“Roger” or “Copy” or neither

Dragging my memory back to my flying scholarship in the ATC, are QNH and QFE pert of the Q codes from the days of morse? Also, do the letters actually mean anything?

Yes, the Q codes are part of a bigger set.

QFE is definitely "Field Elevation", ie set that on your altimeter and it reads zero on landing.

QNH I remember as "nautical height" ie sea level but that may have just been my thought.

Others still in use, QDM, QDR, QTE, QFU ..

Q-Codes | SKYbrary Aviation Safety
 
Yes, the Q codes are part of a bigger set.

QFE is definitely "Field Elevation", ie set that on your altimeter and it reads zero on landing.

QNH I remember as "nautical height" ie sea level but that may have just been my thought.

Others still in use, QDM, QDR, QTE, QFU ..

Q-Codes | SKYbrary Aviation Safety
Quite a bit of QRM on this thread, :)
I learned some of it through the RN's 1938 Radio Operator's Handbook when I was going from CB to ham radio.
I installed MF and VHF radios onboard ships but was never allowed to transmit as I did not have a radio licence, I had to call in the workshop supervisor to do the final radio call to the shore station to prove the radios worked.
My younger brother used to send me audio cassettes with morse on them as a way of sending messages to each other, he was a Radio Officer on an oil rig. Sadly missed, he is now a silent key.
 
I once saw a mnemonic alphabet for remembering Morse. I think it was 'ek' for 'E' and 'tea' for 'T' but sadly I didn't work at it enough to remember the rest.
All manner of ways to learn Morse, I’d imagine. I studied in the early 80s and in those days we learned common groups.

First lesson. EISH TMO. E is one dit, I is 2, S3 and H4. T is one dah, M 2 and O 3.

And so on until alphabet, numbers and common punctuations enter the grey matter.

I had a long period of absence and restarted using a key during shutdown. I had a period of trying to learn to use a paddle key but soon reverted back to straight. A bit like riding a bike, once learned it’s fairly easy to get back up to speed.
 
And if you fancy sounding sound like he Royal Yacht majestically slicing past Horse Sands Fort, a very clipped ....'Thats Affirmative Sir' is a grt way to clog up the airwaves. 🤣
 
Here comes the queen, --.- To hell with it. .-..
We learnt like this but I don't remember much more. Twas a long time ago in a land far far away.
 
I had learned morse as a radio amateur though never good enough to get upgraded from a G8 to G3/4. Many years later, I sat the CAA morse test for my commercial pilots licence.

The examiner called for silence and pressed play on his cassette ghetto blaster plonked on his desk.

I carefully transcribed ... E .. T .. T .. wait a minute, they're only supposed to play each letter once. Then I realised it was only required to be learned at 5wpm and I was used to hearing it much faster.

The exam had 100% pass mark but fortunately they played it twice and with only 26 answers, I was able to fill in the blanks. Then flew glass cockpit planes that decoded the idents for you!
 
Yes, the Q codes are part of a bigger set.

QFE is definitely "Field Elevation", ie set that on your altimeter and it reads zero on landing.

QNH I remember as "nautical height" ie sea level but that may have just been my thought.

Others still in use, QDM, QDR, QTE, QFU ..

Q-Codes | SKYbrary Aviation Safety
QNH is "Newlyn Height", i.e. the mean sea level measured at Newlyn in Cornwall.
 
QNH is "Newlyn Height", i.e. the mean sea level measured at Newlyn in Cornwall.
AIR, that's a bit misleading.

"QNH - is the barometric altimeter setting that causes an altimeter to read aircraft elevation above mean sea level - altitude (AMSL - above mean sea level) in ISA temperature conditions in the vicinity of the airfield that reported the QNH value...."

It's important in generating 'safe separation' and becomes largely irrelevant when one is flying very low - or very high. It is therefore location-specific and time-specific, and will vary.
 
I must admit to finding myself having to work quite hard not infecting my marine radio calls (leisure) with aviation (profession) phraseology. I think most people find using the radio quite nerve wracking and when nervous, many people get verbose. Hence I recommend when flying that people are “lazy” and say as little as possible (as the radio telephony manual teaches us) becuase at times you will say too much.

Roger is quite a useful term. I don’t get the use of “over” but “out” makes sense - to means I’ve finished talking and I don’t expect you to be listening out for me any more so I don’t have to say when I’m leaving the frequency/shutting down for the night.

I just wish my dad hadn’t chosen to call his boat (now my boat) a Gaelic name which I keep where there are many native speakers and I have spectacularly failed to pick up how it’s supposed to be pronounced. And every time the harbour authority get me to say the name again, no doubt to the amusement of the locals!!!! Heaven forbid I have to spell it!
 
And if you fancy sounding sound like he Royal Yacht majestically slicing past Horse Sands Fort, a very clipped ....'Thats Affirmative Sir' is a grt way to clog up the airwaves. 🤣
Surely, that should be ‘affirm sir’?

The ‘ative’ is omitted from the affirm to prevent confusion with the ‘negative’ in the event of a clipped transmission. That’s certainly the case in the world of aviation.
 
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Yes, the Q codes are part of a bigger set.

QFE is definitely "Field Elevation", ie set that on your altimeter and it reads zero on landing.

QNH I remember as "nautical height" ie sea level but that may have just been my thought.

Others still in use, QDM, QDR, QTE, QFU ..

Q-Codes | SKYbrary Aviation Safety
Yep, QNH is still sea level pressure - 1013.2 millibars or HPa in modern language.
 
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