The Ham Radio two point zero audio podcast RIP. Thank you for downloading and
listening to this podcast. So basically what I do is I take all the
audio clips out of my videos and upload them to spreaker and then from there
they're spread out to iTunes and SoundCloud and now Amazon Audible as well. But
I want to welcome you and thank you for joining the audio section of this
series on Ham Radio. I hope you enjoy it, and I would appreciate
you leaving us a comment or a review on whatever podcast service you're listening from.
Thank you in seventy three, I hope you enjoy it. What kind
of wireless communications were used on the Titanic that sank in nineteen twelve? How
did that event, tragic as it may be, improve wireless communications for maritime
mobile and ships at sea since then? What is a history of soos?
And did the Titanic even use SS? Was it even around back then?
We're going to talk about that today and more coming up right now. Thanks
for joining the channel today. I'm Jason k C five HGBB. A while
back, I posted a video about a hand radio operator in Wales that heard
distress calls over the airwaves from the Titanic when it sank in nineteen twelve,
and since then, you guys have given me some really good feedback in the
comments, So a lot of what we're going to talk about today came from
links that you shared with me. So put a comment below if you have
any comments on this specific video right here. I think it's important to start
with what exactly is the meaning of soos. Some people may say, I've
always heard that it says save our ships? What does SOS stand for?
This is a great article from all on all bands dot com. There's a
lot of different website out there that you could find this on, but this
right here says it's not save our ships or save our souls like you might
think. I always thought it would save our ships, but according to this
article, it's not. Instead, the distress signal that originated in the maritime
community in communication you specifically for ships based on Morse code, is represented by
three dots, three dashes, and three more dots, which is really easy
to understand. Here's an example of what SS actually sounds like. That's I
turned the speed down a little bit. I'm not very good at sending morse
code yet I'm working on it. I'm working on it. So OS wasn't
first recognized as a distress signal. Before SOS, there was CQD and CQ
translating general notice and D appreciate abbreviation for distress. So the Titanic, and
we're gonna gonna show you this here at mid so you're gonna want to stay
tuned for this. I found a really cool video of Morse code that was
sent from the Titanic both as a distress call and prior to the emergency that
happened. So watch this. That Titanic sent both cq D and SS so
you're gonna want to watch that. For sure. CQUD wasn't a universal distress
called England, you CQUD. The US Navy used NC the International Code of
Signals maritime distress flag signal, and Italy used sss D D. Boy,
that's along SSSDD Okay, a common indicator of distress and reel was real the
mode of communication needed to fit forlong Okay. So the universal use of s
OS was ratified nineteen o six at the nineteen o six Radio Telegraph Conference and
went into effect in nineteen o eight. So that's four years before the Titanic
sank or set sale En sank both. It first documented the use in the
US occurred in August of nineteen o nine, when the SS Arapaho lost power
in the Graveyard of the Atlantic near the Diamond Shoals. TD Habner also recipient
and second document us SS signals sent to distress call and the ship and crew
were successfully rescued. Okay, so good. So so CQD was used prior
to SS, but today we use SS. And I'm told that, you
know, they say it doesn't stand for anything. So I'm told it's just
so recognizable that it's just like s OS means. So it's it's kind of
like that. That's That's what I'm told, more than anything. Okay,
So it doesn't stand for anything. So what does CQD sound like? CQD
Is this c q d D as dog did it? That's a D.
Okay, So that's CQD. So the sinking of the Titanic, actually they
used both CQD and s OS and it was heard by that ham raider operator
in Wales. But I thought it was very interesting how that all came about.
Now, I don't want to make light of the tragedy that's not what
I'm saying, but there are there are multiple stories throughout history where a tragedy
happened, they figured out how to improve what had gone wrong, and they
put it into action, And today we have a lot of the rules and
regulations that came out of certain things like that. So this is just one
example of how that happened with the Titanic, Nist and the Titanic. How
the seeking of the ship improved wireless communications for navigating the sea. Okay,
so if you roll down it scroll down here and I'll share links to all
this in the description of video below. This is a really cool picture right
there of some old radio teletype and Morse code telegraphy equipment. There. In
the late evening hours of April fourteen, ninety twelve, Titanic struck an Iceberg
and about six hundred forty kilometers four and miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
By two twenty am on April fifteenth, the ship had sunk. Only about
seven hundred people survived. More than fifteen hundred and cluding pastors and crew,
were lost. At the time. This is this is the this is the
part that pertains to this video. Here. At the time the use of
wireless systems such as wires telegraphy on ships was relatively new. Passengers and crew
could use these telegraphs to send messages back to land, and they played a
role on the ship's operations, communicating between different areas of the ship. The
technology relied on radio frequencies to transmit telegraph signals as coded messages without relying on
telegraph lines, so no phone lines and what in other words, or telegraph
lines back then. Okay, The wireless telegraph on the Titanic was owned and
operated by the Marconi Company. Okay, good deal, and was considered one
of the best in the world, with a range of about sixteen hundred KOs,
which is a thousand miles. However, the system's electronic hit this is
good. However, the systems electronics created so much noise that it disrupted wireless
systems all over the ship. So they had RFI back in the day.
RIFI has always been a thing. Later on, the article goes on to
talk about how spark gap creates a lot of RIFI noise, of course,
and they were trying to move away from spark gap because of that fact.
Spark gap was one of the first types of communication types of modes of communication
instead of CW, Morse code or what we call continuous wave and HIM radio
instead of sideband or FM or AM or what. That. Spark gap was
a thing used back in the day that's really not used anymore. You can
see some really cool spark gap transmitters at the Marconi Museum in Long Island,
New York. We did a tour of that a couple of years ago.
It was fun. This is an interesting part right here. The sinking of
the Titanic also highlighted the lack of trained telegraphers. Okay, so Morris code
CW and wireless technology was very new in the early twentieth century. Okay,
Since the wireless technology was relatively new, many of the ship's wireless telegraphers were
inexperienced. They had a hard time catching signal sent to them. I have
a hard time. It's twenty years later to that, one hundred and ten
years later today, I still have a hard time catching signal sent to me.
I need to practice my Morris code. They had difficulty relaying messages,
and we're frequently sending repeats of their messages, so they made sense. On
shore, the disaster would spur government officials and researchers and lawmakers to address the
shortcomings in wireless technology. And then it talks about the International Radio Telegraph Conference
Radio Act of nineteen twelve. So this was six years after the long we
talked about a second ago, okay, And this was interesting right here.
Two wave links were used at the time, and the leaders of the conference
agreed that the six hundred meter wave length would be used OLIE for ships at
sea. Now, six hundred meters is about zero point five mega hurts or
five hundred kiloherts. Now it is down in the MF band medium frequency.
That's not a derogatory term, that's not a it's not a foul language abbreviation.
Okay. MF means medium frequency, HF is high frequency, LF is
low frequency VLF low frequency, that kind of thing. There's there's certain measurements
of mega hurts and killaherts that follow those band, those segments of the band
as we call it today. The HF band starts at three mega hurts and
goes to thirty megahurts, which most of amateur radio HF is in there.
Technically, the one hundred and sixty meter band is between one point six and
two megahurts. That is in the MF band. Technically it's not HF,
it's m medium frequency. So there you go. That's a that's a thing
right there. But that's in the MF band down there at zero dot five
hundred megaherts or five hundred kilaherts, as you can see right here. I
just had I just googled it because I couldn't remember where the bottom of the
MF band was. But medium frequent sees the ITU designation for radio frequencies in
the range of three hundred kiloherts two three megahurts, which is three thousand killerherts.
So the six hundred meter band would be five hundred killaherts, which would
be in that range of frequencies. The next part of this article I found
interesting was that Congress also passed the nineteen twelve Radio Act US Congress, which
required licensinging of commercial and amateur station amateur radio stations, minimizing interference communication between
stations, addressing types of wavelengths used, and prohibiting interference in radio communications,
to name a few. Congress delegated the task of investigating how to implement these
measurements to the NIST, known at the time as the National Bureau of Standards.
Pretty cool picture of a old piece of equipment right there. So great.
So that's a really kind of a brief history on SOOS, a brief
history on CQD. But I thought that the coolest part, okay, the
really coolest part, okay, is this video I found that are literal transmissions
from the as somebody recorded it. Apparently it was It's somewhere and I don't
know if they replayed the CW recording, if they found the written text that
someone had copied down and someone put it to CW, or if there was
an actual recording of the CW from back in the day. It was one
hundred and ten years ago, so I'm not sure what sort of recording equipment
they had back then, but it's an interesting thing to look at regardless.
So you guys check the link in the description. Blow. I'm gonna play
part of this video, but not the whole thing. Special thanks to this
Canada dan channel for posting this. This is really cool, so you're gonna
want to watch this. Learning Morris code is challenging but can be very fun
and rewarding, and if you're interested in doing it yourself, you can go
check out chat radio dot com, the sponsor of this video. Among other
things, they sell a wide range of viberplex and Venture keys at their store
in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They've been a sponsor of the show for some time,
and I wanted to incorporate them and thank them for sponsoring this video.
But check out the link in the description below, and if you go over
there and check out the stuff that they have for sale their website, be
sure to tell them that Ham Radio two point zero sent you. So this
starts out where the t ten people are on the Titanic sending messages back to
sure because why not. They're just communicating the same way you would send a
text message today if you're at c and you had a signal, or you
might call someone if you have a satellite phone, or if you're a Ham
radio operator, you might actually get on the radio and say seku squ Maritime
Mobile. Make sure you have the captain's permission before you do that. So
Titanic to KPE Race. By the way, the designation for Titanic was MG
y M stand for Mark Marconi and I'm not sure what GY was, but
mGy is this, that's mGy. So you're gonna hear that. Now,
this guy sends a lot faster than I do. Okay, but you're gonna
hear that sequence of events. And instead of spelling out Titanic, T I
T A NIC, they just use mGy And that's the call sign for Titanic
on this video here. So check this out. This is pretty cool.
This guy's sitting really fast. For me, that's fast Titanic to Cape Race.
I don't know what Cape Race is. George Sigmund, New York,
Whether delightful, feeling fine? This is at twelve fifteen am on April fifteenth.
This is pretty cool. It's tragic, but it's quit. It's it's
it's it's fun to see how how it was used back then. Okay,
so now after that you could see c q D. That's it CQD.
So I don't know they're they're using something there that I heard c q D,
and then I heard a code like a deduct something I don't I and
understand that code. And then I heard m g Y, So I don't
know what they're using for this is is it t I? I don't know.
I don't I don't know. I don't know that. Somebody with better
skills on cw CO comment below given their position, Frankfurt's replying to the Titanic,
what is the problem, What is the matter. So it goes on
to say, I mean he just replies c q c q D again,
this is Titanic, give me the position. Okay, stand by Mount Temple
to Titanic, what is the matter. Ah, So they couldn't read them.
Titanic to Mount Temple. Cannot read you, old man. They were
using om back in the day. That's it's pretty cool. Cannot read you,
old man. But here here's my position. They're giving their position over
and over again. Titanic sending CQD says requires assistance, give position. Cannot
hear me advice, That's what they're all saying. So they're saying CQD calling
out to stress signal, giving their position, but not telling people why quite
yet, we have struck a bird twelve twenty five am. Here it is
Titanic to Carpathia. Carpathia says to Titanic, do you know what the Cape
cod is sending a batch of messages for you? Titanic to Carpathia, Come
at once we have struck a burg. It's a CQD old man position again,
and then if you go on here, if you keep it so,
they're sending CQD at this point in time. They haven't sent s OS yet,
but they will hear in a moment. Yeah, they couldn't read him.
See Carpathia to Titanic. Titanic to Carpathia, no old man, and
I can't read him for Russia air and noise of steam. So there was
just like they didn't have headsets as presumably they didn't have headsets. They were
just sitting there callings distress called CQD and s OS with a radio speaker on
him or or however they were listening to it right there. Okay, So
Titanic to at twelve forty five am, Titanic to Olympic s OS, c
q D s OS. This is Titanic. We have struck Iceberg, sinking
fast. Come to our assistants. Twelve forty five am. KPE Race is
doing a relay Kape Race to Californian SOS from Titanic CQD in position. This
video here is fifty three minutes long. I highly suggest you guys go watch
this whole video. It's very interesting. Here we go, it's after one
am. Now, life number eight is launched from Titanic at one am.
That's just what happened. That's not something they're sending. That's why it's in
brackets like that. Okay, right here around one thirty am c q D
s O s c QD s OS, So they're sending both. Now engine
room flooded right here, and this is the end of it. Collapsible boat
see launch at CQC CQD c q DO. This is Titanic at two two
am. And this is just kind of giving you a there's there. It
is a v was sent at two ten am two ten am c q D.
And the audio on the video itself is lower than it was a minute
ago. We are sinking fast passengers and being put into life boats. Mg
Y Titanic, Virginuine Titanic cannot read you, they couldn't read them. Signals
so weak they couldn't read them. So presumably this was recorded someone some expert
in CW came along after the fact. In fact, this guy explains kind
of more of this, and yeah, I've taken all Morse code communications I
could find in the knighted Titanic and turn it into a streaming text. Okay,
so this guy created, Hats off to you, bud. This guy
created. He went through and tapped out the Morse code himself from written transcripts
that were recorded during the event. Okay, good, It's easy to look
at this after the fact because you hear. I mean, we all know
what happened one hundred and ten years later. But SSQ do CQ do Titanic
to seventeen am. I think this is the last one cq D. This
is Titanic. Oh, what they're sending for this is is d E.
D E means day. It means from D. Sometimes you'll see guys with
on Ham Radio signed their email signatures d E their call signed. I signed
that mind a lot of times d K C five HWB. It means from
So this is Titanic means from Titanic, literally speaking, it's translated as from
Titanic. I caught that D just then, and that was it. That
was it. That was the last recorded documented the transmission from the Titanic on
the early mornings of April fifteenth, nineteen twelve. So again I don't want
to make light of the story. It's an interesting historical event that happened that
we can learn a lot from. That we did learn a lot from,
and now a lot of the telecommunications and maritime mobile rules and laws we have
in place we're a result of what happened to this ship and the tragic loss
of life that happened on this ship in nineteen twelve. So a lot of
the stuff we have today. We have better transmitters, we have better receivers,
we have less RFI interfering stuff. We have headphones. Presuming that guy
didn't have headphones because he was talking about how they could he couldn't heard because
of wind, noise and steam. You don't have your Higle pro sevenon.
Presumably now we've got experience being a lot more experience with it because it's not
a new technology anymore. In fact, some people say it's not even used
anymore and they just don't know interesting history behind the Titanic and the Morse code
messages that were sent from them. Thank you to those of you who sent
me the length in the last video. Put a comment in this video.
Let me know what else you would like to see on this story.