Prosigns for Morse code

In Morse code, prosigns or procedural signals are dot/dash sequences that have a special meaning in a transmission. They are normally written as if they were composed of one, two or three ordinary alphabetic characters but they are sent "run together", omitting the normal inter-character spaces that would occur if they were being sent as normal text. These ligatures are properly represented in print by a ligating bar or overline above the letters, indicating that they are linked and sent as one contiguous character.

Although these are not really prosigns, an error may be indicated by some series of Es:

K, KN, and SK are also commonly used in text modes such as RTTY and PSK31. Notably, SK ("stop keying") is also used by TTY/TDD users, though "GA" ("Go Ahead") is typed rather than "KN".

An amateur radio conversation in Morse code

Having sensible and efficient conversations in Morse code involves more than simply knowing the alphabet. To make communication efficient, there are many internationally agreed patterns of communication.

A sample CW conversation between station 1 (S1) and station 2 (S2) might go roughly like this:

S1:"' CQ CQ CQ DE S1 S1 K Calling anyone (CQ), this is (DE) S1, listening (K)

S2: S1 DE S2 S2 K Calling S1, this is S2, back-to-you (K) (Now we have a connection)

S1: S2 DE S1 = GA DR OM UR RST 599 HR = QTH TIMBUKTU = OP IS JOHN = HW? S2 DE S1 KN Good afternoon dear old man. You are RST 599 here. (Very readable (5), very strong signal (9), very good tone (9)) I'm located in Timbuktu. The operator's name is John. How do you copy? Go ahead S2 (KN means you are inviting only the named party to go ahead)

S2: S1 DE S2 = TNX FB RPRT DR OM JOHN UR 558 = QTH HIMALAYA = NAME IS YETI AR S1 DE S2 K Thanks for the nice report dear old man John. I read you 558. I am in the Himalayas. My name is Yeti. That's all for this transmission (AR), go ahead (K without the N potentially invites other callers to break in).

S1: S2 DE S1 = OK TNX QSO DR YETI = 73 ES HPE CUAGN S2 DE S1 K Okay, thanks for this conversation, dear Yeti. Best regards and hope to see you again.

S2: S1 DE S2 = R TU CUAGN 73 S1 DE S2 SK Understood. Thank you. Best regards. Signing off (SK)

S1: E E A couple of dits typically ends the contact.

In practice, S1 and S2 would be conventional amateur callsigns uniquely identifying each of the parties to the contact.

With heavy use of the Q code, prosigns and Morse Code Abbreviations, surprisingly meaningful conversations can be had with relatively short transmissions, rather like "TXT speak" using SMS on mobile phones. Note that very few full English words have been used in the conversation ("is" and "name"), with most words and phrases abbreviated. S1 and S2 might not even speak the same native language, merely learning to translate their native tongue into the correct Morse abbreviations.

Of course, real rag-chewing (lengthy conversations) cannot be done without a common language, a "lingua Franca". On the worldwide amateur bands this is most often English but long Morse contacts may occasionally be heard in French, German, Spanish, Russian etc. Likewise, common words in these languages have their own abbreviations, such as "MCI" for "merci", "AWDH" for "auf Wiederhören" and "DSW" for "do svidaniya". It is considered courteous to use such simple non-English abbreviations when completing a contact with a non-English speaker.

Contesters often use an even shorter, sylised format for their contacts. Their purpose is to complete as many contacts as possible in a limited time (e.g. at a rate of 100–200 contacts per hour). They typically omit superfluous procedural signals and repeats unless the band is noisy and/or the other party seems likely to have trouble copying correctly. Accuracy is particularly important, especially for callsigns, to avoid points being deducted during the scoring process so good Morse operators regulate their style according to conditions and the other party (e.g. matching their speed).

ee also

*Train whistle (Whistle Code)