Funny misuse of radio acronyms

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WhiskeyChuck

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I was putting together a spreadsheet of the 2m and 70cm band plans as well as Q-codes as a cheat sheet to use after I get my technician. I left out 144-144.1 MHz as its CW only and I will be using an FM radio anyway. I also omitted 420-430 MHz because I will be operating north of "Line A". That left me with 430-432 MHz for "ATV simplex with 427.250-MHz video carrier frequency."

I am also a Jeeper and was planning on using HAM in simplex with 2 other licensed operators in my area while off-roading. "ATV simplex" sounded like a good part of the band to use, although I only have 2 MHz of it available in my area. The problem I saw; the "video carrier frequency" falls below the 430 MHz cutoff for Line A.

Now I know what a carrier is and I know what video is but I didn't know what the heck it had to do with ATV simplex, so I spent a couple hours searching "ATV simplex", "ATV video carrier", "video carrier frequency" etc. and every time I used "ATV" in my search I got results, especially in radio forums, exclusively talking about All Terrain Vehicle HAM use. I just couldn't connect the dots, so I registered here to ask you guys directly. Well after a forum search I found it to be Amateur Television lol. Now that makes sense, 446 on UHF it is.

Good ole acronyms... At first I though a LEO antenna was to pick up police scanner frequencies, until the technician course taught me about Low Earth Orbit. Then on this forum someone mentioned they knew (of) an LEO, and I immediately thought they were talking about a certain satellite until I read on and it wasn't making sense. They were talking about a cop friend haha. Learning all this has not been boring, that's for sure.

Anyone else have any slightly funny double uses of radio acronyms?
 

K4EET

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<snip> Anyone else have any slightly funny double uses of radio acronyms?

I don't know if you've gotten in to the "Q-Signals" yet such as:
  • QRZ - Who is calling me?
  • QSL - Acknowledging receipt
  • QTH - Your location
Some of my friends and I have our own Q-Signals:
  • QBK - Meet at Burger King
  • QMC - Meet at McDonald's
  • QRB - Meet at Arby's
I don't know if that is real funny or not but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Cheers! Dave K4EET
 

ipfd320

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Ha ha Thats Pretty Funny Dave--Hey Chuck Welcome here is a Wikipedia Link on Q-Codes there is Alot there for Different Radio Services--Enjoy
 

KC4RAF

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Welcome to the RR site sir.
Here you'll find so much info that your head is gonna exploded!!! lol
I love acronyms; they are great for making sentences short and quick.
Just as Dave showed in his post. You just can not beat acronyms.
When you were commenting about LEOs, I got a chuckle because you got it confused between Law Enforcement Officer and Low Earth Orbit objects. "Hey Roger, ya hear about that LEO getting shot up? No man! How bad is he hurt? No dummy, they launched another Low Earth Orbit amateur satellite this morning!"
 

K9DAK

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Not Just Radio

Ha... not just radio...

Years ago I worked for a major pharma / medical device company, where I was an SME (subject matter expert) on SME (serialized medical equipment), and worked a lot with PCAs (product complaint analysis) on PCAs (patient controlled analgesia) ... :p
 

needairtime

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I never liked it when I noticed people using the abbreviations LSB/USB for the sidebands... but these abbreviations have been around far longer than these terms:

Least Significant Bit - generic computer term...
Universal Serial Bus - Thank you Intel
Usable Signal Bandwidth - Thank you Tektronix (DSO sampling)
 

jwt873

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Don't forget to look up the acronym HAM :)

Actually it's a simple word not an acronym. As such, it doesn't need to be capitalized. It's a nickname for an amateur radio operator. Most publications use the non capitalized 'ham'. QST magazine (which has been published since 1916) has never used capital letters. Same with CQ Amateur radio and 73 magazines.

In this link, scroll down to "What is a Ham" Ham Radio History
 

RadShackFan

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When I was first exposed to Ham Radio in the early 60s, the old man that was teaching me code told me that ham was short for "half *** modulator" a poor operator.
 

RRR

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I was amused when tags were run like "F - Phone, Q - Cucumber" ...etc...
 

AI7PM

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You won't need Q-codes on phone.
Not sure why, but I hear a lot of Q junk on FM and digital, misunderstood and misused at that.
 

k7ng

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+1 re Q-codes on phone.

However, even I, as a emphatic opponent of use of Q-codes and 'lingo' on ham phone, I have to admit that there are come q-codes that have become embedded in phone talk... even I use them...

A short list. 'QRP', 'QRM' ... it stops there, at least for me. It's just easier to use those two codes as they are almost universally understood and accepted. I don't believe 'QTH' , 'QRT' and 'QSL' make communication easier. After all, "Location', 'Goodbye'/ 'C-Ya', and 'I copy' take about he same length of time to say as the equivalent Q-signals.

I know, there are many viewpoints and I'll probably catch some flak, but the farther we get from brevity codes and lingo on the phone freqs the better. BUT! Learn the ICAO Phonetic Alphabet backwards & forwards, inside & out. 'Made-up' phonetics should be punishable by sizzling in oil - except for joking around during a ragchew. (Oops - lingo alert). Fluency in the terms and phonetics the 'big boys' use shows IMHO that you know what you're doing.

The above is one ham's opinion and I don't normally wear asbestos underclothes.

73 (oops, lingo again)
Dave K7NG
Hamming and proud of it since 1968.
 

bharvey2

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Funny, we sure have taken a liking to Three Letter Acronyms or TLAs as people in the know call them.
 

drdispatch

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PrivatelyJeff

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I hate how people use &#8220;TAC&#8221;. Some areas use it as &#8220;tactical&#8221; and others use it as &#8220;talk around channel&#8221;.
 
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