There are no recordings of the original sending. It's text that's been put into CW here. They did ues headsets at the time, no speakers. They used spark sets back then. It was a 10kw spark set. If the op couldn't hear it's because of wind blowing into the radio room. (their on the sea after all) The steam sound is from steam being let out of the boilers. Very loud ,even with cans on.! The radio rooms were right at the bottom of the stacks. There were 3 rooms for that suite. Quiot room where the spark gap sat, a bedroom, and the room where the op would run the spark as well as the receivers. Spark was remote keyed.
They had headphones back then! The volume level of most of the detectors back then was very low. There were some tube detectors/tuners in use, but they weren't very efficient! MGY ran a 5kw rotory spark gap for the main transmitter. A 1kw fixed gap was the secondary unit. The reference to noise and steam is that steam pressure was being lowered in the boilers. The dump lines ran up the outside of the stacks. So that would have been loud in the radio rooms. They sent a series of "V"s to test the sound of the spark gap. This one was said to have a musical tone due to the design of the spark wheel. So it was widely recognized! The spark rig was in a separate room from the detectors and operator. This ship had a tuner as well that had a mini gap to keep RFI from the spark from interfering with the receive system. During some dives it was found that they were trying to keep output power up, but were fighting a losing battle. This was noted from the settings on the power panel in the spark room! They ran on 500khz. That was(and still is) the maritime distress freq. Keep in mind, the output signal from a spark gap is VERY wide! That's what led to it being outlawed by the late 20s. This thing also doesn't put out a true CW signal! It's a damped wave. DE in CW means "from".(MGY DE KD7CJO) All Marconi stations had calls that started with "M". A ham from NJ had come up with a recording device about 1905 for carbon-ark signals for the feds. But recording of radio signals then wasn't widespread. So there are no known recordings of this incident. The feds wanted the amp/recorder combo to listen in on diplomatic traffic from a couple of German stations that were here stateside.(1 was in New York State, other in NJ) They were looking into a treason case. The Germans had figured out how to send mechanical generated code at 100 words/min.! The feds wanted to record it off air, then slow it down to read what was being said. Feds learned that subversive traffic WAS being sent home. So US minders were then stationed at both places. The stations were taken over by the feds during WW1. At wars end, they were taken perminitly as war reparations. That ham never got credit in his lifetime for his contribution to the US cause.(don't remember his call now) Hope this helps! 73 DE kd7cjo
EXCELLENT VIDEO!! This is refreshing content from the routine content we normally see. Thank You!!! I LOVE history and I LOVE Ham Radio. Simply Awesome
That map you showed wasn’t close to Diamond shoals. It’s off the coast of outer banks NC where thousands of ships ran aground the cape hatterous lighthouse is one of the few that says stay away rather then a guide into harbor. I’m sure I’m not the only one who points this out. Love your videos de AL7KT
The headphones of the day were bakelite ear cups with a metal disk that was vibrated by a coil of copper wire. no padding, quite uncomfortable, and did very little to block ambient noise. My dad had a set when I was a kid.
Grest summary. On the topic of changes stemming from this sinking was the requirement to have sufficient lifeboats for all passengers on board. Hundreds of passengers went into the water but there was mayhem with the lifeboats with some falling some hung up, several launched almost empty but hundreds would still have died anyway as there were insufficient lifeboats for all on board. Amazingly it was left yo the designers and ship owners to decide.
That is fascinating stuff! Very interesting. I always enjoyed as a kid reading the encyclopedias about the history and sinking of the Titanic. Thanks for a neat video!
Another tid bit of info not pertaining to wireless communications was that Eliza Gladys Dean (2 February 1912 - 31 May 2009), known as Millvina Dean, was a British civil servant, cartographer, and the last living survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. At two months old, she was also the youngest passenger aboard.
My suspicion is that they *did* have headphones. Keep in mind, however, that audio amplification wasn't great, so you have these guys with headphones listening to weak signals at low volume. Vacuum tube audio amplifiers were still not great yet. ... And even if the 'phones had a good seal around the op's ears, I expect all the noise from the ship, steam engines, and so on, probably would drown out those kinds of signals.
The message was using DE… but may have missed a dit here or there.. I would also if my ship was sinking. Also, person copying may have missed a dit due to bad prolongation on that cold night.
Fun fact: one level of distress below "SOS" or extreme emergency is "PAN PAN" (need help and the situation is urgent). In morse, PAN PAN starts with a dot but then is two shorts, two longs repeated. So I suggest (but don't know if this is true) that this may have been why they chose those two signals.
There are no recordings of the original sending. It's text that's been put into CW here. They did ues headsets at the time, no speakers. They used spark sets back then. It was a 10kw spark set. If the op couldn't hear it's because of wind blowing into the radio room. (their on the sea after all)
The steam sound is from steam being let out of the boilers. Very loud ,even with cans on.! The radio rooms were right at the bottom of the stacks. There were 3 rooms for that suite. Quiot room where the spark gap sat, a bedroom, and the room where the op would run the spark as well as the receivers. Spark was remote keyed.
They had headphones back then! The volume level of most of the detectors back then was very low. There were some tube detectors/tuners in use, but they weren't very efficient!
MGY ran a 5kw rotory spark gap for the main transmitter. A 1kw fixed gap was the secondary unit. The reference to noise and steam is that steam pressure was being lowered in the boilers. The dump lines ran up the outside of the stacks. So that would have been loud in the radio rooms.
They sent a series of "V"s to test the sound of the spark gap. This one was said to have a musical tone due to the design of the spark wheel. So it was widely recognized! The spark rig was in a separate room from the detectors and operator. This ship had a tuner as well that had a mini gap to keep RFI from the spark from interfering with the receive system.
During some dives it was found that they were trying to keep output power up, but were fighting a losing battle. This was noted from the settings on the power panel in the spark room! They ran on 500khz. That was(and still is) the maritime distress freq.
Keep in mind, the output signal from a spark gap is VERY wide! That's what led to it being outlawed by the late 20s. This thing also doesn't put out a true CW signal! It's a damped wave. DE in CW means "from".(MGY DE KD7CJO) All Marconi stations had calls that started with "M".
A ham from NJ had come up with a recording device about 1905 for carbon-ark signals for the feds. But recording of radio signals then wasn't widespread. So there are no known recordings of this incident.
The feds wanted the amp/recorder combo to listen in on diplomatic traffic from a couple of German stations that were here stateside.(1 was in New York State, other in NJ) They were looking into a treason case. The Germans had figured out how to send mechanical generated code at 100 words/min.! The feds wanted to record it off air, then slow it down to read what was being said. Feds learned that subversive traffic WAS being sent home. So US minders were then stationed at both places. The stations were taken over by the feds during WW1. At wars end, they were taken perminitly as war reparations. That ham never got credit in his lifetime for his contribution to the US cause.(don't remember his call now) Hope this helps! 73 DE kd7cjo
Cape Race is on the southern tip of the Avalon peninsula of Newfoundland, closest land to where they were.
EXCELLENT VIDEO!! This is refreshing content from the routine content we normally see. Thank You!!! I LOVE history and I LOVE Ham Radio. Simply Awesome
Thanks Freddie!
That map you showed wasn’t close to Diamond shoals. It’s off the coast of outer banks NC where thousands of ships ran aground the cape hatterous lighthouse is one of the few that says stay away rather then a guide into harbor. I’m sure I’m not the only one who points this out. Love your videos de AL7KT
Really great video, Jason. I went and watched the hour-long video you referenced and linked to. Fascinating. Riveting. Heartbreaking.
The headphones of the day were bakelite ear cups with a metal disk that was vibrated by a coil of copper wire. no padding, quite uncomfortable, and did very little to block ambient noise. My dad had a set when I was a kid.
Grest summary. On the topic of changes stemming from this sinking was the requirement to have sufficient lifeboats for all passengers on board. Hundreds of passengers went into the water but there was mayhem with the lifeboats with some falling some hung up, several launched almost empty but hundreds would still have died anyway as there were insufficient lifeboats for all on board. Amazingly it was left yo the designers and ship owners to decide.
That is fascinating stuff! Very interesting. I always enjoyed as a kid reading the encyclopedias about the history and sinking of the Titanic. Thanks for a neat video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome video Jason. Love the history.
CQD DE MGY. "MGY" was the callsign of the Titanic.
Came here to say the same thing. 👍🤣
Another tid bit of info not pertaining to wireless communications was that Eliza Gladys Dean (2 February 1912 - 31 May 2009), known as Millvina Dean, was a British civil servant, cartographer, and the last living survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. At two months old, she was also the youngest passenger aboard.
Duuuuude, I watch that video at night to go to sleep a lot of times. I highly, HIGHLY recommend it
Fascinating and somber, thank you
Thank you too!
RE: Shortage of trained operators in radiotelegraphy, would the telegraph operators have been the most qualified source at the dawn of wireless?
My suspicion is that they *did* have headphones. Keep in mind, however, that audio amplification wasn't great, so you have these guys with headphones listening to weak signals at low volume. Vacuum tube audio amplifiers were still not great yet. ... And even if the 'phones had a good seal around the op's ears, I expect all the noise from the ship, steam engines, and so on, probably would drown out those kinds of signals.
I imagine there was some chaos happening around them also.
Yeah. ... Just a little chaos. ...
The message was using DE… but may have missed a dit here or there.. I would also if my ship was sinking.
Also, person copying may have missed a dit due to bad prolongation on that cold night.
That’s interesting, everyday is a school day.
I thought SOS was a pro-sign like BK SK or BT where they string it all together with no spacing while sending.
I've heard it done that way, yes. IDK if it is required, though.
Fun fact: one level of distress below "SOS" or extreme emergency is "PAN PAN" (need help and the situation is urgent). In morse, PAN PAN starts with a dot but then is two shorts, two longs repeated. So I suggest (but don't know if this is true) that this may have been why they chose those two signals.
@@HamRadio2 yeah, me either. I suppose it doesn't matter if there's a real emergency.
That's right. It's a prosign, sent as one continuous string, as you suggest. It isn't discrete characters, but like other prosigns (sk, ar, kn, etc.)
If the ship that you’re operating from is sinking from an iceberg, is that QRM or QRN?
N for Natural
I thought SOS was: 'Save our souls'
I used to tell students of the history of SOS when I was teaching boating safety.
Great lesson
It's crazy to think my grandfather was 5 in 1912.
My grandfather was 33 in 1912. Married with two children. My parents were little children.
another ship like the Titanic would most likely receive assistance much faster, given the thousands of ships out there today.
Today, yes
Jason, this is "DE"
Yes, I mentioned that later in the video
You mean CQM....
No, CQD
DE
Nice Video and thanks. Vic DE KE8JWE