How it works
These ham radio trivia questions are for fun, not for a license exam: radio firsts, the words and codes of the hobby, the phonetic alphabet and Morse, waves and antennas, and call signs by country.
Read the full guide
Five rounds for a club night
The history round runs from a theory of 1873 to the first contact by way of the Moon. Words and codes of the hobby asks what 73 stood for in 1859 and why SOE became SOS. Call signs and countries is for the DX chasers: VK, PY, ZS, TF.
Print a sheet for the meeting
Tap a choice and the card shows the answer and its reason. The questions print as a sheet for the club table, with a separate answer key.
- Where a word has more than one origin story, as ham and CQ do, the question names its source.
- Waves, bands and antennas needs one sum: 300 divided by the megahertz gives the meters.
Questions and answers
Are these ham radio trivia questions the same as the license test?
No. This is not exam practice, and no question is taken from a license examination pool. The pack is history, words, codes and call signs for a club night; it leaves out operating rules and license classes.
What does 73 mean in ham radio?
Best regards. A telegraph manual of 1908 gives that meaning, and amateurs still end a contact with it. In the 92 Code of 1859 the same number stood for a flowery 'accept my compliments'.
Why are radio amateurs called hams?
One account, on the history page of the American Radio Relay League, says commercial operators used the telegraphers' word ham, a poor operator, for the amateurs who jammed them, and the amateurs kept the name. Other stories are told.
Can I use these for a phone-in quiz on a broadcast station?
They are about radio itself, so they suit a club more than a general audience. For mixed questions to read out on air, the random trivia generator on this site deals one at a time.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 2, 2026 on the page linked under it: the American Radio Relay League's history page, or an English Wikipedia article, including its tables of Q signals and of the call sign blocks given to countries.