I believe it was you, Ric, who in he past have stated that the reason that Earhart and Noonan did not construct signals designed to be seen from airplanes is because they did not expect any planes to be searching for them.
Please let me know if I ever state the reason Earhart and Noonan did or did not do something. No one can do that except Earhart and Noonan, and they're dead. All I, or anyone, can do is offer speculation about their motivations.
You also believe that Earhart listened to broadcasts from KGMB about 8 pm Hawaiian time on both July 4th and 5th as shown by the reception of dashes in response to requests from KGMB that you believe came from Earhart.
Yes, I believe that because I think the historical record clearly shows it to be true.
My point is that it was not a military secret that they would be using planes to search for Earhart so it would have been like sneaking a sunrise past a rooster to keep the KGMB people from knowing about the planes.
I agree.
It is my understanding that the broadcasts directed to Earhart included words to encourage her and to let her know that a search was being conducted and to let her know that help was on the way. Given this, it would appear extremely unlikely that the broadcasts did not include the information about the search planes. My question now is, do you have any evidence, such as transcripts or scripts, that the broadcasts from KGMB did NOT mention the fact that these two ships and their planes were on the way to search for Earhart?
Your understanding is, once again, in error. The KGU and KGMB messages to Earhart, as reported in official USN and USCG radio messages during the search, asked her to send dashes in response. For example, this transmission was sent by KGMB on the evening of July 4:
TO EARHART PLANE WE USING EVERY POSSIBLE MEANS ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH YOU IF YOU HEAR
THIS BROADCAST PLEASE COME IN ON 3105 KCS USE KEY IF POSSIBLE OTHERWISE VOICE TRANSMISSION IF YOU HEAR THIS BROADCAST TURN
CARRIER ON FOR ONE MINUTE SO WE CAN TUNE YOU IN THEN TURN CARRIER ON AND OFF FOUR TIMES THEN LISTEN FOR OUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AT
0645 GCT
There's good evidence that Earhart heard this and other direct requests for her to send dashes.
I agree that it's likely that KGMB's regular news broadcasts - directed to the public, not Earhart - included mention of the aerial search. We have no evidence that Earhart heard those broadcasts but it certainly seems possible that she did. If so, then it would seem reasonable that she would want to prepare some way to mark her presence to an aerial search but we have no way of knowing what she was able to do or what she decided to do. We do know that Lambrecht saw something that he interpreted as "signs of recent habitation" that were "clearly evident" and which he, much later, recalled as being "markers of some kind."