Codes and Alphabets

Related wiki pages: Calculators

CW Abbreviations
These abbreviations are commonly used in CW transmissions to shorten transmission times. Not all CW operators use all of them - most will use very few. As a general rule most operators do not abbreviate unnecessarily, especially when communication with an operator that they do not know or whose experience is unknown. In contest conditions, abbreviations are common as operators try to gain as many contacts as possible over the competition period.

Morse Code
International Morse code is composed of five elements:


 * 1) short mark, dot or 'dit' (·) — one unit long
 * 2) longer mark, dash or 'dah' (–) — three units long
 * 3) intra-character gap (between the dots and dashes within a character) — one unit long
 * 4) short gap (between letters) — three units long
 * 5) medium gap (between words) — seven units long

Radio traffic uses International Morse only; while the original railroad landline telegraph system used American Morse code, this code is now obsolete.

External link : Morse Code

Phonetic Alphabet - Nato
A number of phonetic alphabets exist. the nato version is most common and can be considered to be the "international" phonetic alphabet.

Q-Code
These codes were oringinally developed to shorten transmission times when using CW, but are frequently used in voice transmissions. (eg. I am going to go QRT, thanks for the QSO.)

The QRA...QUZ code range includes phrases applicable to all services and is allocated to the International Telecommunications Union. NATO's ACP 131(E), COMMUNICATIONS INSTRUCTIONS - OPERATING SIGNALS, March 1997, chapter 2 contains a full list of 'Q' codes. Other 'Q' code ranges are allocated specifically to aviation or maritime services; many of those codes have fallen into disuse as voice displaces CW in commercial operation.

More information about the history and usage of Q-codes can be found here.

RSQ code
Often used to describe reception and quality of digital modes such as PSK31