[Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Mike wrote:

"I've talked to merchant radio officers who completed lengthy careers
without ever hearing a real SOS.  Was it sent
...---...  or ...   ---   ... ?"

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SOS was a prosign, as you point out, sent correctly as one character:
...---...  But any error is possible and at times probable. The world of
civilian ops from all countries on the marine band was quite different from
the military channels! 

Focking's CDs of marine band activity is a good reminder about how (not so)
fast many marine stations were and how rough *some* of those fists were -
even some shore ops!  To me, the Ham bands today filled with keyer-generated
CW sound very little like the old marine frequencies where half or more of
the fists were on straight keys. 

I bet a LOT of those ops would have loved to have a K2 for the keyer and, at
times the filters. The 500 calling frequency  was often a cacophony of
signals all on top of one another in the passband of receivers of the day. 

To this day I still prefer a wide filter, even with moderate QRM. With my K2
on CW, I use the SSB filter more than any other.  I love being able to keep
track of what's going on around the frequency I'm using. The trick of
course, is to turn off the AGC so stronger signals in the passband won't
depress the receiver gain. One of these days I'll add a hard limiter to
protect my ears. The dynamic range of the K2 allows really huge peaks to
come through without the AGC. 

Ron AC7AC