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Best regards.


NS7X

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All right.  I'm a purist. I admit it.  I'm one of those obnoxious people who becomes annoyed when a ham signs off with "best regardses."

The complaint goes something like this:  "73" means best regards so when you use "73's" you are making a plural into a double plural.  Regards becomes regardses.  The same is true for 88.  Adding an "s" to 88 turns "love and kisses" into "love and kisseses."  This is the kind of thing which rancors fussbudgets like me. 

At least it used to.  Now, I'm a reformed nit-picker.  You see, one day I ran into a ham who happened to know a little more than I did and he educated me on the subject.  The fellow pointed out that The Old Man, the discoverer of the rettysnitch, one of the great amateur radio pioneers, the founder of the ARRL, Hiram Percy Maxim W1AW himself used "73's" on his QSL cards.  Who am I to fault the remarkable Hiram Percy Maxim?

So it no longer bothers me when I hear "seven threes" on a sign-off.  If truth be told, it's a gentle reminder of the legacy the early hams left us with, and that makes me smile.

73 es 88
MaryAnn NS7X

1AW QSL card.jpg

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Well well, here's a topic that merits some introspection. I AM GUILTY AS CHARGED - sometimes! I too am a purist at heart and yet I find myself often making the mistake. I often sign 73s. And yet, in my heart, I know that's wrong. Think about the Q code or the 10 code. Do you hear an officer saying 10-4s or do we say QRTs. This said, we do say, QSOs, but that one actually makes sense if it's more than one.

So @NS7X, I do believe that with all the respect we owe Hiram, going forward, I may well become a purist, once again.

73

Jim 😇

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It seems to me that 73s is more in the line of "Best regards. Best Regards..." for as many iterations as you would like (to receive).

image.png.f330514dcf6cc5fd43d3df08175ed715.png

When I entered North Whitney St into Google Maps, it dropped the "North" portion so I'm not sure this is the same address as on the card.

 

image.png.8fcc4adca97358394a181882ba35238a.png

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On 10/12/2021 at 2:51 PM, NS7X said:

All right.  I'm a purist. I admit it.  I'm one of those obnoxious people who becomes annoyed when a ham signs off with "best regardses."

The complaint goes something like this:  "73" means best regards so when you use "73's" you are making a plural into a double plural.  Regards becomes regardses.  The same is true for 88.  Adding an "s" to 88 turns "love and kisses" into "love and kisseses."  This is the kind of thing which rancors fussbudgets like me. 

At least it used to.  Now, I'm a reformed nit-picker.  You see, one day I ran into a ham who happened to know a little more than I did and he educated me on the subject.  The fellow pointed out that The Old Man, the discoverer of the rettysnitch, one of the great amateur radio pioneers, the founder of the ARRL, Hiram Percy Maxim W1AW himself used "73's" on his QSL cards.  Who am I to fault the remarkable Hiram Percy Maxim?

So it no longer bothers me when I hear "seven threes" on a sign-off.  If truth be told, it's a gentle reminder of the legacy the early hams left us with, and that makes me smile.

73 es 88
MaryAnn NS7X

1AW QSL card.jpg

I always regarded 73s as best regards, best regards and Yl Mary Ann has the proff with Hiram's QSL card.  Well done Mary Anne. 73 and 88

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