# Morse code insults - Interesting readings



## IZ2LSO (Dec 13, 2012)

This is not the thread you're thinking it is, even if I have to admit I was googling to find new, creative ways to express myself...

I discovered this:

_A century ago, one of the world’s first hackers used Morse code insults to disrupt a public demo of Marconi's wireless telegraph_

and this one too:

_The British POW who stitched an insult to Hitler_

Just sharing knowledge...

Best Wishes for Christmas & The New Year

Marco IZ2LSO


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## ben27 (Dec 27, 2012)

god day iz2lso.m,today.00:28.re:morse code insult-interesting readings.it was very clever of the major and his needle work.it kept him sane,(his words)as for hacking a century ago.it appears nothing is new.interesting post.merry exmas.happy new year,regards ben27


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## BobClay (Dec 14, 2007)

I always resorted to dit dit dit dit dah, dah dah dit dah, dit dit dah dah dah.


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## tunatownshipwreck (Nov 9, 2005)

A guy who was in the US Navy monitoring Chinese communications in the late 1960s told me that although they knew they monitored each other's communications, there was never any direct communication between them. On Christmas day they broadcast a fax with a Playboy centerfold wishing a Merry Christmas in Chinese to nobody in particular. The next day was Mao's birthday, they picked up a fax of a photo of Chairman Mao with a greeting in English.


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## jaydeeare (Feb 5, 2008)

Instead of swearing in plain language I just said "Oh! Nine dits and a dah!" It baffled most people.


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## holland25 (Nov 21, 2007)

I used to say "Sierra Hotel India Tango",it wasnt until my daughters got a bit older that they cottoned on. Foxtrot Oscar.


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## captainjohn (Jun 5, 2007)

And the ever-popular "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over"


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## spacetracker (Jun 17, 2008)

Qfo !


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## Barrie Youde (May 29, 2006)

I often thought of - and occasionally used - the rhythm of the March of the Siamese Children, viz:-

dit dit dah - dit dah dah dit - dit dit dah.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

jaydeeare said:


> Instead of swearing in plain language I just said "Oh! Nine dits and a dah!" It baffled most people.


It doesn't mean much to me either, I'm afraid.

I don't recall ever swearing at people on the air, partly because I'm a saint but also because I couldn't see the point. It's a bit like these bozos who do obscene gestures from their moving cars.

John T

PS i've just worked it out, JDR. The scales were lifted from my eyes.


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## jaydeeare (Feb 5, 2008)

trotterdotpom said:


> It doesn't mean much to me either, I'm afraid.
> 
> I don't recall ever swearing at people on the air, partly because I'm a saint but also because I couldn't see the point. It's a bit like these bozos who do obscene gestures from their moving cars.
> 
> ...


I was never in a situation to transmit over the air, just spoke the words instead of saying it out in plain language. Saved me a few quid in Swear Box fines!!


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

Re-reading/resurrecting a few threads. 

As far as GKA was concerned if a QTC was being badly sent a simple "QSD QSR VA" would do the trick, although a couple of GKA R/Os would take it upon themselves to send BLX instead of QSD.


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## duncs (Sep 8, 2008)

Larry Bennett said:


> Re-reading/resurrecting a few threads.
> 
> As far as GKA was concerned if a QTC was being badly sent a simple "QSD QSR VA" would do the trick, although a couple of GKA R/Os would take it upon themselves to send BLX instead of QSD.


I completely disagree with you Larry! I have never heard anything like that from a GKA RO. You are putting down on them! GKA were the most helpful I've come across. All British coast stations were the same! Shame on you!


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

As one 'who was there', I heard BLX used at least a couple of times. Admittedly this was towards the end of the service and when some shipboard R/Os were not (shall we say) totally competent. Back in the day such frivolous and unprofessional practice would have been, rightly, frowned upon - and would no doubt have resulted in a severe word or two from the Duty Manager. But to listen to some of the dreadful cw we had to receive in the final years one would had to have the patience of a saint to refrain from some sort of comment - and a couple of our more short-fused R/Os certainly let rip. Not uncommon to hear a torrent of vocal expletives in the w/t area as a particularly difficult QSO took its course.

But as you say very much a minority - 99.9% of QSOs were enjoyable, slick and professional; maybe I have given the impression that our R/Os (and those at the coast stations) were unhelpful and unfriendly. This is certainly not the case and I apologize unreservedly if any misunderstanding has taken place.

Larry +


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## R651400 (Jun 18, 2005)

Wouldn't have believed radio ticket passes could be possible without a reasonable standard of morse competency until circa 1984 I heard the morse or to put it mildly non morse ability of a young RO with the then equivalent of a 1st class PMG. 
My thoughts then were hope he's never involved in a distress and secondly he was far from the RO norm but reading above he appears to be more like status quo.


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## duncs (Sep 8, 2008)

I accept what you say, Larry. It was just that I was a bit miffed at the way you put it. GKA ROs certainly helped me, when I had crap gear in the Pacific. Maybe things changed at the latter end, as you say.
All the best,

Duncs


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## J. Davies (Dec 29, 2010)

Larry, at Brunel my Morse teacher
advised us not to send VA at the end of a QSO because it sounded rude, like "go away, I have finished with you". Accordingly I never used it at sea and rarely heard it. Was that the view at GKA?

Radio hams use VA all the time but it still sounds abrupt.


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## Norm (Jun 21, 2006)

I have heard that when Lord Mountbatten of Burma was a Royal Naval Officer, he heard a telegraphist on another ship finish up a transmission with the 'laughing call'. He ordered the offending rating to be found, and then he disciplined him severely. No sense of humour, him, the future Viceroy of India. The laughing call on a morse key......dit didi dada..da da.


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

#18 . Never heard it called the "laughing call", Norm, but it sounds like it could be "shave and a haircut, ten cents".

I always knock on doors like that and my wife thinks it's stupid. Maybe she should have married Louis, inventor of the brown hat.

John T


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

J. Davies said:


> Larry, at Brunel my Morse teacher
> advised us not to send VA at the end of a QSO because it sounded rude, like "go away, I have finished with you". Accordingly I never used it at sea and rarely heard it. Was that the view at GKA?
> 
> Radio hams use VA all the time but it still sounds abrupt.


Hi John,

Very rarely used VA at GKA (apart from the last broadcast). The only time I remember hearing it is when there was a particularly difficult and painful QSO and the GKA R/O "pulled the plug" on it. As you say it was very abrupt and forceful. Like you, the commercial working tutors at Brunel (Lofty Allen and Bill Donley in my case) advised not to use it, and this tended to continue at GKA.

Cheers Larry +


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## J. Davies (Dec 29, 2010)

Bill Donley, what a great gent. May he rest in peace. My mother met him during an open day at college and afterwards forever referred to him as "that dishy Mr. Donley".


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## duncs (Sep 8, 2008)

trotterdotpom said:


> #18 . Never heard it called the "laughing call", Norm, but it sounds like it could be "shave and a haircut, ten cents".
> 
> I always knock on doors like that and my wife thinks it's stupid. Maybe she should have married Louis, inventor of the brown hat.
> 
> John T


I have to go along with JT. On the key a dit came after it.
When I worked as a nigh****chman, in the morning, I always rapped the 'shave and a haircut', on the door, before opening it.


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## Dimples82 (Aug 24, 2014)

I have heard the phrase "the gentleman obviously has no father” used on R/T before


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## Troppo (Feb 18, 2010)

Larry Bennett said:


> Hi John,
> 
> Very rarely used VA at GKA (apart from the last broadcast). The only time I remember hearing it is when there was a particularly difficult and painful QSO and the GKA R/O "pulled the plug" on it. As you say it was very abrupt and forceful. Like you, the commercial working tutors at Brunel (Lofty Allen and Bill Donley in my case) advised not to use it, and this tended to continue at GKA.
> 
> Cheers Larry +


Good point...I never used it.


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