TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => Radio Reflections => Topic started by: matt john barth on November 09, 2012, 08:49:07 AM
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I would like to mention, that the best piece of evidence on the Niku Hypo that I think Tighar has is the article about Dana Randolph. The only thing that ties Earhart to the Norwich City. How could a 16 year old kid know that before the news even broke. I do not know why no one really talks of this, as a matter of fact I would think it's pretty good proof, some of the best. I did some research on Dana Randolph because I live in Northern Colorado, Rock Springs is not to far. The house still stands and is owned by the Sweetwater County District Attorney. I wrote her an email to see if she knew the history on the house. I did this because I was board at work one day. Went even further, tried to find where he was buried and it looks to me like LA is the final resting place. Tried to see if he had any children but it doesn't look like it. I'm very interested in what they did with him after the post loss radio message, as far as teaching him to be a radio operator. I noticed he went into the Army and that is kind of where I loose the trail. This interests me because I am a Ham Radio Operator myself. What some of this sounds like to me is what we call band openings. Something in the ionosphere changes and causes certain frequencies to open up for long distance communications. 50 MHZ will do this from meteor showers, storms, and solar flares. Different things affect different bands. I was able to talk to Australia on 10 watts on the summer solstice from colorado. Conversation lasted a couple of minutes and then was gone. This was at 14mhz. Can talk to Japan just about everyday at around 4pm mst. I find this part of the story so interesting and can't figure out why no one speaks of it.
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Maybe some people just don't want to believe. They don't believe Betty's story, why should they believe Dana's.
Here is another one. Check out this story from The Southeast Missourian newspaper on July 8, 1937. (http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pVIfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J9IEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2178%2C945762) This article relates the story of a creamery worker, Ray Havens, from Conrad, MT. Read the story and then check out the location of the map coordinates he provided. TIGHAR even evaluated this report (http://tighar.org/smf/index.php/topic,320.15.html) (you have to scroll down to reply #15) and decided it was not credible.
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I was able to talk to Australia on 10 watts on the summer solstice from colorado. Conversation lasted a couple of minutes and then was gone. This was at 14mhz. Can talk to Japan just about everyday at around 4pm mst.
When you say "talk," do you mean communicating by voice or by code?
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Hopefully this ends up on the right page for all to see. When I spelled the word Hypo I meant short for hypothysis. Not sure I am spelling it right and I was to lazy to look it up. I think Dana's was the most beliveable becase he new of the abandoned ship near the equator if you read that story. No one had heard that except for him. To clear things up about my last statement when I said talk I meant that Dana heard Amelia but he could only recieve so he couldn't talk to her. Now on the other hand when I mentioned my Ham Radio communications I meant that I was transmitting and recieving. I think someone asked about that in the thread. I find it interesting that the term band opening seems to be unfamiliar to some. Band openings happen all the time. Almost everyday depending on the Frequency. 14mhz opens in the morning and stays open till about sunset. During most of the day you'll talk around the states and down into south america on good days especially when there are solar flares or Corona Mass Ejections. Like clock work a major solar flare is reported then about 24 to 48 hours after you can use 14mhz to talk all over the world. Across the Pacific is usually where you'll get during one of these band openings. You'll hear someone from Japan and they will fade in and fade out all day sometimes. The lower frequencies are affected as well some bands close off when there is a solar storm and some open up. I tried to track the sunspot cycle back to 1937, I think I found that at that time the earth would have been in the middle of the seven year solar cycle. I'm not sure my math is correct though due to lack of motivation. Don't really see what that proves. To clearify though we are in the middle of a seven year sun spot cycle and a lot of old timers told me to be aware of this because band openenings happen more consistantly during the middle of the sunspot cycle. This year I was able to verify that and it is true. Most of the time during the day you can make contact across the pacific. When we were in the beginning of the sun spot cycle, to communicate across the Pacific is hit or miss. When I operate I use voice communications and digital modes like RTTY. Has anyone done more research on Dana as far as offspring and what he did after all of this? I know it doesn't prove anything but interesting all the same. I guess if Dana was lying about his reception of Earhart that morning then he must have been able to tell the future. I think if that was true he would have died with more money. I was also wondering how tighar looks at the Dana Randolph report? Do they feel the same way I do. By the way the Sweetwater county Da never wrote me back about the house Dana lived in, must have thought I was crazy, I guess I would have thought myself that as well.
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I think Dana's was the most beliveable becase he new of the abandoned ship near the equator if you read that story.
You'll hear someone from Japan and they will fade in and fade out all day sometimes.
Matt, can you link the story where Dana Randolph described the “ship” as an “abandoned ship”?
Whether “ship” meant the airplane or a shipwreck is interesting either way but more interesting if it is a shipwreck. It’s pretty descriptive “ship” on a “reef” and “south of equator”.
I also think it is interesting that in the Catalog and Analysis of Radio Signals (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/ResearchPapers/Brandenburg/signalcatalog3.html)during the window of time that Dana said he heard Earhart that there are 3 other credible sources hearing a message or getting a signal. Also interesting that you mention someone from Japan fading in and out. See Earnest Crabb’s story.
Dana Randolph
Z 1500-1525
Earnest Crabb
Z 1500 and unspecified subsequent times
Pan Am RDF Station Midway
Z 1512
Pan Am RDF Oahu
Z 1523-1530
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Greg, here is a link to the TTracks, 2005 vol 21 (http://tighar.org/Publications/TTracks/2005Vol_21/onreef.pdf)article about Dana. It has a reference to the original newspaper article if you want to further investigate the matter.
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From experience investigating and interviewing witnesses, it is well documented that
the first statement is usually closer to the truth than later versions.
I have always found the Randolph case intriquing and one of the best of the Voice receptions.
It would seem a teenager making up stories and going to his parents and police, especially
given the racial issues in 1937, would make a hoaxer hesitant to invent a story.
So given the newspaper reports of June 7th, the fact he knows the call signs,(or close), and ship on reef, is exciting.
However, in reviewing old newspapers, I do not see the same exact story being told immediately on the July 5th editions and in later editions. It seems in the first telling of the story, there was no mention of plane call signals at all. Dana in fact denied hearing any at first. A July 5th recapture link is below, and I have found one other July 5th paper and it stated the same thing. So there does not seem to be anything in his orginal Randolph story that was not already in the July 3rd New York daily news besides ship on reef south of equator. Which is no better than other hoax reports of 200 miles north of Howland as far as the listener knowing something unique and proven.
If anyone else has a different July 5th paper, would love to read it, that would be the earliest reporting and the one least likely to suffer later embellishments. I think he heard something, but it may have only been the word Amelia repeated over and over along with some numbers he did not understand or write down.
http://trib.com/news/local/casper/a-look-back-in-time-into-the-depths/article_bc835e25-ee8e-59ad-a2cd-774ecb12c3c6.html
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Interesting article, thanks for that.
I remain very intrigued by Dana's experience and the possibilities.
Somebody should check out the facts: the article says that the boy's name was Charles (who heard AE) and that his father, Dana, then made the report to the authorities.
:)
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Interesting article, thanks for that.
I remain very intrigued by Dana's experience and the possibilities.
Somebody should check out the facts: the article says that the boy's name was Charles (who heard AE) and that his father, Dana, then made the report to the authorities.
:)
Tim, my reference was to a TIGHAR Tracks article (http://tighar.org/Publications/TTracks/2005Vol_21/onreef.pdf). To which article are you referring??
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Woody, the Casper Tribune Herald article posted more recently by Tom Howard at the end of Reply #8.
:)
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Tim, "tom howard" is on my "ignore list" but I went back and read the article that he posted. Notice that the article is from the Casper Tribune Herald. The article that TIGHAR quotes is purported to be from the local newspaper, the Rock Springs Rocket, where Dana lived. I have not found the original article but have no reason to believe that TIGHAR's quote is incorrect.
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No argument here, Woody. Just thought I should point out the discrepancy.
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Tim, no problem from me. I was just curious. ;)
Somewhere I have seen the original story, I just cannot remember where. Getting old is sure no fun. The memory is one of the first things to go. :P
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Interesting article, thanks for that.
I remain very intrigued by Dana's experience and the possibilities.
Somebody should check out the facts: the article says that the boy's name was Charles (who heard AE) and that his father, Dana, then made the report to the authorities.
:)
OK, guys...just did a quick check of the 1940 Federal Census for Rock Springs, Sweetwater Co., WY. The Randolphs can be found on Sheet #20B. Their rented house was located at 1408 10th Ave. I don't know how to post the ancestry.com census link, sorry. At any rate, Cyrus Randolph, age 43, was head of household and was a coal mine engineer; wife was Betty B., age 38, and son was Dana 'Dona' (sic), age 18, a high school student. So, it's clear that the teenage ham radio operator was son Dana and the father was Cyrus, not Charles, at least for census purposes. Hope this helps.
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Great detective work Will. Thanks for the update. ;)
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Ditto, Hatch.
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Sorry to possibly raise an uncomfortable issue but given the times and Dana's particular demographic, were there any credibility issues raised with his claim? other than hearing a call from the south pacific in Wyoming that is.
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Sorry to possibly raise an uncomfortable issue but given the times and Dana's particular demographic, were there any credibility issues raised with his claim? other than hearing a call from the south pacific in Wyoming that is.
I haven't heard of any credibility issues from 1937.
From the post-loss radio signals catalog (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/ResearchPapers/Brandenburg/signalcatalog3.html):
A local Department of Commerce radio operator investigated and verified Randolph’s report, and found that the call sign heard was KHAQQ, and that the signal frequency was “near 16000” kHz, which is close to 15525 kHz, the 5th harmonic of 3105 kHz. It was plausible for Randolph to be tuning there, since 15525 kHz was near a shortwave broadcast band. The investigator also found that the signal included a statement – not reported by the newspaper – that the plane was “on a reef southeast of Howland Island.” The possibility of a hoax can be ruled out, given the investigation and the fact that the newspaper was published every other day, hence printed news of post-loss signals had not yet reached Rock Springs.
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I haven't heard of any credibility issues from 1937.
Thank you, that answers my question.
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What MR. Moleski says is why I think that this is one of the best pieces of circumstantial evidence that we have. The news wasn't even printed yet. That is a big point if you ask me.
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So, it's clear that the teenage ham radio operator was son Dana and the father was Cyrus, not Charles, at least for census purposes. Hope this helps.
To be clear, Dana Randolph was not a "ham" (licensed radio amateur). He was merely listening on the short-wave band of his family's commercial radio set.