The Morse code initially quoted is the 'general call', equivalent to 'hey, anyone there?' It is CQ. If I were to send a general call I would send 'CQ CQ CQ de G3PPR AR K'. Morse code telegraphy, even in the hands of a very skilled operator, is quite slow - 20 words (100 letters) a minute is shifting pretty well, and only professionals could manage 30 wpm. The requirement for the amateur radio licence is 12 wpm. So there are lots of procedural signals, which take little time to send but say quite a lot, and many abbreviations. Thus: CQ (hey!) de (from) G3PPR (me) AR (end of message) K (please reply).

It might then go as follows:

G3PPR de W1AW W1AW AR KN.

W1AW de G3PPR R. Tnx fer call. Name Rod imi Rod. QTH Westminster. Ur RST 579. Hw cpi? W1AW de G3PPR AR KN

Since this site is not terribly sophisticated at present I can't produce the super multimedia surround sound, but the really nice thing about morse is that it's so musical. It means:

G3PPR de W1AW (HQ of the ARRL) W1AW AR KN (only G3PPR to reply).

W1AW de G3PPR R (all copied). Tnx fer call. Name Rod imi (I repeat) Rod. QTH (my location is) Westminster. Ur R(eadability)S(trength)T(one) 5(fully readable) 7(pretty loud) 9(sweet as a nut, i.e. not a rough, horrible roar. But then it is the ARRL station...). Hw cpi? W1AW de G3PPR AR KN

And so on. At the end of the QSO (contact) I would send

....73 es bcnu AR W1AW de G3PPR AR SK

....73 (best wishes, but don't ask me why) es bcnu (be seeing you) AR W1AW de G3PPR AR SK (end of work or end of contact)

Some telegraphists send dit-dit after they sign off, which means something like "cheers, 'en" or "g'day", depending on where they happen to live. Seems just a trifle informal, to me. The nice thing about morse is that the abbreviations are common to all languages, even the 'tnx fer' sort, so two people who have no common language can communicate perfectly well - even if neither speaks English.

So why isn't di-di-di-da-da-da-di-di-dit the same as SOS? Because it is not sent as three separate letters; there are no pauses between what might be S, O and S. It's a signal in its own right, and that's true too of the other procedural signals though not of the Q-code such as QTH.

The reasons why the morse code is as it is are interesting, as was Morse himself. Far from being a professional scientist or inventor, he was a professional artist, and his involvement with the electric telegraph a happy accident.

Read on for info on Morse and his code, and references to the Library of Congress SFB Morse website.

Possibly nearly all there is to know about Morse keys can be found at www.zianet.com/sparks; there is a huge number of pictures of these delightful devices.