Good Night in Morse Code

Good Night in Morse — Telegraph Closings and Radio Farewells

Amateur radio operators have their own vocabulary of closings. At the end of a contact, an operator might send "73 SK" — 73 meaning "best regards" (one of the oldest numerical Morse code abbreviations, dating to the 1850s) and SK (·····-·-) being the prosign for "end of contact." A "good night" QSO might end with "GN OM 73 SK" — "Good night, old man, best regards, end of contact."

The Q-code QRT (I am stopping transmission) serves a similar purpose in formal traffic, but CW operators lean toward the warmer 73 and GN in casual conversation. The habit of ending contacts politely is part of the amateur radio culture that traces directly back to telegraph wire operators who would greet and bid farewell to each other by name every day.

In Morse, "Good Night" runs ten letters: G (dash-dash-dot), O (three dashes), O (three dashes), D (dash-dot-dot), then N (dash-dot), I (dot-dot), G (dash-dash-dot), H (four dots), T (a single dash). The final T is one of the simplest signals in Morse — a single clean dash — which gives the phrase a satisfying, quiet close.