Um.... you know, just saying "I agree" would have been a lot simpler and
saved you 2 pages of typing.... LOL.
rb



wrote in message
oups.com...
From: Woody on Tues, Aug 22 2006 12:50 pm


The Titanic knew their coordinates.... didn't slow the influx of H20....
The responding ships had radios too... didn't turn their props any
faster....

The year was 1912...NINETY-FOUR YEARS AGO.

Answer to the question.... there was no system then.

The predecessor organization for SOLAS had not yet made 500 KHz
the international distress and safety frequency. "SOLAS" is an
acronym for Safety Of Life At Sea.

CW can punch through if there is a human on the other end, where
GPS/packet
says 'no signal'....
GPS is faster, where CW takes longer....
so one is obsolete, the other inferior.

The International Maritime Community settled the 'morse issue.'
They DROPPED it in favor of GMDSS (Global Marine Distress and
Safety System), a semi-automated system which can be operated
by anyone of the bridge crew on a ship (it needs little
instruction on use). GMDSS messages are automatically routed
to ground stations (note plural) via satellite relay. Those
ground stations can coordinate rescue missions.

A shipboard GMDS station doesn't HAVE to have a GPS receiver
to feed it position data but all those which have one have
no complaint about this alleged "loss of signal." Position
data can be entered manually to a GMDS station. The bridge
crew will have a running record of the ship's position in
either event.

The United States Coast Guard has DROPPED continuous
monitoring of the 500 KHz distress frequency some years
ago. Several other countries have done so.

A following question is WHO will you believe on the efficacy
of communications? The entire international maritime
community or a bunch of myth-happy amateur morsemen?

In a sentient, intelligent mind, ANY form of communications
is good for use in matters involving life and death. The
FCC thinks (rightly) so and says as much in Part 1 of Title
47 C.F.R. [Part 97 is not the entirety of regulations on
amateur radio in the USA]

--------------------

In a preceding message set:

"Cecil Moore" wrote in message
Dave wrote:
David G. Nagel wrote:

A ham operator intercepted the SOS from the RMS Titanic.

Yep!! It happened once!

It happened NINETY-FOUR YEARS AGO.

If CW had not existed at the time, how would things have
turned out differently? If the present GPS-based system
had existed at the time, how would things have turned out?

I have to fault Cecil's erudite and intelligent mindset
on that...although his motor looks good in his picture. :-)

One CANNOT base any intelligent argument about ALTERNATE
universes of different times and places. It hasn't
happened in our present time-space continuum.

In 1912 "radio" was in its infancy, having been first shown
and demonstrated as a communications medium just 16 years
prior. There were extremely few ships which had vacuum
tubes as active devices to aid those first "radios." The
tube was only 6 years old, the triode invented in 1906.

To argue about "GPS" (which is not an integral part of
GMDSS but can be) versus morse code is ludicrous. GPS
relies on a time-frequency standard within each of the
24 GPS satellites which is comparable to the best time-
frequency source at NIST. [the quartz crystal
oscillator wasn't yet invented in 1912] Each satellite
needs solid-state circuitry to make it function within
a relatively small package. [the best "solid-state"
device of 1912 was a galena crystal detector with its
famous "cat's whisker"] The whole GPSS needed rocketry
advanced enough to put all the satellites into orbit.
[rocketry wasn't perfected for that purpose until after
WW2] Those rockets needed launch guidance aided by
radar systems. [radar, or rather a primitive system of
it, wasn't tried until 1932 in a harbor area of France]

However, "morse code" was used in the landline Morse-Vail
Telegraph System working before the American Civil War
and simple enough to turn a spark transmitter on and off
as on the Titanic.

Which system is presently inferior and virtually obsolete?

On-off keyed CW.

Except in the mindset of the ARRL. The IARU knows better.