Miami >>> QSL??

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Confuzzled

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I've heard it a few times on different TV shows, but I can't figure out why they use it. Web search shows that it is some sort of acknowledgment as part of some other Q codes.

I've never heard any other public service agency use it, so why does Miami?
 

W2NJS

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They've done it for years. They're using amateur radio Q signals, so if you know them you understand what the "shorthand" being used means. You might find a list of them at the ARRL website, or maybe even just with a Google search.

"QSL" is the equivalent of "10-4."

I'm going QRT, but only after I QSY, so please QRX until I call you, okay?
 

Confuzzled

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Yeah, I kinda got that much, but Why? Why do they use it when virtually no one else in public safety does?
 

webley445

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Part of radio history. The roots from where radio networks originated from. Today Q codes are used by hams but there was a time that all radio operators used them. There was a time you had to be licensed to operate on todays public CB freqs. All those ten codes had to be learned and tested on.
There is an agency locally here that doesnt annouce 10-3 or radio silence. Officers asks dispatch to " direct the net". Then dispatcher announces "the net is directed" which alerts units to hold traffic
If you're a ham you know what I am talking about.


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Tracker

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They've done it for years. They're using amateur radio Q signals, so if you know them you understand what the "shorthand" being used means. You might find a list of them at the ARRL website, or maybe even just with a Google search.

"QSL" is the equivalent of "10-4."

I'm going QRT, but only after I QSY, so please QRX until I call you, okay?

QRT......? QSM that.......?

Btw, the City of Miami, city of Miami Beach, city of Hialeah etc all use Q codes,,,,FHP uses 10 codes...
 
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lep

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"Q" signals at ITU, they are not specific to amateur radio

Q signals are brevity codes and date from the earliest days of Maritime radio. They are often used by radio amateurs but are not specific to that Radio Service. They are contained in the ITU Radio Regulations most can be either a Question? or an affirmative statement. I have been around radio for a long time but the Miami usage predates by own experience. By comparison, the APCO 10-codes are a relatively recent development and are also a brevity code designed to reduce the air time. Unfortunatley poor training often defeats the whole idea, it is common where I live to hear "What is your 10-20?" Where as "10-20?" means "what is our location?"
 

Klentathu

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Lep is correct regarding the origin of Q signals but fails to mention they were radiotelegraphy signals...certain codes were picked because they have a unique sound when sent as a whole word...SOS, for instance, dit dit dit dah dah dah dit dit dit, is sent as a single letter and has a unique sound, as does CQ (Calling any station), dah di dah dit dah dah di da....and the 10 signals are for brevity, but what happens when agencies in the same general area use different signals...example, the Florida 10 code for Officer Needs Help is 10-24, in the APCO ten codes, 10-24 means finished with last assignment (10-98 in Florida)...and for the NYPD its 10-13, which is a request for weather conditions in Florida.....with modern radio technology, signals, codes, and such are really unnecessary, and I am a firm believer in using clear spoken voice, despite having worked 28 years for an agency that has used signal and ten codes for its entire existance
 

ka4gfy

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Klentathu hit the very reason FEMA is encouraging public safety agencies to stop using 10 codes. There is no miscommunication because the 10 code in one one jurisdiction is different than the neighboring one.
 

Confuzzled

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Klentathu hit the very reason FEMA is encouraging public safety agencies to stop using 10 codes.

Here, FD and LE are dispatched by the same people using different channels, yet they use different codes. For LE, 10-10 is a traffic stop, but for FD it's 'back at station'. So dispatchers have to know two different sets of codes.

They need to just ban them completely. NIMS had the right idea, but they chickened out under pressure.

Between NIMS, FEMA and the FCC, they could make it stick.

But that's another thread.
 

W2NJS

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You have to wonder, what with all the talk about Interoperability, why long before this something hasn't been done to insure uniformity in the 10 codes. However, even if such a thing was dictated, there would be some chief who would say, "Yeah, fine, but OUR MVA code will be 10-99 instead of 10-50," and the same NON-ineroperability problem would start all over again. And while you're at it, don't ever report a 10-50 in Montgomery County Maryland where it means the same thing as a 10-13 in New York City.

No one has yet mentioned the attempts by some National Groups to return to the use of plain language in emergency communications. To my way of thinking that makes the most sense of all, even more so if the agency is using encryption (Boo!).
 

902

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Q signals are brevity codes and date from the earliest days of Maritime radio. They are often used by radio amateurs but are not specific to that Radio Service. They are contained in the ITU Radio Regulations most can be either a Question? or an affirmative statement. I have been around radio for a long time but the Miami usage predates by own experience. By comparison, the APCO 10-codes are a relatively recent development and are also a brevity code designed to reduce the air time. Unfortunatley poor training often defeats the whole idea, it is common where I live to hear "What is your 10-20?" Where as "10-20?" means "what is our location?"
Well... APCO's 10-codes were developed in 1937 and are far from recent. They've taken on a life of their own and have mutated from agency to agency to suit operational needs. Agencies needed something like that for brievity. The 10 codes served double duty - the older voice radios had dynamotor or vibrator power supplies that had to build up high voltage and rapidly warm up transmitter tubes (yes, not that long ago, mobile radios had tubes in them). The "10" was kind of a convenient delay so that the transmitter could come up to full power. APCO now endorses plain language.

Q signals are intended for CW (Morse code). Experienced amateurs discourage their use on voice. HF circuits do encourage common "PROWORDS" and a standard phonetic alphabet that are readily understood through noise.

Now, anyone who listens to NYPD or FDNY must know about the New York City "K." Many firefighters, officers, and EMTs continue to end their transmissions with "K." That is a carryover from the 19th Century telegraph systems that preceeded radio. Way back in the day, the City was wired and messages were sent by telegraph. The "K" is the equivalent of the PROWORD "over."
 

Klentathu

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Signals and 10 Codes

I believe the Florida Highway Patrol was the first to use 10 codes in Florida, as well as Signal codes. There is a common thread amongst all the agencies in Florida using these codes in that most of the 10 codes are the same (with slight modification agency to agency) and the first 25 signal codes are also virtually the same, then they completely differ agency to agency. You will note that the first 25 signal codes all relate to the types of incidents to which the Highway Patrol responds...Signal 1-Drunk Pedestrian, Signal 2-Drink Driver, Signal 3-Hit and Run, Signal 4-Traffic Crash....etc, etc.
 

JANFINE

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Q codes

All police & fire departments in Dade County use Q codes except for FHP.

I've heard it a few times on different TV shows, but I can't figure out why they use it. Web search shows that it is some sort of acknowledgment as part of some other Q codes.

I've never heard any other public service agency use it, so why does Miami?
 

spotbeams

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Miami Q's

I was born in north Miami when Miami was almost safe .My brother got me into scanners in the early 1970's . Dade County has used the Q codes way back then . They still use them today . Glad i am no longer living in that area .
 

jc96

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Miami QSL?

Sometimes, I ask myself the same question. I have come to the the conclusion that it is easier to communicate with Q-Codes than with 10-Codes. Officially, there are about 99 10-Codes that are used. It is much simpler to remember QSL, QSK, QRU, QRT, QTR, QRX, QSY, and QTH than 99 codes, in my view.
 

Tracker

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Sometimes, I ask myself the same question. I have come to the the conclusion that it is easier to communicate with Q-Codes than with 10-Codes. Officially, there are about 99 10-Codes that are used. It is much simpler to remember QSL, QSK, QRU, QRT, QTR, QRX, QSY, and QTH than 99 codes, in my view.

Correct..............QSM what QRT means.........?
 
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