Distress call made by Hollywood:
“This is the Virginia Jean. SOS call. Over”
Sorry, guys, but nobody calls “SOS” anymore. It’s “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!”
he’s playing an amateur “blowboater” who is sailing singlehanded transoceanic without an EPIRB. Much as this is supposed to be an excellent tale of a man against the sea, there are already holes in the story that says the guy deserves the hand he is dealt. Sailing alone goes against all the tenants of good seamanship no matter how difficult, doing so sans EPIRB or Sat phone makes it even more a fools errand! I’ve already related my tale here of coming within a few cables of running right over an unlit sailboat in the Red Sea here right in the middle of some of the most busy shipping lanes on the Planet Earth.
I still do want to see this but am not prepared to pay for it. I will download it tho when it becomes available on the PirateBay.
I think SOS was some movie producer’s idea. The unwashed masses around here are more likely to just say “Help” or “I’m lost breaker 16 good buddy” or some such than dredge up Morse code distress calls. 406 MHz EPIRBs/PLBs are under $300 now, but that would make the movie pretty short!
[QUOTE=oldman;122896]Distress call made by Hollywood:"This is the Virginia Jean. SOS call. Over"Sorry, guys, but nobody calls “SOS” anymore. It’s “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!”[/QUOTE]I thought the same thing. Cant honestly say I’ve heard that on channel 16… ever. But he IS playing someone on a sailboat, and as such, he is about spot on with his portrayal of the average level of incompetence from WAFIs. But, I have only see the trailer- maybe I’m wrong.
This is simply poor technical advice…I hate these “bugs” in millions dollars movies when most of the population know very well that MAYDAY is the international way of declaring a distress. It make me think that the movie itself is poor, Who would expect to sail across the ocean and call for assistance using a single VHF radio??? Sailboat owners are usually better prepared then motorboat owner… I don’t think I will go to watch this movie…the trailer itself was enough for me…
Even sailors that can barely afford a case of beer usually scrounge a SPOT, EPIRB, or PLB from someplace. A lot of comments on sailing boards are like “if you had brought a friend to watch where you are going you might not end up hitting things” :rolleyes:
This article in Sailing Magazine interviews the filmmaker:
He doesn’t pretend the the movie depicts a true sailor battling the elements using knowledge and skill. He admits some sailing rules were broken and also notes the Redfords character isn’t a seasoned or knowledgeable mariner.
Sounds like a guy I sailed with. I crewed a 32 ft Downeaster from FT Lauderdale to Gibraltar and the guy who owned the boat was some old fart who bought the boat and had never left San Diego Bay. We get to the Bahamas and he asks me, “You know how this works?” He had a handheld GPS in his hand. I could go on for days about this bozo. Needless to say I left him in the Azores to finish his “dream” with some other sucker. I will say the next boat I got on wasn’t much better. 10 day run from the Azores to Gib with a Belgian who couldn’t get enough potato salad and wouldn’t stop singing ABBA while on watch. Guy sounded like Harvey Fierstein. F-ing knuckleheads. Movie is not bad. Hard to watch him make so many mistakes.
[QUOTE=oldman;122896]Distress call made by Hollywood: “This is the Virginia Jean. SOS call. Over” Sorry, guys, but nobody calls “SOS” anymore. It’s “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!”[/QUOTE] Nobody ever called spoken SOS (other than Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad). It was always a morse code distress sign (…—…), and, as such, is still a valid distress signal today, when given by any means available; along with spoken MAYDAY and a dozen others. Yes, he should have spoken: “MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY this is (call sign) Virgina Jean in position (rough estimate if no other available) over.” But if he suspected his microphone had gone bad, he could just have keyed …—… with the transmit button, for example.
CW (continuous wave) utilizes about 3kh or less of bandwidth compared to around 25kh required for voice, (even less for cell phones, just listen) therefore a cw signal will carry much further, even further considering it is AM instead of FM …(AM radio being ‘active wave’!) the same power concentrated into less bandwidth on a am signal goes magnitudes further than any other type of modulation. the 3 dots and dashes merely made it easily distinguishable from numbers or punctuation the most of which are 6 units of length and under duress are easier to repeat, even if you sort of lose track of what you’re sending, further even; even a idiot can copy di-di-dit-dah-dah-dah-di-di-dit.
[QUOTE=jimrr;132845]CW (continuous wave) utilizes about 3kh or less of bandwidth compared to around 25kh required for voice, (even less for cell phones, just listen) therefore a cw signal will carry much further, even further considering it is AM instead of FM …(AM radio being ‘active wave’!) the same power concentrated into less bandwidth on a am signal goes magnitudes further than any other type of modulation. the 3 dots and dashes merely made it easily distinguishable from numbers or punctuation the most of which are 6 units of length and under duress are easier to repeat, even if you sort of lose track of what you’re sending, further even; even a idiot can copy di-di-dit-dah-dah-dah-di-di-dit.[/QUOTE]
AM or amplitude modulation has twice the bandwidth of SSB. It is not as efficient as the old DSB supressed carrier which was a transition to SSB. SSB has a bandwidth from 2.5 to 3 kHz. There are too many variables for generalization of distance of the transmission. The new digital modes are even more efficient than CW, SSB or RTTY for a given power level.
I figured I’d get some wires crossed here… I meant am-(active mind) as for the bandwidth utilization i’m sort of old school and totally blew past the digital but if you look at what a cw signal uses on the am band like you hear on 40-80 meters It uses just a carrier wave, there is no modulation, you can’t get any narrower than that but you’re right about the new digital stuff which I totally blew past, it is a lot more efficient than it ever was. non-the-less, I am sure you’ll agree you can get a morse code signal to go further and bust thru more atmospheric disturbances and the like than any other form of xmission for the same power and conditions.
[QUOTE=jimrr;132872]I am sure you’ll agree you can get a morse code signal to go further and bust thru more atmospheric disturbances and the like than any other form of xmission for the same power and conditions.[/QUOTE]
That was 100% correct for years but PACTOR does well with high QRN. Most smaller vessels aren’t GMDSS equipped. I haven’t operated enough PSK31 for comparison but friends work KH6 and further regularly on the low bands QRP.
I endured watching this movie. He made so many mistakes it was hard not to yell “DUMB ASS!” What frosts me the most, it was nominated for some academy award… To me, the movie sucked. “Jeremiah Johnson” was his best work!
I finally broke down and watched this disaster flick. I’m so glad I wasn’t in the theatre as I would have been asked to leave for screaming at the screen. Unfortunately , this is probably the norm for these idiots. This would make a great training film on how not to survive
“All is Lost” is now on Netflix, so I downloaded it for this hitch. Thank goodness I was able to fast forward through it. I’ve spent more than my share of time on blowboat passages, and it was too painful to watch.
The credits were the most interesting part. They destroyed 3 identical 1978 Cal 39’s to do the movie. Kind of sad - they were a well regarded boat back in the day. It was filmed off Mexico, a bit in the US (apparently) and then in the Bahamas. They listed the marine surveyor involved, boat transport companies, yards in Mexico, and their favorite lodging and restaurants on location.
Somehow Canada was involved, but it was probably only a bank there that was involved.
Hard to believe the film reviewers liked it.
Could not agree more. I fell asleep about half way through the movie.