Common abbreviations used in the broadcast and other industries.
Abbrev | - | Description |
≈ | - | approximately |
± | - | plus or minus |
> | - | greater than |
≥ | - | greater than or equal to |
< | - | less than |
≤ | - | less than or equal to |
β | - | Beamwidth (Greek letter Beta) |
Ω | - | ohms (impedance) |
° | - | Degrees (angle or temperature) |
°C | - | Degrees Celsius |
°F | - | Degrees Fahrerhigh |
°K | - | Degrees Kelvin |
A | - | Amperes |
AGL | - | Above Ground Level |
Al | - | aluminum |
AM | - | Amplitude Modulation |
Ant | - | Antenna |
ATSC | - | Advanced Television System Committee (digital TV standard) |
AWG | - | American Wire Gauge |
B | - | receiver noise bandwidth in Hertz. |
c | - | Speed of Light (299,792,458 m/s) |
CA | - | Class A (low power broadcast) |
CD | - | Class A Digital (low power broadcast) |
Ch | - | channel |
Cu | - | copper |
D | - | Digital Class A (low power broadcast) |
dB | - | decibels power difference (base 10 Log scale) |
dBD | - | antenna gain: decibels with respect to a standard half wave dipole antenna with a gain of 2.15 dBi. |
dBi | - | antenna gain: decibels with respect to a lossless isotropic radiator. |
dBm | - | power decibels above or below 1 milliwatt |
dBW | - | power decibels above or below 1 watt |
DT | - | Digital Television full power class |
DTv | - | Digital Television |
DVD | - | Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc |
ERP | - | Effective Radiated Power |
F | - | Farad (capacitance) |
FCC | - | Federal Communications System |
FM | - | Frequency Modulation |
fps | - | frames per second |
Freq | - | Frequency |
ft | - | feet |
GPS | - | Global Positioning System |
H | - | Henry (inductance) |
HD | - | High Definition |
HDTV | - | High Definition Television |
HDMI | - | High Definition Multimedia Interface (Video Data Communication) |
Hz | - | Hertz (Cycles per Second) |
in | - | inch |
in2 | - | square inches |
k | - | Boltzmann's Constant = 1.380 622 x 10-23 Watt*sec/°K. |
km | - | kilometers (1000 meters) |
kW | - | kilowatts (1000 Watts) |
Lat | - | Latitude |
Lng | - | Longitude |
LD | - | low power digital (broadcast) |
LP | - | low power (broadcast) |
m | - | meters |
m2 | - | square meters |
mi | - | miles |
mm | - | millimeter (0.001 Meters) |
mW | - | milliwatts (0.001 Watts) |
MHz | - | megahertz (1,000,000 Hertz) |
MSL | - | Mean (average) Sea Level |
NEC | - | National Electrical Code |
NF | - | receiver noise figure (receiver noise) |
NOAA | - | National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration |
ns | - | nanoseconds (0.000 000 001 sec) |
NTSC | - | National Television System Committee (analog TV standard) |
OTA | - | Over-the-Air |
PPI | - | pixels per inch (Resolution) |
Pwr | - | Power |
RG | - | Radio Guide (coax cable designation) |
RF | - | Radio Frequency |
RV | - | Recreational Vehicle |
S/N | - | Signal-to-Noise ratio |
SD | - | Standard Definition (Resolution) |
s | - | seconds |
sec | - | seconds |
T | - | temperature |
TV | - | Television full power class |
UHD | - | Ultra High Definition (Resolution) |
UHF | - | Ultra High Frequency (300 - 3000 MHz) |
µW | - | microwatts (0.000 001 Watts) |
V | - | Volts |
Vac | - | Alternating Current RMS (Root Mean Square) Voltage. |
VCR | - | Video Cassette Recorder |
VGA | - | Video Graphics Array (video data communication) |
VHF | - | Very High Frequency (30 - 300 MHz) |
VSWR | - | Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (a measure of unwanted signal reflections) |
W | - | Watts (power) |
yd | - | Yards |
xmit | - | Transmit |
OTA DTv
Abbreviations |