88

[hal]

In my research I have seen HH used by Nazi era functionaries as a 
salutation in their memorandum and radiograms.  From what I have seen it 
was in common use
among party functionaries, the SS, civil administration and dedicated party 
men within
the armed forces.   It would be interesting to see if Nazi era brevity 
codebooks contained
"88" or its cut number equivalent, but, H is easy to send and may have
been favored by Nazi radiotelegraphists.   Back in the days of telegraph and
radio telegraph, two letter shorthand like this was not uncommon and stock
phrases were often shorted in various ways including to di- and trigraphs,
some of which continue to make
up radiotelegraph shorthand today. During the Nazi era Heil Hitler was just 
such as
stock phrase and was shortened to HH.  (You also see it many times as "HH!")

The use of 88 as "love and kisses" probably dates back to the old
Phillips Code used by American railroad telegraphers, but, this is just a 
guess.
Its unclear if hate group use of 88 and the Nazi era telegraphy HH are 
related or
more likely the hate group invented it on their own. There's certainly no 
relationship
between it and 88 used in ham radio.   Remember Agent 88 from Get Smart?

-H.

http://www.wouldyoubelieve.com/
much more interesting


At 11:59 AM 11/11/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>  This is something hams should be aware of.
>What (if anything) to do, I have no idea.
>http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/numbers_88.asp
>                                         Sandy
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