[Heathkit] Question from Non-Ham

[Robert & Linda McGraw K4TAX]

Excellent description given here.  Thanks.

To wit, some years ago we took a cruise and while aboard ship took the 
opportunity to visit the "radio room".  Had a nice chat with the op on duty. 
We got into a discussion of message handling as the Morse code sang away in 
the background.  It was interesting to observe him copy the traffic on the 
channel and carry on a conversation with myself and my son.  He was somewhat 
impressed as I sat down with pencil and paper and copied a bit of traffic 
although I was not able to carry on a conversation at the same time.  As a 
Merchant Marine, he had been standing radio watch on a daily basis for some 
40+ years.  I guess experience and practice pays.

73
Bob, K4TAX

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Miles Anderson" <k2cby at optonline.net>
To: <heathkit at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2006 5:21 AM
Subject: [Heathkit] Question from Non-Ham


> SK started out as one of the procedure signals sent by Morse operators
> handling message traffic. In the early days of radio, this would take the
> form of a ship sending a series of messages to a coastal station or vice
> versa. In the heyday of transatlantic passenger shipping during the 1920s
> this might amount to a dozen or so messages sent one after the other.
>
> (By the way, all of these signs are sent as though the SK were a single
> Morse letter with no character space in between ***-*-. When hand written
> these "pro signs" are written as capital letters with a bar across the 
> top.)
>
> At the beginning of each message in the series, the transmitting operator
> would send BT (beginning text), followed by the text of the message. At 
> the
> end of the message, the op would send AR (end message). When the
> transmitting op had passed his or her last outgoing message, the
> transmitting op would send SK (end of work or end of traffic), clearing 
> the
> receiving station to handle traffic from another ship.
>
> Ironically, there is probably a "better" pro sign to use for a deceased
> operator. That would be CL (closing station or ceasing operation), but the
> coincidence that SK could be read to stand for Silent Key prevailed.
>
> Miles Anderson, K2CBY
> 16 Round Pond Lane
> Sag Harbor, NY 11963
>
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