Oh Heck this is one list that will grow, and grow, and grow, and ........
Most of these have their origins in Morse, some are historic, but nealy all are still in use, some exculsively in Morse and many in Voice and Data modes.
CQ
CQ is simply menas “calling any station”. The telegraph call CQ was born on the English Telegraph over a century ago as a signal meaning "All stations. A notification to all postal telegraph offices to receive the message." Its meaning was close to the present meanings of QNC and QST. Like many other telegraph terms which originated on the landlines, CQ was brought over into radio and used as a general call to all ships by the Marconi Company. Other companies used KA until the London Convention of 1912, which adopted CQ as the international general call or "attention" signal. CQ still means, literally, "attention" but in amateur radio its meaning is perhaps more accurately described as yelling "Hey, Mac!" down a drain pipe.
A side to this is the abbriviation "CQ DX", which is used by Radio Amatuers to mean "calling any long distance station". rather than a local station.
de
Very simply this means "from", and comes from early French morse operators, where the translation for "from" is "de"
DX / DXing
DX is a term for distant station originating as an early telephone term for distant exchange. One of the oldest specialisations in amateur radio is called DXing. Some Radio Amateurs become involved in amateur radio so that they can contact far-away stations, and they challenge themselves to continue pushing the limits further and further. It is this quest for making contacts in remote areas of the world that often pushes advancements in radio technology. While it is relatively easy to contact people around the globe through the technology of the Internet, making contact over amateur radio requires the right equipment and knowledge of how the sun and seasons affect radio waves. It's a proud accomplishment to log contacts from far away!
OM/OB
OM means "Old Man" an endearing way of acknowlwdge a close freind. It has its origins in OB, mean "Old Boy" meaning friend.
SK
This is one that you dont want to hear that often as it means Silent Key, which is what we use to describe a Radio Amature who has died. The abbraiavtion derived from the Morse "30", which was didididahdit daaaaaaaah (extra long dah is zero in that code), and in Philips Code this means "No more (end)".
UTC
Universal Time Co-ordinated. It is the same as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) or Zulu time.
YL
The term "Young Lady" derives from a Morse code abbreviation, YL, that is used to refer to female amateur radio operators, regardless of age. This came about when Barbara Dunn, G6YL became the first female British amateur to obtain an amateur licence. She was issued the callsign G6YL and it has the connection between a Young Lady and YL has stuck ever since.
1
Though not used that much often in this format, it derives from the "Phillips Code" meaning "Wait a Minute". However, as a sideline this si where the well known and oft used phrase "Wait One" comes from!
73
Basically means "My compliments, or Best Regards". Many amateurs already know that "73" is from what is known as the "Phillips Code", a series of numeric messages conceived for the purpose of cutting down transmission time on the old land telegraph systems when sending text that is basically the same.
88
Means "Love and kisses". Orignally is was 22 in the Phillips Code, but overtime that has now moved to 88
Last updated 2 Dec 2021.