[Al Skierkiewicz]

Without really knowing for sure, I would guess that the Ham was sending at something like 20 words per minute by the sound of the code. It took about 18 seconds to send the message via Morse Code. It looked like they were using one of my favorite rigs, a Yaesu FT-817 as well. Code operators, by the way, have been using short hand (abreviations) in sending messages for a long time. One of the nicest things about using code in ham radio is that it can still transmit a message even when signal conditions are so bad that the noise is louder than the signal. This is impossible for analog voice communications.