[Elecraft] 'Q' signal trivia

[Dale Putnam]

BK sent as a procedural .... was originally brought about by the conversion of stations to automatic control of changeover from xmit to rx... with seperate rx/tx and no controling assistance, it took some time to cut the high voltage from the tx, change the antenna feed to the rx, and unmute the rx. Then when the other fellow was done, and sent his "k", the reverse had to be done... the prosign "BK" was used to let the other station know that you had fast changeover and he could start talking right away... rather than wait until he figured the changeover had been made.   That one prosign speeded up converstaions a whole lot.  Now.. no one needs use it.. as everyone but the brave, have xceivers that changeover very fast. Have a great day, 

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Dale - WC7S in Wy