Great Day,

January is Straight Key Month. 

A straight key is a tool for sending Morse code characters.  The ham radio operator operates the straight key by using the muscles in his or her arm, and to a lesser extent, the wrist and fingers.  These Morse code characters by a real live human being.  There are no computer generated dits and dahs (some folks may call them dots and dashes) when the ham radio operator is using a straight key.  That is the beauty of a simple tool.

The Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) advocates and promotes the use of straight keys.  They have designated January as Straight Key Month.  All month-long hams who support SKCC will be on the air a little more frequently than usual, sending their radio signals using Morse code.  The on-the-air activity will take place using the special call sign K3Y followed by a portable designation such as “/3”

Our own Cumberland Amateur Radio Club is honored to have one of our members  participating in this event.  Radio Station Operator John, WA3KCP will be operating some of the scheduled shifts using call sign K3Y/3.    His on-the-air shifts over the next few days are:  

Tuesday       January 09, 2024 from 1800 UTC to 2359 UTC.   The equivalent local time is 1:00 p.m. to 6:59 p.m.

Wednesday January 10, 2024 from 0000 UTC to 0100 UTC.  The equivalent local time is 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Wednesday January 10, 2024 from 0200 UTC to 0300 UTC.  The equivalent local time is 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Wednesday January 10, 2024 from 1100 UTC to 1800 UTC.  The equivalent local time is 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Wednesday January 10, 2024 from 2000 UTC to 2300 UTC.  The equivalent local time is 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

If you hear K3Y/3 on the air during those time slots it will be our friend John WA3KCP with his hand on the morse code straight key.

For more information about Straight Key Month please visit the Straight Key Century Club web site www.skccgroup.com

This link will take you directly to the Straight Key Month web page.  https://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/k3y.php

For more information about the Cumberland Amateur Radio Club, located in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, I invite you to visit our web site.

www.RadioClub-CARC.com

Regards,
Andrew Forsyth    Amateur Radio  (Ham Radio) Call Sign AF3I

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Morse Code Telegraphy History

A ham radio friend shared this information with me via email.  While reading, I found the original source of several morse code shortcuts that are commonly used by ham radio operators.  Hams call these shortcuts “prosigns”.

The information seems to have originated from the winfldigi group.io forum.  Those are the people who should be credited with providing and sharing the knowledge reproduced below.

First, let’s look at the history of the prosign “AA” (di-dah-di-dah).  Those above a certain age may recall when it was common practice to place a comma after each line of an address, or so it was taught in many one-room school houses.  This practice, of course, long ago fell by the wayside.  

When the nascent telegraph industry began developing standards for transmitting telegrams, they imported this then standard practice.  It had the added benefit of acting as a prosign indicating where the address or signature line ended.  Because the telegraph industry in North America used the original American Morse Code, the American Morse Code comma was used for this purpose (di-dah-di-dah).  

When wireless telegraphy first emerged, American Morse was commonly used for radio communications.  As a matter of fact, for the first decade of the 20th century, American Morse Code was the standard on the Great Lakes and for many coastal steamship companies.  The reasons are obvious; there were plenty of well trained telegraph operators around. all of whom were proficient in the American Morse Code.  Of course, eventually, the Continental Code (International Morse) was adopted as standard for maritime communications due to it’s international nature, issues of safety of life at sea, and so on.  However, many of the earlier telegraph procedures were imported into commercial wireless telegraphy and Amateur Radio.  Here are some prosign examples:

AR (di-dah-di-dah-dit) is actually “FN” in American Morse Code representing “FINISHED.”  This was sent at the end of a telegram, and it continues to be used at the end of ham radio transmissions, which are essentially telegrams themselves which are just part of a conversation or group of message exchanges.

SK (di-di-di-dah-di-dah) is actually “30” in American Morse Code.  In the Western Union wire codes, “30” represented “close of work.” It was commonly sent at the end of press stories, at the conclusion of transmitting a file of telegrams, or similar practices.  Hams today use it to indicate the conclusion of a QSO in much the same way.

ES (dit di-di-dit) is actually the ampersand (&) in American Morse Code.  Like many American Morse characters, it has an internal space, which is slightly shorter in timing than that used between individual characters.  In this respect, it shares this characteristic with other Morse characters having internal spaces, such as C, R, Y, Z and O.

One still occasionally hears hams use the Morse letter “C” (di-di  dit) to ask if a frequency is in use or to indicate it’s in use.  

…..and so on.  

So, when radio amateurs began handling message traffic, they simply imported the techniques of commercial operators and adopted the “AA” prosign, or American Morse comma to indicate the end of a line in an address.  

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