Ham Radio History - The Q-Codes

Most radio hams use Q codes in their day to day operation, but have you ever given any thought to where they came from? Jim Linton, VK3PC, has the rest of the story:

Q-codes, we use them on air, particularly the HF bands, they're universally understood abbreviations and part of the regulatory or operational knowledge needed to obtain a ham ticket.

But where and how did they begin?
The original Q Codes were created in about 1909 by the British government as a list of abbreviations for use by British ships and coastal stations.

They quickly proved their worth in facilitating communication between maritime operators including those from non-English speaking countries.

A total of 45 Q-codes were adopted by the International Radiotelegraph Convention in July 1912.

There are actually three sets of Q-codes - QAA-QNZ for aeronautical use, QOA-QOZ for maritime use, and QRA-QUZ for general use and part of this set is used by amateur radio amateurs.

Some Q-codes previously listed for ham use in various publications seem to have fallen by the wayside.

For example QRA - What is the name of your station? This can easily be substituted with QRZ?

QUM - Normal operation of an amateur station can resume. This is a throw back to the early spark-gap wireless telegraphy era when amateur radio stations could be told to stop sending due to interference with maritime stations.

Among others that seem to have fallen into disuse are:
QRH - Does my frequency vary? and QRL - Are you busy?

There are also a few unofficial or humorous Q-codes used occasionally too. Notably QLF - sending with your left foot or QLK for left-footed keyboard operation. The point of those codes is to highlight poor sending via a Morse key or qwerty keyboard.

Now going QRT,
I'm Jim Linton VK3PC.

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