Where is this?

[MikeJohns]

Raggi
The morse is the key !

[Raggi_Thor]

Because this was the first ship with a radio?

[Raggi_Thor]

Ctkd ?
NO, NO that was CQD

[Raggi_Thor]

Seems like I have been wrong and gotten carried away again
Now some work!

[MikeJohns]

Norwegians are such an excitable race, you can't help it :-) But I don't know why the signal or the Island yet.

[Raggi_Thor]

Nantucket, a wild shot.
What is that morese code, the distress signal?
Can't find anything in 1909.

[Raggi_Thor]

Sorry to bother you again, but are you sure this is not the Kaiser Wilhelm after all?
http://www.seefunknetz.de/

[MikeJohns]

It could be but the information is inconsistant. However it will be one of these:

http://www.allatsea.co.za/fourfunnel.htm but maybe there are errors in the launching dates on that site.

But you have the same picture there so I am not so sure. But what happened 9 years on. And we still don't know the island.

But I am trying to do some work too as you should be :-)

[hoytedow]

According to the sometimes to be believed wikipedia, cqd (_._. _ _._ _..) was adopted on Feb. 1, 1904.
Until today I was totally ignorant of its existance, and had to look it up. Thanks for the homework assignment.

[hoytedow]

History of CQD: http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/CQD

It is Kaiser Wilhelm der Große and she was the first German (and the first worldwide) Passengership equipped with a radio telegraph station. Although she entered service already in 1897 the telegraph station was added 1900 (I did mislead you sorry). Here a old article about a trip with KWdG though named here Kaiser Wilhelm II (which was wrong).nice articles about Steamships!

CQD was the internationally used distress signal at 1900 (though not by int.l standards but by practice). The first Radio Distress Signal 'CQD' was transmitted from the East Goodwin Lightship on 17 March 1899 when the German merchant vessel Elbe ran aground on the Goodwin Sands.The message was received by the radio operator on duty at the South Foreland Lighthouse, who was able to summon the aid of the Ramsgate lifeboat.

There CQ stands for general call and D for distress. CQ was in common use at landbased telegraph stations since the mid 1860ies and soon adapted by the merchant fleet around 1900 when the first shipbased radio stations were installed. The operators added the D.
The info on worldlingo site is misleading in some points (although just in one case wrong).

There was a hughe competition between the "Marconi" and the "Telefunken" Company, leading to different standards in radio telegraphy. In 1906 the International Radiotelegraphic Convention, held in Berlin, adopted Germany's (Telefunken) Notzeichen distress signal of three-dits/three-dahs/three-dits (· · · - - - · · · ) as the international Morse code distress signal. Then ratified as the international distress signal in 1908 (though the US did not officially adopt the signal till 1912 - why are they never keen to adopt international agreements?)
Interestingly the SOS is not a letter string of S, O, S but is given as a single signal without intervals!

But what was happening 10th of June in 1909, and where? not Nantucket................sorry Ragnar. and not Naples..........

here:

one more hint (for those still understanding morse code)

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by apex1

But what was happening 10th of June in 1909, and where?

Cunard liner Slavonia sended the first emergency SOS
by the .- --.. --- .-. . ...

At the coast of the island of Flores exactly! Yes............

Sunk between CQD and SOS

On Monday, April 15, 1912, at 12:30 AM, in the middle of the night, the R.M.S. Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic near Canada and sank at 41°46' N, and 50°14' West. Thanks to wireless, 745 passengers were saved but 1595 persons died in this tragedy among them some of the most prominent persons in the world.

Behind this disaster, it has been argued that the number of survivors could have been doubled or even tripled, if there were stronger wireless regulations in effect.

Indeed at least three problems appeared and increased the slow response of rescuers. First, the radio operators were only on duty during the "open hours", thus only at daytime. Any event could thus occured at night without warning.

Then, in 1905, the Morse code "SOS" (that does not mean Save Our Souls) was adopted by German ships for signifying distress while the British marine, working with Marconi operators, wanted to keep CQD (General Call Disaster that some translated by Come Quick Disaster) as a distress signal. It was first decided to use SOE, but the small "E" dot can easily be lost in QRM and one suggested to replace it with an S, as in repeating three time the small dot the operators had much more chance to arrest the attention of anyone hearing it, hence SOS, that was adopted at the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Convention in 1906 as the official international standard for distress calls. But Marconi operators were slow to conform, and until 1907 Marconi companies continued to work with the "CQD", associating it if necessary to SOS.

The first time the SOS signal was used in an emergency was on June 10, 1909 when the Cunard liner "RMS Slavonia" wrecked off the Azores. Two German liners received the call, the Batavia "Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Aktiengesellschaft" (HAPAG), and Princess Irene "Norddeutscher Lloyd" and rescued all passengers (the crew was remaining on board for another two weeks to salvage the ship).



At last, there was a commercial war between Marconi and his German competitor, Telefunken, that extended down to the individual radio operators. In these early days of telegraphy, where the Stock exchange was growing fast and gave the chance to small like major companies to increase their benefits, the smallest part of a market took at the competitor meant a probable increasing of shares price at short time. This is in this context of commercial war that no routine traffic, even in an emergency, would ever pass from a Marconi station to his competitor. This arrived at such a point that when a "Marconist" was on the air, the others would be shut out, and often, the rules was respected.

This story is interesting to recall because it emphasizes the problem of security aboard the ship, and the lack of a standard wireless regulation. Here is the all story that I voluntarily shorten to the essential messages. In all, some 28 ships were involved in communications with Titatic. The rescue last 8 hours between the first distress call and the last passenger rescued. Only the "Carpathia" rescued some of the passengers and processed to New York, a trip that last still two and a half more days.


Interesting to see that the first ever CQD call as well as the first SOS have been successfull by means no souls lost. Where the complete desaster of communications by the Titanic radio officer did lead to more confusion than necessary. He still used CQD in 1913!!! And refused to communicate with German ships nearby because there where "competitors" working!

Human idioty, endless as the universe.............................

Your turn Teddy!

[Guillermo]

"Sunk between CQD and SOS"

Although the use of "SOS" was officially ratified in 1908, the use of "CQD" lingered for several more years, especially in British service where it originated. It is well documented in personal accounts of Harold Bride, second Radio Officer, and in the logs of the SS Carpathia, that the Titanic first used "CQD" to call for help. When Captain Smith gave the order to radio for help, first radio officer Jack Phillips sent "CQD" six times followed by the Titanic call letters, "MGY." Later, at Brides suggestion, Phillips interspersed his calls with "SOS."

[hoytedow]

another dumb question: Is the T in T-Mobile derivative of Telefunken?