How to Pass the SRC Exam: Structure, Timing, and Day-of

21 May 2026 PersonalSRCRYAexam-guide

Syllabus coverage: CEPT/RYA section F (examination requirements), and the broader meta of how the RYA delivers and assesses the SRC.

This post is not on the syllabus — but everything in Parts 1–9 is. If you’ve worked through those, you have the knowledge. This is about converting that knowledge into a pass.

Eligibility

On the day of the exam, you must:

  1. Be 16 years old or older.
  2. Present one of the following eligibility documents:
    • A course completion certificate from an RYA Recognised Training Centre for the Marine Radio (SRC) course (the one-day classroom course, the online course, or an equivalent delivered by the centre).
    • An existing RYA Restricted VHF certificate (pre-DSC qualification — still recognised as eligibility evidence for the SRC exam).
    • A suitable aviation GMDSS radio operator’s certificate.

If you don’t have one of these, you cannot sit the exam. Most candidates arrive via the one-day SRC course at their training centre.

The exam fee

The exam fee is £76, paid to the RYA. This is separate from the course fee charged by the training centre. Three ways to pay:

  1. Online debit/credit card — the preferred route. You pay through the RYA online exam payment system, which generates a personalised application form. Print and bring.
  2. Cheque — download the application/payment form from the RYA site, fill it in, attach a cheque. Bring the form to the exam.
  3. Training centre pays on your behalf — some courses bundle the exam fee into the course fee. Check with your training centre.

In all cases, you must bring:

  • Eligibility document (course certificate or equivalent).
  • Passport-sized photo (for the certificate that gets issued).
  • The exam application form (whether printed from online payment, downloaded, or supplied by the centre).
  • Photo ID (driving licence, passport).

Missing any of these = no exam. The examiner is firm on this.

The exam format

The RYA SRC exam has two parts. Both must be passed.

The written paper

A combination of multiple choice questions and some longer-answer questions. Closed book. The paper covers any part of the SRC syllabus — that’s all of A1 through E1 from the CEPT document we’ve been following. There is no published “syllabus weighting” but in practice:

  • Distress and urgency procedures are heavily represented.
  • Channel knowledge — what 16, 70, 13, 67, 80, M are for — is on every paper.
  • MMSI structure — prefixes for ship/coast/group/portable — gets a question.
  • The phonetic alphabet is tested somewhere.
  • A range calculation sometimes appears.
  • What to do if you send a false alert is a common longer-answer question.
  • GMDSS sea areas and equipment carriage features at least once.

Pass mark is published in the assessor guidelines but the standard is rigorous. You can’t bluff procedures you don’t actually know.

The practical assessment

Conducted on a DSC simulator (or sometimes a real radio set in a simulated environment). The examiner watches you perform real tasks. Typical scenarios:

  • Send a designated distress alert. You’ll be told what’s happened (e.g. “your vessel is on fire”) and expected to use the menu to select the nature of distress, then press and hold the distress button correctly.
  • Send an undesignated distress alert. Just press and hold.
  • Make the voice MAYDAY following the alert. The examiner gives you the vessel details and position; you deliver the full format on CH16 from memory.
  • Receive a distress alert and respond appropriately. Expectation: log the alert, listen, do NOT DSC-acknowledge if you’re a small craft in Sea Area A1.
  • Make an urgency call (PAN-PAN) for a given scenario — e.g. requesting radio medical advice.
  • Make a safety call (SECURITE) for a given scenario — e.g. floating obstruction sighted.
  • Make a routine call to another vessel by DSC individual call, then transfer to a working channel.
  • Send a MAYDAY RELAY for a witnessed event.
  • Cancel a false distress alert with the proper procedure.
  • Demonstrate channel knowledge — switch to specific channels on command.
  • Use the phonetic alphabet to spell a vessel name or callsign.
  • Manual position entry in the DSC menu.

You do not get the whole list above in any one exam — but expect three or four practical tasks across the syllabus.

The examiner is looking for correctness, completeness, and reasonable speed. Getting it right slowly is better than getting it wrong fast. Hesitation is fine; freezing is not.

The course itself

The RYA SRC course is 10 hours of content plus exam time. Available formats:

  • One-day classroom course at an RYA Recognised Training Centre. Instructor-led, with hands-on simulator time.
  • Online self-paced course — you work through the modules at home (PC, Mac, iPad, or Android tablet with the relevant browser support). The practical exam still has to be sat in person at a training centre.

The course book is the RYA VHF Handbook (G31), which is included in the course fee. It’s the closest thing to a single-volume revision text and is worth having even after the course.

A two-week study plan

If you have two weeks between course and exam — or two weeks of self-study before booking a direct-assessment exam — here’s a framework.

Week 1 — content

  • Day 1: Read Parts 1 and 2 (GMDSS overview, sea areas, channel plan). Memorise the four sea areas and the use of CH16, CH70, CH13, CH06, CH67, CH80, M.
  • Day 2: Read Part 3. Walk to your radio (or the one on the boat you’ll borrow for the practical) and identify each control. Set the squelch correctly. Confirm you know where the distress button is and what’s under the flap.
  • Day 3: Read Part 4. Memorise the MMSI prefix patterns (00, 0, 8, 111, 970, 972, 974) and the nature-of-distress list (the ten options).
  • Day 4: Read Part 5. Write the voice MAYDAY format out from memory three times. Say it out loud.
  • Day 5: Read Part 6. Memorise the NATO phonetic alphabet. Spell out three random vessel names from a marina website.
  • Day 6: Read Part 7. Note the NAVTEX message types that can’t be rejected (A, B, D, Z, 00). Compare radar-SART vs AIS-SART.
  • Day 7: Rest day. Light review of anything that didn’t stick.

Week 2 — drilling and practice

  • Day 8: Read Parts 8 and 9 (false alerts, regulations). Memorise the false-alert cancellation procedure (DSC cancel + voice on CH16 + call MRCC).
  • Day 9: Do Practice Paper A from Part 11. Time yourself. Mark honestly. Note weak areas.
  • Day 10: Re-read the syllabus areas you got wrong in Paper A.
  • Day 11: Do Practice Paper B from Part 11. Same protocol.
  • Day 12: Re-read the syllabus areas you got wrong in Paper B.
  • Day 13: Drill the practical: distress alert, MAYDAY, MAYDAY RELAY, PAN-PAN, SECURITE, false-alert cancellation, phonetic spelling. Say each one out loud from memory five times.
  • Day 14 (exam day): Light review only — no cramming. Eat properly. Arrive 30 minutes early.

What the examiner watches for — the gotchas

Across many SRC papers and practicals, the following catch candidates out. Memorise these specifically.

CH70 is DSC ONLY

When asked “where is the voice MAYDAY transmitted?” — the answer is CH16, not CH70. CH70 is the DSC alert channel; voice goes on CH16.

Do NOT DSC-acknowledge a distress in A1

When asked “you receive a DSC distress alert. What do you do?” — the answer is listen on CH16, log the alert, wait for the coast station to acknowledge. You do not press your set’s “Distress ACK” button. (You may acknowledge by voice on CH16 if the coast station hasn’t responded after several minutes and you can help.)

”OVER” vs “OUT”

OVER = I expect a reply. OUT = I do not. Never say “OVER AND OUT” — that’s contradictory and a known examiner pet hate.

”SAY AGAIN,” not “REPEAT”

“REPEAT” has a military meaning of “fire again” and is avoided in maritime radio. Use SAY AGAIN.

The phonetic alphabet — Alfa, Juliett, X-ray

  • Alfa with f, not Alpha.
  • Juliett with two Ts.
  • X-ray with a hyphen.

Range calculation — line of sight, square root of height

range (NM) ≈ 1.23 × √h₁ + 1.23 × √h₂. The exam may give you two antenna heights and expect you to estimate. Don’t try to add the heights then take the square root — it’s two separate terms.

Ship Radio Licence vs Ship Portable Radio Licence

  • Fixed equipment on a vessel → Ship Radio Licence (vessel-bound, has callsign).
  • Handheld carried by a person → Ship Portable Radio Licence (portable MMSI 235 8XXXXX in UK).

Manual position must be updated every 4 hours

If your DSC set has no GNSS feed, manual position must be re-entered every 4 hours minimum.

Nature of distress — the 10 options

Fire/explosion, flooding, collision, grounding, listing/capsizing, sinking, disabled and adrift, abandoning ship, piracy, MOB. Be able to identify the most appropriate option for a given scenario.

NAVTEX — A, B, D, Z, and 00 cannot be rejected

Navigation warnings, met warnings, SAR/piracy warnings, “nothing to send” confirmations, and any serial-00 message are mandatory display.

False alert procedure

Don’t just power off. DSC cancel + voice on CH16 + call MRCC.

Public correspondence

The UK no longer offers public correspondence on marine VHF. You should know it existed (AAIC billing system) but don’t expect to use it from UK waters.

Who can operate the radio

SRC holder, or someone under the direct supervision of an SRC holder, with the master’s authorisation. In a true emergency (no SRC holder available), a non-licensed person can transmit a distress.

On the day — practical advice

Before you leave home

  • Eligibility document, exam application form, passport photo, photo ID, payment receipt — all in one folder, packed the night before.
  • Don’t drink too much coffee.
  • A pen.

At the exam centre

  • Arrive 30 minutes early. The examiner won’t be rushed.
  • Use the bathroom before the exam starts.
  • Listen to the examiner’s briefing carefully — they will tell you exactly how the written paper and the practical are structured. The rules vary slightly between centres for practical handling but the standard is the same.

Written paper

  • Read every question twice.
  • Multi-choice: eliminate the obviously-wrong options first.
  • Longer-answer questions: write in the SRC’s procedural format, not in essay form. “MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY, THIS IS…” not “I would call MAYDAY and tell them…”
  • If you’re stuck on a question, move on. Come back at the end.
  • Use the full time available — there’s no bonus for finishing early.

Practical assessment

  • Sit toward the front so you can hear and be heard.
  • The simulator may have quirks (radios always do). The examiner expects you to handle the standard cases; if the equipment misbehaves, the examiner will reset and let you try again. Don’t panic.
  • Take a breath before each call. Compose the call in your head, then key the PTT. Half a second of silence before transmission is fine.
  • Phonetic alphabet: slow and clear beats fast and slurred.
  • If you make a slip during a call, say “CORRECTION” and continue. Don’t restart unless the slip was material.
  • The examiner may ask follow-up questions (“what would you do next?”). Answer briefly and accurately.

Hesitation versus freezing

The examiner can tell the difference. Hesitation while you collect your thoughts is fine — you’re a real radio operator, not a parrot. Freezing — silent panic, eyes glazing — is harder to recover from. If you blank, say so: “I need a moment to compose this call.” The examiner will give it to you.

After the exam

The certificate is issued by the RYA after the exam paperwork is processed — typically a few weeks. The certificate is held for life and is recognised in CEPT member states. Take a photo of it for your records once you get it; it’s a small card and easy to lose.

You now have the legal authority to operate VHF and VHF DSC equipment on UK-flagged vessels. The actual skill of using the radio under pressure is something you build on the water — keep listening to the Coastguard’s broadcasts on CH16, practice calling friends’ vessels, do the radio check on every passage. The certificate is the licence; the competence is the practice.

What to take into the next post

You should leave Part 10 able to:

  • List the eligibility documents you must bring to the exam.
  • State the exam fee (£76 to the RYA, separate from course fee).
  • Describe the written paper and the practical assessment.
  • Plan two weeks of revision.
  • Recite the dozen exam gotchas above from memory.

Part 11 is the practice exam itself — Paper A and Paper B, 25 questions each, with detailed answers and explanations. Print it, sit it timed, mark it honestly, and revise what you got wrong.