[CW] List of prosigns

Wed Aug 14 21:29:48 EDT 2019

Hi Danny,

I think to end or at least minimize confusion, we should define our terms.

As amateurs we often call official signals by the combination of letters
that when sent without a space make the sound that is sent.

BT becomes equal sign = or "double dash".
AR becomes cross + or "end of message".
AA sent as one group in amateur usage is address separator taken from
American Wire Morse signal for comma.
KA as one group is Starting Signal.

I was taught these were prosigns. Procedure signs were something else.

HR which I heard was for hand ready, was sent like the starting signal.

AA as two letters is "ALL AFTER".

WA word after.

WB word before.

BN between as in BN MARTHA & COOKOUT to get what was between those words.
Sometimes sent as BN? MARTHA BN? COOKOUT.

Interesting old history.

73

DR

On Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 19:01 <n7dc at comcast.net> wrote:

> Have been watching this thread for a couple of days and finding it
> revealing and interesting.  Having been both a military cw op, then working
> as a federal telecoms officer for an additional 25 years, I see a number of
> thoughtful responses, and a  few  partial errors from members.
>
> My first take was on the BT, AR, AA questions.  We typically used the ACP
> manuals used by US and most western military and governments,  including
> NATO, State Department, etc.
>
>
> The AA has correctly been identified as "all after".  Here is an example
> of that:
>
>
> Classified traffic is normally taken from a code pad, after having been
> encoded by an operator.  Usually, the messages
>
> sent were in 5 letter code groups such as:      ABCDE IEPPL NMCDO
> ............ up to 10 groups per line, 10 lines per page.     Often there
> was interference, static, etc. which caused the receiving operator to miss
> a few character or even groups.  At this point, the receiving operator
> would send the other op a BK Bk, (break signal) and once the sender stopped
> keying and was  listening, the receiver would say AA NMCDO K , as in the
> above message.   The sending operator would then say :AA  NMCDO PYLCI
> RTHOZ...........and continue on with the message.  The given RST AND QSA
> reports given to the sender, by the receiver, at the beginning of the
> contact) would indicate to the transmitter op, as to how many groups he
> should send (usually 10-50 groups) before he was supposed to stop, and send
> "BT".  The receiver would then send "RR K" and The message would continue.
> Once in a while, a new operator, would forget about the automatic stop and
> go signals, and just start right in, when we had given him a QSA 3, OR QRK
> 2 , and things would fall apart.  No way he was listening, and just
> continued sending, no matter the conditions.  I one had a flash message
> sent to us, with that happening.  His sending was OK, but conditions just
> were not there.  By the time he got to the end of the message, someone tore
> it off my MILL, and ran to the crypto room with it, and started
> decrypting.  Once the op stopped, I once again gave QSA  AND QRK numbers,
> then told him "AA ABCDE", and he did exactly the same thing, never stopping
> at the end of each 2 or 3 lines and continued right on to the end of the
> message.  I had my watch officer, senior supervisor, station manager, etc.
> all sitting in there by then, all trying to copy him.  Before the end of
> the second transmission, I was told to give him a standby , as they had
> already managed to break his copy back to the original message, and further
> confirmation of receipt of the message.  I gave him the "R QSL NR 0002
> (whatever it was), and he gave me an R AR),  End of communication.  This
> was not a common occurrence, if someone jumped the gun.  The pro signs and
> standards of operation were great, for getting the message through.
>
>
> As an additional fun fact: Our area chief got bent out of shape at my
> station chief and asked him"  Why in hell did you have a first term
> operator sitting to take that message/"  My chief sent one sentence back:
> "Our first term operator copies at 50wpm, if you have better, send ."   It
> followed me though, as I was the last of my class to make GS9, thus slowing
> my career, right thru GS13,  SIGH!
>
>
> I wound up, though, being on our last official CW net, before the complete
> conversion to RTTY operations, then manually tracking Satty signals from
> horizon to horizon, (75 Baud rates),  using Multiple channel HF units,
> being senior computer supervisor, helping start the first intra-net, (our
> own internet- at 9.6 baud rates- HI), and finally satellite supervisor, and
> retired when they told me I either had to go back overseas or move to
> Washingtond DC.  BYYYYYEEEE
>
>
>
> Ex WN5QMX,WA5UKR,ET2US,ET3USA,SV0WPP,VS6DD,N7DC/YV5/G5CTB
> QSL Bureau, DIRECT, LOTW Preferred, eQSL used but upload at a courtesy
> only, as do not use the system for awards.
>
> On July 25, 2019 at 5:25 PM "D.J.J. Ring, Jr." <n1ea at arrl.net> wrote:
>
> Often TTT and XXX were sent in the last 10 seconds of the silent periods,
> especially XXX to attract additional attention.
>
> On 5-ton (500 kHz) you usually had quite an audience.
>
> 73
>
> DR
>
> On Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 17:06 Richard Knoppow < 1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
> wrote:
>
>      Well, write about the ROs on the Suez, it sounds like an
> interesting story.
>      I read somewhere that the method of using TTT and XXX was to
> send them just before a silent period to alert operators to
> listen for the complete message just following the SP. At least
> on 500Khz that would insure a large audience.
>
> On 7/25/2019 1:31 PM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
> > As many know, TTT is Safety (SECURITE)  (Notice to Mariners, Weather
> related,
> > etc.), XXX is Urgent (PAN-PAN) both are sent as individual letters:
> > TTT XXX, but SOS is sent as one group with the dashes in the O part
> > elongated (by treaty) for ease in recognition.
> >
> > If we keep this up, we will have to discuss the Egyptian radio
> > operators on the Suez, darn they were fast.
> >
> > 73
> > DR
>
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> 1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
> WB6KBL
> ______________________________________________________________
> CW mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto: CW at mailman.qth.net
> CW List ARCHIVES: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/
> Unsubcribe send email to
> cw-unsubscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Subscribe send email to cw-subscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
> =30=
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> CW mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:CW at mailman.qth.net
> CW List ARCHIVES: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/
> Unsubcribe send email to
> cw-unsubscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Subscribe send email to cw-subscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
> =30=
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> CW mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:CW at mailman.qth.net
> CW List ARCHIVES: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/
> Unsubcribe send email to
> cw-unsubscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Subscribe send email to cw-subscribe at mailman.qth.net
> Support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
> =30=
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/attachments/20190814/48c43111/attachment-0001.html>