Show letters form the ambulance call of the seas takes the place of Q D made fa by jack binns some wire less telegraphy facts and figures new york it Is estimated that there are about vessels ot the merchant marine equipped with wire less besides a host of small craft there are about land stations not including government stations on our coast some long distance talking has been done by wireless commercial business Is done be tween the glace bay station and allt den ireland 1939 miles apart in november the pacific mail steamship korea reported to san francisco when 2 miles from honolulu and 4 miles from san francisco this beat by miles the long distance record from ship to shore I 1 on the previous evening by the korea when 4 miles out on november 22 the cunard liner caronia got into touch ath the hoi landia holland station when 1448 miles away A vessel in the pacific picked up the mare island navy yard 1050 miles away on october 11 1908 the un ted states station in san francisco established working corn muni catlon with the kuhuke station on oahu one of the hawaiian group in january of last year the los angeles station got the same station in october the steamship lurlne talked to both honolulu and san fran cisco when 1 miles from the latter port less than a month ago W G magin nis the wireless operator stepped tc wireless operator at work his key on the sinking steamship ken tucky and sent out the signal S 0 S the international wireless distress call before the water reached the dynamos his cry for help was heard the mallory liner alamo guided by information by the operator located the kentucky and rescued her company just before the steamship went down this happened near dia mond shoals and before morning came the story of the rescue was tol 1 ashore and S O 0 S the new am balance call of the sea was made famous the story of that rescue has been di a number of times since the wireless became a feature of the equipment of nearly every ger carrying vessel which puts to sea A decade spans the development of applied wireless and even now when it has not reached a perfected state it has not only become a commercial factor but it has robbed the sea of half its terror accidents which in the not so long ago were of the grav est sort and meant not only sleepless nights to the officers and passengers but days of heartbreaking toil to the men have become but exciting inci dents of an ocean voyage the sinking of the white star liner republic made the distress signal Q D a byword around the world Q Is the pall meaning to standby stand by or to give attention in continental news services where sev eral operators are on a loop the call Q signifies that a message te coming through for all operators to take it saves time the marconi corn pany i ses it as a general call for at they added the letter D to the combination this stands for dan ger and is the signal of danger de manding that every operator stop all business and prepare to receive the message to follow the S O 0 S is the wireless dis tress signal provided for in the service regulations of the international wire less telegraph convention adopted at beri n in 1908 the combination of letters have no especial s except that they are easy to sound and click out strong and easily read the story of the saving of th 1 sink ing kentucky on february 4 Is a straightaway tale of an operator who sat at his key until the water reached the dynamos and shut off the power SOS was the call he sent through the air while below him the men were working with might and main to kep the fast filling vessel afloat until came |