[Qcwa] Re: Whatever happened to "da da di di da da"??

[Harvey&Bessie]

Naw! --..-- was the exclamation point, which was changed to the comma at the same time the
previous comma, .-.-.- was changed to the period, leaving us without an exclamation point.
Now most cw ops just send "WOW" where they formerly sent !. The former period .. .. ..
would be copied as iii on code readers and automatic electronic copying machines
(forerunners of the modern computer). They also changed the "close parenthesis" character
to accommodate copying machines: we formerly used -.--.- for both "open parenthesis" and
"close parenthesis," now ( is -.--.- and ) is -.--. This change seems to have escaped
attention of most hams. Personally, I can't see the need for the @ as a cw character, I
have been sending it as "at" and everybody seems to know what I mean. But, of course,
code-reading computers would just write the word "at."
73,
Harvey/W4TG