Q codes

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Q codes

ANDY DURBIN
"Who knew there were so many Q-codes :)"

My favorite from my time as a teenager in the cadet force signals wing was QUQ.  I had remembered it as "Shall I point my searchlight at a cloud, occulting if necessary, in order to pinpoint my position".

Either my memory is playing tricks on me or the meaning changed a bit over the years.  The definition I found now is "Shall I train my searchlight nearly vertical on a cloud, occulting if possible and, if your aircraft is seen, deflect the beam up wind and on the water (or land) to facilitate your landing?"

Either way, not a code that comes up in most QSO.

73,
Andy, k3wyc
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Re: Q codes

Phil Kane-2
On 6/11/2020 2:52 PM, Andy Durbin wrote:

> "Who knew there were so many Q-codes :)" [QUQ]

> Either way, not a code that comes up in most QSO.

For those of us who were subjected to passing Element 5 to get the FCC
Radiotelegraph Operator License, we had to recognize a whole slew of
Q-Signals that pertained to commercial message traffic procedure, which
also would not come up in our ham QSOs.  I forgot most of them by now.  :)

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon
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Re: Q codes

k6dgw
In reply to this post by ANDY DURBIN
I wrote a little ham utility that will look up prefixes, and Q/Z
signals, do QRZ searches, and tell me, given a call, if it's a member of
my several club associations.  Building the Q/Z signal table was
enlightening ... I particularly like ZAA: "You are not observing proper
circuit discipline"; ZAB: "Your speed key is improperly adjusted"; and
ZAC: "Cease using speed key", especially if used by NCS in sequence. 
And, there's always ZBM1: "Place a qualified speed key operator on watch
on this frequency", and when this all fails, ZBM2: "Place a competent
operator on watch on this frequency."

73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 6/11/2020 2:52 PM, Andy Durbin wrote:

> "Who knew there were so many Q-codes :)"
>
> My favorite from my time as a teenager in the cadet force signals wing was QUQ.  I had remembered it as "Shall I point my searchlight at a cloud, occulting if necessary, in order to pinpoint my position".
>
> Either my memory is playing tricks on me or the meaning changed a bit over the years.  The definition I found now is "Shall I train my searchlight nearly vertical on a cloud, occulting if possible and, if your aircraft is seen, deflect the beam up wind and on the water (or land) to facilitate your landing?"
>
> Either way, not a code that comes up in most QSO.
>
> 73,
> Andy, k3wyc
>

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Re: Q codes

ANDY DURBIN
In reply to this post by ANDY DURBIN
"ZBM2: "Place a competent operator on watch on this frequency."

Is QLF the more sensitive equivalent??

73,
Andy, k3wyc

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Re: Q codes

Edward H Russell
In reply to this post by ANDY DURBIN
It used to be fun as net control on 80 back in the 50s when my call sign was
K5QNF.

Ed / W2RF

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] <[hidden email]> On
Behalf Of Andy Durbin
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2020 5:52 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Elecraft] Q codes

"Who knew there were so many Q-codes :)"

My favorite from my time as a teenager in the cadet force signals wing was
QUQ.  I had remembered it as "Shall I point my searchlight at a cloud,
occulting if necessary, in order to pinpoint my position".

Either my memory is playing tricks on me or the meaning changed a bit over
the years.  The definition I found now is "Shall I train my searchlight
nearly vertical on a cloud, occulting if possible and, if your aircraft is
seen, deflect the beam up wind and on the water (or land) to facilitate your
landing?"

Either way, not a code that comes up in most QSO.

73,
Andy, k3wyc
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Re: Q codes

k6dgw
In reply to this post by ANDY DURBIN
Good point Andy!  QLF seems to refer to sending ability.  ZBM2 refers to
overall operating ability ... I think ... ACP's 126 and 131 leave a lot
to the reader's imagination. Jack Phillips, MGY, might have used it on
"Iceberg Night" had the Z's existed then when he was berating the
operators on the Californian and a Navy vessel for poor operating procedure.

73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 6/11/2020 7:45 PM, Andy Durbin wrote:
> "ZBM2: "Place a competent operator on watch on this frequency."
>
> Is QLF the more sensitive equivalent??
>
> 73,
> Andy, k3wyc
>

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Re: Q codes

Elecraft mailing list
Only ever got one QLF. In the late 1970's, two minutes to go at the end of the PA QSO party and found the last mult to get a clean sweep.   When I went to send the key fell apart. Yanked off the wires and touched them together to send call and info in CW. But I got him in the log and a clean sweep.  
N2TK, Tony

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Fred Jensen
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2020 1:42 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Q codes

Good point Andy!  QLF seems to refer to sending ability.  ZBM2 refers to overall operating ability ... I think ... ACP's 126 and 131 leave a lot to the reader's imagination. Jack Phillips, MGY, might have used it on "Iceberg Night" had the Z's existed then when he was berating the operators on the Californian and a Navy vessel for poor operating procedure.

73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 6/11/2020 7:45 PM, Andy Durbin wrote:
> "ZBM2: "Place a competent operator on watch on this frequency."
>
> Is QLF the more sensitive equivalent??
>
> 73,
> Andy, k3wyc
>

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Re: Q codes

ANDY DURBIN
In reply to this post by ANDY DURBIN
ACP 131(F) -

https://web.archive.org/web/20130215140321/http://jcs.dtic.mil/j6/cceb/acps/acp131/ACP131F09.pdf

Offered to NATO for adoption:

https://archives.nato.int/uploads/r/null/1/2/127387/SGM-0921-55_ENG_PDP.pdf

Was anyone actually expected to memorize all of these codes?

73,
Andy, k3wyc

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Re: Q codes

k6dgw
In reply to this post by k6dgw
QLF [not officially assigned] has been around a long time with several
similar meanings.  A common [and fairly ancient] one is "Are you sending
with your left foot?" and "Please attempt to send with your left foot."

I believe QSD, "Is my keying defective?" and "Your keying is defective",
refers to the technical characteristics of keying such as contact
bounce, missing dits, broken dahs, etc.

Purely out of nostalgia, I dabble in traffic handling via the Nor Cal
Net.  I'm one of two N. NV stations so I mostly receive and deliver. 
One of the changes from the heyday of NTS is that many operators are
hovering within microns over their paddle ready to pounce, resulting in
a lot of doubles and even triples and general confusion.  I guess they
just can't wait to send something.  They are often the same folks on
bugs set way faster than they can actually send reliably.  That, coupled
with the fact that everyone is exactly zero beat and our radios all
sound alike these days can really screw up a net.

Someone posted the procedure for moving off the net QRG to receive or
send, pointing out that it's the receiving station who is supposed to
find the clear frequency.  Unfortunately, that convention seems to have
died, these same operators, needing to be the first to send, nearly
always are calling me well before I find a clear spot.  I believe they
would be candidates for ZBM2.

73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 6/12/2020 10:59 AM, Kevin McQuiggin wrote:

> QLF was a joke Q code meaning “Quality of your (CW) sounds like you are sending it with your left foot”, hence “QLF”.  From QST in the 1930s, I recall.
>
>> On Jun 12, 2020, at 10:41 AM, Fred Jensen <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> Good point Andy!  QLF seems to refer to sending ability.  ZBM2 refers to overall operating ability ... I think ... ACP's 126 and 131 leave a lot to the reader's imagination. Jack Phillips, MGY, might have used it on "Iceberg Night" had the Z's existed then when he was berating the operators on the Californian and a Navy vessel for poor operating procedure.
>>
>> 73,
>> Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
>> Sparks NV DM09dn
>> Washoe County
>>
>> On 6/11/2020 7:45 PM, Andy Durbin wrote:
>>> "ZBM2: "Place a competent operator on watch on this frequency."
>>>
>>> Is QLF the more sensitive equivalent??
>>>
>>> 73,
>>> Andy, k3wyc
>>>

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Re: Q codes

k6dgw
In reply to this post by ANDY DURBIN
There were a number of Q-signal questions on my 2T exam in 1956.  The
Z's were used primarily by the military, I don't recall any in
commercial ops.  Very common on military TTY channels in the 60's.

73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 6/12/2020 11:12 AM, Andy Durbin wrote:

> ACP 131(F) -
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20130215140321/http://jcs.dtic.mil/j6/cceb/acps/acp131/ACP131F09.pdf
>
> Offered to NATO for adoption:
>
> https://archives.nato.int/uploads/r/null/1/2/127387/SGM-0921-55_ENG_PDP.pdf
>
> Was anyone actually expected to memorize all of these codes?
>
> 73,
> Andy, k3wyc
>

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Re: Q codes

Keith N6JPA-2
Years ago I came across a web site that had British intelligence agents
use of CW and Q codes for their spying communications. It was very
interesting to read all the Q codes meanings.


On 6/12/2020 11:33 AM, Fred Jensen wrote:

> There were a number of Q-signal questions on my 2T exam in 1956.  The
> Z's were used primarily by the military, I don't recall any in
> commercial ops.  Very common on military TTY channels in the 60's.
>
> 73,
> Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
> Sparks NV DM09dn
> Washoe County
>
> On 6/12/2020 11:12 AM, Andy Durbin wrote:
>
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Re: Q codes

Todd KH2TJ
In reply to this post by k6dgw
It was an unwritten rule, but the use of ZBM2 on any circuit was a big no-no, or at least during my time with Naval Security Group.   Anytime we had trubs with an outlying station, we would gather up the translog and any other copy of the Comms and up the chain of command it would go...I think I only saw a ZBM2 fly by once while I was out on Guam.  It went across one of IO circuits during GW I.  Heard thru the grapevine weeks later that Op was relieved...We were required to maintain a copy  of the ACP-131 on the watch floor.  It made for some interesting reading on slow mid-watches.  I recall we came up with all sorts of Q/Z codes that we Zapped back and forth.  I think we used INT QBF Mate K quite often in place of ZBM2   😉   Always a good laugh to get a Chief of the Watch to ask what the hell was QBF... There were all kinds of Z codes in use too that we would throw out just to mess with the ops on the other end...Great times during  a slow midwatch!   Forget off hand what the Z code was for
"Your totally distorted"!  but after a weeks worth of watchstanding,  I would treat the younger Marines on my watch to total distortion down at the E club on the start of our off time and we'd all get to the "point of no return" (forgot that Z code too!)...


73, Todd KH2TJ


________________________________


Good point Andy!  QLF seems to refer to sending ability.  ZBM2 refers to
overall operating ability ... I think ... ACP's 126 and 131 leave a lot
to the reader's imagination.


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Re: Q codes

k6dgw
ZPA: Your speech is distorted

QNR: I am approaching my point of no return

73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 6/16/2020 12:01 PM, Todd KH2TJ wrote:
>  Forget off hand what the Z code was for
> "Your totally distorted"!  but after a weeks worth of watchstanding, 
> I would treat the younger Marines on my watch to total distortion down
> at the E club on the start of our off time and we'd all get to the
> "point of no return" (forgot that Z code too!)...
>
> 73, Todd KH2TJ
>

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