Non-military Radio Silence Orders
Radio silence can also be maintained for other purposes, such as for highly sensitive radio astronomy, or in nautical and aeronautical communications to allow faint distress calls to be heard (see Mayday). In the latter case, the controlling station can order other stations to stop transmitting with the proword "Seelonce Seelonce Seelonce". (The word uses the French pronunciation of the word silence, "See-LAWNCE."). Once the need for radio silence is finished, the controlling station lifts radio silence by the prowords "Seelonce FINI."
Disobeying a Seelonce Mayday order constitutes a serious criminal offence in most countries.
The aviation equivalent of Seelonce Mayday is the phrase or command "Stop Transmitting - Distress (or Mayday)". "Distress traffic ended" is the phrase used when the emergency is over. Again, disobeying such an order is extremely dangerous and is therefore a criminal offence in most countries.
In the USA, CONELRAD, EBS and EAS were also a way of maintaining radio silence, mainly in broadcasting, in the event of an attack.
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