[Elecraft] Morse code for "@" (prosign 'AC') -- radio interview

[Mike Morrow]

Wayne Burdick wrote:

> Rick Lindquist of the ARRL was recently interviewed regarding
> the new prosign for "@":      .--.-.  ('AC')

It was pointed out that this was the first official change in anyone's memory, and that Morse is used almost *only* by hams today.

I wonder why it was expressed as an 'AC' concatenation.  Thinking of it instead as a 'WR' run-together will make it easier to send and recognize, if one should actually ever hear it.  When I was learning the odder punctuation symbols for my commercial telegraph license 25 years ago, I found that it helped both my sending and copying initially to think of the "(" as a 'YE' [instead of 'KN'] and a ")" as a 'YA' [instead of 'KK'] and an apostrophe as a '1E' until I'd heard them enough that the total character was visualized when heard.  Along with the colon, semi-colon, dash, and double-dash ('=') characters, they were frequently used on Navy/CG NAVAREA and HYDROLANT notice-to-mariner and weather broadcasts until those went off the air more than 10 years ago.

I doubt that there'll be much acceptance of 'WR' as the Morse "@" signal.  Now-a-days many hams don't even bother to send "DE" before their call sign in a CQ/exchange, and the silly 'B K' abomination has become for many hams the way to turn over to the other operator.

73,
Mike / KK5F