Morse Code Abbreviations & Q-Codes: What CW Shorthand Means

How CW Shorthand Works

Morse code is slow compared with speech, so operators replace common words and questions with short groups of letters. What you hear in a typical CW contact comes from three sources, and knowing which one a code belongs to explains why some codes mean slightly different things on the amateur bands than in the official definition.

Two ITU rules are worth knowing. A Q-code becomes a question when it is followed by a question mark, and some Q-codes take a number to grade a condition: QRM, for example, is followed by 1 to 5, from nil to extreme interference. Procedure signals such as AR, SK and BT are a separate system sent without letter gaps; they are explained on the Morse code prosigns page.

Start With These 20

If you are new to CW, these codes cover most of a simple contact. The rest of the page goes deeper.

Q-Codes Used in Morse Code

The ITU’s Recommendation M.1172 lists Q-codes from QOA to QUZ for the maritime mobile service. Radio amateurs use a small subset of them, sometimes with a looser meaning. The table gives the official ITU wording first and the everyday amateur use second.

Official ITU Operating Abbreviations

Alongside the Q-codes, the same ITU recommendation defines short procedure abbreviations. Several of them, such as DE and K, also appear in the ITU’s International Morse code standard (M.1677-1) as part of the formal calling procedure.

Common Ham-Radio Shorthand

These contractions are not in the ITU list. They grew out of telegraph and amateur practice, and you will hear them in almost every casual CW contact.

Number Codes: 73, 88 and Cut Numbers

73 (“best regards”) and 88 (“love and kisses”) are the survivors of the numbered shorthand used on 19th-century landline telegraph networks, commonly traced to the Western Union “92 Code” of 1859. Amateurs adopted them in the early days of radio and never let go. Because 73 already means “best regards”, sending “73s” is redundant.

Cut numbers replace a digit with a shorter letter when a number is clearly expected. The ARRL lists the common ones for contest exchanges: A = 1, N = 9 and T = 0, so “5NN” is a 599 signal report and “ATT” is 100. They are an operating convention, not part of the International Morse standard; the regular five-element digits are on the Morse code numbers page.

When the Ham Meaning Differs From the ITU Meaning

The ITU wrote these codes for ships and coast stations, where a Q-code is a precise question with a precise answer. Radio amateurs borrowed them and some drifted into nouns or labels. When you read an official definition, don’t be surprised if an operator uses it differently.

A Short CW Contact, Decoded

An example exchange between two fictional stations, W1ABC and K5XYZ, showing how the codes above fit together. Prosigns such as KN and SK are covered on the prosigns page.

If you receive a recording like this, the Morse code audio decoder will turn it into text, and this page tells you what the text means.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Sources

• International Telecommunication Union, Recommendation ITU-R M.1172: Miscellaneous abbreviations and signals for the maritime mobile service (PDF): the official Q-codes and operating abbreviations.
• International Telecommunication Union, Recommendation ITU-R M.1677-1: International Morse code (PDF): calling procedure using DE and K.
• ARRL, “Why QRP?”: the amateur meaning of QRP and its 5 W CW limit.
• ARRL, “February and March ARRL DX Contest Weekends Loom”: cut numbers (A = 1, N = 9, T = 0) and 5NN.
• OnAllBands (DX Engineering), “Best Regards, Love and Kisses, and the End Decoded”: origin of 73 and 88 in the 1859 Western Union 92 Code.
• Wikipedia, Morse code abbreviations: secondary cross-check for informal amateur shorthand.

Sources last checked: September 26, 2026.