Jim:
As with many of the quirky customs of radiotelegraph, 73 arose back in the
days of the land line railroad telegraph. In other words, there are about
160 years of tradition behind it. There is no such thing as 73's, or 73s.
Such an expression would be equivalent to "best regardses."
It is worth mentioning that the quirky customs of radio CW, especially
those inherited from the railroad telegraph, are part of its charm. Those
of us who are really emotional about CW are much attracted to such features
as charm and tradition.
It is not the case that proper usage of the English language is out the
window. Radiotelegraphic practice, with its Q signals, the practice of
sending N instead of 9, borrowings from foreign languages, such as using
the French "DE" for "from," and so on, are a kind of international pidgin
language in its own right. For example, I speak no Russian, and most
Russians speak no English. Nevertheless, using these traditional signs and
symbols I can (and often do) have extended, albeit rudimentary,
conversations with Russian hams that go well beyond simply saying "RST 569
73 DSW VA."
I know of no instance when any practice from CB has ever found its way into
ham CW operation. Certainly, if such a thing were to arise, I would be in
the forefront of the movement to stamp it out.
I have virtually no experience with ham voice modes, and absolutely no
experience whatsoever with CB. Thus, I have no idea of the extent to which
CB affects ham phone operations. My comment on CB is that CB operating
practices have no place in the ham bands. Period.
As far as legitimate ham voice operation is concerned, it naively seems to
me that the more plain English one uses the better. That having been said,
the sense that I get from the members of my local radio club, who are
especially fond of using handheld VHF transceivers and repeaters, is that
they have their own secret "repeater talk," that is practical for repeater
operation, but is incomprehensible to those of us not in the game.
73,
Steve Kercel
AA4AK
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