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My father, who is an expert in matters relating to early wireless, was asked by the National Geographic to recreate the SOS message sent by the Titanic. This ha

by Daub 4y ago

My father, who is an expert in matters relating to early wireless, was asked by the National Geographic to recreate the SOS message sent by the Titanic. This has historical significance as it was the first time that the SOS was used. In order to make it as authentic as possible, he used an ancient brass Morse code key wired to a spark transmitter. The spark signal was picked up by an old radio he had wired up to a tape recorder. Caveat: I may have got a few details wrong. It’s been a long time since he shared the story.

anthk 4y ago
Today software like fldigi would decode the signal perfectly.
grendelt 4y ago
"It's a CQD, old man!" CQ is what we use to hail another station ("seek you"). Hams use this all the time to call out to the ether for someone to respond. It's been used since telegraph days and early wireless was no different. BUT, the distress call before SOS was CQD. That's very difficult to hear if you're trained your brain to filter out all the other ops calling "CQ CQ CQ" all the time. Your brain will hear the incessant CQ every time you tune where other stations are sending Morse. But to hear CQD, your brain must be actively listening and making sense of what's being said - hard to hear when you're not actively listening to the incoming signals. That's one (primary?) driving reason why SOS became the de facto distress signal. It's unmistakable (... --- ...) and not a sequence heard often. It took the responding ships a moment to remember that's what was being called out over the air. "It's a CQD, old man!" was famously recorded from the account of radio operators on responding ships. ("Old man" is a friendly term for one another on the radio. In Morse, we just abbreviate as OM.)
- Daub 4y ago
  > "It's a CQD, old man!" Yes, you are perfectly right. My bad.
tdeck 4y ago
Was it this recording? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snkwsU98QlQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snkwsU98QlQ

by Daub 4y ago

anthk 4y ago

Today software like fldigi would decode the signal perfectly.

grendelt 4y ago

"It's a CQD, old man!" CQ is what we use to hail another station ("seek you"). Hams use this all the time to call out to the ether for someone to respond. It's been used since telegraph days and early wireless was no different. BUT, the distress call before SOS was CQD. That's very difficult to hear if you're trained your brain to filter out all the other ops calling "CQ CQ CQ" all the time. Your brain will hear the incessant CQ every time you tune where other stations are sending Morse. But to hear CQD, your brain must be actively listening and making sense of what's being said - hard to hear when you're not actively listening to the incoming signals. That's one (primary?) driving reason why SOS became the de facto distress signal. It's unmistakable (... --- ...) and not a sequence heard often. It took the responding ships a moment to remember that's what was being called out over the air. "It's a CQD, old man!" was famously recorded from the account of radio operators on responding ships. ("Old man" is a friendly term for one another on the radio. In Morse, we just abbreviate as OM.)

Daub 4y ago
> "It's a CQD, old man!" Yes, you are perfectly right. My bad.

tdeck 4y ago

Was it this recording? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snkwsU98QlQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snkwsU98QlQ