Identifying operators by their ‘fingerprints’
When Morse is sent by hand, every operator has his or her own characteristics in the shape of slight variations in the lengths of dots and dashes and spacing between letters and words. Slight as they are, when a Morse operator regularly “works” another operator, it becomes quite easy to recognize the style or “fist” of the other.
In the Second World War, the differences in the sending styles of secret agents were noted by their home stations so that if they were captured false messages emanating from the enemy could easily be detected. The styles of operators on enemy submarines, ships or military units were also identified to help track their movements on a day-to-day basis.
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