[CW] How Old is the Closing "Dit Dit" on closing ham radio contacts?
D.J.J. Ring, Jr.
n1ea at arrl.net
Sat Aug 14 16:10:51 EDT 2021
Even today you can hear KPH using IE - the letter C in American Morse that
RCA stations routinely sent before starting their CQ for traffic lit.
"IE (PAUSE) CQ CQ CQ DE KPH KPH KPH TFC LIST QSW 426/HF ="
Supposedly, if you sent E (meaning the frequency was busy), KPH would NOT
send on 500 kHz, if you sent I meaning (frequency is clear), he could.
"Yeah, right." Never heard that happen.
You can hear that every Saturday starting at Noon Pacific time (1500
Eastern) on
*KPH CW*: 426, 500, 4247.0, 6477.5, 8642.0, 12808.5, 17016.8, 22477.5 and
*KFS CW*: 12695.5
KPH listens for ships on 500 and on HF calling channel 3 on 4184.0, 6276.0,
8368.0, 12552.0, 16736.0, 22280.5 kHz.
73
DR
On Sat, Aug 14, 2021 at 3:55 PM Chris R. NW6V <chrisrut7 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Didit-dit is the American Morse "C" ="clear"
>
> On Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 12:03 PM BURNS MARTIN JR <w4foa at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> I don't really know but it was commonplace in 1954 when I got my Novice
>> license. At that time also, instead of QRL? QRL? many ole timers simply
>> uses ie ie I like that better than the longer QRL? But then, all of that
>> is personal preferences, I guess.
>> 73
>> Tony W4FOA
>> > On 08/14/2021 11:17 AM Steve WD8DAS via CW <cw at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > 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
>> > --------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > Radio is your best entertainment value.
>> > --------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > -----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
>> > N1EA______________________________________________________________
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