The Lingo. Help a beginner?

[tybrad]

Hi guys-
New to the forums, not new to SW/LW, but not knowing a lot of the shorthand and jargon used.  In particular at the moment…

• What does UNID mean?
• When someone says, "heard on S3 or S7" and such, what is that?

Is there a thread or sticky here (I've looked but have not seen one) or a link to an outside source that can help me learn?  Or if there is not actually a sticky or thread about it, perhaps we should make on for people like me.

I own both a DX-160 and an SWF-7600.  I've been spending a lot of time around my 160 of late- it has a long wire wrapped around my roofline.  I take my 7600 up on the roof with me on summer nights for some astronomy and SWL.

Thanks for the great forum, gents.

Regards,
Tyler

[Chanter]

*waves* Hi there!  For info, unid=unidentified station.  Sometimes it's written as unID, as in not ID'd. 

S3 or S7 or whichever has to do with what a radio's S-meter shows.  I won't be of much help with this one, I'm afraid. 

And... there are ladies as well as gents in here!  *raises hand* XD 

[tybrad]

Thanks for the reply.  That helps… and sorry for the assumption of it being a males-only club- duh me.

Any ideas on here or on other sites for a lingo discussion.

Also, I do not see a location identifier next to posters.  Am I missing it?

Ty

[skeezix]

Hi Tyler,

In addition to S-meters (which can be wildly inaccurate), there is also the SINPO code:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SINPO_code

Abbreviation List / DXers Jargon
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.radio.info/v7FmQoSn7zI

The location of people posting is usually in their signature or maybe on the left. Others don't put it in there... which make their reports less useful.

Most of all, turn on the radio & listen. With Internet, newsgroups, forum, and IRC access, the amount of information is vast and quickly obtained.

Here's a link to a remote receiver in the Netherlands.
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901

[BoomboxDX]

UNID & unID, like Chanter says, mean unidentified station.

S3, S4 etc. is either a reading of signal strength from a radio's signal indicator (which can go from S1 to S9 and even S9+); or, in other cases (like mine) it's subjective, "S1" meaning you barely heard the programming, to "S5" meaning that it was pounding your earphones.

Other abbreviations you may encounter are 'hrd' (short for 'heard'), 'condx' (short for SW propagation conditions), QRM (interference from other stations), QRN (lightning, static crashes, atmospheric noises non-manmade), 'mx' (short for music -- used sometimes on AM band DX sites); 'CW' is morse code (usually heard on the ham bands). There are also abbreviations used for the various data modes you'll hear on the shortwaves in between the SW broadcast bands (FSK, RTTY, etc.).

As per usual, jargon sometimes can be a pain to deal with, but with SWLing and MW DXing, it's not really difficult -- mostly just abbreviations and a few ham radio Q codes.

[tybrad]

Thanks everyone!  This is a good start.
I'll check out those web links as well.

Tyler

[tybrad]

Additionally,

What are the references to Twente?
"to the Twente WebSDR"
-and-
"via Twente"

Twente, the Holland university?  What's the connection?

[jFarley]

The EE, Math, and Computer Sci geeks at the U of Twente have an online SDR.  You can go there and listen to things from a totally different perspective, that of a receiver in Europe.  That page is here

http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

For some of us here in the Midwestern USA, that may be the only way we can hear European pirates.  It's also pretty for useful for DXing into Africa at times when propagation to the USA is impossible or not favorable.  Enjoy!