A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P Q
R S
T U V
W X
Y Z
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P Q
R S
T U V
W X
Y Z
The Radio Spectrum
ULF - Ultra Low Frequency (3-30 Hz)
ELF - Extremely Low Frequency (30-300 Hz)
VF - Voice Frequencies (300 Hz-3 kHz)
VLF - Very Low Frequency (3-30 kHz)
LF - Low Frequency (30-300 kHz)
MF - Medium Frequency (300 kHz-3 MHz)
HF - High Frequency (3-30 MHz)
VHF - Very High Frequency (30-300 MHz)
UHF - Ultra High Frequency (300 MHz-3 GHz)
SHF - Super High Frequency (3-30 GHz)
EHF - Extremely High Frequency (30 GHz and above)
// - Indicates a Parallel Frequency
uF - Microfarad
uH - MicroHenry
us - microsecond
uV - Microvolt
10-11-11 MFSK - See Crowd-36
73 - Best Regards
ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corporation/American Broadcasting Company
ABU - Asia Broadcast Union
AC - Alternating Current
ACA - Australian Communications Authority (Australia's FCC)
ACARS - Aircraft Communication and Reporting System
ACE - Association of Clandestine Enthusiasts
A/D - Analog-to-digital
ADC - Analog-to-Digital Converter
Admin - Administration
Aero - Aeronautical
Af - Africa
AFB - Air Force Base
AFC - Automatic Frequency Control
AFN - American Forces Network
AFRTS - Armed Forces Radio and Television Service
AFTN - Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network
ALE - Automatic Link Establishment
AM - Amplitude Modulation
Amps - Amperes
AMPS - Advanced Mobile Phone Service (800 MHz)
AMRAD - Amateur Radio Research Development Corporation
AMSAT - Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation
AMTOR - Amateur Teleprinting Over Radio
AP - Associated Press
APRS - Automatic Packet Reporting System
APT - Automatic Picture Transmission (weather satellites)
ARQ - Synchronous transmission and automatic repetition teleprinter system
ARQ6-90 - Six-character blocks simplex ARQ teleprinter system
ARQ-E3 - Single channel ARQ teleprinter system
ARRL - American Radio Relay League
ARS - Amateur Radio Service/Adventure Radio Society
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASDL - Asymmetrical Digital Subcriber Line
ASOS - Automated Surface Observation System
AT&T - American Telephone and Telegraph
ATS - Applications Technology Satellites
ATTRIB - Attribute
ATU - Automatic Tuning Unit
Autodin - Automatic Digital Network
AWOS - Automated Weather Observation Station
AWR - Adventist World Radio
Bandscan - A list of stations normally received at a given location (not DX)
Barefoot - Unamplified
BBC-WS - British Broadcasting Corporation - World Service
BBS - Bulletin Board System
BCB - Broadcast Band (Refers to the 530-1705 kHz AM band)
BCNU - Be Seeing You
Bd - Baud
BFO - Beat Frequency Oscillator
BIOS - Basic Input/Output System
BNC - Coax connector commonly used with VHF/UHF equipment
Carib - Caribbean
CARMA - Chicago Area Radio Monitors Association
CB - Citizen Band
CBC - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
CBS - Columbia Broadcasting Company
CCD - Charge coupled device
CD - Compact Disc
CDMA - Coded Division Multiple Access
CD-ROM - Compact Disc Read Only Memory
CID - Call-letter identification with Morse code/Criminal Investigation Division
CIS-36 - See CROWD-36
CI-V - Radio computer interface made by Icom
CL - Call Letters
CMOS - Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
C/N - Carrier-to-Noise Ratio
CNN - Cable Network News
COM 1 - First Serial Port (Asynchronous Port)
COM 2 - Second Serial Port
COM 3 - Third Serial Port
COM 4 - Fourth Serial Port
Comm - Communications
COMSAT - Communications Satellite, Inc.
CONUS - Continental United States
COQ-8 - Eight-tone multi-frequency shift keyed teleprinter system (Coquelet)
Coquelet-8 - See COQ-8
CPU - Central Processing Unit
CQ - General call to all stations
CROWD-36 - A multi-frequency shift keyed communications system. (Also known as URS Multitone, CIS-36, 10-11-11 MFSK)
CRTC - Canadian Radio-Television Commission (The Canadian FCC)
CSQ - Carrier Squelch
CTCSS - Continuous Tone Controlled Squelch System
CW - Continuous Wave (Morse code)
DAB - Digital Audio Broadcast
dB - Decibel
dBi- Decibels over isotropic
DC - Direct Current
DCII - DigiCipher II
DCS - Digital Coded Squelch
de - Morse code prosign meaning "from"
Dead Air - Station is on the air but broadcasting silence (no programming)
DGPS - Differential Global Positioning System
DMA - Direct Memory Access
DOS - Disk Operating System
DPL - Digital Private Line
DSC - Digital Selective Calling
DSL - Digital Subscriber Line
DSP - Digital Signal Processing
DSR - Digital Satellite Radio
DSS - Digital Satellite System
DTB - Digital Television Broadcasting
DTMF - Dual Tone Multi Frequency
DTRS - Digital Trunk Radio System
DTV - Digital Television
DUP-ARQ - Hungarian diplomatic simplex ARQ teleprinter system
DVB - Digital Video Broadcast
DX - Distant Station Reception
DXer - A person who engages in the hobby of distant radio/television reception
DXing - The hobby of listening to distant radio or television signals
DXpeditions - DX Expeditions (trips to the boonies by radio listeners)
DX Test - A special program put on by a radio station to make it easier for DX enthusiasts to hear that station
E - Voltage (measured in volts)
ECPA - Electronic Communications Privacy Act
ECSS - Exalted Carrier Selectable Sideband
EDACS - Enhanced Digistal Access Communications System
EEPROM - Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
EIRP - Effective Isotropic Radiated Power
ELT - Emergency Locator Transmitter
EMA - Emergency Management Agency
EME - Earth-Moon-Earth
Emerg. - Emergency
EMS - Emergency Medical Service
EQT - Equatorial
ERP - Effective Radiated Power
E-skip - Sporadic E-layer ionospheric propagation
ET - Eastern Time
Eu - Europe
FAA - Federal Aviation Administration
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
FAX - Facsimile
FBO - Fixed Base Operator
FCC - Federal Communications Commission
f/D Ratio - Focal Length-to-Diameter Ratio
FEC - Forward error correction teleprinter system
FEC-A - One-way traffic FEC teleprinter system
FM - Frequency Modulation
FM2 - FM Squared
Freq - Frequency
FRS - Family Radio Service
FTP - File Transfer Protocol
FTW - Flying Training Wing
FUNC - Function
GB - GigaByte
GHz - Gigahertz
GI - General Instrument
GMRS - General Mobile Radio Service
GMS - Geostationary Meteorological Satellite, Japanese geostationary weather imaging satellite
GMT - Greenwich Mean Time (has been replaced in most applications by UTC)
GOES - Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, US geostationary weather imaging satellite constellation
Golay - Golay Sequential Pager Signaling System
GPS - Global Positioning Satellites
G/T Ratio - Gain-to-(noise) Temperature Ratio
HF - High Frequency (3-30 MHz)
HT - Handi Talkie/Handheld Transceiver
HWD - Height, Width and Depth
Hz - Hertz
I - Current (measured in amperes)
IBC - International Broadcasting Corporation
IBM - International Business Machines
IBOC - Inband Onchannel
IC - Intergrated Circuit
ICS - Internet Connection Sharing
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
IF - Intermediate Frequency
Info - Information
I/O - Input/Output
IPX - Internetwork Packet Exchange
IRC - International Reply Coupon
IRCA - International Radio Club of America
IRQ - Computer Interrupt Request
ISA - Industry Standard Architecture
ISB - Independent Sideband
ISDN - Intergrated Services Digital Network
ISP - Internet Service Provider
ITA - International Telegraph Alphabet
ITU - International Telecommunication Union
kHz - Kilohertz
km - Kilometer
kW - Kilowatt
LAN - Local Area Network
LCD - Liquid Crystal Display
LED - Light Emitting Diode
LF - Low Frequency
LNA - Low Noise Amplifier
LPF - Low Pass Filter
LPFM - Low Power FM (United States)
LPON - Low Power Open Narrowcasting (Australia)
LSB - Lower Sideband
LSR - Local Sunrise
LSS - Local Sunset
LW - Longwave (150-300 kHz)
LWCA - Longwave Club of America
mA/h - Milliampere-hours
MAC - Multiplexed Analog Components
MARS - Military Affiliate Radio System
mb/MB - meter band/MegaByte
Mbps - MegaBytes Per Second
MDT - Mobile Data Terminal
MF - Medium Frequency
MFSK - Multi Frequency Shift Keyed
MHz - MegaHertz
MPEGII - Digital video compression technique
ms - milliseconds
MS-DOS - Microsoft Disk Operating System
MSK - Minimum Shift Keying
MSL - Mean Sea Level
MUF - Maximum Useable Frequency
mW - Milliwatt
MW - Medium Frequency (0.3-3 MHz)
MW - Medium Wave (typically 530-1710 kHz)
MW - MegaWatts
NAM - Narrowband Amplitude Modulation
NAT - Network Address Translation
Natl - National
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NDB - Non-Directional Beacon
NECN - National Emergency Coordination Network
NetBEUI - NetBIOS Extended User Interface
NetBIOS - Network Basic Input/Output System
NFM - Narrowband Frequency Modulation
NIC - Network Interface Card
NiCd - Nickel Cadmium Battery
NiMH - Nickel Metal Hydride battery
NORAD - North American Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
NWS - National Weather Service/News
OC - Open Carrier (see Dead Air)
OCF - Off-Center Fed
Om - Omnidirectional
Op-amp - Operational Amplifier
Packet - Amateur radio error correcting mode
PACTOR - Teleprinter system that combines certain aspects of Packet and SITOR.
PAL - European TV broadcasting standard utilizing 625 scanning lines
PC - Personal Computer/Printed Circuit
PCFM - Personal Computer Frequency Manager
PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect/Interface
PDA - Personal Data Assistant
PLL - Phase Locked Loop
PROM - Programmable Read-Only Memory
PS/2 - Programming System 2
PSK - Phase Shift Keying
PTT - Push To Talk keying method
Q - Performance rating regarding selectivity or bandwidth, with highest Q being sharpest or most narrow
QFH - Quadrifillar Helix Antenna
QRA - The name of my station is ...
QRM - Interference from another station
QRN - Interference from natural sources (i.e. lightning, etc) or from man-made sources other than radio stations (ignition noise, vacuum cleaners, etc)
QRP - Low power operation
QSL - A card or letter confirming reception of a radio station
QSO - Communications between two or more stations
QTH - Location
R - Resistance (measured in ohms)
R3E - Upper sideband reduced carrier
RAM - Random Access Memory
RCS - Radio Communication System
Rcvr - Receiver
RDF - Radio Direction Finding
RF - Radio Frequency
RG-8 - Low loss 52 ohm coax (highly recommended by Grove Ent for scanner/shortwave antenna installations)
RS-ARQ - (WUN term) Automatic link set-up simplex ARQ teleprinter system by Rohde and Schwarz. Klingenfuss calls this ALIS. Also known as Merlin.
RTBF - Radio-Television Belge de la Communiaute Francaise
RTE - Radio Telefis Eireann (Ireland)
RTG - Radiodiffusion Television Guineenne
RTI - Radio Taipei International
RTTY - Radioteletype
Rx - Receiver
SASE - Self Addressed Stamped Envelope
S-band - Microwave frequencies above UHF
SCSI - Small Computer Systems Interface
Sec. - Second
SELCAL - Selective Calling
SELSCAN - Selective Scanning
SID - Sudden Ionospheric Distrubance/Singing Identification
Silent - Station off the air
SINAD - Signal to noise and distortion ratio
SINPO - A code system used by radio hobbyists to indicate how well a station was received: S=Strength, I=Interference, N=Noise, P=Propagation, O=Overall
SIO - A code system used by radio hobbyists to indicate how well a station was received: S=Strength, I=Interference, O=Overall
SITOR-A - Simplex teleprinting over radio system, mode A
SITOR-B - Simplex teleprinting over radio system, mode B (FEC mode)
S-Meter - Signal Strength Meter
S/N Ratio - Signal-to-Noise Ratio
SPST - Single Pole Single Throw (switch)
SPX - Sequenced Packet Exchange
SQL - Squelch
SRS - Sunrise Skip
SSB - Single Sideband/ U.S. National Anthem: Star Spangled Banner
SSN - Sunspot Number
SSS - Sunset Skip
SSTV - Slow Scan Television
STRATCOM - U.S. Strategic Command
STS - Space Transportation System (Space Shuttle)
SVGA - Super Video Graphics Adapter
SW - Shortwave (high frequency - HF)
SWBC - Shortwave Broadcast
SWL - Shortwave Listener
SWNet - Shortwave Net
SWR - Standing Wave Ratio
SWRL - Shortwave Reception Log (DXtreme Software Product)
TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TP - Test Point
Tropical Shortwave Bands - 2300-2495 kHz, 3200-3400 kHz, and 4750-5060 kHz
TVI - Television Interference
Tx - Transmit
Txt - Text
UART - Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
UHF - Ultra High Frequency
U.K. - United Kingdom
URL - Universal Resource Locator
URS Multitone - See Crowd-36
USB - Upper Sideband
USCG - U.S. Coast Guard
UT - Universal Time
UTC - Universal Time Coordinated
Vac/VAC - Volts Alternating Current
Vdc/VDC - Volts Direct Current
VF - Voice Frequencies (3-30 kHz)
VFO - Variable Frequency Oscillator
VHF - Very High Frequency
VID - Spoken call letter identification
VK - Amateur callsign prefix for Australia
VLF - Very Low Frequencies (10-100 kHz)
VOA - Voice of America
VOX - Voice Operated Relay
VSWR - Voltage Standing Wave Ratio
VTO - Voltage Tuned Oscillator
WAM - Wideband Amplitude Modulation
WEFAX - Weather Facsimile
WFM - Wideband Frequency Modulation
wpm - Words Per Minute
WTB - Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (FCC)
WWV - National Bureau of Standards Time Station, Ft. Collins, CO
WWVH - National Bureau of Standards Time Station in Hawaii
WWW - World Wide Web
Wx - Weather
WXSAT - Weather Satellite
X-band - Expanded AM broadcast band (1610-1700 kHz)
Zep - End fed wire horizontal antenna
ZL - Amateur callsign prefix for New Zealand
Zulu - Military time zone (same as UTC)