Silent key

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Silent key refers to an amateur radio operator who is deceased. The term is frequently abbreviated SK. The key in the term refers to a telegraph key, the instrument that all early amateur radio operators, as well as many contemporary amateur radio operators, have used to send Morse code. The term SK is used to refer to any amateur radio operator who is deceased, regardless of whether or not they were known to have actively used a telegraph key or Morse code in their two-way personal communications.

When transmitted as two Morse code characters without separating audio delay, SK is a Morse code prosign meaning "end of communications", from the phrase "Stop Keying".

---