Amateur radio terms I wished I'd known

73 : Best wishes. Put the microphone down already!

Balun : An antenna matching device that nobody really understands

Band plan : Something you understand for an examination, then never look at again

Boat anchor : That 1950s, steel-cased, ex-army valve transceiver you bought on a whim one day, and which you haven't touched since

Call sign : What amateur radio operators use instead of names

Capacitor : An electronic component that stores a small electrical charge. There are three main types -- ceramic, polyester, and rusty

Cloud warmer : Any antenna close enough to the ground not to be a hazard to aviation

Counterpoise : A dangly length of wire of uncertain function, used in some antenna systems. The counterpoise lays on the ground and does nothing in particular, except act as a trip hazard. If you're very unlucky, it electrocutes your cat

CW : Popular amonst older radio operators, the 'continuous wave' is a hairstyle achieved by dragging a Morse key over your balding pate

Dipole : Two lengths of wire living in blissful harmony

End-fed long wire : A simple way to weaponize an antenna tuner

Foundation licence : In 2002, worried that the hobby of amateur radio was dying a slow death, the UK authorities decided to give away licences on the backs of packets of breakfast cereal. Almost immediately, airplanes started dropping out of the sky

HF, High Frequency : Pretty much the lowest frequency used for radio communication

FT8 : A digital mode of amateur operation, designed to achieve the greatest number of logbook entries for the smallest amount of human social interaction

Laughing policeman phonetic alphabet : An alternative to the NATO phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo, charlie...) that seeks to be as unhelpful as possible, whilst still fitting the definition of a phonetic alphabet. 'E', for example, is 'Euthanasia'

Licence : In most jurisdictions you need some kind of licence to transmit lawfully on the amateur radio bands. For better or worse, radio waves don't know that

Little pistol : Any radio operator that doesn't need a private nuclear power station to run his gear

Monopole : The sad, lonely remnant of a dipole divorce

NEC : One of the few computer programs still in use that has remained substantially unchanged since the days of punched cards

PSK31 : A digital mode of amateur radio operation that was the next big thing, that would revolutionize radio. For about a year.

QRM : The intense, all-band, all-day electrical interference that passes for the RF background these days, anywhere more than a few miles from Antarctica

QSB : Your signal is fading. A useful excuse when a conversation has become boring

Propagation forecast : A highly mathematical way of relating radio operating conditions to sunspots and atmospheric phenomena. Results of similar accuracy can be achieved by a gynaecologist with a flashlight

Repeater : A signal relay device that amateur radio operators can use to listen to cursing, insults, and bootleg rap music

Resistor : "She was only the electrician's sister, but none of the lads could..." You've heard that one already? Damn!

Shack : A room full of old junk and trip hazards that nobody in his right mind would enter

SK : End-of-transmission. Or dead. Which it is depends on the context. Not a good one to get wrong.

SK sale : Disposing of the assets of a radio amateur that has gone to the great radio shack in the sky. Typically there are a few interesting pieces that everybody pretends not to be paying too much attention to, and a dozen boxes of highly suspicious, rusty capacitors

Skip distance : The zone which is too far from the transmitter for ground-wave transmittion, but not far enough for sky-wave, and which consequently is inaccessible to signals. The skip distance is presently about twice the circumference of the Earth

Unun : Like a balun, but even more so

Yagi : A large, complicated, expensive array of antenna elements that can achieve high gain, directionality, and an acrimonious divorce

Published 2026-02-14, updated 2026-02-14

Amateur radio terms I wished I'd known

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