Originally Posted by
David Billings
4: The S5 heard at the USCG ITASCA, meant nothing in regard to her being close, she could have been a thousand miles away and still be S5.
Just to add a little more to this; there exists a phenomenon known as 'exalted signal [or carrier[ reception', something I first experienced slightly more than 40 yrs ago. The essence of this is that a strong local carrier can significantly enhance (exalt) the apparent signal of a distant station. If the two transmissions are perfectly aligned there will be no noticeable 'beat' and the received telephony could appear as if local, despite being an otherwise weaker signal and/or a long distance from the receiver.
Bearing in mind the relative crudeness of radio at the time there are several sources by which a strong signal on the same frequency could occur, for example: adjacent transmitter, distant transmitter with propagation, spurii from other local equipment, interaction with rogue connections mixing other signals, and of course the receiver's local BFO. It may also be that such phenomena was not well understood then, thus meaning it might not be recognised by an operator should it occur (somewhere I have a 1938 Admiralty handbook on radio [which still discusses spark transmitters!], when I can find it I'll see if there's any reference to this).
Once again of course this doesn't prove anything, merely that the possibility of Amelia's transmission(s) appearing to be strong at the receiving station, despite her being quite some distance from the locale, exists by (I suggest) at least
two methodologies.
FP.