[OT] New toy... - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

28 Oct 2001

From: Derek Peschel &lt;dpeschel(a)eskimo.com&gt;
...
 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). 

There are plenty of others like...

    BT   or break
    AR   end of message
    SK   end of work
    KN   invitation to named station
    CL   Closing station

All of those are sent as one character.

If you want to see a lot of abbreveated text read a sequence report
as given for the aviation community.

FCST CLDY TO BKN CLNG TO 10K....  Of course this would have been
sent using ASR33 with 45 or 75 speed gears.

Allison
KB1GMX  6m-2m&70cm