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                   Ham Radio Terminology
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Hams use rather odd terminology sometimes.  Many of the terms
can be traced to the days when morse code (CW) was the only form
of communication and the more abbreviations one could use the
better.  The terms are still used today to make messages shorter
and to facilitate communicating across language barriers.  This
list is only a small fraction of the terms used in amateur
radio, but it may help you understand some of the messages and
comments on ChowdaNet.

OM          
Literally "Old Man."  Refers to any male ham, regardless
of age.

YL          
Literally "Young Lady."  Refers to any female ham, or in
general to any female.  Usually used to refer to single as
opposed to married women.  No reference to age is implied.

XYL
Same as above but usually the wife of a ham.  (Ham
terminology, like the hobby in general, is unfortunately quite sexist.)

73
Roughly translated as "Goodbye," or "talk to you later."
Often used at the end of a contact or message.

de
Literally "from."  Used to indicate the callsign of the
transmitting station.

QST
Information of interest to the amateur community in general.

UTC
Universal Coordinated Time.  Greenwich Mean Time.  World
Time.  Zulu Time.  All interchangeable.

PACKET RADIO
Usually just called "packet."  Refers to a method of sending
digital data (computer data) over the airwaves.  An error free
method of data transmission much like some LANs.  Data is sent
from one node to the next in packets of data.  Uses a variant of
the common x.25 protocol found on many computer networks.

QTH
Location.

FB
Literally "Fine Business."  Usually used to mean "very good," or
"how nice"... something to that effect.

QSL
Literally, a confirmation of contact or information.  Usually
used to mean "message received and understood."  Can also refer
to the exchange of QSL cards, see below.

QSL CARD
A postcard or similar written confirmation of contact exchanged
by hams.  Often used to gain points for various awards and contests.

11 METERS
Literally, the portion of the spectrum that has a wavelenth of
approximately 11 meters, or 27Mhz.  Used to refer to Citizens'
Band radio, to which all hams have a natural aversion.

DX
Long distance radio, usually used to mean contact with a foreign
country.

DXPedition
A trip to an unusual part of the world for the purpose of
operating a radio station.  

DXCC
DX Century Club.  Membership is restricted to those hams who
have confirmed contacts with 100 countries.  Many different
levels of achievement within the DXCC program are possible.

CALLSIGNS
Each amateur radio operator is issued a callsign by the Federal
Communications Commission.  Ham callsigns are much like those
issued to regular broadcast stations, but follow a slightly
different pattern.  They consist of 1 or 2 characters (called
the "prefix"), a number, and 2 or 3 additional characters.
KA1SVW, W1AW, W1XJ, NG1U, K1AD, AA5E, etc.  The first one or two
digits indicate the country of origin, the number indicates the
area of the country the license was originally issued in, and
the last characters are sequential.  The United States issues
callsigns beginning with W, K, N or A.  Canadian calligns begin
with VE.

COUNTRY
Each country in the world with the exception of Iran issues
amateur radio licenses and callsigns.  However, for the purposes
of DXCC (see above), some land masses are treated as seperate
countries.  The Soviet Union is divided into many DXCC
"countries," and Alaska, Hawaii, the US Virgin Islands and
Puerto Rico, although part of the United States, count as
seperate countries.  So do many US posessions.

RIG
Radio.

HT
Handheld Transceiver.  (Hams avoid referring to HTs as Walkie Talkies.)

REPEATER
An automated radio station designed to rebroadcast ("repeat")
signals from low power units to extend their range.  Used by
many different radio services, including ham radio.

TERMS HAMS NEVER USE
In general, hams avoid any term that is used by CB radio.  

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