CQD - The First Distress Call, and How SOS Replaced It Before SOS there was CQD, Marconi's house signal, ordered in 1904 and famous for one night in 1912. Its replacement shows exactly how a standard wins: by being impossible to misunderstand. Marconi's order From February 1904, Marconi-equipped ships used CQD - CQ for 'calling all stations', D for danger. It worked, but it could blur into ordinary traffic at the worst possible moment. 1912 and after Titanic's Jack Phillips sent CQD and SOS interchangeably through the sinking. The world kept the newer one: ... --- ... survives static, fatigue and fear, which is why it, and not CQD, became immortal. Translate any text to Morse code, play it as sound and download the audio free at: https://morsecodeworks.com/