qrl?

[bill.lumnitzer at paonline.com]

 -=> Quoting Syam at glue.umd.edu to Bill Lumnitzer <=-

 Sy> On Sun, 23 Jul 1995 bill.lumnitzer at paonline.com wrote:
 
 > QRL and all the other "Q" signals come from CW traffic handling, the
 > precedent of contesting. "QRL?" means: "Are YOU busy?" (handling traffic)
 > and was directed to a SPECIFIC station. Somehow, it has been transformed
 > (incorrectly) over the last couple of decades to mean "Is this FREQUENCY
 > busy?".  About half the time, if you send QRL? in a contest, a passerby
 > will respond R and start CQing!
 > 
 Sy> Actually KA2RRK told me that the proper Q-Signal for "Is the frequency
 Sy> in  use" is QSU?

 Sy> Very 73,

 Sy> Fred Laun, K3ZO

Not quite: According to my 1945 ARRL Handbook QSU? means "Shall I reply
on...Kc/s and/or on waves of Type A1, A2,...?".

I noticed another interesting one - QSD?: "Are my signals mutilated?"!

73 Bill
N6CQ at paonline.com