On Wed, 8 Jan 2003 08:50:38 -0000, Jim Martin wrote:
>On the subject of K at the end of transmission I think the old CW ops were
>100% right.
<snip>
>Why change a convention that has worked for a long long time?
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The reason to change this particular convention is that RTTY uses
a continuous carrier and CW does not. When a RTTY station stops
transmitting it is obvious that the carrier has been dropped, but
with CW it is not. That is why CW requires the "K".
A similar situation exists on phone. With AM or FM one can hear
the carrier drop, but with SSB one can't. "Doubles" are much
more common on SSB for that reason. Unless a station says "over"
or the equivalent, you're never quite sure they are finished.
That's not to say one can't use "K" on RTTY; it's just
superfluous.
73, Bill W7TI
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