Art you bring up the point of why would these kids chance it. ( and btw Jeff take a look at the pictures, these were kids).
Well why does a volunteer fireman set a fire and then call it in, risking his family and everything he worked for including possible jail time?
Because some people want to do it, simple as that.
To be a hero, to keep the action going, for a lot of different personal reasons.
However, to get into the minds of possible hoaxer, is way beyond our scope 75 years later. Was it malicious, or a joke a student played keying the mic a few times on a bathroom break....Did an operator accidently tie down the mic with a rubber band for two hours somehow after knocking it to the floor.. the possibilities are endless.
Who knows. We cannot know.
Since we cannot know, I am not stating it is a 100% fact there was a hoaxer. I am stating it is possible.
In that mass confusion of reports, I have read or heard nothing that makes me buy into Brandeburg's summary report statement- " no central pacific ground station transmits on 278 kz or received on 3105 kz.
Therefore other the Itasca, Earharts electra was the only plausible source."
Partially Paraphrased, but that is what he basically said, and it leaves a lot of people saying WOW!... If a signal was picked up on 3105khz, then Brandenburg says it probably might have been Amelia, and she had to have landed, and so on.
When few know that these same land operators were indeed receiving on 3105khz, and possibly transmitting as well, and also reporting Japanese music being played over these same frequencies. I doubt Amelia was spinning Japanese records on Gardner Island in her spare time.
So, if some transmissions on 3105khz are in doubt, all are in doubt, and If Brandenburg is unaware of the capabilities of the Land sets, and/or never considered the probability of hoax transmissions, then the report itself is inconclusive in my opinion. If he found no documented conflict, it was a credible source.That ignores the possibility of hoax entirely, whether by the islanders or by vessel. But the bottom line is undeniable- there was obvious radio traffic documented on 3105khz other than what could have come from the electra or the Itasca. Take that into consideration when considering the post loss report summation.
Now I still believe she may have landed at Gardner. It is logical. The navy thought it logical. I simply put no faith in these so called post loss transmissions the more intently they are examined. Alan Harris called it right, something is wrong, it's fishy. This supposedly qualified operator calls the Itasca and tells them he hears Earhart distinctly. It was her! Yet nobody else hears it, or seemed to put credence behind it(maybe they knew more about his personality than we do now).
Then, after what should have been one of the most memorable events in his life, certainly his closet brush with fame and history, Mr.Yum is interviewed and disavows ever knowing one thing about any post loss transmissions.
Now you can think that sounds like a credible, responsible person.
To me it sounds unbelievable. And that is just one operator. There were what, 3 operators on each island? And 12 or so Hawaiian students who operated the radios before as well. So a lot of possibilities exist.
I'll stick with the Navy's determination on this issue, there were a lot of transmissions to AE, a lot of confusion and cross talk, and not one solid transmission received that can be 100% tied to her, and her alone exclusively.
Now some will claim Navy conspiracy. If all else fails, that always seems to be the answer. I do not think so. The Navy did their job.
Let the Gardner landing evidence stand or fall on the real evidence, not radio waves carrying Japanese music and static, and bogus transmissions heard or perhaps even produced by teenage boys or a Japanese Fishing trawler.
The more the post loss transmission evidence is examined, the stronger I believe the Navy got it right in 1937.