Duties of sending operators.—The sending operator will enter the time when the message is handed him for transmission in the left-hand corner at the bottom of the blank opposite the word "Received." He will enter in the proper places, at the head of the blank, the number of the message, the call letter of his station, with his personal signal, the check (number of words or groups of cipher contained in message, counting address and signature), and, after "OK" has been received, he will enter the time the message was sent, and the call letter of the receiving station, with the personal signal of the receiving operator.
Order of transmission.—To transmit a message, the operator will send: (1) The number of message and call letter of his station; (2) his personal signal; (3) the check; (4) "fm" followed by name of sending detachment; (5) "at" followed by location of sending detachment and date; (6) "Ho" followed by hour (a. m. or p. m.) message was written; (7) address in full; (8) period, (- - — — - -); (9) body of message; (10) "sig" (signature follows); (11) signature.
Duties of receiving operators.—The receiving operator will add to the message received, the month, date, and year, and omit the "sig," "fm," and "at," and, after satisfying himself that the check and number of words correspond will give "OK" followed by the call letter of his station and his own personal signal. He will then enter in the proper places, at the head of the blank, the call letter of his own station, with his personal signal and the time the message was received.
Communications confidential.—Communications transmitted by telegraph or signals are always confidential and will only be revealed to those officially entitled to receive them.
Checking the message.—In preparing the "check" of the message, all words and figures written in the address, body of the message, and the signature will be counted.
In counting the check of a message, all words, whether in plain English, code, or cipher, pronounceable or unpronounceable, or initial letters, will be counted each as one word. The abbreviations for the names of places, cities, towns, villages, States, Territories, and Provinces, will be counted as if written in full. In the names of towns, counties, countries, or States, all of the words will be counted.
Abbreviations of weights and measures in common use, and cardinal points of the compass, will be counted each as one word.
To prevent liability to error, numbers and amounts should be written in words, and when not so written, the receiving operator will request that it be done. If the writer declines to write the amounts in words, the message will be accepted as written, and each figure will be counted as one word.
Figures, decimal points, and bars of division, and letters will be counted each separately as one word.
In ordinal numbers, the affixes, st, d, nd, rd, and th, will each be counted as one word.