An Introduction to Short Forms and Usages in Amateur Radio

An Introduction to Short Forms and Usages in Amateur Radio

Here is a brief introduction to short forms and certain terms as used in Ham Radio or Amateur Radio. Some would call it as even Ham Radio Jargon! We will start off with the general call for all amateurs when you come up on the band. Of course, that is the CQ call, often repeated three times. But there are exceptions as well. Generally we do not call CQ on FM repeaters and LEO satellites. On amateur radio satellites, it is better to be short and announce your presence as callsign followed by your Maidenhead Grid Locator. For example, I would say: VU2JO, MK71vg or just VU2JO, MK71, to make it shorter. Of course, we would use phonetic expansion of the callsign as well. As the pass times of Low Earth Orbit satellites are short, typically around 10 min, this protocol is needed to allow more operators to have contacts with each other.

While calling CQ in CW or Morse Code, ‘de’ is used before the callsign, meaning ‘this is’. Thus I would call ‘CQ, CQ, CQ, de VU2JO’. The phonetic expansion of callsign used in phone modes like SSB and AM are not needed on CW. Another commonly used short form, after finishing the amateur radio contact is ’73’, meaning best wishes. A related short form is ’88’ meaning love and kisses. Often we address each other as OM, meaning Old Man, whether we are old or young. But lady ham radio operators are always called YL, meaning Young Lady. XYL would mean wife.

WX is the commonly used short form for weather. Hams often exchange weather reports during casual contacts and while checking in on nets. TX could mean transmit or transmitter and RX could mean receive or receiver. Rig was the term used for the radio, which is used less often now. GM for good morning, GA for good afternoon and GE for good evening are often used on CW, but not relevant on phone modes as you can easily say it in full, for better perception.

BK is the short form used during break in on CW. It is usually followed by your callsign. End of your transmission is mentioned as AR in CW and it was followed by K which is an invitation for the other station to transmit. I am not including Q codes here as it has been covered earlier. HT is a hand held transceiver and PTT the push to talk button on your transceiver mic.

Kerchunking is a short press on the PTT often used on repeater frequencies to see whether the repeater is active. An active repeater transmits a short carrier when it receives a kerchunking on its receive frequency, often called as the ‘tail’ of the repeater. But this is not really an acceptable practice as we are required to announce our callsign rather than send a blank carrier. When this is resorted to on FM satellites, it is often considered as a real nuisance.

When you are operating from a different location or while travelling, you mention mobile and a suffix for the callsign is also used in certain situations like VU2JO/MM or VU2JO/AM, meaning maritime mobile or aeromobile. As a disclaimer, I have never been able to use these two! In this context, multi-wheeler usually means that one is travelling in a train.

Nets in amateur radio are organised programs, typically a roll call net in which the net controller calls for checkins. Those trying to checkin give their callsigns and the net controller then calls them one by one. Usually priority is given for DX checkins as well as for those with emergency or medical traffic. Net timings and frequencies are often published on various portals. There are nets on HF, VHF, UHF and even above that, on Qatar Oscar 100 Geostationary Amateur Radio Satellite with downlink on 10 GHz band.

Other than roll call nets, there are also ragchew nets in which each person can talk for a longer period. Ragchew usuallymeans a long discussion. In Roll Call nets, only signal reports and short messages like weather report and 73 are exchanged. If you want to contact another station, you call ‘contact’ soon after the other station has checked in, and then the net controller allots you another frequency for contact with the other station. You can also ‘check back’ into the net if you have some other information to be conveyed later on, when the net is in progress.

Roger is the term used to say that you agree with what the other person has said or sometimes just to mean that you have heard it well. Silent key has a sad meaning that the person has passed away. It is also used in short form as SK. It came from the era of Morse code, meaning that the key has become silent and will not work again at all.

Shack is the pet name for the amateur radio room, which is often kept not very orderly and aesthetically. You could see a lot of wires and cables hanging this way and that way, with instruments and components scattered on the table, though that is not the ideal way to keep your radio room. A well kept radio room is important from safety point as well!

Homebrew is another pet term among radio amateurs, meaning making on your own. On the internet, the corresponding term which we often see these days is DIY or Do It Yourself! An Elmer is an experienced amateur radio operator who mentors newcomers by explaining the processes and imparting practical knowledge from previous experience. There are probably many more terms being used in Amateur Radio, which I have not covered here, but let me stop here.