Always under construction By Hugh Stegman nv6H

API Application Programming Interface (computers)

APIC APCO Project 25 Interface Committee

APIPA Automatic Private Internet Protocol Addressing

APL A Programming Language (computer code)

APLink Amtor-Packet Link

APNIC Asia Pacific Network Information Centre

APO (1) Air Post Office

(2) Army Post Office

APOD Aerial port of debarkation

APOE Aerial port of embarkation

APPCON Approach Control [~]

APREQ Approval Request [~]

APRNT apparent

APRS (1) Automatic Position Reporting System, ham tracking w/GPS

(2) Automatic Packet Reporting System

APRX approximately

APSC APCO Project 25 Steering Committee

APT Automatic Picture Transmissions

APU Auxiliary Power Unit

APV Approach with Vertical Guidance

APVL Approval [~]

AQC Automatic Quick Call

AR (1) Aerial refueling

(2) Ground track for above

(3) CW prosign: "End of message"

(4) Army Regulation

(5) Activity Request

ARA Appletalk Remote Access, Mac networking

ARB Air Reserve Base

ARC (1) American Red Cross

(2) Airborne Radio Communications (AN/ARC-xxx)

(3) Air Reserve Component

(4) Amateur Radio Club

ARC-190 Common Collins mil HF aircraft radio, civil version is HF-190

ARC-220 Fancy Collins HF radios for new US mil aircraft

ARC-230 Collins 400-watt HF Link-11/Tadil-A aircraft radio, civil voice

version is HF-121

ARCAL Aircraft Radio Control of Aerodrome Lighting

Archie Old Internet file database search program, obsolete

ARCP Air Refueling Control Point

ARCS Automatic Radio Control System (NATO)

ARD Automatic Ring Down

ARDF (1) Automatic Radio Direction Finding

(2) Amateur Radio Direction Finding

ARDIS Advanced Radio Information Service

AREC (1) Air resource element coordinator

(2) Amateur Radio Emergency Corps, now ARES

ARES Amateur Radio Emergency Service

ARF Air Reserve forces

ARFA Allied Radio Frequency Agency

ARFCN Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number

ARFOR Army forces

ARG (1) Amphibious Ready Group

(2) Air Refueling Group

ARGOS Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite

ARIA Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft

ARIB Association of Radio Industry Businesses (Japan)

ARIDPCM Adaptive Recursive Interpolated Differential Pulse Code

Modulation (whew!)

ARIN American Registry for Internet Numbers

ARINC Aeronautical Radio, Inc (now part of Rockwell Collins)

ARIP Air Refueling Initial Point

ARISS Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

ARM Anti-Radiation Missile

ARMER Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response

ARMRV (1) Armored Mobile Reconnaissance Vehicle

(2) Armored Multi-Role Vehicle

ARNG Army National Guard

ARO (1) Active Resonator Oscillator

(2) Army Research Office

ARP Address Resolution Protocol, Internet

ARPA (1) Advanced Research Projects Agency, operated original Internet

(2) Automated Radar Plotting Aids

ARPANET ARPA Network, became NSFNET, now separate from Internet

ARQ Synchronous transmission and automatic repetition teleprinter

system ("Acknowledge Request")

ARQ6-90 Six-character blocks simplex ARQ teleprinter system

ARQ-E3 Single channel ARQ teleprinter system

ARRL American Radio Relay League

ARRS Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service

ARS Amateur Radio Service

ARSA (1) Airborne Reconnaissance and Surveillance Architecture

(2) Airport Radar Service Area

ARSOF Army special operations forces

ARTCC Air Route Traffic Control Center

ARTE (1) French media company

(2) ADA Run Time Environment

ARTG Amateur Radio Teleprinter Group (Swiss)

ARTS Automated Remote Tracking Station

ARW Air Refueling Wing (USAF/AFRES)

ARWO Aerial Reconnaissance Weather

AS (1) Air station

(2) CW prosign: "Please Wait"

(3) Analog secure (like original PARKHILL)

(4) Submarine Tender (USN)

ASA American Standards Association, obsolete

ASAM Anti-Shipping Activity Message (warning)

ASAP As Soon As [humanly] Possible; how one handles FLASH traffic

ASAR Advanced Synthetic Aperture System

ASARS Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System

ASAS All Source Analysis System (US Army)

ASAS-RWS ASAS Reconfigurable Work Station

ASAT Antisatellite

ASB Aviation support battalion

ASC (1) AUTODIN Switching Center

(2) Accredited Standards Committee (ANSI)

(3) American Society of Cameramen (motion picture)

ASC2A Air & Space Command & Control Agency

ASCC Army service component command

ASCIET All Services Combined Identification Evaluation Team

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange, 7-bit

computer alphabet, usually extended to use 8th bit

ASCOT Air Support Command Operations Task (RAF Air Transport)

ASD Assistant Secretary of Defense

ASDE-3 Airport Surface Detection Radar System

ASDS Advanced SEAL Delivery System (a minisub; see SEAL)

ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations (old SEATO)

ASECNA Agence pour la Securite de la Navigation Aerienne en Afrique

et a Madagascar, African ATC, in Dakar

ASF Advanced Systems Format (Microsoft media player)

ASG (1) Aeronautical Standards Groups

(2) Area support group

ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit

ASID Advanced Secure Information Dissemination

ASIM Automated Security Incident Measurement

ASIO Australian Security Intelligence Organisation

ASIT Adaptable Surface Interface Terminal

ASK Amplitude Shift Keying

ASL (1) Above Sea Level

(2) Active Stations List (Enigma 2000)

ASLAR Aircraft Surge Launch and Recovery

ASM (1) Air to Surface Missile

(2) Analog Switching Module

(3) Assembler (computer code)

ASMB Area support medical battalion

ASMC Area support medical company

ASME American Society for Mechanical Engineers

ASMRO Armed Services Medical Regulating Office

ASO Air surveillance officer

ASOC Air Support Operations Center

ASOS Automated Surface Observation System

ASOTSE Army special operations theater support element

ASP (1) Ammunition supply point

(2) Acquisition Support Plan

(3) Active Server Pages

(4) Application Service Provider

(5) Aeronautical Surveillance Panel

ASPECT Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology

ASR (1) Automatic Send-Receive

(2) Airport Suveillance Radar

Assn Association

Assoc Association

AST Atlantic Standard Time, Canada

ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials

ASU Aircraft Starting Unit

ASW Anti-submarine warfare

AT (1) Advanced Technology (IBM's original name for its improved PC,

now a standard architecture)

(2) Amateur (radio allocation code)

ATA (1) Army Technical Architecture

(2) AT Attachment

(3) American Trans Air (later ATA, now gone)

ATAPI AT Attachment Packet Interface

ATC Air Traffic Control

ATCALS (1) Air Traffic Control and Landing System

(2) Air Traffic Control Liaison Section

ATCCS Army Tactical Command & Control System

ATCRBS Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System

ATCS Advanced Train Control System

ATCT airport traffic control tower

ATD Advanced Technology Demonstration

ATDL 1 Army Tactical Data Link 1

ATF (1) Advanced Tactical Fighter

(2) US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms

ATH Air Transportable Hospital

ATG Afloat Training Group (USN)

ATHS Automatic Target Hand-off System

ATIS (1) Automated Terminal Information System (usually voice loop)

(2) Automatic Transmitter Identification System (shipping)

ATM (1) Asynchronous Transfer Mode, 53-byte packets

(2) Air Traffic Management

(3) Automated Teller Machine

(4) Advanced trauma management

ATMs Air Tasking Messages

ATN (1) Aeronautical Telecommunication Network

(2) Adventist Television Network

ATO (1) Air Tasking Order

(2) Abort To Orbit

ATOI Aerial Track Of Interest

ATON Aid to Navigation

A-TOR Automated Telex Over Radio

ATP (1) Ammunition transfer point

(2) Appletalk Transaction Protocol, Mac networking

(3) Acquisition, Tracking & Pointing

(4) Authority to Proceed

(5) Air Traffic Procedures

ATR Air Transport Rack (standard airplane radio bay)

ATR/ATC Automatic Target Recognition/ Automatic Target Correlation

ATS (1) Aeronautical Telecommunications Services

(2) Air Traffic Services

(3) Applications Technology Satellite

ATSA Aviation and Transportation Security Act

ATSC Advanced Television Systems Committee (US Digital TV)

ATSC-H Handheld ATSC (for cell phones, also ATSC-M)

ATSU Air Traffic Service Unit

ATU (1) Antenna Tuning Unit

(2) Arab Telecommunications Union

(3) African Telecommunications Union

ATU-80 SITOR alphabet allowing transmissions in Arabic

ATU-A Arabic ATU-80 alphabet

ATV (1) Amateur (fast-scan) television

(2) All-Terrain Vehicle

AUF Airborne Use of Force

AUI Attachment Unit Interface, Ethernet

AUSREP Australian Ship Reporting System

AUTO Weather observation is from automated station [~]

AUTOCONET Automatic Digital Network Conference Network

AUTODIN Automatic Digital Network (US military)

AUTOVON Automatic voice network (now DSN as of 1990)

AUV Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

AUW All Up Weight (gross)

AV Air Vehicle

AVANA Altitude reservation Void, Not Airborne [time]

AVC Automatic volume control

AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVI (1) Audio Video Interleave (Microsoft file format)

(2) Automatic/Advanced Vehicle Identification

AVIM Aviation intermediate maintenance

AVL Automatic Vehicle Locating

AVLC (1) Aviation VHF Link Control

(2) Automatic Vehicle Location and Control

AVN AViatioN weather model

AVO Air Vehicle Operator

AVTR Airborne Video Tape Recorder

AVUM Aviation unit maintenance

AWACS Airborne Warning And Control System

AWADS Adverse Weather Aerial Delivery System

AWAPS Automated Weather Distribution System

AWDS Adverse Weather and Debriefing System

AWG American Wire Gauge

AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise

AWIPS Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System

awk Aho, Weinstein & Kernighan, wrote a Unix script language

AWN Aviation Weather Network, now on US Air Force Digital Weather Switch

AWNV All-Weather And Night Vision

AWO American Waterway Operators

AWOL Absent without leave

AWOS Automated Weather Observing System

AWR Adventist World Radio

AWS (1) Air Weather Service

(2) Advisory Warning System

(3) Automated Weather Systems

(4) Automated Weather Station

AWST Automated Weather Station

AX.25 Amateur variant of CCITT X.25 packet radio protocol

B (1) began

(2) old "B" battery for tube plates, typically 90 volts

B&G Bombing & Gunnery

B/m Benchmark

B/U Backup

B+ Tube plate voltage (highest in set)

B8E Mode: Independent sideband, different voice programs

B9W Mode: Independent sideband, mixed voice & data modes

BA Braking action

BAA (1) Broad Agency Announcement

(2) Broad Area Announcement

BAC Broad Area Coverage

BACN Battlefield Airborne Communications Node

BAe British Aerospace

Bae British Aerospace

BAI (1) Backup Aircraft Inventory

(2) Battle Area Interdiction

Balun Balanced-to-unbalanced line transformer [~]

BAM Beta and Advection Model (wx)

BAN Base Area Networks

BANANA Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone (municipal

response to most radio proposals)

BAQ Basic allowance for quarters

Baro-VNAV Barometric Vertical Navigation

BAS Basic allowance for subsistence

BASIC Beginners' All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, computer language

BAT (1) Blood Alcohol Testing (the "Batmobile," in the field)

(2) File extension: execute as command list (Batch job)

(3) Brilliant Anti-armor Submunition

(4) Bahamas And Tortugas, obsolete

(5) Bahamas, Turks, and Caicos, part of OPBAT

Baud Computer transmission unit, one state transition per second, no

longer one bit per second in complex modulation schemes

BBC (1) British Broadcasting Corporation

(2) Brown-Boveri Company (obsolete)

BBCS Broadband Connectivity Service (Swisscom)

BBG Broadcasting Board of Governors (US)

BBIS Battle Broadcast Information System

BBN Backbone network

BBS (1) Bulletin Board System (computer networking)

(2) Battery backup system

BC (1) Broadcast

(2) Back course

(3) Patches (of sig. Weather)

BC2A Bosnia Command & Control Augmentation

BC3 Battle management and command, control and communications

BCA Broadcast Control Authority

BCB Broadcast Band (typically 540-1710 kHz)

BCC (1) Base Communication Center

(2) Bureau Communication Center (LAPD)

(3) Battlefield circulation control

(4) Blind Carbon Copy (e-mail)

BCD (1) Binary-coded decimal

(2) Bad conduct discharge

BCE Base civil engineer

BCF Backup communications facility, Dahlgren, VA

BCFG Fog patches

BCH Broadcast Channel

BCI (1) Broadcast interference (from xmtr to bc)

(2) Binary-coded information

BCL (1) Broadcast listener

(2) Broadcast Communications Limited (New Zealand)

BCM (1) Baseline correlation matrix

(2) Block-Coded Modulation

BCO (1) Base communications officer

(2) Base contracting officer

(3) Broad concept of operations

BCP (1) Base communications package

(2) Base comprehensive plan

BCS Broadcast Keying Station

BCT Battlefield Communications Terminal

bd Baud

BDA (1) Battle damage assessment

(2) Bermuda (NASA)

BDAR Battle damage assessment and repair

bde Brigade

BDU (1) HFDL: Basic Data Unit

(2) Battle dress uniform

BEAR Beam Experiment Aboard Rocket

BEC Bulk encrypted communications

BEE Russian FSK mode, apparently not an acronym

BEEF Base Engineering Emergency Force ("Prime BEEF team")

BEL Bell (ASCII, RTTY)

Bel Unit of voltage or power ratio, named for Alexander Graham Bell,

usually expressed in deciBels

BEP (1) Bit error probability

(2) break-even point

BER Bit Error Rate

BERT (1) Bit error rate test(er)

(2) Bit Error Rate Testing

BF Basic Function

BFACS Battlefield Functional Area Control Systems

BFBS British Forces Broadcasting Service

BFL Buffered Field-effect transistor Logic

BFO (1) Beat frequency oscillator (CW/SSB mode of receiver)

(2) Backhaul follow-on

BFSK Binary Frequency-Shift Keying

BG Brigadier general

BGEN Brigadier general

BGP Border Gateway Protocol (TCP/IP)

BICE Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement

BID Billing Identifier

BIDDS Base integrated digital distribution system

BIDR Bi-Directional ALE sounding (2 stations)

BIDS Backup information display system

BIFC (1) Boise Interagency Fire Cache, obsolete

(2) Boise Interagency Fire Center, now NIFC

BiFET Bipolar Field Effect Transistor

BIH Bureau International l'Heur, International Time Bureau,

coordinates UTC leap seconds

BIIS Binary Interchange of Information and Signaling

BILS Ballistic Impact Locator System

Bin Binary

BIND (1) Berkeley Internet Name Domain

(2) Berkeley Internet Name Daemon (old)

(3) Buggy Internet Name Daemon (geekspeak)

Binhex Binary to hexadecimal, usually for sending binaries as ASCII

BIOS Basic Input/Output System (part of computer op-system)

BIOT British Indian Ocean Territory

BIP Base Information Protect

BIPS (1) Billion Instructions per Second (computing)

(2) Backup Impact Prediction System

B-ISDN Broadband-Integrated Services Digital Network

BIST Built-In-Self-Test

Bit (1) BInary digiT, a one or zero, basic digital information unit

(2) Built-In Test

BIT Built in Test

Bit/s Bit per second

BITE Built-In Test Equipment

BITNET Because It's Time NETwork

BIU Bus interface unit (computer h/w)

BK CW prosign: long break or break-in

BKN Broken cloud cover

BL (1) Baseline

(2) blowing

BLAISE (1) British Library Automated Information Service

(2) Blaise Pascal, French Mathematician

BLDU Blowing dust

BLER Block Error Rate

BLERT Block Error Rate Testing

BLEVE Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion

BLM Bureau of Land Management (US)

BLOS Beyond line of sight

BLPY Spray

BLS Bureau of Labor Statistics (US)

BLSA Blowing sand

BLSN Blowing snow

BM Battle Management

BMC2 Battle Management, Command and Control

BMC3 Battle Management, Command, Control and Communication

BMC3I Battle Management C3I

BMC4ISR Battle Management C4I Surveillance and Reconnaissance

BMD Ballistic Missile Defense

BMDATC Ballistic missile defense advanced technology center

BMDC Ballistic Missile Defense Center

BMDCCC Ballistic missile defense command and control center

BMDE Ballistic missile defense enhancement

BMDO Ballistic missile defense organization, formerly SDIO

BMDOC Ballistic missile defense operating center

BMDSCOM Ballistic Missile Defense Systems Command, now U.S. Army

Strategic Defense Command

BMEWS Ballistic Missile Early Warning System

BMO Ballistic Missile Office (US)

BMOPS Battle Management Operations

BMP (1) File extension: bitmap image

(2) Battle manager processor

BMS Backward Music Station (weird RF feedback on HF)

BMT (1) Ballistic Missile Threat

(2) Beam Management Terminal

(3) Bronx Motor Transit

(4) Ballistic Missile Technology

BMT/SS Ballistic Missile transporter, storage and shipping

bn Battalion

BN CW prosign: repeat between -- and --

BNC (1) Bayonet Neill-Concelman (cable connector)

(2) Bayonet Navy Connector (alternate)

(3) Blimped Noiseless Camera (Classic Mitchell)

BNCC Base Network Control Center

BNCR Blimped Noiseless Camera, Reflex

BnOC Battalion Operations Center

BNSC British National Space Center

BO Bad Order (inoperative unit writeup)

BoD Board of Directors

BOLO Be On (the) LOokout (for)

BOM Bureau Of Meteorology (Australia)

BOND Beginning Of Next Day

BOOTP Bootstrap Protocol (IP addressing)

BOPS Billion operations per second (computing)

BOQ Bachelor Officer Quarters

BORAM Block-Oriented RAM

BOSS Battlefield Optical Surveillance System

BOT Beginning of Tape

bot Robot, typically a network program

BP (1) Bandpass

(2) Bundespolizei, German Federal Police, callsign prefix

BPI Boost-Phase Intercept

BPL Broadband over Power Line

bpp bits per pixel

bps Bit per second, not necessarily a "baud"

Bps Bytes per second

BPSK (1) Binary Phase Shift Keying

BQ (1) Beam Quality

(2) Acknowledging receipt (DSC protocol)

BR Bridgewire resistance

BR mist

BRAC Base Realignment And Closure

BRACC Base Realignment And Closure Commission (US military)

BRASS BRoadcast And Ship to Shore (NATO)

BRB Be Right Back (Internet)

BRD Broadcast

brdg bridge

BRI (1) Basic Rate Interface

(2) Basic Rate ISDN, 2 64Kbps channels

BRV (1) Booster Recovery Vessel (NASA)

(2) Ballistic reentry vehicle (Stratcom)

BS (1) Battle staff

(2) Battle station

(3) Backspace

(4) aka "Bravo Sierra;" the excrement of bulls; high bogon flux area

BSA (1) Brigade support area

(2) Birmingham Small Arms

BSC (1) Base Station Controller

(2) Base security council

BSD Berkeley Software Distribution (Unix version)

BSE Broadcast Satellite Experiment

BSKSA Broadcasting Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

BSS (1) Broadcast Satellite System

(2) Broadcasting Satellite Service

(3) Base Station System

BSSC Battle staff support center

BSTRS Base Support Trunked Radio System, aka "B-STARS"

BSU (1) Baseband separation unit

(2) Bulk Storage Unit

BSVS Backup Secure Voice System

BT (1) ("Bravo Tango") Bomb threat

(2) CW prosign: short break, sent together

(3) British Telecom

(4) Basic Training

BTC Block transfer controller (computing)

BTH Below (beyond) the horizon

BTI British Telecom International

BTL Black telemetry (USAF)

Btry Battery

BTS (1) Broadcast Transmitting Stations

(2) Base Transceiver Stations

BTW By the way

Buff Big Ugly Flying F[ellow] (B-52)

BUFR Binary Universal Format for Representation

BULLDOG BULLSEYE US Navy HF upgrade, like USAF's SCOPE, but includes DF [~]

BUMCS Backup Master Control Station (GPS, Gaithersburg, MD)

BUR Bottom Up Review

BURN 1000W UHF aircraft orderwire (US mil; not an acronym, refers to

high power)

BVR Beyond Visual Range

BVR Beyond visual range

BW (1) Bandwidth

(2) Biological Weapon

BWC Bandwidth Compression

BWS Base weather station

BX Base exchange

BZ ("Bravo Zulu") Good job

C (1) Capacitance, in farads

(2) Confidential

(3) the C programming language; also C+ and C++

(4) Celsius

(5) Designator for head of British MI6

(6) Center (with reference to runway designation)

c The speed of light, and radio waves, in a vacuum

C&DH Communications & Data Handling

C&DP Communications & Data Processing

c/s Callsign

c/w Callword

C2 Command and Control

C2CM Command and Control Countermeasures

C2IPS Air Mobility Command and Control Information Processing System

C2P Command and Control Processor

C2PC Command & Control Personal Computer

C2V Command and Control Vehicle

C2W Command and Control Warfare

C2WC Command and Control Warfare Commander (US Navy)

C3 Command, Control and Communications

C3F Mode designation: television or video

C3I Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence

C3S Command, Control And Communications Segment

C3SMP Command, Control And Communications System Master Plan

C4FM (1) Continuous Four-level Frequency Modulation

(2) Constant-envelope Four-level Frequency Modulation