Amelia Earhart's Search, 08/03/2022

Speaker/Presenter: Rod Blocksom K0DAS
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[@tomtransport]

Amelia learned nothing from her experience when she flew solo from NY to Paris. She not only missed Paris, she missed the whole country of France winding up in Northern Ireland for crying out loud. She tried to cover this blunder by saying there were strong winds, icing and mechanical problems. Well, a good pilot would have known/planed for winds and the flight to N. Ireland was farther so so much for mechanical BS. Now she is not flying towards a huge land mass but a speck of an island in the largest ocean in the world. My point is she needed that radio once Fred got her in the vicinity of Howland Island but, as far as I've been able to determine, she never once tested that radio equipment after leaving Papua New Guinea. A simple test-------This is Amelia, how do you read me back there? She would have known, right after take off, she could send but not receive. She would have turned back to have the antenna/radio repaired. That's not 20/20 hind sight from me but part of a good plan that she never had. She trusted to luck. Another thing, by this time, when she is clearly lost, near out of fuel and her very life and Noonan too are at stake Noonan should have crawled across the fuel tanks to the cockpit and helped with either the flying, the radio or both. He could take bearings from there too, probably better then the small window in the rear. She had been flying for 18 hours, she had to be exhausted yet she is flying the plane, working the radio and looking for a speck of an Island in the ocean. She was an average pilot in way over her abilities pushed to do this "stunt" by her newspaper publishing husband. Sad but that is the truth. The plane is somewhere near Howland Island on the sea floor. She did not fly off 350 miles (on what fuel) south looking for another speck of an island, No Japanese Bull shit either, it's not complicated at all.

[@GoSlash27]

Yeah, this pretty much. They knew that their lives and the entire mission depended on a successful DF at the end of the leg, but failed to adequately plan and prepare for that fact. They didn't coordinate a plan with Itasca prior to takeoff and never bothered to verify the condition of their radios prior to the point of no return. Noonan did a stellar job getting her as close as he did, but they were at the ragged edge of endurance and out of communication with Itasca. Absolutely no way they were going to get lucky enough to find Howland Island on their own, let alone some other island they weren't even aiming for. Sad part is they would've made it with a dedicated radioman. He would've spotted the wonky grid current immediately, known that the ventral antenna was open, and patched into the dorsal array.

[@coryhoggatt7691]

Amelia twice relied on her “gut instinct” to overrule the planned “landfall” of her flight and turn the opposite way. She ended up in Ireland by turning left instead of right, and she did the same in Africa after crossing the Atlantic with Noonan, though he convinced to turn back to the correct course and they got to their destination. She didn’t have the rigor of mind that aviation demands, and she and Noonan paid the price for it.

[@theworldisavampire3346]

She wasn't a gifted pilot. She was a female pilot, which made her a naughty novelty. It cost Amelia her very life.

[@dianamincher6479]

@@GoSlash27 Please enlighten about the ventral antenna being open and the patching into the dorsal array! Earhart should have hired a first class radio man and had an emergency separate backup radio with other and lots of frequencies and the mission could have been successful. Did Noonan put her in the correct lineup position for landing at Howland? Especially as her radio work was super patchy?

[@dianamincher6479]

Agreed-her radio work was unfortunately not up to standard for this dangerous connection?

[@markspoor4663]

How about running this test on the actual route. It would be helpful to know if navigating to the island is even possible with 1937 technology.

[@dknowles60]

its been done

[@coryhoggatt7691]

Naval aviators were successfully finding ships a lot smaller than an island at that time.

[@dianamincher6479]

Good question. Apparently Earhart did not keep to specified and agreed times for transmitting and receiving agreed with Itasca but Howland was always going to be a difficult navigational brief and a first class radioman was a must?

[@about2mount]

The Itasca knew Amelia could not hear them by radio. It amazes me why the Itasca didn't fire their guns in rapid successions so Amelia and Fred could find them. The Itasca's guns could reach 32 miles and make some big splashes. Amelia between two 1 hour radio broadcast flew from the front of Itasca's loop antenna and at halfway point flew behind the Itasca's loop antenna. So when the Itasca's crew heard Amelia they did a last contact visual inspection of the loop which gave them two probables. One to the northwest and another to the southeast. Itasca chose to search the Northwest instead. Amelia's plane had 1 inch manifolds mounted above all the fuel tanks to allow them to vent pressure out underneath the tail. Once the planes engines caused her to point straight down into the water those manifolds began allowing her to slowly sink. She is in an area just southeast of Howland and sank.

[@defender714]

The Itasca's single 5 in. gun had a range of 9 miles.

[@dianamincher6479]

@@defender714 Shouldn't Itasca have lit huge bonfires on Howland backed up by gigantic signalling mirrors?

[@coryhoggatt7691]

Video very interesting but I’m still not sure what it proves or disproves. We already knew that Noonan got them within radio range, which would have been sufficient to be guided to the island using DF. We knew the equipment on her aircraft wasn’t successful because she told us. We know she expected the Itasca to DF and provide her a bearing from repeated transmissions that she would “whistle into the radio” so they could do so. They clearly didn’t have the ability to do that or we would have had at least a bearing to direct the search, even if they couldn’t provide it to Amelia because of her broken receiver antenna. All due respect to the huge effort, but what have we learned here?

[@dianamincher6479]

Even if Itasca could have given its position on 3105 kilocycles with voice and not concentrate on 6210kilocycles without voice capability it may still have been impossible for Amelia to find landfall land safely?

[@shootingstar2446]

Itasca stated that Amelia 's signal was so strong that they thought she should be right overhead and went outside to try and spot her plane. Afterwards, her signal strength faded as she was flying away. You need to test for the distance from Itasca at which the weak signal matches what Itasca experienced. Given that she was running out of fuel, you should now be able to scribe a circle around Itasca's position at that distance. Amelia' should have gone down on that circle. That's where she is.

[@usveteran9893]

She ended up at is Gardner Island [Nikamororo Island]. That is the logical place where she was last "known". This is based off she broadcasts for three days. Her broadcasts are heard all over, especially by a 16-year-old girl in Florida who took notes. In these notes, the girl wrote down what she thought she heard [New York] which we now know Amelia was referring to as the SS "Norwich" City. Also, an old photograph shows what appears to be a landing gear from the Electra 10e.

[@eddyaudio]

Both Amelia and Fred didn’t know Morse Code Amelia had the Morse code Key removed at Miami and both didn’t have good knowledge of there Radio Equipment that contributed to there missing sadly.

[@markparker552]

It blows my mind a, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan didn't bother to at least get some knowledge of morse code and had directions of how to do morse code Incase of emergency going around the world was extremely risky in those days and both amilia and Fred should have both learned it before the trip and they should have found 2 experienced people to replace the two that left and no , matter how experienced Fred Noonan was Earhart should never have picked him to be one of her crew knowing he was alcoholic you never know Noonan might have put liquor in his coffee thermos or the ; liquid refreshments he took on the plane could have been spiked with booze he was also hungover the morning they left from getting drunk as a skunk the night before in Hawaii him being still drunk or hungover could have caused him to make navigation mistakes getting them Lost and them running out of gas because of navagater mistakes I believe if Earhart had a different navagater a sober navagater Earhart would have completed her round the world trip and never crashed her plane or ran out of gas

[@joebombero1]

Why was it she was unable to receive from the Itasca, does he discuss this? I keep trying to listen but his voice puts me to sleep LOL.

[@GoSlash27]

The likely culprit was the ventral antenna on the Electra. If the photo evidence is correct, it seems to have ripped out during takeoff from Lae. She was able to transmit fine, but not receive.

[@dianamincher6479]

Endless irrelevant detail?

[@dianamincher6479]

@@GoSlash27 A British man called Balpher tried to transmit the weather report to Amelia 3 hours out of Lae three times and she never received his messages?

[@usveteran9893]

This is correct. If you find a video of them taking off from Lae you will see a puff of smoke and that is when they lost the antenna.@@GoSlash27

[@TheFarmerfitz]

Depending upon if she went off course, where she went off course, she could be anywhere.

[@gregmaggielipscomb9246]

" While you are flying the plane with 2 450 hp engines?" Sir, I need to advise you that her airframe had been modified to incorparate two R-1340AN-1 Pratt & Whiskey 600 HP radials. These are "Wasp" 9 cylinder engine not the original 450 HP Wasp Junior 9 cylinder engine. There is quite a difference in the two..... Thank You for your nice commentary and research endeavors.

[@bambino292]

it shows they are not looking for the plane at the right place

[@dianamincher6479]

True, its a mathematical equation which has not been solved yet but it will be?

[@larryprice8081]

The government knows exactly where the plane is at

[@radicalradiotech4944]

Love Ralf's Commentary!! very good show today guys!! God help us all

[@johnhudak3829]

I absolutely LOVE this stuff! I build all my own tube guitar amps, and the process I use when chasing a sound is exactly what y'all have done here. I look at every link in the signal path and make adjustments until I get what I want. Thanks so much for doing this, can't wait to hear what's next!

[@dianamincher6479]

Its geometry to plot where she came down bearing in mind all the evidence she gave us!

[@paf268]

Impressive amount of work and expertise. Great presentation (except your PowerPoint should have been in full screen mode).

[@russbellew6378]

Did her Bendix receiver include a BFO (Beat Frequency Oscillator)? Without a BFO, detecting a CW signal would be almost impossible. Also, how Morse code proficient was either Amelia or her navigator? I read that too save weight she purposely removed both the plane's trailing long wire antenna and the CW key - pretty dumb actions, IMHO.

[@GoSlash27]

Neither Amelia Earhart nor Fred Noonan was Morse proficient. They recognized this, and thus didn't plan to use CW. There were many questionable decisions made prior to them going "wheels-up", this was just one of them.

[@GoSlash27]

I should add tho'... Their lack of proficiency in Morse didn't affect the outcome. They had a damaged receiver, insufficient planning to even know that they had a damaged receiver, and no ability to diagnose the problem and get it back online even if they did. They needed their dedicated radioman not for his proficiency in Morse, but his technical expertise with the equipment.

[@gregmaggielipscomb9246]

@@GoSlash27 That is so true, Mr. Manning would have made quite a difference!

[@dianamincher6479]

Was here BFO in 1937? CW detection receiver capability should have been established for Lae takeoff surely?

[@dianamincher6479]

Lethal? Ifshe removed long trailing antennae and CW key the mission was doomed from the start?

[@jason60chev]

Her last message was on 7 July 1937......from Gardner Island.

[@eddyaudio]

A Excellent Presentation Full Marks for the work you have done Fred was drinker I think he was sacked from Pam Am for that and I previously mentioned both them didn’t know Morse Code I guess that compounded the problems,And Itaskca only CW and No Voice capability.Ian VK2IJ.

[@johnstirling6597]

I remember watching an interview with a navigator who had been asked to fly with Amelia on her round the world flight,(prior to when Noonan was selected) and he declined to participate as he thought that Amelia was not a good enough pilot for the flight. He also spoke to Noonan and commented that in addition to being a drinker he was inclined to confuse the mathematics of navigation when using a sextant, particularly in allowing for altitude offsets and wind drift. Combine that with the exhaustion that comes with a marathon flight and it looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

[@eddyaudio]

John I fully age with your comment it was disaster waiting to Happen,And the Itasca had homing beacon which to due incompetence of Fred and Amelia they didn’t use,Regards Ian.

[@GoSlash27]

@@eddyaudio 2 corrections: 1 The Itasca did have AM and their logs show that they were using both types of modulation. 2 They weren't too incompetent to use their DF loop, they were attempting to DF on a signal that was too high in frequency and couldn't find a null. The main screwup was on Amelia. She knew full well that they'd never be able to find Howland without DF, but had no procedures in place for checking her radio or what to do in the event of loss of comms. She should've turned back when she failed to establish radio contact with Lae during the first half of the trip.

[@GoSlash27]

@@johnstirling6597 People give Noonan a lot of flak, but the evidence shows he navigated them as perfectly as anybody could've. They got close enough to Itasca to receive their transmissions without an antenna and Earhart's transmissions were so strong the radio guys were convinced she must be overhead the ship. The failure wasn't in Noonan's navigation, it was in the radio receiver.

[@eddyaudio]

@@GoSlash27 I apologise for that but Itasca has LF Beacon operating as a Homing Beacon Amelia could have used that but they problem using there radio and Particularly the DF Loop I wholeheartedly Agee they never should left Lae with state there Radio equipment.

[@GoSlash27]

recommendation for the next test: What are the detection ranges for Amelia's receiver without an antenna? How close does she have to be to "Itasca" to actually hear anything?

[@about2mount]

She never could hear any outside transmissions. However the Itasca knew this while she was still 1 hour away. They should have set their guns to fire rapid successions both north and south to give Amelia a visual and audible bearing when she said We Must Be On You.

[@timothystockman7533]

My guess is that she was never able to establish two-way communication with the Itasca because the receiving antenna on the underside of the airplane was damaged during the overweight takeoff at Lae. However, she did report receiving the 7500 kHz transmission but was not able to get a null. Do you think that she could have received the 3105 voice transmission on the Bendix loop? This would have allowed her to establish two way communication. At some point there may have been a plan to transmit the Itasca's beacon on 333 kHz. Amelia apparently knew nothing of this and the transmission never occurred. Had there been two way communication, maybe this could have been discussed and implemented. Would you have been able to detect the null on a 333 kHz transmission? 73 de N3TS

[@dianamincher6479]

Good to hear Earhart received messages on 7500kHZ BUT WAS NOT ABLE TO GET A NULL-what's that?

[@timothystockman7533]

@@dianamincher6479 Earhart was trying to use the radio signals for navigation. Her airplane was equipped with a Bendix rotatable loop antenna. As the loop is rotated, there is a very sharp minimum in the signal strength, called a null, which allows the operator to determine the direction to the station. Unfortunately, the Bendix antenna was designed for much lower frequencies. At 7500 kHz, it did receive the signal, but at that frequency did not produce a noticeable null. This is what she reported.

[@dianamincher6479]

Bendix loop rotatable and movable? So is the Bendix loop supported and fix?