Very interesting! On Mon, Aug 19, 2024, 8:08 AM Rick Hiller via BVARC <[email protected]> wrote:
> From *Historyfacts.com* > > “SOS” doesn’t actually stand for anything. > > After more than a century of use as a maritime distress signal, “SOS” has > become shorthand for just about any emergency. You may have heard that it > stands for “save our ship” or “save our souls,” but that’s actually a > backronym, or an acronym made up after the fact. The letters in “SOS” > didn’t initially stand for anything; they were originally chosen because > they form a sequence of Morse code that can be transmitted more quickly > than others. > > Morse code (named for Samuel Morse) is a way of transmitting phrases with > light flashes or electrical pulses; each letter and numeral has its own > sequence of between one and five short bursts (known as “dots” or “dits”) > and long bursts (“dashes” or “dahs”). In 1901, inventor Guglielmo Marconi > created a radio transmitter that could send Morse code signals across the > Atlantic, allowing ships to communicate with other vessels and land-based > stations. British operators were already using “CQ,” or “seeking you,” as a > signal to alert all stations, so Marconi’s wireless company recommended > “CQD,” or “seeking you, distress,” as an emergency signal. Meanwhile, the > United States usually used “NC,” the Germans used “SOE,” and Italians used > “SSSDDD.” But the problem with all of these is they required brief pauses > between the letters. > > Delegates at the 1906 International Radiotelegraph Conference suggested a > simpler, more standardized distress call. The letters “S” and “O” — three > dots and three dashes, respectively — are extremely simple and easy to > understand without any spaces, so “SOS” could be transmitted on a quick, > continuous loop. Most countries officially adopted the code in 1908 and, > even though the U.S. was not among them, an American ship was the first to > use the signal when its propeller snapped. “CQD” remained popular with the > British even after other countries had adopted “SOS,” and when the RMS > Titanic sank in 1912, it signaled for help with both “SOS” and “CQD.” By > that time, the backronym had already taken hold. During the British > government inquiry on the Titanic disaster, Attorney General Rufus Isaacs > was under the impression that “SOS” stood for “save our souls.” > > The year the U.S. phased out Morse code for maritime communications -- 1999 > > Also, did you know? The distress signal “mayday” comes from a French word. > > In the 1920s, there was a lot of air traffic between England and France, > and radio communication between pilots was spoken, not telegraphed. While > “SOS” is very practical to transmit using Morse code, it can be easily > garbled when said out loud — an “S” can sound like an “F” or even an “X.” > The term “mayday,” coined in 1923, is a phonetic spelling of the French > m'aidez, meaning “help me,” and was preferred for spoken communication. > Although the observance of the May Day spring festival predates the > “mayday” code by hundreds of years, it’s unrelated to the distress call. > > =============== > > ________________________________________________ > Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club > > BVARC mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org > Publicly available archives are available here: > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >
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