[OT] New toy...

From: Derek Peschel <dpeschel_at_eskimo.com>
Date: Sun Oct 28 19:56:57 2001

On Mon, Oct 29, 2001 at 02:24:12PM +1300, Greg Ewing wrote:
> John Lawson:
>
> > FB OM YR SIGS 599 RPT 599 QSL VIA BURO TNX ES 73 DE KB6SCO
>
> pete_at_dunnington.u-net.com (Pete Turnbull):
>
> > It's (mostly standard) radio ham CW (continuous wave) abbreviations, used
> > to save keying too much morse.
>
> To those dismayed at the mangulations of language being
> used by some people in email these days, this just goes
> to show that there's nothing new under the sun. :-)

What I didn't know (until a Canadian guy at my ex-workplace explained
it to me) was that many of these abbreviations are French in origin.
("DE") That especially applies to the combined letter groups ("AR" with
no space in between = "end of message" = "arret", for example).

This is not true of all abbreviations, of course. "FB" = "fine business"
(I know that only because I was looking for info on printing telegraphs
and stock tickers and found an old ARRL Handbook).

-- Derek
Received on Sun Oct 28 2001 - 19:56:57 GMT