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It's been a while since I looked at this, but I seem to remember that she
left a trailing-wire antenna behind at Miami (?).

And there was also something about she had never really learned to work the
RDF well enough to get an accurate bearing and/or had the RDF equipment
removed prior to the Lae - Howland leg, but with that being critical to
finding the speck of land in the Pacific that Howland is doesn't exactly
ring true... although given her record of mishaps and accidents over the
years, I'd also have to question her piloting skills - though I'd also think 
that Noonan would have insisted the RDF gear be installed and working (and 
at least one of them able to get a bearing with it) before leaving on that 
part of the trip.


On 3/3/2011 3:51:02 PM, Gary LaPook (glapook@pacbell.net) wrote:

> Various radio experts have examined her radio setup, especially the
> matching circuits and the length of the antenna which was too short (due
> to limitations caused by the size of the plane) to match 3105 khz. Due to
> this mismatch the actually power transmitted by the antenna was between 0.
> 5 and 1.6 watts. We also know that Lae was able to hear her at 0718 Z,
> seven hours and eighteen minutes after takeoff, when she gave a position
> report of 4� 33' south, 159� 07' east, placing her about 750 NM from
> Lae and about 250 NM past the location of the recent "find". But this was
> on her daytime frequency of 6210 khz and the antenna was much more
> efficient on that frequency. She made another report, this time on 3105
> khz at 1030 Z placing them about 1200 NM from Lae, and even further past
> the "find". This transmission was not heard by either Lae or by the Itasca
> but was heard on the nearby island of Nauru.  Itasca heard her for the
> first time at 1515 Z on 3105 khz when the plane would have been at least
> 400 NM from Itasca so we know the radio can get that far at night on 3105
> khz even with the inefficient antenna.

   

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