Use of the term "Charlie Charlie"

[Random Electron]

Question please guys,

Is the use of the term "Charlie Charlie" on the radio an officially correct phrase to indicate a correct statement?

Thanks in advance.

R.E.

[Lon More]

Negative:O
Like me, a relic of bygone days.
Probably comes from "confirm correct" sent as CC on W/T.

[Truckmasters]

You still hear it occasionally on HF especially with countries were ATC has multiple accents or English as the second or non-native tongue

[karrank]

I think it used to be a morse thing, with CC being 'wilco'. Was in general use a couple of decades ago, but I haven't heard it in ages. Not official any more but.

[Random Electron]

Thanks for the replies gents.

The reason I asked is that the Greek ATCO's use the term (on VHF), and consequently I have heard it quite a bit, but recently I heard someone use it in Canada, and the controller admitted to having never heard it before, and asked what does it mean.

Got me wondering as to it's 'correctness'

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Isn't Charlie Charlie related to Roger Dee?

[1261]

The term originates from marine code flags, with "C" being "yes, affirmative or the significance of the previous code group should be read in the positive".

Oo arrr, mee 'arties!

[TheOddOne]

Used to be our Rallye, based at Denham, years ago!!!

Good old 'Charlie Charlie'

Greetings to all who flew her...

The Odd One

[chiglet]

Just to be [slightly] different, Some ["Mature"] pilots reply with "That's Charlie".
watp,iktch

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

<<<
Used to be our Rallye, based at Denham, years ago!!!

Good old 'Charlie Charlie'

Greetings to all who flew her...
>>>

I remember her well !

[Roger Dee]

Isn't Charlie Charlie related to Roger Dee?

...nope, not a relation of mine ;)

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Ahh.. Sorry. Must have been a relative of Charlie Park..

[brain fade]

It's not used in aviation to the best of my knowledge but there exists a range of two letter codes which are used by 'serious' radio operators. 'CC' is 'Roger' or 'Wilco'. Others are 'DE' - 'this is' and the well known 'CQ' which is 'Hello'.

Perhaps a Radio Ham or someone with a better memory could help. These terms are also used by people who need to log spoken RT, as shorthand.

I agree it's use as spoken voice procedure is wrong but it is at least based on something. Probably old ex mil folk are the main culprits, I've heard it a few times.

Quaint:ok:

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Oh what joy to hear Radio Amateurs mentioned in the same breath as serious radio operators!

Indeed, many RA spoken codes are derived from "old" CW communications and many of those were thought up by the CW ops themselves, with very little being laid down (similar to the language now being developed by txt users).

One well know "ham" phrase is "Hi", which is di-di-di-dit di-dit on CW and spoken as "aitch eye" or just "Hi". It means "laughter", which is difficult to convey on CW. I once unthinkingly said it to a helicopter pilot on R/T and he fell about - obviously a serious bloke!

Other similar codes include "73", as a sign-off meaning roughly "goodbye" and "88" meaning "love and kisses".

[126,7]

I use the term on occasion and everyone has understood what I meant. Or they just haven't said that they didn't understand.:}

[Richard Taylor]

I tend to hear Charlie Charlie on HF,as Truckmaster says.

What about the above phrase?

I used to hear QSY when pilots confirmed that they were "two-way" with their next sector.They were cleared to "QSY" en route.

Where does that terminology come from,& is it still used today(don't think I've heard it for some time now).

Thanks...I'll QSY to lunch now... :O

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

"Two-way" is pretty self-explanatory. QSY is one of the standard Q signals, like QNH, QFE, QDM... even QLO!

[Bern Oulli]

From ICAO Doc. 8400/3 ICAO Abbreviations and Codes (which I just happen to have on my person):
QSY - "Change to transmission on another frequency (or on .....Khz/Mhz).

My favourite was always QRM - "I am being interfered with ...." followed by a number from 1 to 5 indicating the degree of interference from nil (story of my life) to extremely (dream on).

I am now QRT.

[Don't Tell Him Pike]

With Military training aircraft, tend to use "Squark 7000, QSY en route, goodbye"="Bugger off!"

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

And what's that bizarre phrase the fish-heads use? Something like "Pogo dis"?? Roughly translated it means "if no contact return to this frequency". First time I heard it, from an ex-RN ATCO chum I thought he was pulling something of mine... but I used the phrase to an RN aircraft and he got it first time. Thereafter I used it as standard (don't tell SRG).

[poorwanderingwun]

Charlie or Charlie Charlie is still very widely used out here in africa VHF and HF and probably stems from the nautical code of signals as one ppruner has pointed out...I'm consciously trying not to adopt it so that when back in europe I don't upset you nice people....... ( CQ by the way does not strictly mean hello....it's used when calling unknown operators on freq. 'any station' hence 'seek you: CQ'. I still use it when sailing and needing a radio check. I also still catch it when listening to morse traffic from time to time...it has a pleasant rythm...
dah dit dah dit...dah dah dit dah....

[Mister Geezer]

Do they still use morse to coordinate between different sectors at LATCC?? :p

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Sure do Mister Geezer. Problem is that the kids can only manage 30wpm and I used to fall asleep!