CW Phrasebook
A first contact rarely fails on the alphabet. It fails because nobody told you what to say.
A Morse contact follows a fixed shape, and the shape is short. Five kinds of transmission cover almost everything: you call, someone answers, you exchange a report and your names, you say something about the station, you sign off. What follows is those five, in order, with the wording that is used worldwide.
Calling
Is this frequency in use? Always ask before you start calling.
QRL
The general call. Three times CQ, your callsign twice, then over.
CQ · DE · K
Calling for distant stations only. Near neighbours are asked to hold off.
DX
Answering
Answering a call: their callsign, DE, yours twice.
DE
The exchange
This is the part that matters. Report, name, location - and everything that is a number or a name gets sent twice, because those are the only things a listener cannot reconstruct from context.
Your report. Sent twice because a number cannot be guessed from context.
RST · UR
My name is Tom. Names are repeated for the same reason.
OP
My location is Berlin.
QTH
How do you copy me? Over. The question that hands the contact back.
HW · CPY
About the station
My equipment is an FT-817, running five watts.
RIG · PWR
My antenna is a dipole ten metres up.
ANT
The weather here is rain, twelve degrees.
WX · HR
When something goes wrong
These three are the most useful sentences on the page for a beginner. Asking someone to slow down is normal, expected, and never held against you.
Please send more slowly. Nobody minds; everybody has sent it.
QRS · PSE
Say again, please. Repeating the word twice makes the request unmistakable.
AGN
Sorry, I am being interfered with by another station.
QRM · SRI
Signing off
Thanks for the fine contact.
TNX · FB
Best regards and see you later.
73 · CUL · ES
The closing line: both callsigns and the prosign that ends the contact.
SK
Why everything is doubled
Read the phrases again and one habit stands out: callsigns, names, reports and locations are sent twice, ordinary words are not. That is not politeness, it is error correction. A missed letter in "TNX FER FB QSO" costs nothing - the listener fills it in. A missed letter in a callsign makes the whole contact worthless.
The same thinking explains why the other station's callsign comes first and yours second. The person you are calling needs to know they are being addressed before they need to know by whom.
Frequently asked questions
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Do I have to use English abbreviations?
In practice, yes, whatever language you speak. CW shorthand is international, and a German or Spanish operator will send TNX and 73 exactly like everyone else.
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What if I cannot copy fast enough?
Send PSE QRS - please slow down. It is a normal part of operating, not an admission of failure. Most operators will drop to your speed immediately.
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How long does a contact take?
A short one is two minutes. A relaxed one with weather and equipment can run twenty. In a contest, five seconds.
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Can I practice this without a licence?
You can listen and you can practice here. Transmitting on amateur bands needs a licence in every country - which is a few evenings of study, not a barrier.