[CW] American Morse Illegal on the Ham Bands?

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

I used to QSO with a fellow who used American Morse, he had a diode in
series with his loud speaker and a capacitor across that to ground and fed
a Morse sounder.  I know the MTC (Morse Telegraph Club) has better
schematics than his but it worked when the noise wasn't too bad.

He told me "clicks" for American and "sound" for International Morse - he
kept them separate that way, but the early Radio Officers on ships had to
use American Morse on spark when contacting US and Canadian stations - or I
guess they "could" use American if they wanted, but the US and Canadian
stations had to use International with non US/Canadian ships.  Eventually
all of radio went International code.

I often wonder (I can now blame a few sleepless nights on it, even though
it isn't true) if early Amateur stations used American Morse.

That was the code in use in USA so it seems that it must have been the rule
rather than the exception.

Anyone here up on that history?

David J. Ring, Jr., N1EA <http://www.qsl.net/n1ea/>
*Gopher Hole:*  gopher://sdf.org/1/users/djringjr/ (native or with
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=30=
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