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Amateur Radio - a Glossary of Terms

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Amateur Radio - a Glossary of Terms Amateur Radio - A Glossary of Terms AF - Audio Frequency. DDS - Direct Digital Synthesis. Icom's original system provides super fine tuning resolution to 1Hz. AM - Amplitude Modulation (receiver mode). DSP - (Digital Signal Processing) As the name ANL - Auto Noise Limiter (helps reduce impulse suggests, DSP is the processing of signals by digital noise interference). means. AFC - Automatic Frequency Control (keeps the Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency - A mechanism for receiver tuned to the centre frequency of the sending simple alphanumeric data over an audio station). path. Audio Peak Filter - Reduces interference from Dual-Watch - monitoring 2 pre-selected channels nearby signals. simultaneously. AGC - Automatic Gain Control. This matches the EEPROM - Electronically Erasable Programmable sensitivity of the receiver to the strength of the Read Only Memory. incoming signal. Filter - Components used to refine radio signals. Band Pass Filter - A device that passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects FM - Frequency Modulation (receiver mode). (attenuates) frequencies outside that range. GHz - Giga Hertz (1,000 MHz). Bandscope - Function that makes it easy to find HF - High Frequency (3 MHz~30 MHz). busy frequencies and to observe receiver frequency band conditions. Hz - Hertz (unit of frequency measurement). Banks - Amalgamated group of channels. CI-V IF shift - IF shift is used to reduce interference from System - A computer interface. Allows control of nearby signals. It does so by adjusting the centre the radio from a PC (this does not include frequency of the IF filter. software). IMD - Intermodulation Distortion, or IMD is an Channel Spacing - The distance between the amplifier or pre-amplifier specification that centre frequency of signals on channelled measures non-harmonic frequencies added to systems. the signal. CTCSS - Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System. kHz - Kilo Hertz (1000Hz). This filters out other signals whilst you are listening. It is principally used on commercial VHF & UHF radio LCD - Liquid Crystal Display. systems but it is increasingly being introduced to LF - Low Frequency (0 kHz~300 kHz). Amateur Radio repeaters. MF - Medium Frequency (300 kHz~3 MHz). CW - Carrier Wave, also used to designate as Morse code signals. MHz - Mega Hertz (1000 kHz). dB - Decibel (measurement of sound). Noise Blanker Circuit - Suppresses pulse type noises such as that caused by vehicle ignition DCS - Digital coded squelch. systems. PBT - Pass Band Tuning. Allows the centre S-meter squelch - A pre-set threshold that tells you frequency of the receiver IF filter to be moved how strong the message is. When receiving levels relative to another similar filter. This reduces stronger than the pre-set level a mute function bandwidth and helps reduce interference from kicks in and blocks annoying signals. signals on adjacent frequencies. Squelch - Circuitry to suppress receiver noise in the PSK31 - (Phase Shift Keying, 31Baud) is a digital absence of signals. radio modulation mode, used primarily to conduct SHF - Super High Frequency (1300 MHz~2000 MHz) real-time informal text chat between amateur radio operators. TS - Tuning Steps (The frequency stop used when moving up or down channels). RF Attenuator - Reduces the input signal to prevent overload of the radio. VSC - Voice Scanning Control (stops when a fully modulated signal is detected). RIT (Receiver Incremental Tuning) - permits you to fine tune the Control receiver to match the UHF - Ultra High Frequency (300 MHz~1300 MHz). received signal. V - Volt (measurement of Voltage). RTTY - Radio Teletype Telegraphy. VHF - Very High Frequency (30 MHz~300 MHz). SIGNAVI - Sub-receiver that moves across bands whilst you are listening therefore reducing the time WFM - Wide FM (receiver mode). of the scan. Single Side Band - A method used to reduce the amount of bandwidth a signal occupies. Icom UK Ltd. Sea Street, Herne Bay,Kent CT6 8LD. Telephone: 01227 741741. Fax: 01227 741742. e-mail: [email protected] www.icomuk.co.uk.
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