Acronyms
1U, 3U, etc. -- 1 unit, 3 units, etc. of CubeSats
ADAC -- Attitude Determination and Control
AGM -- Annual General Meeting (of the corporation)
AMSAT -- Amateur Radio Satellite Corporation
AMSAT-NA -- same as AMSAT, but North America
AMSAT-UK -- AMSAT-United Kingdom, also -JA, -DL, etc.
APRS -- Automatic Packet Reporting System
Arduino -- a particular type of micro-computer
ARISS -- Amateur Radio on the ISS
AREx -- Amateur Radio Exploration
ASCENT -- Advanced Sat. Communications & Exploration of New Technology
AO-85, AO-91, etc. -- AMSAT OSCAR plus number designation
AOS -- Acquisition of Signal
Azimuth -- direction an antenna is pointed in the horizontal plane, from zero (north) to 360 degrees (north again)
BoD -- Board of Directors
BPF -- Band-pass filter
BPSK -- Binary Phase Shift Keying
C or C+ or C++ -- a computer language and language variants
CAD -- Computer-Aided Design
CAN bus -- Controller Area Network wiring
CAS -- Chinese Amateur Satellite (ie. CAS-4A, etc.)
COTS -- Commercial, Off-the-Shelf
CPU Central Processing Unit
CubeSat -- a satellite frame of 10 x 10 x 10 centimeters
DCT -- Digital Communications Transceiver
Doppler Shift -- the change in frequency of a wave caused the motion of the wave source in relation to an observer
DSP -- Digital Signal Processing
Downlink -- the signal coming down to earth from the satellite
Duplex -- The ability to transmit and hear your signal at the same time
DVB-S -- Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite
ElaNa -- NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program
Elevation -- direction an antenna is pointed in the vertical plane, from zero (horizon) to 90 degrees (straight up).
EMI -- Electromagnetic Interference
FEC -- Forward Error Correction
FET -- Field Effect Transistor
Fox, or FoxSats -- a series of ham radio cubesats built by AMSAT
FoxTelem -- a program for decoding telemetry from FoxSats
GEO -- Geostationary Earth Orbit
GHz -- GigaHertz (1 Ghz = 1000 MHz)
GitHub -- a website where computer code is shared
GPS -- Geo-Positioning Satellite system
GOLF -- Greater Orbit, Larger Footprint
GOLF-TEE -- GOLF-Technology Exploration Environment
(GOLF-TEE will be the first satellite of the GOLF series)
HEO -- High Earth Orbit
HF -- High Frequencies (shortwave bands up to 30 MHz)
HGA -- High-Gain Antenna
IARU -- International Amateur Radio Union
IHU -- Internal Housekeeping Unit (control computer in a satellite)
Inclination -- the angle at which a satellite's orbit crosses the equator as it circles the earth
ISS -- International Space Station
ITAR -- International Traffic in Arms Regulations
Keplerian Elements -- (sometimes "Keps") the mathematical parameters that define the orbit of a body in space
kHz -- kiloHertz (1 kHz = 1000 cycles per second)
LED -- Light-Emitting Diode
LEO -- Low Earth Orbit
LIHU -- Legacy IHU
Linear Satellite -- Usually used when referring to a satellite that is for SSB/CW, you don't want to use FM on these sats.
LOS -- Loss of Signal
LNA -- Low-Noise Amplifier (usually, a receiver pre-amp)
LTM -- Linear Transponder Module
MHz -- MegaHertz (1 MHz = 1000 kHz)
OSCAR -- Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio
PCB -- Printed Circuit Board
Polar Orbit -- an orbit inclination approaching 90 degrees so that it passes very near to both the North Pole and the South Pole on each orbit
Python -- a computer language
RAD-tolerant -- Radiation-tolerant
Raspberry Pi, or RPi -- a particular type of micro-computer
RF -- Radio Frequencies, or Radio Frequency energy
RFI -- Radio Frequency Interference
RT-IHU -- Radiation Tolerant IHU
SDR -- Software-Defined Radio
SMD -- Surface-Mount Device(s)
SNR -- Signal-to-Noise Ratio
Sim -- simulator
STEM -- Science, Technology, Engineering & Math
TLE -- Two-line Elements (of Keplarian data)
TLM -- telemetry
TT&C -- Telemetry, Tracking & Command
UHF -- Ultra High Frequencies (usually, 435 MHz)
Uplink -- the signal being transmitted from earth up to the satellite
VHF -- Very High Frequencies (usually, 145 MHz)
WSPR -- Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (a digital transmission mode)