Foundations of Amateur Radio

This week I'm going to have a look at something called a Q-code. Last week I talked about a few aspects of operating. One of the inventions associated with human speech is the short-cut, a way to quickly say something rather than use the whole story. Before Amateur Radio this started on the telegraph with shortcuts called Q-codes. Think a three letter combination, starting with Q, followed by two letters. QTH, QSL, QRZ, QLF are examples.

Language, just like Amateur Radio is an evolving feast. You'll find people writing articles about the abuse of Q-codes in speech going back to the early days of voice operation. The Q-code started with Morse Code as a way to quickly say something without needing to key the whole thing. This has flowed over into voice. You'll hear people use Morse-Code-isms in day to day language, 73, QSL, QTH and others are all examples of shortcuts that have no actual place in speech, but none the less have taken hold.

Having said that, of course there is difference of opinion how you should conduct yourself. I know that there are things I hear on air that make me wince, and I'm sure that I've said things that make others shake their head. So, here's my take on how it should be done and feel free to do the same, or ignore me altogether.

There is no such thing as "QRZ the frequency?". Nobody is calling the frequency. QRZ is specifically for the purpose of asking: "Who is calling me?" I know that there are some who are sharpening their pitchforks about now with all manner of comment, so let me be clear. I know, there are people who use QRZ in a pile-up. They've been calling CQ, had lots of replies, work a station and then after the contact say: QRZ?, with the meaning: "I'm done with the contact and I'm ready for another."

This in my opinion is particularly poor operating, since it means that you're too lazy to say your callsign, disrespectful of all the stations calling you, arrogant enough to assume that everyone knows which station you are and oblivious to the notion that propagation is ever changing with new stations dropping in and out all the time.

Instead of saying QRZ after such a contact, you're much better off saying your callsign instead. If you're in doubt, listen to some actually experienced contesters or DX operators and then you can you can fire off your feedback.

I've been told that I have a habit of overusing QSL, but it means: "Transmission received and understood." and in communications there cannot be too much of that. I use it in day to day on-air language, use it in email and SMS and when I'm proficient in Morse, no doubt I'll use it there too.

There are those that say that Hi-Hi, should not be used in voice, in Morse it's .... .. .... .., which sounds a little like someone laughing, which is where it comes from. Personally I think it's cute that you say Hi-Hi, even if someone who's not an Amateur doesn't share the joke.

As a stick in the mud, I dislike 73's. If you're going to abuse a code, then at least use the correct one. It's nice in Morse, --... ...--, symmetric, the end of a contact, all fine. But there's not more than one of them and we're not sending off the number 3, seven times, so drop the 's'.

I've been using language associated with broadcasting for a long time and I confess to wincing when I hear "Car-ah-be-an", rather than "Ca-rib-be-an", or "ad-ver-tise-ment" vs. "ad-ver-tis-ment" - no doubt some of my pronouncements will make you wince and some will find you agreeing.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB