On 7/16/2011 6:46 PM, Ken - K0PP wrote: > > "Q" signals were established to facilitate communication > between stations that don't share a common language. > > In usual usage a "Q" signal without punctuation is considered > a statement. If it's followed by a "?", it's meant as a question.
In commercial radiotelegraph in the past, they were generally presented in the opposite order ... you ask the question "INT QRM" meaning, "Are you bothered by interference?," or "INT QLB KPH 6" meaning "Have you monitored KPH on 8 Mcs and if so can you report their signal strength?" and the answer "QRM" meant "Yes, I am bothered by interference." If you weren't bothered by interference you responded "N N K", or "NO K." "N" and "NO" work for a great number of languages, as does "OK". If you had monitored KPH on their 8 Mcs, you might report "QLB KPH 6 QSA 4" meaning "I have monitored KPH on their 8 Mcs frequency and I report them as QSA 4." In that service, "INT" [di di dah dit dah sent as one character] was the interrogatory, and preceded the question you were about to ask. [INT QRL] The Morse question mark is "di di dah dah di dit] which duplicates the prosign "IMI" meaning either "please repeat last" or "I will repeat last". Those with commercial radiotelegraph experience may remember this. INT never made it into ham practice as [I think] we found that we could easily distinguish a "?" from an "IMI" from context. Of course, we were also not handling traffic for a price for a communications company who had a rule book and a Chief Op standing behind you about to box you on your ears if you screwed it up. :-) > > Needless to say, a purist would never use a "Q" signal in voice > communications, but we all do. "The home QTH here is ... (;-) Very true in commercial marine and aeronautical radiotelephone service. Hams, being inventive and prone to thinking out of the ITU box, have nounified and verbified [and in some cases adjectivified and adverbified] International Q Signals. QRM is too many stations on the same frequency, generally a noun, as is QRG ["HIS QRG?"]. QRQ can be either ... a noun denoting high speed CW, or a verb [QRQ] meaning "speed up." > > Oh ... 73 is correct. 73's isn't. 73's is equivalent to "Good lucks". I'm not the expert, but I have always thought 73 meant "Best Regards." Thus, "VY 73 ES GUD DX" meant "Very Best Regards and Good DX." 73's would then mean, "Best Regardeses." But, if you tell me "Best 73's" on phone, I will take it as a gesture of good will toward me, and thank you for that. 73, Fred K6DGW - Northern California Contest Club - CU in the 2011 Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2011 - www.cqp.org ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
