Sorry to resurrect this thread but I've come very late to it by way of a couple of current ones. However, I must correct a clear misconception which risks being perpetuated, most recently by 4dogs.
QNE is not a pressure setting it is an altimeter reading, measured in units of length (feet, metres, etc.) and not in millibars, hectopascals or inches.
The correct meaning of QNE is:
On landing at .... (PLACE) at .... hours, with your subscale being set to 1013.2 millibars, your altimeter will indicate .... (FIGURES AND UNITS)
ATC watcher is not quite correct in saying that all of the Q codes were questions. Since they were designed for W/T use, the interrogative form would be indicated by prefixing the code with INT (..-.-). Hence
INT QFG - Am I overhead?
QFG - You are overhead
QAA to QNZ are reserved for the aeronautical service, QOA to QQZ for the maritime service and QRA to QUZ for all services.
The Z code, mentioned by Hopper, was developed as a service code by Cable & Wireless and later taken up and expanded by others, including the military. It relates, almost exclusively, to communication by radioteletype. His example of ZKA ZKB INT QRK INT QRA translates as :
Who is controlling station?; Permission necessary before transmitting messages; What is the intelligibility of my signals?; What is the name of your station?
The response would likely be QRK0 (the intelligibility of your signals is zero), closely followed by a one-sided interview with POTS or the CRS, since that particular combination of codes would be gibberish in communications terms. Incidentally, both ZKA and ZKB are reserved for military use.
If anyone is that sad, I have a full decode of both Q and X codes from my days as a sparker.
[This message has been edited by watford (edited 27 August 2000).]