YES in Morse Code

R, C, and what each one actually means

Morse has no single word for yes, and it has never needed one. What it has instead is a set of answers that are more precise than yes:

• R .-. - "received". It confirms that your transmission arrived, not that the operator agrees with it. This is the one you hear most.
• C -.-. - "correct, affirmative". Closer to what yes means in a conversation, and used mainly where the question was a question.
• QSL --.- ... .-.. - "I acknowledge receipt", the formal version, from the Q-code.

The distinction between R and C is worth keeping. Answering R to "is your antenna up?" says you heard the question, not that the antenna is up - and operators do notice.

The letter Y is the expensive part

Y -.-- is 13 units - the joint longest letter in the alphabet, and more than half of the whole word. It is also the letter with the worst ratio in the entire code: number 18 of 26 by how often English uses it, and dead last by length.

Reverse it and you get --.-, which is Q. The two are a mirror pair, and they sound alike enough that a tired operator will write down the wrong one.

The Y page has the timing and the look-alikes.

Saying no

The negative works the same way and is even shorter: N -., five units. In contest traffic N does double duty as the digit 9, which is why a signal report of 599 goes out as 5NN.

The NO page covers the spelled-out version and where the shorthand comes from.