Al Arduengo wrote:

Sorry for the silly question but what does the '73' mean with which
some folks end their messages? Is it some sort if varient of a
SINPO or SIO code?

Best,
-Al
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As others have correctly pointed out the morse code signal 73 means
"best regards" as is. This and the signal 88 (love and kisses) appear
in several lists of accepted morse code abbreviations overlapping with
the accepted Phillips code abbreviations used by morse operators for
many decades, both amateur and commercial. I wonder if these 2 signals
were originally of the list of ARL numbered signals for use in amateur
radiograms...those however are always prefaced by the term ARL and are
always spelled out (in my lists of ARL numbers, the signals 73 and 88
are skipped over). It's truely amazing how standardized international
morse code became, though it has been used over a hundred years roughly
- makes you wonder how much of modern communications will even be
remembered 10 years in the past with all the proprietary incompatibility
going on.