[CW] Morse for the @ sign

Sat, 6 Sep 2003 12:38:56 -0400

II was used as a "separator signal"

When press (PX) was sent it was routine to send difficult or unexpected
words twice, separated by the separator sign:

One of the "funniest" such uses was when WCC (RCA Chatham, MA) sent out a PX
with this in it:

ST. LOUIS, MO - (AP) = ON MONDAY POPE JOHN PAUL II  II  II ARRIVED IN ST.
LOUIS ......

That's right - the first II was the "roman numeral 2" which being unexpected
was repeated by sending (yes, the same thing as the roman numeral) II then
repeating the numeral.

So I think they MUST have been "having fun" with this practice because it
was MORE confusing (at least to me - who nearly got so confused that I
missed the next line) than if it had been sent without the repeat - but I
guess that would be confusing to those who would have been waiting for
something to be repeated.

73

DR
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Martin W4FOA" <[email protected]>
To: "Gene A. Williamson" <[email protected]>; "CW REFLECTOR"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003 12:26 PM
Subject: Re: [CW] Morse for the @ sign

> I always understood "didit didit" to mean a hypen or dash or in some cases
> an exagerated space/blank.  Interesting thread.
> 73 and dahdadit  ditdahdidit (GL)
> Tony, W4FOA
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gene A. Williamson" <[email protected]>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003 9:37 AM
> Subject: [CW] Morse for the @ sign
>
>
> >      Years ago, I would listen to the 20m NCDXC Sunday evening DX
> > bulletin, which spotted active DX stations. They would send Morse
> > thus:
> >
> > N7YW/P5 didit didit 1400Z didit didit 14024
> >
> >      I wondered why the letter "i" sent twice between call, time, and
> > frequency. Much later I saw somewhere (magazine? handbook?
> > hallucination?) that "didit didit" was the @ sign.
> >
> > 73 Gene N7YW
> > 99.44% CW since 1958 (ex-K7DBV)
> >
> >
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