[Elecraft] Not moving your wrist sending CW ?

[Fred Jensen]

Officially, "K" is the prosign for "invitation to transmit."  OK, 
nothing is "official" in ham radio, but hams have traditionally ended a 
CQ or a transmission with "K", an invitation to transmit ... roughly the 
CW equivalent of "over." Also traditionally, although less so, is "KN" 
which roughly translates, "over to the station I'm in contact with 
only." Ending a CQ with "KN" is thus mildly nonsensical since you're not 
in contact with anyone yet.

However, consider that the Morse character for "?" translates to "IMI" 
[and others such as "UTI" and "EWI"], the prosign for "Please repeat," 
or "I will repeat."  In the heyday of radiotelegraphy, "INT" was used by 
the Navy as the interrogatory prosign meaning "What follows is a 
question."  INT QSB, "Are my signals fading?"  Hams and most commercial 
ops just used IMI for either, still do, and somehow, we're not 
confused.  K or KN ... most will figure it out.

73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 3/29/2020 2:13 PM, brianchapnick at rogers.com wrote:
> Jim, pardon my ignorance but KN means end of transmission or invite a specific station to transmit from what I see. Why would that deter a reply from a CQ? I am sure you are right but I would like to know the experienced understanding from a pro.
>
> Brian VE3GMZ
>