Pan Am modifications in Miami

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There are various claims and counterclaims about what work was done on the Electra's radios during the six days Earhart and Noonan spent in Miami (24-30 May, 1937) after starting the second attempt from Oakland, California, on 20 May 1937.

To date, TIGHAR has not found convincing evidence of any modifications to the radios during this layover. Because a Morse code key was left behind in Miami, some work may have been done on the radio to compensate for its absence.

W.C. Tinus claimed that Earhart left her telegraph key behind in Miami:[1]

Several months after her disappearance we received a small package from Pan American Airways at Miami containing her telegraph key, cord and plug, which she had left in their hangar there. Without these items she could have communicated on 500 kc by voice and could have sent out a suitable signal for direction finding by simply holding the microphone button down for a time. The remainder of her equipment peculiar to the low frequency 500 kc channel probably weighted five or ten pounds, but apparently she did not leave it in Miami or it, too, would have been returned to us.
... She was equipped for 500 kc communication originally and she did leave one item, her telegraph key, behind when she departed from Miami.

References

  1. Amelia My Courageous Sister by Carol Osborne (p. 278).