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[Gary LaPook]

How about the first test of the RDF done by Balfour on 500 kc?

Is this what you're referring to?

"At noon on June 30th Miss Earhart, in conjunction with our Operator, tested out the long wave received on the Lockheed machine while work was being carried out in the hangar. This was tested at noon on a land station working on 600 metres. During this period the Lockheed receiver was calibrated for reception of Lae radio telephone, and this was, on the next day, tested in flight."

So the airplane is in the hangar and a land station somewhere (Chater doesn't say where) transmits a signal on 500 kHz (600 meters).  The airplane's receiver was able to hear the signal.  Where does it say the signal was received using the loop and that this was an RDF test?

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Chatter doesn't specifically say that they checked the deviation of the RDF at that time but it would have been a simple thing to do at that time and would have given Noonan confidence that he had two independent and redundant methods for finding Howland, the working RDF and his  celestial navigation. It also makes sense that Noonan would have asked Balfour to do this since the RDF did not work on the approach to Dakar.

Paul Rafford in his book Amelia Earhart's Radio on page 35 & 36 says that Thibert checked the deviation of the RDF at Miami and made up a calibration curve card for the RDF and left it in the plane. Rafford then says on page 63 - 66 that Balfour checked the deviation of the RDF on the 500 kc signal from Salamaua and found that his tests agreed with the Thibert deviation curve and that Noonan was satisfied with this result. Rafford talked to Thibert but I do not know the source for Rafford's information concerning the Balfour test.

This does answer your question of "what happened?" since it couldn't have been the in-flight test that didn't work.
gl

gl

[Harry Howe, Jr.]

In the Chater Report it is stated that AE tried the RDF with a Lae station during a flight test but was unable to get a "null".  She "assumed" that the failure to get a null was because she was too close to the Lae station.  Based upon that assumption she took off anyway not knowing whether or not her RDF was operating properly and would be able to detect the signals sent by Itasca and/or Howland.

IMHO The woman was a disaster waiting to happen.

[Gary LaPook]

When you start talking about celestial navigation, Ric, you are out of your depth.

You're right about that.  I'm not a celestial navigator nor have I ever played one on television. 

So Noonan should have been able to predict that his sunrise LOP on the Lae/Howland leg would be 157 337 maybe even before they left Miami. So I wonder what accounts for the apparent change in his confidence level between Bandoeng in late June and Lae on July 2nd.

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Hey, good point Ric. So, IF his plan had been to fly 157° to the Phoenix islands in the event that he couldn't find Howland then he could have told everybody that back in the states before they left Miami. Hmmmm.

gl

[Ric Gillespie]

Chatter doesn't specifically say that they checked the deviation of the RDF at that time ...

I didn't think so.

... but it would have been a simple thing to do at that time and would have given Noonan confidence that he had two independent and redundant methods for finding Howland, the working RDF and his  celestial navigation. It also makes sense that Noonan would have asked Balfour to do this since the RDF did not work on the approach to Dakar.

So you speculate and then treat your speculation as fact and ask, "How about the first test of the RDF done by Balfour on 500 kc?"

Paul Rafford in his book Amelia Earhart's Radio on page 35 & 36 says that Thibert checked the deviation of the RDF at Miami and made up a calibration curve card for the RDF and left it in the plane. Rafford then says on page 63 - 66 that Balfour checked the deviation of the RDF on the 500 kc signal from Salamaua and found that his tests agreed with the Thibert deviation curve and that Noonan was satisfied with this result. Rafford talked to Thibert but I do not know the source for Rafford's information concerning the Balfour test.

If we start accepting anecdotal recollection as fact we may as well start searching on Saipan.

This does answer your question of "what happened?" since it couldn't have been the in-flight test that didn't work.

It's exactly that kind of reasoning that has kept Amelia Earhart lost for 74 years.

[Gary LaPook]

Chatter doesn't specifically say that they checked the deviation of the RDF at that time ...

I didn't think so.

... but it would have been a simple thing to do at that time and would have given Noonan confidence that he had two independent and redundant methods for finding Howland, the working RDF and his  celestial navigation. It also makes sense that Noonan would have asked Balfour to do this since the RDF did not work on the approach to Dakar.

So you speculate and then treat your speculation as fact and ask, "How about the first test of the RDF done by Balfour on 500 kc?"

Paul Rafford in his book Amelia Earhart's Radio on page 35 & 36 says that Thibert checked the deviation of the RDF at Miami and made up a calibration curve card for the RDF and left it in the plane. Rafford then says on page 63 - 66 that Balfour checked the deviation of the RDF on the 500 kc signal from Salamaua and found that his tests agreed with the Thibert deviation curve and that Noonan was satisfied with this result. Rafford talked to Thibert but I do not know the source for Rafford's information concerning the Balfour test.

If we start accepting anecdotal recollection as fact we may as well start searching on Saipan.

This does answer your question of "what happened?" since it couldn't have been the in-flight test that didn't work.

It's exactly that kind of reasoning that has kept Amelia Earhart lost for 74 years.

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Hey, you asked the question.

I didn't happen to write in my diary that the sun rose today but that doesn't mean that it didn't.

gl