[ARC5] RCA AR-60 AR-60-R Pre AR-88 Receiver Works, Amelia Earhart disappearance | eBay

[Mike Everette]

For those interested in the radio aspect of AE's flight and disappearance, check out www.tighar.org

I, and Bob Brandenburg of San Diego, CA did a lot of research into this matter for TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery).  We would, I think, agree with the assessment that AE was "radio stupid."  In fact, I think the way her character was portrayed in the recent movie starring Hillary Swank as Amelia, is "spot on."  She was not a technically savvy aviator; what drove AE was this notion of "being free!" when she was in the sky.

Bob did a lot of propagation analysis on computer, using data from 1937.  The conclusions were very revealing.  I did an article for Tighar regarding the equipment aboard the aircraft.

The story of radio in the AE disappearance is fascinating.  Signals were heard, stateside, for a few days following her disappearance which were on HARMONICS of her two frequencies, 3105 and 6210 KHz.  The Navy and Coast Guard were not looking for such signals, and when the USCG was notified of their reception by one of the hearers, they discounted the whole idea of harmonics.  Yet, her transmitter was quite capable of radiating many harmonics  -- your basic rather crude 1935 technology --  and there are definite indications that it was somewhat mistuned on at least one of the two frequencies (and maybe both).  A "well intentioned" but probably less-than-savvy radio tech, stateside, had messed with the length of her carefully-tuned fixed antenna before she left the US, and this could well have caused many problems that he had no idea he'd created.

By the way, the trailing wire -- which, yes, she did discard -- was for 500 KHz use only (500 was the distress frequency in 1937).

And while Noonan may have had a commercial radiotelegraph license, he did not know CW worth squat.  My speculation is that he'd had someone take the test for him, which would not have been hard to get away with in the 1930s.  He'd been required to have such a license while flying with Pan American Airways... but he was a navigator for Pan Am, not a radio operator.

If you visit the TIGHAR web site, be prepared to spend some serious quality time there.  Above all, enjoy.

And by the way:  TIGHAR's most recent expedition to the island of Nikumaroro, where AE is suspected of having gone down, turned up some VERY interesting underwater finds.  Check out the web site.

73

Mike
W4DSE

--- On Sun, 10/7/12, Mike Morrow <kk5f at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Mike Morrow <kk5f at earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [ARC5] RCA AR-60 AR-60-R Pre AR-88 Receiver Works, Amelia Earhart disappearance | eBay
> To: ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Sunday, October 7, 2012, 3:04 PM
> Sandy wrote:
> 
> > Amelia disappeared because she was "radio
> stupid"!...  She really needed
> > a radio operator on top of that!
> 
> I've read of sources that state that Fred Noonan held the
> commercial Radiotelegraph
> Second Class license, although I've never heard if that
> included the Aircraft
> Radiotelegraph endorsement.  Either way, that should
> indicate that Mr. Noonan
> would be very capable of competently operating both phone
> and telegraph equipment.
> Yet most sources seem to indicate that Earhart performed the
> radio operator duties.
> All that is strange if true.
> 
> Mike / KK5F
> 
> 
> 
>  
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