Has anyone else noticed that the Prudential commercial
on TV is sending SMS instead of SOS?
--
73, Cecil, IEEE, OOTC, http://www.w5dxp.com

In Cecil Moore
wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the Prudential commercial
on TV is sending SMS instead of SOS?

No, but I understand that some cellphones use "SMS" in morse to signal
an incoming text message (Short Message Service); maybe that's what
you're hearing.

I guess I've never seen that commercial, so I don't know if that makes
any sense in its context.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN

On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:28:15 -0600, Cecil Moore
wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the Prudential commercial
on TV is sending SMS instead of SOS?

Which commercial? There's quite a collection of Prudential TV
commercials on YouTube, but I can't tell which one.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

In article ,
Cecil Moore wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the Prudential commercial
on TV is sending SMS instead of SOS?

I recall that decades ago, there was an FCC prohibition against the
inclusion of the SOS pro-signal in commercial radio and television
broadcasts. You weren't supposed to ever transmit this signal unless
you were actually in distress.

TV shows would either just *refer* to their being an SOS in progress,
or would transit some other Morse code signal as a substitute, or
both. I remember one Star Trek episode in which the substitute signal
was actually a very-low-speed FSK signal (high and low tones, about an
octave apart).

I don't know whether the legal prohibition against transmitting SOS on
commercial radio/TV still exists today, or whether it was dropped
during the big deregulation.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

Dave Platt wrote:

I don't know whether the legal prohibition against transmitting SOS on
commercial radio/TV still exists today, or whether it was dropped
during the big deregulation.

Yes, it was dropped a long time ago.

To answer another posting at the same time, the brand of cell phones is Nokia.
The default SMS alert is the morse code SMS.

BTW, it was never SOS as three seperate letters, the official distress call
___
was SOS (written with a line over it) the three letters run together such as
we do for SK.

It was in marine use preceded with a long dash (I'm not a marine operator
so I don't know how long) to trigger automated monitoring equipment,
but that was a relatively modern invention. (1950's??)

That way words like Sosnow (the name of my high school auto shop teacher)
would not cause a problem.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM

Bert Hyman wrote:
Cecil Moore wrote:
Has anyone else noticed that the Prudential commercial
on TV is sending SMS instead of SOS?

I guess I've never seen that commercial, so I don't know if that makes
any sense in its context.

On the screen is a dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot.

But the sound is di-di-dit, dah-dah, di-di-dit.
--
73, Cecil, IEEE, OOTC, http://www.w5dxp.com

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
Cecil Moore wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the Prudential commercial
on TV is sending SMS instead of SOS?

Which commercial? There's quite a collection of Prudential TV
commercials on YouTube, but I can't tell which one.

http://www.smartbrief.com/news/aaaa/...2-6B6C4495A79A
--
73, Cecil, IEEE, OOTC, http://www.w5dxp.com

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
Which commercial? There's quite a collection of Prudential TV
commercials on YouTube, but I can't tell which one.

Referenced on the commercial:

http://www.prudential.com/b2b
--
73, Cecil, IEEE, OOTC, http://www.w5dxp.com

"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote in message
...
Dave Platt wrote:

I don't know whether the legal prohibition against transmitting SOS on
commercial radio/TV still exists today, or whether it was dropped
during the big deregulation.

Yes, it was dropped a long time ago.

To answer another posting at the same time, the brand of cell phones is
Nokia.
The default SMS alert is the morse code SMS.

BTW, it was never SOS as three seperate letters, the official distress
call
___
was SOS (written with a line over it) the three letters run together such
as
we do for SK.

It was in marine use preceded with a long dash (I'm not a marine operator
so I don't know how long) to trigger automated monitoring equipment,
but that was a relatively modern invention. (1950's??)

That way words like Sosnow (the name of my high school auto shop teacher)
would not cause a problem.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM

Geoff,

A series of twelve four-second dashes, spaced one second apart, was sent by
an automatic keyer on 500 kHz. Any automatic distress receiver in the
vicinity would be triggered to operate an alarm after picking up four
dashes. The extra dashes were to overcome atmospheric noise and increase the
chance of the signals being picked up. Four consecutive dashes meant that
the automatic alarm wasn't triggered too often in the tropics.

The Radio Officer would be woken in his cabin by a bell and had 2 minutes to
get to the radio room and switch the main receiver on to receive the
distress message. Sometimes the alarm would go off half a dozen times in a
night during storms around the European coast in winter. Didn't get a lot of
sleep for several days sometimes.

Regards

Mike G0ULI

Cecil Moore wrote:
Bert Hyman wrote:
Cecil Moore wrote:
Has anyone else noticed that the Prudential commercial
on TV is sending SMS instead of SOS?

I guess I've never seen that commercial, so I don't know if that makes
any sense in its context.

On the screen is a dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot.

But the sound is di-di-dit, dah-dah, di-di-dit.

Saw it tonight for the first time and it is as you say.

tom
K0TAR