Like Q Codes, Operational Abbreviations are used in radiocommunications to speed up the sending of messages and to facilitate conversations between operators speaking different languages. The relevant Operational Abbreviations are:
| BK | Signal used to interrupt a transmission in progress |
| CQ | General call to all stations / call for a contact with another station |
| CW | Continuous wave |
| DE | From, used to separate the call sign of the station called from that of the calling station |
| K | Invitation to transmit |
| MSG | Message |
| PSE | Please |
| RST | Readability, signal-strength, tone-report |
| R | Received |
| RX | Receiver |
| TX | Transmitter |
| UR | Your |