[Milsurplus] Re: DF-ing & Earhardt/Noonan

[Hue Miller]

I haven't organized the hundreds, maybe thousands? of 
TIGHAR emails on this topic, but i am thinking i recall
that the ship had NO HFDF capability, EVEN low HF.
And AE had dispensed with the trailing antenna wire so
could not use the xmtr on its 600 kc/s frequency.  I think
also there was a DF receiver on Howland island, but the
op let its battery run down, and so it was nonfunctional
when the plane was nearing Howland.
How much weight would a trailing antenna wire add? Not
all that much, i would think. Maybe they were afraid of 
sparks igniting fuel fumes? I dunno, just wild guess. Also
the trail wire length would have to be pretty closely 
calibrated, because the transmitter had no operator-
adjustments, so you'd have to adhere very closely to
some pre-tuned antenna length.
Then, the best thing they could have done, would be to
reel out the antenna when nearing Howland, transmit
to the ship, with the understanding that when microphone
button up, Itasca would reply with bearing / direction info
on either 3105 or 6210.
Real good planning they did, right?
"Well, this will probably work".
Hue