[UK-CONTEST] The @ symbol in CW

[Phil Cooper]

Hi all,

I had to smile a bit when I saw the info about the @ symbol and how it
should be sent in CW.
Surely, it is shorter to send plain old AT in CW as exists? If you send "my
email is gu0sup at cwgsy dot net", that is understood? (And yes, I do send
dot as dot and not the full stop).

I am also a little puzzled by the comment from Neil G3RIR. As far as I
remember, the symbol for each was ea with the last tail of the a going back
over both letters.

If you look back at the reason why the @ symbol was used in email address by
Ray Tomlinson (the engineer who came up with the idea on Arpanet), it says
that it was used precisely because it actually meant AT.

As for the ITU committee that came up with this idea to use A and C run
together, you begin to wonder if it is yet another EU ruling! And I love the
title they have: The the ITU Radio-communication Sector (ITU-R) Study Group
8. I bet that was a heated debate?

Seasons greetings to all, and very best 73
de Phil GU0SUP