CW abbreviation · Greetings & sign-off
GA in Morse code
Standard CW greeting for afternoon hours.
Morse rendering
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Sent letter-by-letter with standard inter-letter gaps.
What it saves you on the air
This is the whole reason CW abbreviations exist. Sending GA instead of spelling out “Good afternoon” cuts 87% of the airtime — 118 dot-units of keying saved every time you send it.
| Speed | GA | “Good afternoon” | Saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 WPM | 1.6s | 12.5s | 10.9s |
| 20 WPM | 1.0s | 8.1s | 7.1s |
| 25 WPM | 0.8s | 6.5s | 5.7s |
Timed with standard spacing: dit 1 unit, dah 3, letter gap 3, word gap 7. Work out any other speed on the timing calculator.
Meaning
GA — Good afternoon
When this is used
Used after roughly local noon. On HF, you'll commonly hear stations exchanging different G* greetings because the propagation path crosses time zones.
Examples
| On the air | Plain English |
|---|---|
| GA TNX FB QSO | Good afternoon, thanks for the fine QSO. |
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