MEANINGS OF RADIO TERMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 409, 18 July 1928, Page 14

MEANINGS OF RADIO TERMS

The following comprehensive list of technical terms and their meanings should prove useful to many amateurs: — Alternating current (abbreviated, A.C.).—An electrical current flowing through a wire which has the direction of its flow periodically changed. Thus when we speak of a 60-cycle alternating current, we mean one that completely reverses its direction of flow 60 times a second. Alternating current plays a prominent part in practically every part of the radio circuit. Ammeter.—An instrument used for measuring the flow of current in amperes through a given circuit. An ammeter is invariably connected in series. Ampere.—The standard electrical unit of current flow. Amplifier.—This term is used in referring to either an amplifying valve or an amplifier receiving unit. Amplitude.—ln radio work this refers to the highest point reached by a wave of oscillation, i.e., the crest of each wave. A wave may, therefore, have a high or low amplitude, according to the initial energy which created Atmospherics.— Also known as static, strays, X’s, “the noises of space.”

Natural electrical discharges ring in the ether, and in miniature lightning storms, these discharges travel througn same medium as radio waves, they readily picked up by received, •‘j prove very troublesome at tune*-, is difficult to tune out these v# ances, for they have no definite Audio Frequencies- *re corresponding to vibrations normally audible to the human * All frequencies below 10,000 cy second are termed audio freQue See radio frequencies. (To be continued next