Marine Glossary

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UN Location code (UN/LOCODE)

In type-A AIS signals, the vessel is supposed to enter its destination and ETA. They have 20 characters to write something, but are encouraged to use the UN Location Code, which is international short cut for all major cities and ports as well as many mid-size towns.

The main country reference is at

https://unece.org/trade/cefact/unlocode-code-list-country-and-territory

then click to one of the several US pages at, ie,

https://unece.org/trade/cefact/unlocode-code-list-country-and-territory

This can help id the destination. Often obvious ie US SAV is Savannah, but other times not (US MSY is New Orleans). This could also be broadcast as US SAV or USSAV or US-SAV. It is the ship typing this in.

Also note at the country site, we see the US listed as

US United States [A to E] [F to J] [K to O] [P to T] [U to Z]

Where we click the range we are looking for. BUT these are not organized by the code name, but rather by the city or port name. Thus the code US SSI is for Brunswick GA, which is found under [A-B] not [P-T]. In short, we look at the logical one, and if not, have to cover all of them, when trying to decode a code.

Note that it is not uncommon to see a vessel sailing away from a port and leaving that old destination in the AIS broadcasts for some days. So check the ETA to see if it is in the past, and if so, we do not know where that vessel is headed!