Use of CT in morse?

[Oldmadham]

Originally Posted by Station X

Hello and welcome to the forums.

I always thought it meant "Commencing Transmission" and was sent as dah di dah di dah.

That's how I learnt it when doing "Morse & Procedure" in an ex army building at the old Perth Technical School in West Oz, back in the early 1960s.

Interestingly, the "Procedure" we learnt was in the British Operating Manual, as apparently, the PMG's Dept didn't print their own one.
I was aiming at the shipboard "Commercial Radio Operator's Certificate", as some others were, but there were a lot of hams, too.

I was trying to do too many night school classes, & flunked the Morse, but passed the "Procedure".

That said, I can't remember ever hearing hams start with "dah di dah did dah" ( I always translated it as "K A").
VIP Perth did use it for its commercial working.

[majoconz]

IsquaredR said:

So I'm done using "QRL"---it's too long and obliterates QSOs already in progress.

If there is a QSO in progress, why would you be enquiring if the frequency is in use when obviously it is? You could be excused if you could not hear the other parties but they certainly could hear you - the vagaries of propagation.

There is a problem if one station is suffering from QRM/QRN and has said "QSX? up 10" and effectively sets up a 'two frequency simplex' system and you call QRL? on one station's listening frequency disrupting his reception but the transmitting station is unaware of the problem.

The best solution of course is just to listen for a longer period and see if half a QSO is in progress.