Suppose you have passed the FCC exam in order to obtain your 1st entry technician license and now you are a qualified ham operator. You have also procured the necessary radio equipment and very much anxious about to start talking with other ham operators over the air. But you really feel frustrated because you still don’t know the ham radio lingo in other words ham radio language or speech techniques.
Even you don’t know what Q-code is and how to use a ham radio. In two way radio communication everyone should speak in the same radio lingo. Otherwise the responder will be in problem to answer correctly. As such short-hand radio expression became a necessity. In the year 1937 APCO association of public communication officials first introduced “ten-codes” as ham radio lingo.
Since then many industries have developed short cut term for 2 way radio communication. The main object of these “dispatch signals” is to boost response rate and collaboration between teams and govt. agencies. To start with we have been prepared a common listof radio communication phrases used for public safety. He following phrases is being used by most of the ham radio operators.
Over That
Message received and understood – similar to Ten Four or Copy That.
Roger so far
Confirm parts of long message before continuing with rest of message.
Affirmative
normally used when a question is asked and the reply is YES.
Negative
Normally used when a question is asked and the reply is NO.
Come in
Asking another party to acknowledge they can hear you.
Go Ahead
I am ready for your message.
Say Again
Repeat all your last transmission.
Say all after/before
Repeat all after/before a certain key word or phrase.
Over
Your message is finished – invitation for others to respond/transmit.
Out
All conversation is finished – no answer is required or expected.
Radio Check
What’s my signal strength? Can you hear me?
Read You Loud & Clear
Your transmission signal is good.
Wilco
I will comply.
Break, Break
Interruption to a transmission to communicate urgently.
Emergency emergency
Distress call – used when there is grave or imminent danger to life – immediate assistance is required.
Stand By
Wait for a short period and I will get back to you.
Wait Out
The waiting period is longer than expected – I will call you as soon as possible.
I spell
The next word will be spelt out using the phonetic alphabet.
You may use a code like ‘Code Blue‘ – a non crucial incident, ‘Code Yellow‘ -requiring immediate response and not yet dangerous, and ‘Code Red‘ – a serious incident.
Learn Ham Radio Lingo:
By this time we have heard about Q-signals three letter codes that are mostly used when communicating through Morse code and these are also being used in voice communication at the same time. These were originally used in maritime, airborne and by amateur radio operators.
When operating Morse code a time came that Q-code took the entire replacement. We can confidently say that Q-code generate Q-signal in the form of a short message and its answer also pre fixed. The following are the Q-codes generating Q-signal.
The Q-code is generally consist of three letters group first letter being Q. Auxiliary 2 letters help to give information that are being transmitted over radio waves. The structure of Q-code can be arranged in three types of code groups. General codes second letter of which are R, S, T, U and maritime service code second letters are O, P, Q.
- QRL – I am busy or the frequency is busy. One sends QRL? Before calling CQ to determine if a particular frequency is in use.
- QRM – You are being interfered with.
- QRN – I am receiving a lot of atmospheric noise.
- QRP – Lower power. QRP is often used as an adjective. A low-power transceiver, for example, might be called a “QRP rig.”
- QRS – Send slower.
- QRT – Stop sending. QRT is often used as a verb. “I am going to QRT” means that you plan to go off the air.
- QRZ? – This Q-signal is almost always used with a question mark. It means who is calling me?
- QSB – Your signal is fading in and out. QSB, QRN, and QRM are often used as nouns to mean fading, noise, and interference, respectively.
- QSO – I can communicate directly with [a particular station]. This Q-signal is also often used as a noun. “I had a QSO with Joe on 40m last night” means that I contacted Joe on the 40m band last night.
Let us discuss a few lingoes which are very much interesting not only for ham radio operator but also for other people. An interesting example to use “fine business” or FB in Morse code. When a ham radio operator ends a contact, they say “seventy three” which means “best regards”.
Before the use of internet the hams codified the massages across USA and around the globe. Instead of sending text messages “greetings on your birth day and best wishes for many more to come” they would send simply “forty six” – how interesting to hear and learn. Ham radio operators when they finishes their conversation they would simply say “Eighty eight” in short “love and kisses”.
Q-codes and other codes: Morse codes are composed of 5 elements such as short mark as dot, long mark as dash, intra character gap as dash, short gap between letters three dash and medium gap between words as seven dash. The Q-codes were originally introduced in order to shorten the time of transmission but frequently used by the ham radio operators in voice communication.
A list of ham radio Q-codes were first published by the British postmaster eneral in the year 1908.The RST code was originally introduced in order to use in CW carrier wave communication. On SSB single side band, the final digit as tone has been omitted. RSQ code is often use to describe reception.
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