Who sent this message ?

[kf4vgx]

http://www.astrosurf.org/lombry/Documents/titanic-sinking.jpg









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Who sent this message ?

http://www.astrosurf.org/lombry/Radio/titanic-40.mp3

[n8yx]

Isn't that Captain Ahab & crew in the boat...on yet another hunt for Moby?

[K9STH]

Jack Phillips was the senior radio operator for station MGY which was the call sign assigned to the RMS Titanic (Royal Mail Ship Titanic). Phillips did not survive the sinking.

The 2nd radio operator was Harold Bride who did survive the sinking. Some reports give Bride as the actual operator who sent the first CQD for help. CQD was still the official signal for help although SOS was to be the "new" distress signal on 1 July 1912 (if I remember the date correctly).

Some historians say it was Phillips who sent both CQD and the "new" SOS. However, I have never seen actual proof as to which operator sent the first SOS to be used in a major disaster. But, Bride being the one who sent the initial CQD was told in testimony to the British Board of Trade inquiry into the Titanic sinking. It would have been more likely that he sent the SOS instead of Phillips.

As for the recording: This has to be a re-enactment because audio recordings in that day were pretty much done on wax cylinders (the Edison method) and the quality of the recording is way too good to have been done on a wax recording. Also, the keying sounds like a "modern" keyer and NOT either a straight key or a "bug" which would have been used in the radio room of the Titanic.

Both Phillips and Bride were definitely accomplished operators but there is a definite "swing" where both straight key and "bug" are concerned and the recording doesn't have any sign of "swing", at least that I can detect (code is "too" perfect). Also, it was usually the tendency for distress signals to be sent out at much slower speeds than "normal" traffic.

So, it is my opinion that the recording is a modern re-enactment of one of the signals sent out by either Jack Phillips or Harold Bride.

Glen, K9STH

[W2ILP]

I dunno who sent the message. Was it dididit dahdahdah dididit?

w2ilp (Illustrated Lifeboat Panic?)

[K9STH]

ILP:

It would have been ditditditdahdahdahditditdit.

SOS (VTB, etc.) is sent as one continuous character, not as separate letters!

Glen, K9STH
(Save Them Humans)

[al2i]

Quote[/b] (K9STH @ April 04 2006,16:55)]ILP:

It would have been ditditditdahdahdahditditdit.

SOS (VTB, etc.) is sent as one continuous character, not as separate letters!

Glen, K9STH
(Save Them Humans)
Why do you say that Glen? It is not technically a prosign, is it?

I imagine it could be sent either way and thousands of FEMA operatives would be there to assist you almost immediately.

[w8ob]

That sure is not hand keying and it sure doesn't sound like spark either. A true redux. Yes distress,urgency, and security code letters are all sent together.

[kd5rpo]

Absolutely non-authentic. Last week I saw a Tianic movie from 50 years ago that had the proper sound of a rotary spark signal. It makes a rather rasty note, lower in it's tone. Perhaps 600Hz?
No operator would send a distress signal that fast at that time.

One of the few movies where the CW was correct.

[AG3Y]

The "note" of a rotary spark transmitter was the result of the speed of the rotor's turning, number of spark gaps around the rotor and other less obvious factors, none of which would have been related to any kind of AC frequency ( if that is what you were thinking of ) that powered the spark. For that matter, I suspect that the spark itself was generated by some kind of step-up transformer that was excited by a vibrator-type of device, rather than an AC generator. This is an "educated guess" on my part, and some Antique Transmitter expert could do a much better job of explaining it than I am doing, I am sure!

But I hope this is not too far off the beaten track!

BTW, I have seen keys that are supposed to be exact replicas of the keys made for the radio room of the Titanic and her sister ships of the British steamship company, White Star Lines. They WERE straight keys, and not bugs. I seriously doubt that a bug could have been made that would have had heavy enough contacts and framework to handle the current required to drive one of those types of transmitters!

73, Jim

[K9STH]

2I:

"SOS" is definitely NOT sent as S O S (three separate characters). It can be considered a "prosign" because it IS sent as a single character. The same pattern can be considered as VTB, SMB, IJS, V7, and several other combinations.

SOS does not "stand for anything" (like "save our ship", or "save our souls"). The signal was adopted because it was very identifiable whereas the old CQD, which normally was sent as C Q D (three separte characters) could be mistaken especially where a German station was concerned (German stations started with a "D").

Glen, K9STH