[Elecraft] Titanic radio traffic link

[Fred Jensen]

On 4/12/2012 6:49 PM, Buddy Brannan wrote:
> The saddest part of this report (at least on a personal level) is
> that I know most of the text to speech synthesizers they're using.

I don't think that was quite it, Buddy.  Knowing the BBC, I think they 
translated the Morse to "normal" English, what ever that is.  "DE" 
became "This is," "MGY" became "Titanic," QTH became "Our position is, 
and the like.  I'm not sure why they went for the sort-of computer 
voice, it actually sounded more to me like a real human trying to sound 
a little computer-ish.  But I did think it began to give a feeling for 
the dire moments.  I suspect "Shut Up, Shut Up" might have been QRT or QRX

We also need to realize that the RO's were not using Elecraft equipment. 
:-)  Their rotary sparks were hugely noisy, their receivers [and the RO] 
heard [if it was very strong] whatever the antenna did not filter out, 
DSP hadn't been invented yet, nor had keyers, QSK, or cans that covered 
your ears and suppressed some of the external noise.

I've always wondered what it was like at Cape Race during the Titanic 
sinking.  I got to handle one small sort-of emergency while at the 
coastal marine station.  I was about to leave for college and I think 
the OG's wanted me to get one emergency in my logbook.  All sorts of 
images went through my mind, none of which actually happened aboard the 
ship of course.  No one sank, no one even got wet ... but it was a very 
exciting hour or so for me, the CG was having problems copying them, QSP 
for the USCG was a big deal for a 16-yr old ham of 3 years.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2012 Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct 2012
- www.cqp.org