[Hallicrafters] History CW information requested.

[Chuck McGregor]

At 05:37 PM 9/28/2007, Waldo Magnuson wrote:
>In WW-II my understanding is that the CW sent and received was in 5 
>character groups (at least that is what the books on the English 
>code breaking effort indicate).  Does anyone know why 5 character 
>groups were used?  Thanks.

Skip -
I found the following in a wikipedia article on "telegraph codes":

"In 1931, the 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Code_of_Signals>International 
Code of Signals, originally created for ship communication by 
signalling using flags, was expanded by adding a collection of 
five-letter codes to be used by radiotelegraph operators. "

But I would suspect this was just the formal codification of a 
practice that dated to the use of commercial codes in landline telegraphy.

--Chuck