[QCWA] 100th anniversary of the SOS signal; CQD was its predecessor

[Norm Gertz]

In eaarlier days the CW operators routinely used the Morse characters which 
cut down on the length.....dah dah dah dah was the equivalent of CH so if 
you sent the word much you saved a bit of time.....same for dit dit dah dit 
dah and others.
When I was an operator at WAR 41/42 we were trained to log out with the RJ 
symbol to turn over the circuit to the next operator.
We were never told or learned where it originated however.

Same thing applies to RQ which was a service message and BQ which was the 
reply to a service message.

A few of the unsolved mysteries I guess...


73   Norm  K1AA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joseph Fenn" <jfenn at lava.net>
To: "Discussion of QCWA" <qcwa at mailman.qth.net>
Cc: <friends at mailman.qth.net>; <Ch91 at mailman.qth.net>; 
<members at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 2:39 AM
Subject: Re: [QCWA] 100th anniversary of the SOS signal; CQD was its 
predecessor


> Speaking of carryovers in CW.  I never have figured out the  di dahs
> in continental morse.  When I went to work for panam Latin america
> divn at end of ww2 had to learn some stuff very fast.  They had
> a cunch of railroad morse stuff they used constantly and some of it
> also carried over into the ham bands too.  Like   dit dit   dah di dah
> which of course was meant to be a short way of saying "OK".   The
> dit (space) dit (tanslates to an "o" in old morse) the da di da of course 
> is
> international.   One I never could relate to the old railroad telegraphy
> however is  "RJ".  Meaning sby am changing operators.  That also
> came about from carryovers from continental morse.   Any of you
> ancient dadies out there who can figure that out???
> It could have been    di dah dit dit  da da da  or some combination
> to mean  "rlf"  (relief opr here and changing) or something like
> that.
>                 Joe
>
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