"Many leading contesters claim the WAEDC to be the most challenging contest of the year," says the official website for the Worked All Europe DX Contest. In this episode, the Contest Crew dives into the element that sets the WAEDC apart from all other contests: the QTC. Randy K5ZD, Dan N6MJ, and Bill W9KKN explain what a QTC is, the protocol for handling requests, and demonstrate the process using DXLog. They also discuss other contest rules, operating tactics, and the significance of the WAEDC for those aiming to qualify for WRTC 2026. Join us for this episode of W1DED Worldwide Ham Radio and the weekly Contest Crew series. Please consider subscribing to the channel and sharing the video with your ham radio friends. 73, Kevin Thomas W1DED
Thanks to the crew for a great explanation of QTC along with screen shots from logging software. I'm a low key contester out to have some fun. In the past, I've just ignored the QTCs but I think I'll give it a try this time.
K5YVY Ham Member QRZ PageA QTC is the report of a contest QSO back to a European station (exception: RTTY, see §12). The following rules apply: A valid QTC contains time, call sign and serial number of the reported QSO. Example: "1307 DA1AA 431" means that DA1AA was worked at 1307 UTC and sent serial number 431.
Buen concurso, favor, ver posibilidad de traducir al Español vuestro video, sería muy importante esto... gracias.- de CE4JZO FEDERICO CONCHA TRAVERSO.- RANCAGUA CHILE.-
Funny thing...QTC? means "Do you have any traffic for me?" The response was, say, "QTC 5" meaning "I have 5 messages for you" followed by QRV? "Are you ready to copy?" Now the negative response is QRU. "I have nothing for you." But for some reason coast stations sent "QTC NIL" instead.
'Q' Codes were originally introduced back in the beginning of the 20th century for use between ships and coast stations. They were useful in avoiding mistakes made due to the many different languages being used by radio operators both ashore and at sea. It was considered that a standardized code which could be translated into many languages was more efficient. For example, QRA? in English, means "What is the name of your station or vessel?" If a Japanese operator wanted to ask a Brazilian coast station "How many telegrams do you have for me?" he would just send QTC? The 'Q' codes used by amateur radio operators have been further abbreviated so that QRA? means "Name?"
Interesting! I haven't heard or used QRA on the ham bands before, but these things vary from place to place. The Q codes I hear/use most often include QRL? QSL QTH QRN QRM QRS QSY QRP QRO QRT QRZ? QSK I use them informally of course, more as a sort of shorthand or slang.
That's right. There is a complete list of Q codes, starting with QAA, ending with QZZ. They are divided up into groups listed in alphabetical order, each group being used by different types of radio service. The group used in the maritime service was somewhat different from amateur traffic nets, which was different from regular amateur use. The amateur traffic nets adopted a special set of Q codes developed by the ARRL all beginning with QNx, for example, QNA is a request by net control for all net stations to announce themselves. There is a block of Q codes reserved for aviation use, QAA to QNZ. It was, of course, intended for use in radio telegraphy. Although not intended for use in radio telephony, it has become commonplace to use Q codes by voice, for example, asking the other station "What's your QTH?", which is technically incorrect but what the heck. One of my favourites is "pse qlf k". Translation - please try using your left foot! (in CW of course)
Aviation Morse. Imagine it. In a Catalina Flying Boat somewhere over the Central Pacific heading for Guam. 1950s. No SSB yet. No satellites. No SATNAV. You carried an actual navigator who (I'm told) doubled as radio operator. I never met one. Back in 1976, I decided to take the exam for the Aviation Radiotelegraph Endorsement but the Seattle FCC field office told me the endorsement was about to be discontinued. Mostly I wanted to pass the 25 wpm code test and I wasn't qualified to take the First.
