means of communication in situations related essentially to safety of navigation and persons, especially when language difficulties arise." It has done this by first establishing a standardized alphabet (the letters A to Z and the ten digits), along with a spoken form of each letter (to avoid confusing similar-sounding letters, such as b, p, and v), and associating this alphabet with standardized flags. (See chart to the right.)

Combinations of these alphanumeric characters are assigned as codes for various standardized messages. For