DX is allegedly an early telephone term for distant exchange. It is also defined in Funk & Wagnall's as Distance.
ORIGIN
OF MAYDAY
Opinions From The Internet
Why do ships and aircraft in trouble use "mayday" as their call for help? This
comes from
the French word m'aidez - meaning "help me" - and is pronounced "mayday." (Note:
not
exactly.... it's pronounced "med-ay", but close enough)
ORIGIN
OF DE
Opinions From The Internet
Does anyone know how and why the "de" is included whenever the first name is
used.
....as in "73 de Yab". I know "de" is Dutch for "the", but maybe that has nothing
to do with it.
Close...'de' is Spanish for 'from.' Ham shorthand. 73 from Yab. An artifact
of CW usage.
All wrong, "de" comes from the french!!!!!!! language and has the translation
to "from"
and "of" in the english language. -- odo
ORIGIN OF CQ
Opinions From The Internet
Let's turn to page 4 of Baarslag's Famous Sea Rescues (formerly titled: SOS
To
The Rescue): "By 1904 a number of ships in the trans-Atlantic trade were equipped
with wireless telegraphy. The British operators were nearly all landline
telegraphers
who had left railroad or post-office keys to go to sea in the newly opened field.
They
brought along with them not only their Morse code but also many of their telegraphic
abbreviations and signals. One was the general call - CQ, which had been used
to
attract attention of all operators along a wire. It preceded the time signal
in the morning
at 10 o'clock and also all notices of general importance. CQ went to sea and
became a
general call to all ships."
A couple paragraphs later, "Early in 1904 the Marconi Company, realizing the
desirability
of some universal distress signal, filled the need by issuing the following
general order:
``It has been brought to our notice that the call `CQ' (All Stations) while
being satisfactory
for general purposes, does not sufficiently express the urgency required in
a signal of distress.
Therefore, on and after the 1st of February, 1904, the call to be given by ships
in distess,
or in any way requiring assistance, shall be `CQD.' '' "
To me, this implies that prior to 1 Feb 1904, some ship did use CQ as a distress
call,
and possibly her calls for help didn't draw the needed attention. (This was
before the
twice-per-hour Silent Periods were created - 600m was pure bedlam, and a CQ
would have gone unheeded.)
For more radio history, visit your local research library. But please don't
make up "facts."
(Am I the only one who believes that questions concerning radio history should
be
included in the amateur exams?)
73, Jeff KH2PZ / KH6
ORIGIN OF 73
Via Louise Ramsey Moreau, W3WRE and Charles A. Wimer KC8EHA
The following is from Louise Ramsey Moreau, W3WRE:
"The traditional expression "73" goes right back to the beginning of the landline
telegraph
days. It is found in some of the earliest editions of the numerical codes, each
with a different
definition, but each with the same idea in mind - it indicated that the end,
or signature, was
coming up. But there are no data to prove that any of these were used.
"The first authentic use of 73 is in the publication The National Telegraphic
Review and
Operators' Guide, first published in April 1857. At that time, 73 meant "My
love to you"!
Succeeding issues of this publication continued to use this definition of the
term. Curiously
enough, some of the other numerals used then had the same definition as they
have now,
but within a short time, the use of 73 began to change.
"In the National Telegraph Convention, the numeral was changed from the Valentine-type
sentiment to a vague sign of fraternalism. Here, 73 was a greeting, a friendly
"word" between
operators and it was so used on all wires.
"In 1859, the Western Union Company set up the standard "92 Code." A list of
numerals
from one to 92 was compiled to indicate a series of prepared phrases for use
by the operators
on the wires. Here, in the 92 Code, 73 changes from a fraternal sign to a very
flowery "accept
my compliments,"which was in keeping with the florid language of that era.
"Over the years from 1859 to 1900, the many manuals of telegraphy show variations
of this
meaning. Dodge's The Telegraph Instructor shows it merely as "compliments."
The Twentieth
Century Manual of Railways and Commercial Telegraphy defines it two ways, one
listing as
"my compliments to you"; but in the glossary of abbreviations it is merely "compliments."
Theodore A. Edison's Telegraphy Self-Taught shows a return of "accept my compliments."
By 1908, however, a later edition of the Dodge Manual gives us today's definition
of
"best regards" with a backward look at the oldermeaning in another part of the
work
where it also lists it as "compliments."
"Best regards" has remained ever since as the "put-it-down-in-black-and-white"
meaning
of 73 but it has acquired overtones of much warmer meaning. Today, amateurs
use it more
in the manner that James Reid had intended that it be used - a "friendly word
between operators."
I hope that this helps you in some way.... 73, Charles A. Wimer Amateur Radio
Call:
KC8EHA Assistant Emergency Coordinator, Trumbull County (OH) ARRL Official
Emergency Station (OH)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
W4SCO wrote:
Actually "73" was a term the old telegraph operators would use back in the old
west days.
It meant that they owned a Winchester 1873 rifle (their most prized possession)
and that
when they died they would give it to the other operator. Hense '73' meant I
will will you
my 73 rifle. '73s' meant you had more than one rifles that you would give to
them (they
were a really good friend.).
Hello,
It's a nice story, but it has no basis in fact. The actual source of "73" and
"88" was the list
of numerical abbreviations used by wire telegraphers. These abbreviations were
used in a
manner similar to Q signals today. Here's a partial list of number abbreviations:
1 – Wait 2 - Important business 3 - What is the time? 6 - I am ready 7 - Are
you ready?
12 - Do you understand? 13 - I understand 14 - What is the weather? 17 - Lightning
here
19 - Form 19 train order (used by RR) 21 - Stop to eat 23 - All copy 24 - Repeat
this back
30 - No more, end 31 - Form 31 train order (used by RR) 44 - Answer promptly
by wire
73 - Best regards 88 - Love and kisses 92 - Deliver promptly 134 - Who is at
the key?
Note that American Morse was used by landline telegraphers. The signal "30"
in American
Morse is "..._. ____" (zero is an extra long dash). This was corrupted into
a single character,
"..._._" which is usually thought of today as SK or VA, with the space between
letters removed.
73 (never plural!) de Jim, N2EY
ORIGIN OF Q, R, X, AND Z
CODES
----------------
TELEGRAPHIC CODES OF MORSE AND MEN by Kenneth Brown G0PSW
The first line telegraph message is thought to have been sent from Washington
to Baltimore
in May 1844 by Samuel Finley Breeze Morse, (1791-1872). He is said to have tapped
out
the message, "What hath God wrought?" using a code of interrupted signals which
he and his
associate Alfred Louis Vail, (1807-1859), had developed some years earlier.
After this
momentous achievement and following the founding of Western Union in 1856, coast
to
coast telegraph lines were quickly installed and it then became commercially
possible to
send and receive telegraphic traffic by line.
Since then and with an eye on faster speeds of transmissions and higher accuracy,
newspapers,
railways and post offices made great use of the telegraph to provide their customers
with speedy,
economic, personal and commercial communication. This also paved the way
for transmitting
traffic by radio from the late 1890s following successful experiments by Marconi.
One way of speeding the flow of traffic was to operate an agreed set of short
codes to replace
well-known sentences or phrases but at that time there was no common national
or international
standard. The first of many conferences to discuss and try to resolve this issue
was held in the US
in April 1857, culminating with the release of the National Telegraphic Review
and Operators' Guide.
This Guide makes the first authentic reference to the well-known greeting 73;
at that time meaning
love and kisses. 'Later editions kept this definition but, as time went by,
the meaning of 73 changed
from a Valentine type of greeting to a vague sign of operators' fraternalism.
Western Union, in 1859, set up the Standard 92 Code. Replacing common sentences
and phrases
with selected numbers between 1 and 92 the message was telegraphed to a distant
station. At the
distant end the numbers were decoded and a plain language version delivered
to the recipient.
The definition of 73 changed yet again to a very flowery accept my compliments.
From 1859 to 1900
the many telegraphic manuals show variations of this meaning. Each major telegraph
and railway
company had its own distinctive telegraphic codes. Since there was no agreed
standard all were
different and, as a consequence, there was much confusion in communicating with
different networks.
During this time there were even two alphabetical morse codes the American and
Continental
(European) versions. Although there were basic similarities there were also
some major differences.
This, combined with the multiplicity of telegraphic codes, caused confusion
and made communication
with and between US establishments particularly difficult.
The US 1908 Dodge's Manual gives today's definition of 73 best regards. Other
Dodge numbers
were 88 love and kisses, 55 lots of success and 99 get lost (probably unofficial).
Also, in 1908, the British Post Office, despairing of action to agree an international
code of
abbreviations, issued its own list of two letter abbreviations intended for
use between British
coast stations and ships. The list, published in the PMG's Instructions to Wireless
Telegraphists,
included abbreviations RA to RZ and SA to SF. The next International Radiotelegraphic
Convention,
held in London in July 1912, adopted and extended the GPO abbreviations. Q was
added as the
first letter and so the Q code was born. The new code now ran from QRA to QRZ
and QSA to
QSX. On 1st July 1913 the Q code finally became an official international information
code, updated
as changing circumstances demanded to include new codes relating to such matters
as aviation
and maritime.
Some time later came the Z code, running in parallel with the Q code. This originated
as a company
code of Cable and Wireless with application limited, in the main, to high speeds
machine morse
operating at speeds of typically 120wpm. Widely used by many countries, including
Germany, the
Q code and Z code continued in use throughout the war. After the war high-speed
morse
became less widely used and was replaced by other forms of traffic communication
such as RTTY and
facsimile. The Z code, therefore, gradually went out of fashion and slowly disappeared.
Examples
of the Z code include ZAA you are not observing circuit discipline, ZAN we can
receive
absolutely nothing, ZST send slips twice, ZAP acknowledge please and there were
lots of others.
So the Q code became the standard international military and civil telegraphic
letter code used in
CW communication. (Sometimes, incorrectly, even in R/T). Published as an operators'
manual,
there are separate sections available to deal with various areas of communication.
Some less well
known examples of the Q code used by base stations of the British Army included
QAU followed
by QHU,meaning I am waterlogged, I am about to jettison fuel; AS5 generally
followed! Even less
well known is QGG send the pony by the next train.
Widely used by radio amateurs operating CW, today's Q code has slightly different
meanings but is
still very similar to the 1912 version. One of the great benefits of using the
Q code is the pleasure in
being able to communicate with overseas operators who may not be fluent in the
English language.
In conclusion, it is sad fact there will be no successor to the Q code; no longer
is the morse code
taught to Royal Navy. Data stream transmissions have displaced morse and taken
over everyday
communication such is the march of time.
Acknowledgements: Grateful thanks to Pat Hawker G3VA and Peter Broom G5DQ, for
their
help and advice.
ORIGINS OF ROGER WILCO
Incidentally according to the “Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins”
by William and
Mary Morris(Harper Collins, New York, 1977, 1988).
ROGER -- "in the meaning of 'Yes, O.K., I understand you -- is voice code for
the letter R.
It is part of the 'Able, Baker, Charlie' code known and used by all radiophone
operators in the
services in the 40's - 50's. From the earliest days of wireless communication,
the Morse code
letter R (dit-dah-dit) has been used to indicate 'O.K. -- understood.' So 'Roger'
was the
logical voice-phone equivalent."
Also from “I Hear America Talking” by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold
Co.,
New York, 1976).“Roger! A code word used by pilots to mean ‘your message received
and
understood’ in response to radio communications; later it came into general
use to mean ‘all right,
OK.’ Roger was the radio communications code word for the letter R, which in
this case represented
the word ‘received.’ ‘Roger Wilco’ was the reply to ‘Roger’ from the original
transmitter of the
radio message, meaning ‘I have received your message that you have received
my message and
am signing off.” Wilco implies "I will comply"
Then of course there is the "Roger Beep" (Di-Dah-Dit) which legend has it was
innovated by the
Space Missions as a quick way to "Roger it" No source for this "but have it
on good authority -
by a guy who was there" hi hi.
From the DX Reflector
Ok, I have heard and seen a half dozen explanations, now heres one from one
who has "Been there-
Done That". "Roger" in both military and government communications definitely
came out of the old
cw days(and yes I did send/receive cw messages at the beginning of my career).
The "R" was sent
as a confirmation of receipt of a message,or a portion of a message. "R" was
used, not "QSL".
In voice communications , it thus became "Roger". Even in front-line operations
such as by
forward observers (I did that too). We used Roger and Negative You had to be
completely
confident in what you were sending or receiving after all, it could , and often
was, life or death
as to what got thru the communications lines.
I cringe almost everytime I hear any military movie communications. WILCO means:
I will
comply with your orders. OVER means I have finished my transmissions and turn
the channel
over to you to transmit. OUT means I have completed transmission and am completely
finished
and turning off my rig. So you can see why I cringe "Roger Wilco Over and Out"
WHAT DID
HE SAY????
ORIGIN
OF THE PROSIGNS
From the 1969 ARRL "The Radio Amateur's Operating Manual"
Many of the expressions and procedure signals still in use in radiotelegraph
had their origins in the early days of the landline telegraph - long before
Marconi sent his letter "S" across the Atlantic. In sending formal messages
by CW, the first thing a beginner hears is "don't send punctuation. Separate
the parts of the address from each other with the prosign AA." This is ironic,
because in the American Morse Code the sound didahdidah is a comma and was doubtless
the origin of our prosign. Originally, a correctly addressed letter was punctuated
with commas following the name and the street address, each of which was (and
still is) on a separate line although the commas have been dropped, even in
mail addresses on letters. The comma was transmitted by Morse operators and
thus, AA came to mean that the receiving operator should "drop down one line"
when sent after each part of the address and it is so defined in the operating
manuals of the time. Our familiar prosign SK also had its origin in landline
Morse. In the Western Union company's "92 code" used even before the American
Civil War, the number 30 meant "the end. No more". It also meant "good
night". It so happens that in Landline Morse, 30 is sent didididahdit daaah,the
zero being a long dash. Run the 30 together and it has the same sound
as SK.
-Louise Ramsey Moreau W3WRE/WB6BBO
-------------------------------------
Where Did They Come From? The end-of-message signal, AR comes from the American
Morse letters FN, meaning 'finish'. SK, from the American Morse 30, meaning
half-past the hour, the end of an operator's shift. ES, for 'and' from the American
Morse symbol for '&', used extensively in written English in earlier times.
And when old-timers send a long dash for 'zero', they are actually sending the
correct American Morse symbol. History casts a long shadow.
-------------------------------------
Procedural Signals (Prosigns) for Morse Code
C Q - Calling any station (does any ham *not* know this one?)
AR - over, end of message
K - go, invite any station to transmit
KN - 'X' go only, invite a specific station to transmit
BK - invite receiving station to transmit
R - all received OK
AS - please stand by
SK - end of contact (sent before call)
CL - going off the air (clear)