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13 - Glossary


3D
Three-Dimensional

A/D
Analog-to-Digital (usually implied "device")

AFE822
a dual-channel HF AFEDRI SDR

AFE822x
a 100 KHz to 1.7 GHz AFEDRI SDR

AFEDRI
A line of SDR's by Alexander Trushkin, amateur radio callsign 4Z5LV

AFEDRI-SDR-NET-X2
a dual-channel AFEDRI SDR

AFSK
Audio Frequency Shift Keying

AGC
Automatic Gain Control

AI
Artificial Intelligence

AirSpy HF+
An SDR by airspy.com and ITEAD Intelligent Systems Co, Ltd.

AKA
Also Known As

AL
Artificial Life

AM
Amplitude Modulation

an
ARO My amateur radio callsign

Andrus
An SDR by Andrus Assad

Apple
Apple corporation, makers of Mac computers and the OS X operating system.

ARF
Audio display portion of the FM signal display

ARO
Amateur Radio Operator

ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange - the standard 7-bit character code used for the English language

AVT
Amiga Video Terminal

baud
Bits Per Second

BCB
BroadCast band

BSD
Berkeley Software Distribution - refers to the particular version of the UNIX OS that was developed at and distributed from the University of California at Berkeley.

C
C programming language

C++
C++ Programming Language

C-QUAM
A method of providing AM stereo

CCW
Counter-ClockWise

CHU
Canadian time station. CHU broadcasts on 3330 KHz, 7350 KHz and 14670 KHz.

CODEC
CODer-DECoder

CPU
Central Processing Unit

CR
Carriage Return

CW
Can mean ClockWise if we're discussing a knob, or Continuous Wave (usually shorthand for morse code), if we're discussing demodulator modes.

CWL
Continuous Wave, Lower sideband

CWU
Continuous Wave, Upper sideband

D/A
Digital-to-Analog

dB
Decibel

dBm
(sometimes dBmW or decibel-milliwatts) is an abbreviation for the power ratio in decibels (dB) of the measured power referenced to one milliwatt (mW)

DC
Direct Current

DGPS
Differential GPS

DHCP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - this is a way for a router to assign an IP to your computer's network connection.

Digital
Subscriber Line - a means to provide network connectivity

Div
Division

DLL
Dynamic Link Library - a proprietary Windows technology for making one or more program functions available to multiple applications.

DNR
Dynamic Noise Reduction

DRM
Digital Radio Mondial (digital shortwave broadcast)

DSP
Digital Signal Processing

DX
Distance or Distant

ELF
Extremely Low Frequency

EPROM
Electrically Programmable Read Only Memory

ETA
Estimated Time of Arrival

EU
European Union

F-KEY
Function key on keyboard

FAX
Facsimile - a method of transmitting maps and images using AFSK or other modulation modes.

FCC
Federal Communications Commission - A regulatory agency in the US that provides a monopoly on the radio spectrum to moneyed and corporate interests at the expense of, and to the extreme disadvantage of, US citizens.

FCD
Funcube Dongle

FCD Pro Plus
Funcube Professional Plus SDR

FCDP
FCD Pro Plus

FDM
Frequency Division Multiplexing

FEC
Forward Error Correction

FFT
Fast Fourier Transform

FM
Frequency Modulation

FPS
FFTs per second

FPU
Floating Point Unit - a specialized digital processor that does complex mathematics operations more quickly than a normal CPU can.

FS
Frequency Shift

FSL
Frequency Shift keying, Lower sideband

FSU
Frequency Shift keying, Upper sideband

FTDI
Future Technology Devices International corporation, maker of the USB chips in many devices such as the RFSPACE SDR-IQ

FYI
For Your Information

GB
Gigabytes - 1,000,000,000 bytes

GHZ
Gigahertz, or 1,000 million cycles per second

GMT
Greenwich (England, United Kingdom) Mean Time

GNU
GNU's Not Unix (This definition is part of its own definition, which is a programming joke related to the technique of recursion, something very obscure to most non-programmers.)

GPL
General Public License

GPS
Global Positioning System

GPU
Graphics Processing Unit. Like a CPU, but specialized for handling pixel data

GUI
Graphic User Interface

HAM
Amateur (radio)

HF
High Frequency - 3 to 30 MHz

HLL
High-Level (programming) Language

HTML
HyperText Markup Language

Hz
Cycles Per Second

I/Q
In-phase and Quadrature components of a signal. A signal's quadrature component is 90º out of phase with the in-phase signal. Traditionally, this means 90º later at the sampling frequency, as a signal can contain components of many frequencies. A great deal of the mathematics of software-defined radio use these two closely time-related signals to determine the signal characteristics we are interested in.

IBM
International Business Machines corporation

ID
Identification

IF
Intermediate Frequency

Intel
Intel corporation

IOW
In Other Words

IP
Internet Protocol, often a numeric address of a particular device.

IPC
Inter-Program Communication(s)

Kanji
Japanese ideographs (character symbols)

KHz
KiloHertz (thousands of cycles per second)

km
Kilometer

L/R
Left/Right

LAN
Local Area Network

LCD
Liquid Crystal Display

LED
Light-Emitting Diode (in the case of SdrDx, the image of a light-emitting diode)

LF
Line Feed or Low Frequency 30 to 300 KHz

linux
A free operating system created by Linus Torvalds

LSB
Lower SideBand

LW
Longwave: 30 to 300 KHz

Mac
Macintosh computer by Apple corporation

Mac Pro
a desktop tower computer made by Apple

macro
A series of commands that can be employed to accomplish a task made up of smaller steps, often (as is the case with SdrDx) commands to an application.

Max
Maximum

MB
Megabytes - 1,000,000 bytes

MF
Medium Frequency, 300 to 3000 KHz

MHz
Megahertz (Millions of cycles per second)

Microsoft
Microsoft corporation, maker of the Windows OS

MIDI
Musical Instrument Digital Interface

ms
Millisecond

MW
Mediumwave: 300 to 3000 KHz

NAVTEX
An error-checked digital text protocol

NBL
Noise BLanker

NET-SDR
An SDR by RFSPACE

NFM
Narrow FM

NOAA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

noise probe
A type of antenna with low gain that is placed near a noise source.

NULL
The angle(s) at which an antenna cannot pick up a signal.

NZ
New Zealand

Objective C
Objective C programming language

Olivia
A digital mode for data

OS
Operating System

OS X
Operating system for the Mac by Apple

packet
A digital mode that sends information in groups of bytes that are error checked

PC
Personal Computer - a generic term meaning any computer intended for personal use. PC is often misused to imply a Windows OS computer, so be careful when you encounter it.

PCB
Printed Circuit Board

PD
Public Domain

Perl
The Perl Scripting Language

PID
Product ID

PNG
PNG image format

POS
Point Of Sale

PostgreSQL
Open source database system. You can learn more at postgresql.org

PPM
Parts-per-Million

PSK31
A digital AFSK mode for data

Python
Python programming language

Python 2
Python programming language, version 2

Q
Quality, as in how strong a notch or peak is created by a filter.

QRM
Man-made interference (radio operator term)

QRN
Natural interference (radio operator term)

QRZ
is anyone listening? (radio operator term)

QSB
Signal Fading

Qt
This is the cross-platform (linux, OS X, Windows) application development system that compiles the c++ source code of SdrDx into a working application.

Qt Home Page

QTH
location (radio operator term)

RBDS
Radio Broadcast Data System (same as RDS)

RC
Radio Control

RDS
Radio Data System (same as RBDS)

RF
Radio Frequency

RFSPACE
maker of higher end SDRs

RGB
Red, Green and Blue

RRF
Full RF content of FM signal display

RTL-SDR
This is an inexpensive SDR with a minimum center tuning step of one KHz, low dynamic range, and no filtering, which makes it vulnerable to a number of problems. Its popularity is due to its cost, size, and easy availability.

RTTY
Radioteletype

RX
Receive or Receiver

S
Usually Signal, as in "Signal Meter" or "S-Meter"

S-Meter
An S-Meter tells you how strong a radio signal is. The metering range is from S1 to S9, and then in 10 dB steps from there. Each "S" step in an S-Meter prior to the 10 dB steps is 6 dB.

S-Unit
The values used on an S-Meter

SAM
Synchronous AM demodulation

SCA
An auxillary channel within the WFM signal used for secondary, monophonic signals

SCB
the secondary SCA channel

SDR
Software Defined Radio

SDR-14
An SDR by RFSPACE

SDR-IP
An SDR by RFSPACE

SDR-IQ
An SDR by RFSPACE

SIP
System Integrity Protection mode, also known as "rootless" mode. Also known as: "Here comes Apple, breaking everything again."

SITOR
An error-checked AFSK digital text protocol.

SSB
Single SideBand (LSB, USB)

SSTV
Slow Scan Television

SW
ShortWave (bands, signals, listening AKA SWL)

SWL
ShortWave Listener / Listening

SYNC
A special character or sequence of characters meant to assist in correct data decoding.

TCP
Transmission Control Protocol - a networking term.

TDM
Time-Division Multiplexing

TX
Transmit

UHF
Ultra High Frequency. 300 to 3000 MHz

US
United States

USB
Can means Upper SideBand, or Universal Serial Bus, depending on context.

USB 1.1
Universal Serial Bus, version 1.1, port or device or protocol

USB 2.01
Universal Serial Bus, version 2.0, port or device or protocol

USB device
A device that plugs into a USB port

USB port
USB connection where you can plug in a USB device.

uV
MicroVolts. .000001 volts is 1 uV.

VFO
Variable Frequency Oscillator. In SdrDx, nothing is oscillating, but the VFOs perform the same function, which is to change the frequency the radio (the SDR) is receiving.

VHF
Very High Frequency, 30 to 300 MHz

VLC
Free application to play audio and video

WAN
Wide Area Network (IOW, the Internet)

WFM
Wide FM, a commercial broadcasting format that supports monophonic and stereo modes, digital identification of program material, and two additional low-bandwidth subcarriers for broadcast of auxillary program material. In the US, channel spacing is 200 KHz, and stations are assigned frequencies from 88 MHz to 108 MHz.

WiFi
Wireless network communications that provide an unreliable connection to a network. This is not recommended as a way to connect to an SDR. See the section on Troubleshooting.

Windows
An operating system by Microsoft

WLO
This is a RTTY and NAVTEX station on 8,473.000 KHz that serves ships on the high seas.

WPM
Words Per Minute

WWV
Time station in Fort Collins, Colorado at 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 MHz

WWVH
Sister station to WWV in Hawaii

X
Horizontal

X/Y
Horizontal / Vertical

XP
The Windows XP OS

Y
Vertical

Z
Depth



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