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

November 1966 QST

November 1966 QST Cover - RF CafeTable of Contents

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from QST, published December 1915 - present (visit ARRL for info). 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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