In article , beaudoin
wrote

So what's the answer to my question?

The following will not be interesting to the current flying enthusiast but
to answer Red's multiple request, here goes, The last time I remember using
QNE was in the mid-fifties. I was a shipboard radio operator on ice patrol
off the Newfoundland coast in the North Atlantic. Ship-shore communications
at the time was done completely using Morse. Our ship was assigned patrol
looking for ice (bergs & growlers). We were assisted in the searches by
aircraft. The aircraft were controlled by Argentia Newfoundland. While the
aircraft was in our area we communicated with it on UHF RT but they weren't
able to communicate with their base in Argentia and we had to relay via CW.
The usual scenario was the aircraft would search our area and then return to
Argentia after a search of the area. Whenever the aircraft decided to
return to base they would ask us on RT to contact their base and tell them
the aircraft was returning to base and switching to QNE. That is when I
remember using the term.

Thank you. Most interesting.

--
Richard Herring