Q codes
Three letters that replace a whole sentence in telegraphy. With a question mark they are a question, without one a statement. The most common ones are used in voice operation too.
- QRA
- name of my station
- QRB
- distance between two stations
- QRG
- exact frequency
- QRL
- I am busy, the frequency is in use
- QRM
- interference from other transmitters
- QRN
- atmospheric noise, static crashes
- QRO
- increase power, high power
- QRP
- reduce power, operating with low power
- QRQ
- send faster
- QRS
- send more slowly
- QRT
- stop operating, closing down
- QRU
- I have nothing for you
- QRV
- I am ready
- QRX
- please wait
- QRZ
- Who is calling me?
- QSA
- signal strength, scale 1 to 5
- QSB
- varying signal strength, fading
- QSL
- acknowledge receipt, also the confirmation card
- QSO
- radio contact
- QSP
- relay a message
- QSY
- change frequency
- QTC
- I have a message
- QTH
- Location
- QTR
- exact time
Abbreviations in telegraphy
What goes over the air all the time in CW and digital modes. Many abbreviations come from English maritime radio.
- CQ
- general call to all stations
- DE
- from, this is
- K
- end of transmission, over to you
- KN
- end, but only the station called should answer
- AR
- end of message
- AS
- wait a moment
- BK
- break in mid-transmission
- SK
- end of contact
- CL
- closing down the station
- R
- all received
- RST
- report: readability, strength, tone
- OM
- old man, male radio amateur
- YL
- young lady, female radio amateur
- XYL
- wife
- ES
- and
- HR
- here
- UR
- your
- PSE
- please
- TNX
- thanks
- FB
- fine business, good, great
- HW?
- How do you copy me?
- WX
- weather
- ANT
- antenna
- PWR
- power
- RIG
- radio, transceiver
- AGN
- again
- CFM
- confirm
- CUL
- see you later
- GA / GE / GM
- good afternoon, good evening, good morning
- HI
- laughter
- 73
- best regards
- 88
- love and kisses, customary towards a YL
- 55
- good luck, common in contests
- Abkürzungszahlen
- Shortened digits in contests: T for 0, N for 9, A for 1, E for 5. 5NN means 599, 1T7 means 107
- Rauschsperre (CW)
- A CW decoder only starts writing when several strong tones arrive with real gaps between them. With no signal the text stays empty instead of guessing characters out of the noise
RST report
The report describes how a station is coming in. In SSB only the first two digits are given, in CW all three.
- R1 bis R5
- Readability: 1 unreadable, 3 readable with difficulty, 5 perfectly readable
- S1 bis S9
- Signal strength: 1 barely perceptible, 5 fair, 9 very strong
- T1 bis T9
- Tone in CW: 9 pure tone, lower values hum or sound rough
- 59 / 599
- standard report, in contests often regardless of the actual signal
- S9 + 20 dB
- above S9 the count continues in decibels, one S unit is 6 dB
Phonetic alphabet
The ITU alphabet is used in radio everywhere, within Germany too. Callsigns are always spelled out when they might not come across clearly.
- A B C D
- Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta
- E F G H
- Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel
- I J K L
- India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima
- M N O P
- Mike, November, Oscar, Papa
- Q R S T
- Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango
- U V W X
- Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray
- Y Z
- Yankee, Zulu
- Zahlen
- Nadazero, Unaone, Bissotwo, Terrathree, Kartefour, Pantafive, Soxisix, Setteseven, Oktoeight, Novenine (rare in amateur radio, digits are usually just said normally)
Callsigns in Germany
Prefix and digit tell you the purpose and licence class, as laid down in the callsign plan of the Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA, German regulator), valid from 1 April 2025. Which series are open to you is shown by the finder at /rufzeichenplan.
- DB, DC, DD, DF, DG, DH, DJ, DK, DL, DM mit Ziffer 1 bis 9
- personal callsigns for class A, plus DA1 and DA2
- DO1 bis DO9
- personal callsigns for class E, plus DA6; around 8,900 licences (list of 14 September 2026)
- DN9
- the only series for personal callsigns of class N
- DN1 bis DN8
- training callsigns: none issued since 24 June 2025, valid until 31 December 2028
- DB0, DM0, DO0
- repeaters and beacons (DO0 for class E)
- DA0, DF0, DK0, DL0
- club stations with 2 or 3 letters in the suffix
- Suffix mit 1 Buchstaben
- club stations only, roughly DQ0A to DR9Z, for up to 5 years
- Sonderrufzeichen
- club station with 4 to 7 characters in the suffix for a special occasion, one year at most
- DP
- club stations, repeaters and studies at an extraterritorial location (DP0 to DP2), DP8 also without
- DR1 bis DR3 (KSB)
- club stations for members of the emergency services (BOS), only for emergencies, disasters and exercises
- DR4 bis DR6 (KSO)
- club stations of emergency communication groups; no contests, /Ueb during exercises
- PZ, KS
- personal assignment, assignment for a club station
- /p
- portable: a handheld or temporarily fixed station
- /m, /mm, /am
- mobile in a land vehicle or on inland waters, maritime mobile at sea, aeronautical mobile
- /T
- training operation (trainee), mandatory; goes before /p or /r, so /Tp, /Tr
- /r
- remote operation, optional
- DL/… und DO/…
- short-term licence for foreign radio amateurs not resident in Germany, class A or E, for up to three months
Law and administration
The terms that come up in the licence exam and afterwards in letters from the authorities.
- AFuG
- Amateurfunkgesetz (German Amateur Radio Act), covers purpose, licensing and supervision
- AFuV
- Amateurfunkverordnung (AFuV, German amateur radio regulations), covers the details: classes, frequencies, power
- BEMFV
- German ordinance on the verification procedure for protection against electromagnetic fields
- 26. BImSchV
- sets the limits for electromagnetic fields
- Anzeige
- Anyone transmitting more than 10 W EIRP has to notify the Bundesnetzagentur of the station
- Rufzeichenzuteilung
- certificate with callsign and class, issued after you pass the exam
- Klasse N
- entry-level class since 2024: 10 m, 2 m and 70 cm with low power
- Klasse E
- intermediate class: 160 m, 80 m, 15 m, 10 m and the VHF/UHF bands
- Klasse A
- full privileges on all amateur bands
- EMV-Beitrag
- annual fee charged by the Bundesnetzagentur
- Selbsterklärung
- proof under the BEMFV that the limits are met at your location
Regulation and radio policy
Who allocates frequencies, approves equipment and sets limits: the bodies and abbreviations that turn up in the cases under /funkpolitik, from the world radio treaty to the federal law gazette.
- ITU
- International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations in Geneva, divides the spectrum into services worldwide
- WRC
- World Radiocommunication Conference of the ITU, meets roughly every four years and amends the Radio Regulations; the next one is in 2027
- CEPT
- European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations, 46 countries, coordinates frequency use in Europe
- ECC
- Electronic Communications Committee of the CEPT, adopts decisions and recommendations and invites comments
- CPG
- preparatory group of the CEPT for the World Radiocommunication Conference, sets the common European positions
- IARU
- International Amateur Radio Union, umbrella body of the national amateur radio societies, represents amateur radio at the ITU and CEPT
- BNetzA
- Bundesnetzagentur, the German regulator: assigns frequencies and callsigns, runs the exams and investigates interference
- DIP
- documentation and information system for parliamentary material of the Bundestag and Bundesrat: printed papers, minutes, proceedings
- BGBl
- Bundesgesetzblatt (federal law gazette), where laws and ordinances are promulgated; only then do they apply
- RED
- Radio Equipment Directive of the EU (2014/53/EU), governs which radio equipment may be placed on the market; home-built amateur equipment is exempt
- SRD
- short range devices such as remote keys and sensors, often on 433 MHz and 868 MHz, partly inside the amateur bands
- PLC
- data transmission over mains wiring (powerline), radiates on HF and spoils reception
- CISPR
- special committee of the IEC on radio interference, writes the standards with the limits for emissions from equipment
- EMVU
- environmental compatibility of electromagnetic fields: protecting people from fields, for radio amateurs covered by the BEMFV
- KRITIS
- critical infrastructure such as power, water and telecoms; in civil protection it is often about radio as a fallback
- Konsultation
- an authority or body asks the public for comments on a draft, with a deadline; that is where you can have your say
DARC, DOK and awards
If you are active in the society or collect awards, you will run into these abbreviations.
- DARC
- Deutscher Amateur-Radio-Club, the largest society in Germany
- Distrikt
- regional level within the DARC, identified by a letter
- OV
- local club, the local group
- DOK
- DARC district/club code, for example B37 for the Haßberge local club
- Sonder-DOK
- identifier for a limited time for a special occasion
- QSL-Karte
- written confirmation of a contact, traditionally a postcard
- QSL-Büro
- collects and distributes cards between the societies, cheaper than sending direct
- DXCC
- award programme of the ARRL, counting entities on its own list
- IOTA
- Islands on the Air, island groups to collect
- WAG
- Worked All Germany, contest and award
- LoTW
- Logbook of the World, electronic confirmation via the ARRL
- eQSL, Clublog, QRZ-Logbuch
- other electronic confirmation services
Portable programmes
Operating outdoors with a reference as the goal. All programmes work in a similar way: the activator announces themselves, chasers work them, both get points.
- POTA
- Parks on the Air, national parks and protected areas
- SOTA
- Summits on the Air, summits with altitude points
- WWFF
- World Wide Flora and Fauna, protected areas worldwide
- GMA
- German Mountain Award, mountains and more in German-speaking countries
- COTA, LOTA
- castles and lighthouses
- Aktivierung
- operating from a reference, usually with a minimum number of contacts
- Spot
- online notice that a station is active on a frequency right now
- Chaser, Hunter
- whoever works the activators
Repeater operation
What has to be set on your radio for a repeater to open, and how to read the details in the lists.
- Relais
- Automatic station that receives on one frequency and retransmits on another at the same time. With it a handheld covers the whole region.
- Ausgabe
- The frequency the repeater transmits on, so the one you listen on.
- Eingabe
- The frequency the repeater listens on, so the one you transmit on.
- Ablage
- Difference between input and output. Usually −0.6 MHz on 2 m and −7.6 MHz on 70 cm. On the radio it is called shift or duplex.
- Simplex
- Transmitting and receiving on the same frequency, with no repeater in between.
- CTCSS
- Quiet continuous tone below the speech that opens the repeater. Common values are 67.0, 77.0 and 88.5 Hz.
- TSQL
- The radio also checks for the tone on receive and stays silent otherwise. The lists show this as RX/TX.
- DCS
- Digital version of the tone squelch, given as a three-digit code, for example DCS 023.
- 1750-Hz-Rufton
- Short whistle tone that opens older repeaters. Often a separate button on the radio, sometimes called Call or Tone Call.
- Locator
- Maidenhead identifier of the location, for example JO50HB. Four characters describe a square of about 111 by 70 km, six characters about 4.6 by 2.8 km.
- Talkgroup
- Talk group in digital networks such as DMR, comparable to a channel.
- Hotspot
- Small box at home that connects a digital mode over the internet when no repeater is in range.
- Echolink
- Linking repeaters and individual stations over the internet.
- Bake
- Transmitter that sends its identifier continuously. Used to judge propagation.
Modes
From classic voice contacts to methods that still get a contact through when all you hear in the speaker is noise.
- CW
- telegraphy, a carrier is keyed, goes a long way with very little power
- SSB
- single sideband, the standard for voice on HF
- AM
- amplitude modulation: a carrier with two sidebands, twice as wide as the audio, broadcasting on short and medium wave
- FM
- frequency modulation, common on 2 m and 70 cm and through repeaters
- FT8
- digital mode with a 15-second cycle, very sensitive, short standard messages
- FT4
- faster variant of FT8, popular in contests
- JS8
- derived from FT8, allows free text and relaying
- PSK31
- narrowband keyboard-to-keyboard mode
- RTTY
- radioteletype, the oldest digital mode in amateur radio
- SSTV
- slow image transmission over the voice channel
- WSPR
- beacon mode with the lowest power, used to observe propagation
- C4FM, DMR, D-STAR
- digital voice modes, each with its own repeater and network system
- POCSAG
- paging to pagers, in amateur radio for example DAPNET on 439.9875 MHz; two tones about 9 kHz apart, in short bursts
- APRS
- position reports and short messages over radio, mostly on 144.800 MHz
- Packet Radio
- older data transmission with AX.25, partly still running for mailboxes
- Winlink
- email over radio, often used in emergency communication
- EME
- Earth-Moon-Earth, the moon as reflector
- ATV, DATV
- television in amateur radio, analogue or digital
Propagation
Why a frequency gives a different result at midday than at night.
- Bodenwelle
- follows the earth's surface, carries far on long wave and 160 m
- Raumwelle
- is refracted in the ionosphere and comes back down far away
- D-Schicht
- lowest layer at 60 to 90 km altitude, only present by day, mainly absorbs the low bands
- E-Schicht
- lower layer, present by day, attenuates low frequencies
- F2-Schicht
- the decisive layer for long-distance contacts on HF
- Sporadic E
- short-lived clouds in the E layer, open up 6 m and 2 m for long distances in summer
- MUF
- highest usable frequency for a path
- LUF
- lowest usable frequency, below it absorption eats the signal
- Skip-Zone
- dead zone between the end of the ground wave and the first hop
- Grayline
- twilight line, along which contacts work particularly well
- Sonnenfleckenzahl
- rough measure of solar activity, a high value helps the high bands
- Solarflux, A- und K-Index
- indices for solar radiation and disturbances of the earth's magnetic field
- Aurora
- reflection off the aurora, distorts the audio heavily
- Ionosonde
- transmitter that sends straight up and measures the height and critical frequency of the layers from the echoes
- foF2
- critical frequency of the F2 layer at vertical incidence, measured by the ionosonde
- MUF(3000)
- MUF for a 3000 km hop, roughly three times foF2
- hmF2
- height of the densest part of the F2 layer, usually 250 to 400 km; the higher it is, the longer the hop
- Sprungweite
- distance after which a ray reaches the ground again after one reflection; via the F2 layer at most about 4000 km
- Abstrahlwinkel
- angle above the horizon at which an antenna radiates; low angles hop far, steep ones short
- Sekantengesetz
- at oblique incidence a ray still turns back at a higher frequency than at vertical incidence: f = foF2 / cos of the angle of incidence
- foEs
- critical frequency of a sporadic E cloud at vertical incidence; from about 10 MHz 6 m opens over about 2000 km
- Kp-Index
- disturbance of the earth's magnetic field per three hours, averaged worldwide, 0 to 9; from 5 it counts as a storm
- Bz
- north-south component of the magnetic field in the solar wind; if it points south (negative) for a long time, it couples to the earth's magnetic field and things get unsettled
- Sonnenwind
- stream of charged particles from the sun, normally around 400 km/s; fast and dense it disturbs the earth's magnetic field
- Flare-Klasse
- strength of a solar X-ray flare: A, B, C, M, X, each letter ten times stronger; from M upwards HF drops out briefly on the daylight side
- D-RAP
- NOAA map showing up to which frequency the D layer currently absorbs 1 dB
- Tropo
- extended range on VHF/UHF due to temperature inversions
Shack technology
Terms you hear while setting up and while hunting faults.
- SWR
- standing wave ratio, measure of the match between feed line and antenna
- Rückflussdämpfung
- how much weaker the reflected wave is, in dB (return loss); 9.5 dB corresponds to SWR 2, 14 dB to SWR 1.5
- Smith-Diagramm
- circle chart where every impedance has its place: centre = matched, edge = everything reflected, top inductive, bottom capacitive; try it out at /smith
- Güte
- ratio of reactance to loss resistance of a component or circuit (Q); a coil with 700 Ω and Q 50 has 14 Ω loss, the higher Q, the narrower a tuned circuit
- Bode-Diagramm
- curve of attenuation (and phase) against frequency, with frequency on a log scale; shows where a filter passes and how steeply it rolls off
- Tiefpassfilter
- passes everything below the cut-off frequency and attenuates above it; between power amplifier and antenna it keeps the harmonics back, try it out at /filter
- Butterworth
- filter response with no ripple in the passband, 3 dB down at the cut-off frequency, then 6 dB per octave steeper for each order
- Tschebyscheff
- filter response with a small, intended ripple in the passband (about 0.1 dB), in return much steeper than Butterworth for the same order
- Welligkeit
- in a filter, the ups and downs of the passband curve within the band, in dB; 0.1 dB corresponds to an SWR of up to about 1.36
- Einfügedämpfung
- how much power a filter or component costs in the passband, in dB (insertion loss): losses in coils and capacitors plus mismatch
- L-Glied
- matching network of two components, one in series and one in parallel; with the coil in series and the capacitor in parallel it is a low-pass filter at the same time
- Träger
- unmodulated oscillation on one frequency; in the waterfall a thin, even line
- Schaltnetzteil
- the most common source of interference in the shack: a comb of evenly spaced lines or a broad carpet that disappears when you switch off the power supply
- OTH-Radar
- over-the-horizon radar on HF, 10 to 40 kHz wide, often with a hard rhythm; also gets into the amateur bands and is reported by the IARU monitoring system
- Antennentuner
- matches the impedance, but does not turn a poor antenna into a good one
- Balun
- transition between a balanced antenna and an unbalanced feed line
- Unun
- transformer between two unbalanced systems, often used with end-fed antennas
- Mantelwellensperre
- stops current on the outside of the coax shield and with it RF in the house
- PEP
- peak envelope power, the way the limits are specified
- ERP und EIRP
- radiated power, relative to a dipole or to an isotropic radiator
- dBd und dBi
- antenna gain relative to a dipole or an isotropic radiator, difference 2.15 dB
- Verkürzungsfaktor
- factor between free-space wavelength and physical length; RG58 has 0.66, one metre of it takes 5.05 ns, try it out at /leitung
- Wellenwiderstand
- ratio of voltage to current of a wave on the line (Z0), depends only on the construction, not on the length; coax is usually 50 or 75 Ω
- Reflexionsfaktor
- share of the wave that is reflected at a discontinuity: Γ = (Z − Z0) / (Z + Z0); 75 Ω on 50 Ω gives 0.2, open 1, short −1
- TDR
- time domain reflectometer: sends a steep step into the cable and shows when and how strongly echoes come back, so where the cable ends or is damaged
- Stehende Welle
- superposition of forward and reflected waves on a mismatched line: peaks and nulls λ/4 apart stand still, their ratio is the SWR
- Rauschzahl
- how many dB a stage degrades the signal-to-noise ratio with 290 K at the input; a cable with 3 dB loss has a 3 dB noise figure, try it out at /empfangskette
- Rauschtemperatur
- noise of a stage expressed as the temperature of a resistor at the input: Te = 290 K · (F − 1); a 0.5 dB noise figure is 35 K, 1 dB 75 K, 3 dB 289 K
- Friis-Formel
- noise of stages in cascade: Te = Te1 + Te2 / G1 + Te3 / (G1 · G2) + …; each stage only counts divided by the gain before it, which is why the preamp belongs at the antenna
- Antennentemperatur
- noise the antenna brings along, as a temperature: cold sky at 10 GHz a few K, a dish seeing the ground in its side lobes 30 to 60 K, on HF up to millions of K because of band noise
- G/T
- figure of merit of a receiving system: antenna gain in dBi minus 10 log of the system temperature, in dB/K; more gain and less noise help equally
- LNB
- low noise block converter at the focus of a dish: amplifies and converts 10 GHz down to an intermediate frequency the cable can handle; for QO-100 usually with a 9750 MHz oscillator
- Belegte Bandbreite
- range containing 99 % of the transmitted power, half a percent stays outside on each side; for the adjacent channel the width at −40 or −60 dB says more, try it out at /modulation
- Tastklick
- clicks next to a CW signal because the carrier is switched on and off too hard; with a 5 ms soft edge instead of hard keying the width at −60 dB shrinks from several kilohertz to a few hundred hertz
- Splatter
- spill-over of an overdriven SSB or AM signal: the power amplifier limits, and mixing products appear next to the channel
- Carson-Regel
- rule of thumb for FM bandwidth: 2 · (deviation + highest audio frequency); 2.5 kHz deviation and 3 kHz audio give 11 kHz
- Modulationsindex
- in FM the ratio of deviation to audio frequency (β); at β = 2.405 the carrier vanishes, in AM the modulation depth goes by this name
- Intermodulation
- mixing products of two strong signals in a stage that is not quite linear; the 3rd order at 2·f1 − f2 and 2·f2 − f1 lands right in the band
- IP3
- 3rd-order intercept point: where the lines of the wanted signal (slope 1) and the 3rd-order products (slope 3) would cross; IM3 = 3 · P − 2 · IIP3, the higher, the better
- Dynamikbereich
- range between the noise of a receiver and the level at which intermodulation rises out of the noise: 2/3 · (IIP3 − noise)
- Superhet
- superheterodyne receiver: mixes the signal with an oscillator to a fixed intermediate frequency, where the sharp filters sit
- Zwischenfrequenz
- fixed frequency after the mixer of a superhet (IF), for example 455 kHz, 9 MHz or 45 MHz
- Spiegelfrequenz
- second frequency that gives the same IF in a superhet: two IFs away from the wanted signal, on the other side of the oscillator
- Vorselektion
- filter ahead of the mixer of a superhet that attenuates the image frequency and other spurious responses; after the mixer nothing helps any more
- Endfed
- wire antenna fed at one end, usually with a transformer
- Groundplane
- vertical radiator with radials as counterpoise
- Yagi
- directional antenna with directors and reflector
- Magnetic Loop
- small, narrowband loop antenna, often for cramped locations
- QRP
- operating with 5 W at most, often as a challenge in itself
- Shack
- the radio room
- CAT
- Computer Aided Transceiver: commands a computer uses to control the radio over USB or the serial port; Yaesu and Kenwood send text such as FA014074000;
- CI-V
- Icom's CAT: short data frames of bytes with the radio's address (IC-7300: 94h), over USB or a two-wire bus that several radios can share
- Speicherkanal
- stored frequency with mode, offset, tone and name, called up on the radio with a turn of the knob; you can program it in Rigstudio
- Bandstapelregister
- Icom remembers the last three settings per band (frequency, mode, filter); the band button jumps to the one used last