[CW] QRL? Or the old American "C" Are you busy?

[Richard Knoppow]

dah dah dit dit dah dah was originally the symbol for the 
exclamation point. It was changed by the 1938 international 
conference. At that time the symbol .. .. .. was the period, 
-.-.-. was the coma and --..-- was the exclamation point. In 1938 
the period was changed to -.-.-. the coma was changed to --..-- 
and the exclamation point dropped. This is International Morse. 
In American Morse the exclamation point is ---.  The period was 
..--.. the combination used for Interrogation (question mark) in 
Continental Morse.
    I believe the numbers are from the Western Union "99" code. 
They do not seem to be from the Philips code.
    Some very old wireless books show Morse C as being used for 
"Are you clear?" I think it is the basis for the practice I heard 
often on the air between commercial stations of one station 
signing .. and the other sending . so the combination would mean 
"Clear". I used to hear a lot of unofficial signals used such as 
UP for "go to my working frequency". For instance KSE on 500Khz: 
CQ CQ CQ DE KSE KSE KSE TFC LIST ON 425 KCS AND HF UP  (or 
whatever their working frequency was).

On 12/26/2019 6:09 PM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
> The old procedure of sending American Morse "C" was excellent on 
> commercial circuits but even there the original convention wasn't 
> usually followed. The people who followed the correct procedure 
> were probably under 5%. Many now use QRL? which probably is 
> better and much less confusing.
> 
> The original procedure was to send American Morse "C" so no doubt 
> this procedure goes back 100 years to the 19-teens and 1920's 
> when ships and coastal stations in USA were required to use 
> American Morse with USA ships.
> 
> The official answer to American Morse "C" which sounds like "IE" 
> in International Morse was:
> 
> E - Frequency is busy, standby.
> I - Frequency is not in use, you may use it.
> 
> This is still heard when KPH sends its Traffic List on 500 kHz 
> each Saturday.
> 
> IE (pause) CQ CQ CQ DE KPH KPH KPH TFC LIST QSW 426 AND HF =
> 
> Yes, at that time, a radio telegraph license issued by the USA 
> Department of Commerce were examined in receiving and sending 
> American and Continental (International) Morse, and a technical 
> radio examination (practical). (Commerce Department preceded both 
> Federal Radio Commission (FRC) and Federal Communications 
> Commission (FCC).
> 
> Both American and International Morse Code had unusual features: 
> American Morse had two types of interelement (between dots and/or 
> dashes) and three lengths of dashes, 3 units long as for "T" and 
> all other characters except for "L" and figure "0", 7 units long 
> for "L" and 10 units long for figure "0.) But most people don't 
> know that International Morse had some strange spacings! The 
> International symbol for "full stop" or "period" was "I I I" 
> which we would copy correctly as III. But in the 1930s it was 
> period! Donald de Neuf. President of Press Wireless Company 
> (competitor of Western Union that used point to point 
> radiotelegraphy instead of wires) who tells of receiving a 
> message sent to Choisi Japan Radio, JCS when the ship sent a 
> message addressed to an address in N.Y. and the Japanese operator 
> copied "NEW YORK NIII YIII" " All telegrams were all capitals. 
> Western Union couldn't figure out the address, so they sent it to 
> Press Wireless whose radiotelegraphers understood the problem!
> 
> International Morse had an exclamation point also which was 
> "dahdahdididahdah" which today we'd copy correctly as comma. 
> However in those early days, it was exclamation point.
> 
> When "Radio Amateurs Callbook" was published, they featured a 
> page of abbreviations, two continued to puzzle me.
> 
> 73 - "Best Regards"
> 88 - "Love and Kisses"
> 99 - "Keep out" - Rare
> 
> And this one:
> Dah-dah-di-di-dah-dah "Warning - High Power"
> 
> The last made no sense until I learned that ship radio officers 
> in the days of spark and crystal detectors used American Morse, 
> and this signal was "exclamation point" and that previous to 
> putting the spark set on full high power which would hurt the 
> ears of the operators on nearby ships.
> 
> It simply meant what it said: Warning! HIGH POWER is about to be 
> used, protect your ears!
> 
> It took me twenty years to figure that out, but one ancient 
> Sparks told me that I got the right meaning,
> 
> 73
> 
> David N1EA


-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL