RADIO DISTRESS CALLS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 73, 15 November 1940, Page 15

RADIO DISTRESS CALLS

~ "SOS" Does Not Mean "Save Our Souls"

(By

A.E.

G.

HAT "SOS" is the distress call is known by any small boy. Likely as not he will say that it means "Save Our Souls" or "Save Our Ship," and. many adults will say likewise. But does it mean that? Until the beginning of the twentieth century there was no special wireless call for sea emergencies. About 1900 the Marconi International Marine Communication Co, Ltd., began equipping ships for radio telegraph communication and this company adopted as a "general call" the signal "CQ" which for many years was in use as a precedence signal for any ship desiring: to communicate with another ship or shore station. The preliminary International Radio Conference held at Berlin in 1903 recognised the need for a common distress call and it was here that the Italian delegates suggested that in time of an emergency a ship should send at intervals "SSSDDD." No action was taken. The next year the British Marconi Company instructed its ships’ radio stations to substitute "CD" for "CQ." Later the "D" was inserted in the old "CQ" call giving us "CQD." Finality Reached The 1906 International Radio Conference at Berlin saw the formal adoption of the call "SOS" (.. --- ...). This combination was the outgrowth of "SOE" (... --- .). which had been used by German ships but which was regarded as unsatisfactory because the final dot (E) was easily obliterated by interference. The "CQD" call was so firmly established with some wireless operators, that despite the adoption of "SOS" in 1906 its use was continued some years after. It is recorded that in 1909 the sall "CQD" was used to summon aid for the SS Republic. "SOS" does not mean literally "Save Our Souls" or "Save Our Ship" as is often believed any more than "CQD" meant "Come Quick Danger." All calls of this nature are based on the speed and clarity with which they can be transmitted by Morse ‘Phone Distress Calls While "SOS" is the recognised telegraph distress call, there is another for radio telephony. It is " May day," corresponding to the French pronunciation of the expression "m/’aider" (meaning "help me"). It originated at the 1906 Berlin Conference and was suggested by the British delegation as the "spoken" equivalent of "SOS." The choice of a French word was no doubt due to the preva- lence of the use of the French language and its similarity of meaning to "SOS." However it was not officially approved for international use in radiotelephony until the International Radiotelegraph Conference held at Washington in 1927.