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Some QST Abbreviations Used in Text and Drawings
November 1966 QST Article

November 1966 QST

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from ARRL's QST, published December 1915 - present. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Grammar and formatting standards have changed over time. As technology evolves and society devolves, things like abbreviations, use of capital letters, the 'verbization' of nouns (e.g., 'verbization'), interchanging of homophones (e.g., 'their' and 'there'), and the growingly popular offense of eliminating the space between a number and its associated unit (e.g., '914MHz' vs. '914 MHz') are becoming more prevalent. Look at nearly any press release or datasheet from a component manufacturer in the past year and you will notice the number-unit change (I correct many of the ones I post on RF Cafe). Some publishers (NPR) are particularly offensive at taking liberties (aka laziness) and others (New York Times) are stalwart standard bearers (good for them). I see many examples during my daily search for technical headlines. We have gotten accustomed to many changes, and some have been around so long that most people have never seen the former usage. Since I post a lot of articles from vintage editions of the ARRL's QST magazine, I though it might be instructive to include this list of common abbreviations used in the 1930s through 1960s (the years I post). Most notable is the use of periods between letters and lower case vs. upper case letters as with 'a.m.' (AM) and 'r.f.' (RF).

Note: If you use Visio software, you might be interested in my Visio Stencils that includes schematic symbols used in the ARRL Handbook.

Some QST Abbreviations Used in Text and Drawings

A., a., amp. - amperes
a.c. - alternating current
a.f. - audio frequency
a.g.c. - automatic gain control
a.m. - amplitude modulation
amp. - amplifier
ant. - antenna
AREC - Amateur Radio Emergency Corps
ARPPSC - Amateur Radio Public Service Corps
aux. - auxiliary
a.v.c.- automatic volume control
bal. - balanced
BC - broadcast
BCI - broadcast interference
BCL - broadcast listener
b.f.o. - beat-frequency oscillator
BPL - Brass Pounders League
cath. - cathode
c.d. - civil defense
c.d. - Civil Defense (agency)
CD - Communication Dept. (ARRL)
c.f.m. - cubic feet per minute
ckt. - circuit
coax - coaxial cable or connector
conv. - converter
CP - code proficiency
c.p.s. - cycles per second
c.t. - center tap
c.w. - continuous wave (radiotelegraphy)
cy. - cycles
db. - decibel(s)
db.m. - db. above 1 milliwatt
d.c. - direct current
d.p.d.t. - double-pole, double-throw
d.p.s.t. - double-pole, single-throw
d.s.b. - double sideband
DX - distance
DXCC - DX Century Club
EC - Emergency Coordinator
el. - element
e.m.f. - electromotive force
Enam. - enameled
fax - facsimile
FCC - Federal Commuuications Commission
FD - Field Day
fil. - filament
f.m. -frequency modulation
freq. - frequency
Gc. - gigacycle
gnd. - ground
h., hy. - henry(s)
h.f. - high frequency
htr. - heater
h.v. - high voltage
i.f. - intermediate Frequency
K - thousand
kc. - kilocycles
kw. - kilowatt(s)
l.f. -low frequency
l.u.f. - lowest usable frequency
l.v. -low voltage
m. - meters
ma. - milliamperes
max. - maximum
Mc. - megacycles
m.f. - medium frequency
mho - millihenrys
mic., mike - microphone
mix. - mixer
m.u.f. - maximum usable frequency
mv. - millivolts

n.f.m. - narrow-band frequency modulation
NTS - National Traffic System
o.d. - outside diameter
OES - Official Experimental Station
OO - Official Observer
OPS - Official Phone Station
ORS - Official Relay Station
osc. - oscillator
OVS - Official V.H.F. Station
PAM - Phone Activities Manager
p.e.p, - peak envelope power
pf. - picofarad (micromicrofarads )
p.p. - push-pull
pri. - primary
pwr. - power
RACES - Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service
revr., rec. - receiver
rect. - rectifier
reg. - regulated, regulation
r.f.. - radio frequency
r.f.c. - radio-frequency choke
RM - Route Manager
RO - Radio Officer (civil defense)
RST - Readability-Strength-Tone
RTTY - radioteletype
s.a.s.e. - self-addresed stamped envelope
SCM - Section Communications Manager
SEC - Section Emergency Coordinator
sec. - secondary
sig. - signal
s.p.d.t. - single-pole, double-throw
s.p.s.t. - single-pole, single-throw
SS - Sweepstakes
s.s.b. - single sideband
s.w.l. - short-wave listener
s.w.r. - standing-wave ratio
t. - turns
temp. - temperature
t.p.i. - turns per inch
t.r. - transmit-receive
t.r.f. - tuned radio frequency
TV - television
TVI - television interference
u.h.f. - ultra-high frequency
v.f.o. - variable-frequency oscillator
v.h.f. - very-high frequency
v.o.m. - volt-ohm-milliammeter
VOX - voice-operated break-in
v.t.v.m. - vacuum tube voltmeter
VXO - variable crystal oscillator
WAC - Worked All Continents
WAS - Worked All States
w.p.m. - words per minute
xtal. - crystal
µf., µh. - microfarads, microhenrys

Posted 3/12/2013




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RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The Internet was still largely an unknown entity at the time and not much was available in the form of WYSIWYG ... All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged. My Hobby Website: AirplanesAndRockets.com

Some QST Abbreviations Used in Text and Drawings November 1966 QST Article

Some QST Abbreviations Used in Text and Drawings
November 1966 QST Article