Newly Discovered SOS Telegram in Texas Proves Titanic Owners May Have Lied

[Alex F]

The Titanic transmitted on 500khz which, while broadcasting a small sky wave element would be firmly in the ground wave transmission region. Given enough power and with suitable atmospheric conditions across a calm ocean, the ranges for this at night would be considerable. Granted modern equipment is far more stable and tunable however, as a radio operator we used to play about transmitting signals from Plymouth to Halifax Nova Scotia on HF if we couldn't clear traffic locally. At the time, the Halifax system replied by an automatically generated Morse Code signal to acknowledge receipt. The maximum output of our transmitters were 1Kw.

We don't know definitely on what frequency was the Titanic transmitted. What we know they did not have HF transmitters and were limited in range of transmission. HF transmitters had SS Carpathia (110m), SS Caronia (110m), SS Baltic (110m). They had an advantage over the Titanic in range using HF antennas and transmitters.

Officially, the Titanic was designed to use 300 meters band transmitter (MF, not HF) and long antenna (quarter wave length ~ 360/4=90 meters (833 kHz).

BR
Alex