On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 18:31:55 -0500, "Martin X. Moleski, SJ"
wrote:

On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 15:32:26 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

1. She and Fred Noonan, her navigator, refused to learn Morse Code.
They planned to rely on voice. This became a fatal flaw when they
needed to communicate with the Coast Guard crew waiting for
them at Howland Island.

Mantz also indicated, that at Putnum's instance AE left the long wire
antenna in Florida to lighten the load ...

RIght. The 250' trailing antenna was exclusively for 500 Hz (aka
as "kcs" in the old sources), which, in turn, was exclusively
for Morse Code (aka as "CW", continuous wave).

Since neither AE nor FN knew CW, there was no point in
carrying an antenna dedicated to an all-CW frequency.

I'm coming in late; maybe this was already covered.

Until a few years ago, 500 kHz was the one frequency marine radio
operators were REQUIRED to monitor continually, day and night, for
emergency traffic.

Also, If I remember _North to the Orient_ CW was one of the things
Anne Morrow Lindbergh made it a point to master before that flight,
and that was six years before AE and FN disappeared.

I'm surprised they'd throw away a lifeline like that.

Don