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Originally developed to speed up Morse Code contacts Radio Amateurs use Q codes to help,

particularly when conditions are bad, or if they don’t both speak the same language. QSO is a

contact - QSL contact confirmed – QRM interference to signal – QRZ who is calling. CQ is sent

when you want

anyone

to reply to you rather than a particular station – it means

seeking you.

Signal reports are given as 1 to 5 for readability (5 best) and 1 to 9 for signal strength. (9 best).

The number 256 means M3UAY was W1AWs 256th contact during this contest.

Is that a radio they’re using?

It doesn’t look like any radio

I’ve ever seen.

We hold

contests

to see

how

far

and

how often

we can

make a

QSO

– that’s a two

way contact. But mainly we

just enjoy chatting and making

new friends over the air.

That’s a radio

all right. We

call it a

BASE

STATION

transceiver -

which stands

for

trans

mitter and re

ceiver

.

Amateur

Radio

is

a

fun

hobby but you don’t need to

have an expensive rig with

lots of features like that one

to still have a great time

talking to some other Radio

Amateur in a country 6000

miles away with nothing but

air between the two of you.

Matty is working to get as

many contacts as possible

and Sharon is entering call

signs into a computer for

future verification. Contests

can get very intense. Some

people don’t like the way

they can take the whole

band over for several hours.

Often we exchange

QSL

cards

by mail or by the Internet to

acknowledge the contact.

…Whisky 1… albbbaa … weeee

… ahead ... Mike three … niff ..

… ccchhhh …Whisky 1 …

That doesn’t sound like

anything to me …

You soon get to know what

to expect and listen carefully

and put all the bits together.

W1AW

go ahead

Mike 3 Uniform Alpha

Yankee 5 and 9, 256 QSL?

Whisky 1 station go

ahead please.

… … Mike 3 Uniform

Alpha Yankee this is…

skee 1 Alpha Whisky over.