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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.


Wavescan N536, June 2, 2019

The Titanic Tragedy: The Flow of Wireless Messages

During the past month or two, we have been presenting a series of topics here in Wavescan on the tragic story of the unexpected sinking of the grand passenger liner Titanic while it was on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in April 1912. In these previous topics, we have presented the story of the loss of the Titanic itself, as well as the story of several of the ships and land stations whose wireless facilities were involved in communicating the news of these events to a waiting audience in North America and beyond.

In our program today, the focus of international attention is transferred from the Titanic itself to the rescue ship Carpathia, together with its multitude of wireless messages directed to North America. We examine these matters; and each reference to time is given, not in Titanic time in the Atlantic, but rather in local time in New York City. New York time was 1:50 hours, that is, 1 hour and 50 minutes, behind Titanic time.

The Titanic station MGY was in a lengthy routine wireless communication with Cape Race station MCE-Newfoundland during mid-evening Sunday, April 14, 1912 at the time when the Titanic struck its disastrous iceberg. As is sometimes claimed, David Sarnoff, supposedly at the Wanamaker Store WHI-New York, was not in communication with the Titanic during that time.

At 10:25 pm, the Titanic MGY sent its first CQD message at the order of Captain Edward Smith, stating that they had hit an iceberg, and that they were needing immediate assistance. This first distress call in Morse Code was heard by land-based stations at Cape Race-MCE and Cape Cod (Boston)-MCC, as well as by the ships Mount Temple-MLQ and La Provence-MLP.

It is also possible that other Morse Code wireless stations elsewhere, now unknown, also heard that same tragic message. At that stage, wireless activity on the longwave and mediumwave bands, as they are now known, was generally quite quiet.

Just 7 minutes later, the Carpathia-MPA told the Titanic-MGY, we are on our way; and they arrived 4-1/2 hours later. By that time, the Titanic had already sunk (2-1/2 hours earlier), and now 1500 people were already tragically dead. However, the Carpathia was indeed still able to rescue 700 survivors.

From this time onwards, international attention was no longer focused upon the Titanic, but rather now upon the Carpathia. The flashings and thunderings of spark wireless transmitters aboard ship and on land produced an unmitigated chaos that had never before been witnessed in the radio spectrum.

Back in those days, wireless was still quite in its infancy, and among the multitude of problems encountered by wireless operators in the transfer of information from the Titanic-Carpathia situation to mainland North America were the following circumstances: