Kristal:It seems to me that TTY and SSB and CW operators likely spill some of their abbreviations into ordinary conversations and, likely nowadays, onto their handhelds that are digital phones. I gotta wonder which HAM abbreviations are also used internationally.

XTL

Well, in my experience pretty much ALL the abbreviations are used internationally - almost all of my DX work is "digital" (CW, RTTY, or PSK31) and most of my contacts are half acronyms.

73,
Paul (KO4LZ)

P.S. Ironically, Esperanto doesn't (normally) use the letter Q - probably the most common starting character in Amateur Radio abbreviations.

Yeah, sorry, I mean yes; although sometimes when my husband and I visited with friends at an agreed upon meeting place, I'd get QTH mixed up with SKS. Probably because some of them preferred voice and others keyed? Language, communication, they are fascinating to me even though I don't consider myself talented in them. Thank you for an enjoyable thread! One of these years I really ought to get back into playing with radios. KD6LQI

P.S. if the Q- codes begin with a French word, maybe querre or querant for the query that follows, what're the TH in QTH? Query THere: when do you get there, or, in answer to the query: there we are? Silent Key Station SKS makes sense, since our meeting place had lousy reception.