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146.865 minus, 100 Hz Van Buren, MO 145.310 minus, 100 Hz Eminence |
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PROCEDURAL WORDS / SIGNALSSomeone asked me the other day when was it appropriate to roger for a message instead of acknowledging receipt? As if I knew! I know this person wanted a real answer so I began to look into Procedural words and Procedural signs for answers. It seems over 145 years ago communications was becoming of age and everyone was using shortcuts (at that time everything was CW) to save time. Some people were using a letter “V” to separate the calling station from the called station. Some people, English I think, were using just a space to separate the two and others were using “DE”, I think from the French language meaning “This Is” or “From”. So you can imagine what happened when a French CW station called an English CW station. A set of standards needed to be established. Enter the ITU, International Telecommunications Union. All the nations that had any interest in international communications sent their representatives to a meeting to iron out all these differences and come to some sort of understanding about communications procedural signals. That’s not all the ITU did or does but I’m sure that’s what got it started. There are different Procedural words/signs depending on the situation. EMERGENCY PROCEDURAL WORDS MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY – Used on AM, FM and SSB. To signal grave and imminent danger. PON PON PON PON PON PON* – Used on AM, FM and SSB. To signal less than grave and imminent danger but still urgent danger. SECURITY SECURITY SECURITY - Used on AM, FM and SSB. This is the International Safety Signal and is a message about some aspect of navigational safety or a weather warning. SILENCE SILENCE SILENCE – Used on AM, FM and SSB. Sent only by the station in distress or assisting station. It means everyone else cease transmitting. *In their infinite wisdom the US Coast Guard is training everyone to say PAN PAN PAN PAN PAN PAN instead of the PON PON that we signed up for. Since my 1st Class Radio Telegraphers license expired some 25 years ago, things may have changed. Not sure but then you will have to ask the CG. The whole idea behind these ProWords is to allow some one who does not understand Spanish, English or Greek, to understand a station in distress and act appropriately, no matter what language they are speaking.
THE CW PROCEDURAL SIGNALS FOR EMERGENCIES ARE: SOS SOS SOS DE (station callsign) - To signal grave and imminent danger. XXX XXX XXX DE (station callsign) - To signal less than grave and imminent danger but still urgent danger. TTT TTT TTT DE (station callsign) – To signal less than urgent danger Anyone, no matter what the language, can understand these signals and what they mean. It was not until 1908 that everyone agreed what the grave and imminent danger signal should be! Some were using CQD, SSSDDD, NC, SOE. The Titanic used both CQD and SOS, just in case. As you can see, Procedural words are just agreed up short-cuts that everyone can understand. Which brings us to Communication Procedural words. Closer to answering the, roger, question. Roger means - I have received your last transmission satisfactorily. In voice you would say – I acknowledge receipt of message number 103 In CW it would look something like – QSL nr 103 Now what is the difference from – R nr 103, in CW or – Roger number 103 in Voice, from I acknowledge receipt of message number 103? I guess I don’t know if there is any. I have used, R nr 103, for years but technically I guess it’s wrong, But then that is the point. If we all accept what the general usage of a Proword or Prosigns how can it be wrong? Well I guess it would come into play if we had to send a message to someone who we don’t know or does not speak our language. It would be better to use “I acknowledge receipt of message number 103” or “QSL nr 103” in CW, instead of “R nr 103”. Which brings up the other communications jargon you sometimes hear out there. You will hear people using something called the 10 CODE. 10-4, 10-20 etc. These were originally set up for VHF point to point communications for Police and law enforcement personal . If you must know what they are and what they mean check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ten-code There was also an 11 CODE setup for VHF point to point ambulances and mobile medical personal. Their listing and meaning can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/eleven-code There was even some penal codes used during VHF point to point communications. Who can forget, a 2-11 in progress. Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/california_penal_codes Not to be confused with Prosigns, you have Q signals. Check: http://www.wemsi.org/qsigs.html For some of them. But be sure and check the QN signals for ARRL net operations also: http://www.arrl.org/fandes/field/forms/fsd218.pdf Then there are the Z signals used primarily by the military. http://www.radiotelegraphy.net/zsignals.html The one thing about using prowords and prosignals is to remember if someone comes on frequency and says: 10-4 Good Buddy, What’s your 20? You now know more about that person than they probably wanted you to know. There are Contest Prosigns/Prowords, Traffic Prosigns/Prowords, General communications Prosigns/Prowords, Net Prosigns/Prowords. They all have their uses and context. If you don’t want to be like your “Good Buddy”, you should learn them. Then there are personal Prosigns. Instead of rambling on and on when I lose my train of thought, on CW I use “ditdit ditdit” kinda like when you hear a speaker say “ahhhhhh” while giving a speech. They are trying to collect their thoughts. You will hear a lot of CW operators using it. If someone sends you “QLF” don’t bother looking it up because it’s not “flying in the clouds”. It has come to mean “sending with your left foot”. It’s for those operators who have trouble with spacing and rhythm. I have even participated in “QLF” contests at many Hamfests. Let me tell you it’s hard to send your Call Sign with your left foot! Sometimes you will hear CW operators use “dit ditdit”, which is the old American Morse or Railroad Code for “and”. You can see it’s much faster to send “dit ditdit” than “ditdah dahdit dahditdit”. The same for laughing, how do you laugh on CW? If someone tells a good joke you can let them know you get it and appreciate it by sending “HI HI”, on voice you just simply laugh! Then there are abbreviations. I like to use “TNX” instead of the accepted “TKS” for “thanks”. But then I could never spell correctly plus I like the sound of “X”. Lee Branum KL7IJG/0 |
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