Just a recap, mostly for those with Checks later than mid-'70s or who never did
traffic handling. The SS exchange is an analogy of the "official" ARRL message
header. In the earliest SS contests (1930's) you had to exchange actual
messages of at least 10 words. Later, the text and signature were dropped and
you just exchanged headers. I started SS in the mid '60s, and I'm going from
memory. Perhaps some of the more experienced guys (K7QQ QRV?) will amend or
emend my recollection.
The message header:
* Message number. In traffic handling we usually began a new series each month
for the messages we originated.
* Precedence; was added, I think, around the early '70s. Choice of R(outine),
P(riority), or E(mergency). SS translated that into power class A or B; I
can't remember if Q and M were original or added later. Then U and S got added.
* Station of origin.
* Check -- the number of words in the message (and, yes, traffic handlers
really used this, like a parity check). I'm not sure what was sent for Check
when the exchange was changed to header-only, but I seem to recall people just
sending the letters "CK" in the mid-'60s. This was changed to "year first
licensed", but I think that was not until the '70s.
* Place of origin -- city and state. Now, Section.
* Time of origin (when the message was first sent). In SS, this becomes the
time of the QSO. I believe that, even with header-only, people actually used
to send a 4-digit time. And not everybody was using GMT. I think that by the
'60s people were just sending the text "TIME" (avoiding confusion), and
somewhere along the line it got dropped from the SS exchange.
* Date of origin. Again, by the '60s everybody was sending "DATE". Then,
somewhere around the late '60s, this was changed to your birthday. I think
this change came BEFORE the Check was changed. And, of course, it has been
dropped (maybe when Precedence was added??).
Changing Date to the birthday gave the same two problems that have been
discussed here (ad nauseam) regarding CK:
a) What Date should a multi-op use? I think people would pick one birthday and
use it for all QSOs.
b) "Why should I be penalized because I was born on (say) November 30?" As I
have mentioned elsewhere, one year K3EST and I independently decided that we
should not be so penalized, and we picked "better" birthdays. We both picked
"FEB 7". I think I'll have to remember to send Bob a Happy Birthday radiogram
-- In official form, with a header.
73, Art K3KU
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