[CW] AR

[Marshall Emm]

Hi, David--

Not sure if this will get through to the list-- if not could you pass it along 
please?  

>>We didn't use AR like the hams use, because we were telling the called
station to "go ahead" - I have always found this "ham use" to be strange.
<<

I got my training in Australia where you had to take a sending test.  They gave 
you text to send and you HAD to send the "commencing signal" CT and finish with 
the "ending signal" AR.  We were also trained to use it as the last thing sent 
before K or KN.  We were told that it could be used in message traffic, but as 
an ending signal it went AFTER the call signs, and believe it or not there was 
a reason--  it made it clear that the K was not part of the callsign.  To this 
day,  serious CW contesters and DXers try not get stuck with a callsign ending 
in K  For that reason.

Anyhow, in the sending test you were allowed 7 uncorrected mistakes, and 
prosigns, numbers, and puncuation counted as 2.  If you sent what was on the 
paper without CT and AR you were already down 4 points.  We used to joke about 
the term "uncorrected mistake."  According to the book, if you make a mistake, 
you send the error signal (8 dits) then go back to the beginning of the last 
correctly sent word.  That was a proper "correction" and they gave you extra 
time, which was handy if either the word you screwed up or the preceding one 
happened to be 10 or 12 letters long [g]..  But nobody every said what happened 
if you made another error while correcting the first one.   

It was really pretty rigorous, and guys did fail it from time to time.  I wish 
the FCC had never dropped it here, because as WE all know there is a lot more 
to sending than being able to "copy."  The idea that anyone who passed the 
receiving test would pass the sending test was a statistical misconception.  
What the receiving test proved was that you could LEARN to send code, but 
without the sending test there is no incentive to do so.  You're almost 
entirely on your own.  The sending test was the ONE opportunity to have someone 
authoritatively and accurately critique your sending.  Anybody who remembers 
those days will I'm sure agree that there were fewer truly "bad fists" on the 
air!

  

73
Marshall Emm
N1FN/VK5FN
n1fn@MorseX.com
Morse Express and Oak Hills Research
"Everything for the Morse Enthusiast"
http://www.MorseX.com
http://www.ohr.com
(303)752-3382
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