K0TFU

Glossary

Amateur radio is a broad hobby, with a lot to learn and lots of specific lingo. If you've been involved for a while, you probably have learned most of these terms and what they mean. If you are new to amateur radio, all the terms can sometimes feel overwheling.

This glossary doesn't include all amateur radio terms, but it does include the ones used in this guide. Most of these terms are commonly used, but I've created some (for example communication setup) because there isn't a good term, or the term makes no sense. What I call a communication setup most everyone calls a VFO, but VFO is impossible to reconcile with the communication setup for a DMR talkgroup.

If the term you are looking for isn't in this glossary, it might be on the handheld feature descriptions page.

Thes terms in this glossary are in alphabetical order.

Band

Band means at least 3 things, and it's so confusing that I wrote an entire article to explain it.

Channel

Like band, channel has many meanings. I wrote a long article explaining the various meanings of channel in amateur radio.

Dual Band

Like band, dual band can mean multiple things. The band article can help you get it sorted out.

Communication Setup

The collection of settings required to configure your radio to communicate with another station. This isn't a commonly used term in amateur radio, I use it because the commonly used term for this is really bad. Lemme splain.

If you are communicating with another station on the 40m amateur radio band, you need to know the mode you are operating (probably SSB) and the frequency you are transmitting on. Maybe you need to know how much power you are transmitted with. But that's it. When it was this simple, we started using the term VFO for Variable Frequency Oscillator, to describe this setup. You turned the VFO in your radio to the frequency where the other station is, and you were done.

For a modern handheld amateur radio, the communication setup might include 5 or 6 different components, and they probably change depending on what mode you are using. For example, if you are communicating with another station via an analog FM repeater, your communication setup includes:

  • The operating mode of the radio, in this case FM
  • For the FM operating mode, you can transmit in Narrow FM or Wide FM, so your setup needs to know which one to use
  • The frequency you receive signals from the repeater on
  • The offset frequency from the receive frequency on which you transmit to activate the repeater
  • The CTCSS tone you must transmit in order to activate the repeater
  • How much power to use for the transmission

You could maybe call this a frequency setup, and then maybe VFO could work, but those terms really don't work for digital modes. Each digital mode has additional components which must be configured in order to communication with another station. The communication setup for DMR includes:

  • Receive frequency
  • Transmit frequency
  • Color code
  • Time slot
  • Talkgroup

On most handheld radios, you can save a communication setup in a memory.

Memory

Lots of manufacturers call the location where you store a communication setup a channel. I think this is rediculous. Channel already means several things. I call the place where you store a communication setup a memory or a memory location. All radios that I'm familiar with assign numbers to each of their memory locations.

Deconfusing dual band

Let's start by clarifying one of two overloaded terms in ham radio: dual band. Unfortunately band can be used in several ways, and therefore dual band can mean three different things.

Dual band can be a description of the transmit capabilities of a radio. It means the radio is capable of transmitting on both the 2m and 70cm amateur radio bands.

Most handheld radios have some concept of Band A and Band B. On the screen of the radio, each band can be set to VFO or memory recall, and can be configured independently. Often there is button labelled "A/B" which switches which one of these bands is active for configuration or transmission when you push the PTT button. Some manufacturers, like Yaesu call this the Main band and the Sub band. Dual band can mean that the user interface for the radio can configure two frequency setups at the same time and conveniently switch between them.

Dual band can also mean that the radio has the circuitry to receive signals on two different frequencies at the same time. Many inexpensive radios don't have this circuitry, but the mimic the capability by quickly switching between two frequencies and then staying on one when it detects a signal.

In this guide, I enumerate the radio frequency bands, or ranges, on which a radio can transmit. I don't use dual band or tri-band to refer to this capability, even though many manufacturs and distributers do. I'll show a radio as able to transmit on 2m, 70cm, and 1.25cm instead. I call these transmit bands

The user interface and concurrent receive meanings of dual band are closely related. You can't have dual receive if you don't have a place to set both frequences in the user interface of the radio. I combine these two capabilities into a single feature I call Design.

Deconfusing channels

The other confusing term in radio lingo is channel. Like band, channel also has multiple meanings.

For certain radio services, like Citizens Band (CB), General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), and MURS (Multi-Use Radio Service), the FCC defines the list of frequencies on which transmissions are allowed, and gives those frequencies a channel number. MURS channel 2 is always 151.88 MHz and GMRS channel 20 is always 462.675 MHz.

A channel also refers to the spectrum range consumed by a frequency modulation (FM) transmission. Handheld amateur radios (almost) exclusively transmit using FM, not SSB like is common on larger base station radios using lower frequencies. Handheld radios also support "normal" or "wide" FM, and narrow FM, sometimes called NFM. These two FM modes tell the radio how much spectrum range to use for the entire signal.

FM works by combining the message signal (your voice) with a carrier signal. When you tune your handheld radio to 146.520 MHz, the 2m national simplex calling frequency, that's the carrier signal frequency. If you are using "normal" or "wide" FM, then when you speak into the microphone, the main FM signal deviates from 146.515 MHz to 146.525 MHz. Sideband energy extends that even farther. Carson's rule gives a formula to estimate the total bandwidth used. In practice it's approximately 16 kHz. This frequency range, centered on the carrier signal frequency, is called a channel.

Frequency coordination is a voluntary process that amateur radio operators use as part of "good amateur practice" (a term defined by the FCC), to avoid interference on FM repeaters. In Utah, where I live, the Utah VHF Society coordinates the repeater and simplex frequencies used on the amateur bands in the state. Utah uses 20 KHz frequency spacing to avoid interference. The band plan says:

2 Meter FM simplex operation (even-numbered 20 KHz channels beginning at 146.420 MHz)

A channel is often used in handheld ham radio marketing materials to refer to the number of memory locations the radio supports. For example, the Baofeng UV-5R Mini, which is an excellent radio, is marketed as "Store up to 999 channels", which means there are 999 memory locations each of which can store frequency, offset, and CTCSS/DCS tone information and which can have an alphanumeric name.

Digital modes like DSTAR and DMR have their own definitions and use of the word channel. It's usually a memory location, but it contains different items depending on the mode. In DMR a channel is a memory location containing transmit frequency, receive frequency, color code, time slot, and talkgroup. A DSTAR channel has MYCALL, URCALL, RPT1, and RPT2.