[CW] How Old is the Closing "Dit Dit" on closing ham radio contacts?
sbjohnston at aol.com
sbjohnston at aol.com
Sat Aug 14 11:17:00 EDT 2021
Somewhere I recently read that some German government/military radiotelegraph operators during WWII did the dit-dit as well.
Steve WD8DAS
sbjohnston at aol.com
http://www.wd8das.net/http://af4k-crystals.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: D.J.J. Ring, Jr. <n1ea at arrl.net>
To: CW Reflector <cw at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Fri, Aug 13, 2021 11:46 pm
Subject: [CW] How Old is the Closing "Dit Dit" on closing ham radio contacts?
How old is the "dit dit" you hear on ham radio when stations sign with each other?
Some say the "dit dit" came from "shave and a hair cut" but it didn't the roots of this went way back in radio history.
The "dit dit" was in commercial radiotelegraphy usage in the 1930s according to my friend Bob Shrader, W6BNB who worked for "Dollar Lines" passenger liners in the 1930s and later taught radio at U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY. I had asked him when this started and he said it was common as a handing off when signaling for a frequency shift after calling on 600 meters.
Such an exchange would be like this - going back to stations that were active in the 1940s.
WSL WSL WSL DE WIEA WIEA WIEA K (Steamship "Manhattan/WIEA" is calling Amagansett, Long Island, NY Radio (Mackay Radio) on 500 kc/s (kHz) (600 meters).
WIEA DE WSL R UP 640/633 K (Mackay Radio Amagansett, Long Island answers telling Manhattan to shift UP in wave to 640 meters and listen for WSL on 633 meters.)
Then WIEA (SS MANHATTAN) would send:
R UP = (SS Manhattan says "Received, UP"
WSL (Amagansett Radio) would send:
=
WIEA would acknowledge WSL's sending (BT) by sending the two E's or 'dit dit'.
dit dit
WSL would acknowedge this with a simple singular dit.
This was back when WSL was on 633 meters - or 474 kc/s (now kHz).
Coast Stations were assigned working frequencies.
WSL was assigned 633 meters / 474 kc/s.
Here are the assigned frequencies for the East Atlantic USA Coast.
Callsign Frequency (Wavelength) Location Operating Company
=============================================================
WAG 418 (718) Thomaston, Maine Mackay Radio
WBF 436 (690) Hingham, Mass. Tropical Radio
WIM 406 (740) Chatham, Mass. R.M.C.A. (Radio Marine Corporation of America - RCA)
WSL 474 (633) Amagansett, L.I., NY Mackay Radio
WNY 442 (680) Brooklyn, NY R.M.C.A
WSC 462 (650) Tuckerton, NJ R.M.C.A
WMH 478 (628) Baltimore, Maryland R.M.C.A.
NAM 464 (647) Norfolk, Virginia U.S. Navy
WSV 408 (735) Savannah, Georgia R.M.C.A
WNW 438 (685) Phila, PA Tidewater Wireless Telegraph Company
WMR 418 (718) Jupiter, Fla Mackay Radio
WOE 394 (761) Lake Worth, Fla R.M.C.A
WAX 484 (620) Hialeah, Fla. Tropical Radio
NAR 464 (647) Key West, Fla. U.S. Navy
WPD 438 (685) Tampa, Fla. Privately Owned
WNU 448 (670) New Orleans, La. Tropical Radio
In the 1980s to 1990s the situation would be much the same, but instead of giving wavelengths, we now used frequency, but with one interesting quirk.
In the 1930s when Amagansett Radio / WSL told SS Manhattan to shift wavelength from 600 meters, he said to SS Manhattan/WIEA transmit on 640m and listen for WSL on 633m. - they sent UP because they shifted UP in wavelength.
At some point, stations started using frequency in kilocycles per second instead of wavelength.
So, let's give an example of one time I worked WSL Amagansett Long Island, NY radio from WILLIAMSBURGH;/WGOA - let's see how it was different and the same.
The ship working frequencies (for sending message traffic) in 1920s were in kc/s (kHz) with meters in parenthesis.
400 (750), 410 (730), 425 (705), 454 (660), 468 (640), and ship and shore calling where both ships and shore stations kept a watch 500 kc/s (600m)
So the calling frequency, 500 kc/s was the lowest wave that ships could use on that group of frequencies, so any other frequency was ALWAYS higher in wavelength, so it was always UP.
Here's what happened in 1980:
WSL WSL WSL DE WGOA WGOA WGOA K (Steamship "Williamsburgh/WGOA" is calling Amagansett, Long Island, NY Radio (Mackay Radio) on 500 kc/s (kHz) (600 meters).
WGOA DE WSL R UP 425/418 K (Mackay Radio Amagansett, Long Island answers telling Williamsburgh to shift UP to 425 kHz and listen for WSL on 418 kHz.) WSL's Frequency had changed over the years to 418 kHz.
Then WGOA (Williamsburgh) would send:
R UP = (Williamsburgh says "Received, UP"
WSL (Amagansett Radio) would send:
=
WGOA would acknowledge WSL's sending (BT) by sending the two E's or 'dit dit'.
dit dit
WSL would acknowledge this with a simple singular dit.
This Morse "dance" of <BT> which is = then acknowledged by - then by a dit dit then a single dit carried on for nearly 80 years when Morse finally ended in 1999.
The funniest thing is that stations continued to send UP when they told the other station to shift to their working frequency!
73
DR
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