AmateurRadio.com

“Best regardses” and “Best regards’s”

That’s silly, of course. We who speak and write in the English language know that you should not pluralize a word that is already in its plural form. “Best regards” means, “I wish you the best of regards.” It is implied that there is more than one regard. Perhaps there are a few, perhaps many more. It then is clear that we wouldn’t normally pluralize “regards,” into, “regardses.”

It is also silly to say that the best of regards owns something.  How can a regard let alone a group of regards own anything?  So, why “73’s” when written?

The usage of “73” comes from early landline telegraph (typically railroad telegraphy landlines). Originally devised in the era of telegraphs, 73 and other numbers were used to speed up the transmission of common messages over landlines by mapping common messages to these specific numbers.  And, numbers were quicker to send than the longer messages the numbers replaced.

QST, April 1935, on page 60, contains a short article on the origin of the amateur radio vernacular, 73. This article was a summation of another article that appeared in the “December Bulletin from the Navy Department Office of the Chief of Naval Operations,” published December of 1934.

Here’s a quotation from that Navy article:

“It appears from a research of telegraph histories that in 1859 the [land-line] telegraph people held a convention, and one of its features was a discussion as to the saving of ‘line time.’

A committee was appointed to devise a code to reduce standard expressions to symbols or figures. This committee worked out a figure code, from figure 1 to 92.

Most of these figure symbols became obsolescent, but a few remain to this date, such as 4, which means “Where shall I go ahead?’. Figure 9 means ‘wire,’ the wire chief being on the wire and that everyone should close their keys. Symbol 13 means ‘I don’t understand’; 22 is ‘love and a kiss’; 30 means ‘good night’ or ‘the end.’

The symbol most often used now is 73, which means ‘my compliments’ and 92 is for the word ‘deliver.’ The other figures in between the forgoing have fallen into almost complete disuse.”

We can see, then, that “73” mapped to “best regards” or “my compliments” and was intended as a general valediction for transmitted messages.  That’s why it is silly to say, “73s,” as that maps to, “best regardses” – 73s adds the plural to a plural.  (And, don’t make it possessive, as in using, “73’s” – a regard cannot own something).

For reference and some more interesting background on this, see http://www.signalharbor.com/73.html

An example of on-the-air conversation (or, QSO—“QSO” is the shorthand Q-code for, “two-way exchange of communications”) illustrates proper usage of 73. When saying your goodbye, you would tap out the Morse code as follows:

TNX FER FB QSO. C U AGN. 73 ES HPY NEW YR.

That is interpreted as, “Thanks for the fine-business chat. I hope to see you again for another chat. Best regards and happy new year.”

This, if you choose to throw around shorthand Morse code number codes when you are speaking, you wouldn’t say, “73s.” You would say, “73.”

My friend, David Edenfield, opined, “This idea is beyond turning into glue from the dead horse it’s beating again. This is so petty to be concerned with this. Even the Old Man Hiram Percy Maxim 1AW used 73s on his QSL cards.”

Well, even Hiram Percy Maxim has been incorrect and incorrectly used grammar. (chuckle)

There is something to be said about teaching new amateur radio operators the best of our traditions, history, skills, procedures, protocols, ethics, and culture. There’s no rational argument that can make a case that allowing these aspects of our service and hobby to degrade over time (by the lack of Elmering) is a good way to see our service and hobby thrive and progress.

I don’t see any slippage from high standards as being a good strategy for nurturing growth, progress, and effectiveness of our service and hobby. Keeping some level of excellence in every aspect of our hobby can only be beneficial.

In this case, how many new hams that learn to repeat ham lingo know anything of the history behind the common “73?” My dead horse turned glue is educational and it is my belief that educating about origins elevates the current.

73 – NW7US

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Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

As 2019 moves closer and closer to becoming 2020 I wanted to spend time and look back on 2019. I looked at my blog posting history from 2019 and it was a slow year for posting. This had to do with working long hours and just too tired to get on the radio or to blog for that matter. My new Icom 7610 did not see too much operating time. During July, my wife and I had some heart-to-heart talks and I decided to retire. We both agreed it was time to move on to the next stage in life. The only thing that was holding me back was the change I had done the work thing at the same company for over 30 years. To just stop what I had been doing for so long made me feel uneasy but I put my notice in and by the end of July I was retired!
The next change was the location...... Julie and I both agreed that living in downtown Toronto was nice but it was time for a change. A slower pace was very agreeable to us both, so we decided to move to the east coast of Canada. We sold our condo in Toronto and purchased a home in New Brunswick and started to pack and move. I have to be honest I have NEVER made this many decisions in a single year in my entire life.
Fast-forward to the present.....we are settled in New Brunswick and my new call is a 2 letter call VE9KK. In Ontario, 2 letter calls are very very hard to get. In New Brunswick, I had a choice of 2 letter call signs. I chose a call that had good CW qualities. I have put up an EndFed antenna the property is small and the Endfed was my desk drawer taking up space, so I decided to put it into service. I'm now in my 5th month in New Brunswick and to date, I have logged 447 contacts as VE9KK and the first months at the new QTH I was unpacking and setting the house up. My first contact was on October 13 with IU8DON and since then I have logged more contacts in two and a half months than the first 7 months of 2019 as VE3WDM, I made a total of 311 contacts so it looks like retirement is treating me well in regard to my radio hobby.
I'm Looking forward to 2020 and what are my goals.......I want to look into the CWops cw academy program as this is really the only option I have found that works and can get my code on the upswing. Get involved with the local amateur radio club in town the Moncton Amateur radio club or MAARC. I would like to explore contacting some DXpeditions both CW and FT8 and or FT4. The above goals seem like a good start for the year as I don't want to go overboard with one hopeful goal after the other.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my blog readers.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2019 Dec 23 0449 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 16 – 22 December 2019

Solar activity was very low. No Earth-directed CMEs were observed.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was at normal levels on 16-18 Dec and reached moderate levels on 19-22 Dec. The largest flux of the period was 737 pfu observed at 22/1825 UTC.

Geomagnetic field activity ranged from quiet to active levels. Solar wind parameters were at nominal levels on 16-17 Dec with solar wind speeds between 330-425 km/s. By early on 18 Dec, total field increased to a maximum of 12 nT at 18/1015 UTC while solar wind speed increased to near 550 km/s by midday on 18 Dec as a positive polarity coronal hole high speed stream (CH HSS) moved into geoeffective position. By late on 19 Dec, solar wind speed was in decline and finished the period near 360 km/s. The geomagnetic field responded with quiet levels on 16-17 Dec and 20-22 Dec and quiet to active conditions on 18-19 Dec.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 23 December – 18 January 2020

Solar activity is expected to be at very low levels for the forecast period.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at moderate levels on 23 Dec-05 Jan and 15-18 Jan. Normal levels are expected on 06-14 Jan.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach unsettled levels on 25-27 Dec and unsettled to active levels on 14-15 Jan due to CH HSS activity.

Don’t forget to visit our live space weather and radio propagation web site, at: http://SunSpotWatch.com/

Live Aurora mapping is at http://aurora.sunspotwatch.com/

If you are on Twitter, please follow these two users: 1. https://Twitter.com/NW7US 2. https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Be sure to subscribe to our space weather and propagation email group, on Groups.io

https://groups.io/g/propagation-and-space-weather

Spread the word!

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Links of interest:

+ Amazon space weather books: http://g.nw7us.us/fbssw-aSWSC
+ https://Twitter.com/NW7US
+ https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

Space Weather and Ham Radio YouTube Channel News:

I am working on launching a YouTube channel overhaul, that includes series of videos about space weather, radio signal propagation, and more.

Additionally, I am working on improving the educational efforts via the email, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and other activities.

You can help!

Please consider becoming a Patron of these space weather and radio communications services, beginning with the YouTube channel:

https://www.patreon.com/NW7US

The YouTube channel:
https://YouTube.com/NW7US

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Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

A fairly popular CLE event held around this time of the year is the "Noah's Ark" Holiday CLE!

It calls for listeners to hunt down and log pairs of NDBs from as many 'radio countries' as possible.


As explained below, in NA and Australia, states and provinces count as separate 'radio countries' thankfully.

For those unfamiliar with this monthly activity, a 'CLE' is a 'Co-ordinated Listening Event', as NDB DXers around the world focus their listening time on one small slice of the NDB spectrum.

If you've been meaning to participate in  CLE, then maybe this weekend is a fine time to try! We continue to have  a lot of first time submissions so you won't be alone!

As well, if you're trying to learn CW, copying NDBs is perfect practice as the identifier speed is generally slow and the letters are repeated again every few seconds!

This past week has seen a long period of great propagation quickly get worse with the arrival of another coronal hole stream. This is quickly abating and the ionosphere may well have fully recovered for the nine-day event.
When tuning for NDBs, put your receiver in the CW mode and listen for the NDB's CW identifier, repeated every few seconds. Listen for U.S. NDB identifiers approximately 1 kHz higher or lower than the published transmitted frequency since these beacons are modulated with a 1020 Hz tone approximately.


For example, 'AA' near Fargo, ND, transmits on 365 kHz and its upper sideband CW identifier is tuned at 366.025 kHz while its lower sideband CW ident can be tuned at 363.946 kHz. Its USB tone is actually 1025 Hz while its LSB tone is 1054 Hz.


Often, one sideband will be much stronger than the other so if you don't hear the first one, try listening on the other sideband.


Canadian NDBs normally have an USB tone only, usually very close to 400 Hz. They also have a long dash (keydown) following the CW identifier.


All NDBs heard in North America will be listed in the RNA database (updated daily) while those heard in Europe may be found in the REU database. Beacons heard outside of these regions will be found in the RWW database.

From CLE organizer Brian Keyte, G3SIA, comes the details:


Hello all

We hope you are looking forward to our "Noah's Ark" Holiday CLE – it
starts at midday on Christmas Day and you can listen at any times
from then right through to midday on Thursday 2nd January.
It's very straightforward. Just as the animals went into the Ark two by two,
so the Radio Countries' NDBs will go into our logs two by two.

    Days:     Wednesday 25th December to Thursday 2nd January
    Times:    Start and End at midday, your LOCAL TIME
    Target:   A maximum of TWO NDBs from each Radio Country
    Range:   190-1740 kHz

So during the course of the event we shall try to log TWO NDBs from each
of as many Radio Countries as we can - e.g. 2 from France, 2 from Spain,
2 from the Florida, 2 from Quebec, 2 from Brazil, 2 from New Zealand, etc.
Each Australian and USA State and each Canadian Province is a separate
Country.  For our full list see: www.ndblist.info/beacons/countrylist.pdf
Each NDB making the pairs can be logged at any times during the event.
UNIDs, Amateur, DGPS and Navtex beacons are not included, but any
UNIDs can be shown in a separate 'non-CLE' list or in a separate email.

Noah didn't have single animals in the Ark, but if you can only log ONE
NDB from a Country, it will still be welcome in your log without a mate!

Everyone is asked to please listen for YOUR OWN NEAREST active NDB
and include it with the one other logging for that Country (if any).

For details of a country’s active NDBs go to www.classaxe.com/dx/ndb/rww/
If you are listening from Europe or North America replace the rww by
reu or rna respectively.    Next to 'Locations' enter the State or Country
abbreviation(s), then select 'Only Active’ at the bottom.

Post your final, complete log to the List (please not in an attachment)
with CLE251 and FINAL in the Subject heading, to arrive at the very latest
by 09:00 UTC on Saturday 4th January.

As usual, please include on every line of your log:
    #  Date** and UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC)
    #  kHz (the nominal, published, frequency if possible)
    #  Call Ident

Those main log items must be shown FIRST with the country shown
LATER in the same line, together with any other (optional) details
such as location, offset and distance.


**IMPORTANT -  IF YOU USE THE SIMPLE 'dd' DATE FORMAT.
  The input program for REU/RNA/RWW does not allocate the month and year.
  The good people who enter the information for us then have to tell the
  program what month and year to use.  That is not a problem IF ALL
  LOGGINGS FOR THE SAME MONTH ARE GROUPED TOGETHER.
  So please help us by making sure you separate your December and
  January loggings, even if it breaks up some Noah pairs.


Where possible, we suggest that logs are in Radio Country order, instead
of in the usual kHz order, so that the country pairs appear together.

We'll send an ANY MORE LOGS? email at about 20:00 UTC on Friday 3rd
January showing whose logs we have found. Try to post your log to the
List before that  so you will get confirmation that it has arrived OK.

Good listening, everyone.  Enjoy the CLE.
And finally, radio or not, Joachim and I wish you a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

  Brian
(CLE Coordinator)


Reminder 1:
This is an ideal event to help you qualify for one or more of Joe Miller's
attractive Award Certificates - they make great "wallpaper" for any
listening shack.  Joe, our Awards Coordinator, invites us to submit
requests.  http://www.ndblist.info/awards.htm will take you to the
different web pages containing the advice you will need.
Certificates can be ordered direct from the REU-RNA-RWW database.
Now is a good time to apply with so many NDBs going off air.


Reminder 2:
You could use any ONE remote receiver for your loggings, stating its
location and owner - with their permission if required.
( e.g. see https://sdr.hu/ )
A remote listener may NOT also use another receiver, whether local
or remote, to obtain further loggings for the same CLE.


These monthly listening events serve several purposes. They:

Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

In this episode, Martin M1MRB is joined by Chris Howard M0TCH, Martin Rothwell - M0SGL, Frank Howell - K4FMH, Ed Durrant - DD5LP and Bill Barnes - N3JIX to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief and this episode’s feature is - Low Band VHF.

ICQ AMATEUR/HAM RADIO PODCAST DONORS

We would like to thank Scott McDonald (KA9P), Richard Drexel (K4RJD) and Bill Seward (W4EXT) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

- Ham Radio to Encourage Student Interest in Science - FT4 and JS8 Added to the RFzero - African Parks-on-the-Air Programme - Library artwork honours STEM teacher Barbara Ranson formerly AAØI - ARRL Reshapes its Podcast Offerings for 2020 - DRM Tests from Hungary on 26 MHz continue into 2020 - TM70TAAF Special Event - Australian 70cms Digital Record Extended to 2806 kms!

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

In this episode, the last episode of 2019, the hosts turn The Weekender into a roundtable free-for-all where fans of the show could join us on Mumble and talk about anything they wanted to. We touch on amateur radio, Linux, open source, sociology, thoughts about the past and the future and throw in a healthy dose of hedonism. Thank you to everyone who participated and who listens to our program. May you have a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous new decade.

73 de The LHS Crew

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

I was very pleased to see my FT-8 signal on 30m spotted in China the other day. I could not see them on the waterfall but none the less it was a nice surprise to see.


Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].