This week, check out Internet resources that demystify the world of abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms.

The "Editor's note" in last week's Surfin' mentioned that I try to avoid using acronyms in my writing, but sometimes it is unavoidable. This got me thinking about acronyms.

According to Wikipedia, "Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for.

"Of the two words, acronym is the much more frequently used and known, and many dictionaries, speakers and writers refer to all abbreviations formed from initial letters as acronyms. However, some still differentiate between acronyms and initialisms: an acronym was originally a pronounceable word formed from the initial letter or letters of the constituent words, such as NATO or RADAR, from RAdio Detection And Ranging, while an initialism referred to an abbreviation pronounced as the names of the individual letters, such as TLA. The distinction is quickly becoming obsolete: although conservative commentators continue to decry the loss of the distinction in style guides and elsewhere, the word acronym is used nearly universally for both meanings."

Got an abbreviation you don't understand, then find out what it means at the Acronym Finder Web site.

There are a lot of abbreviations in Amateur Radio--so many that the ARRL has published a "List of Abbreviations found in ARRL Publications". Some of the abbreviations on the ARRL list are acronyms and some are initialisms, such as ASCII (pronounced "askey") and AFSK respectively. This is list comes in very handy and I saved a copy in my Radio folder on this computer.

Also, the ARRL published a list of "Amateur Radio Q-Signals". Although, Q-signals were intended for CW use only, they have crept into Amateur Radio's spoken and written lingo and qualify as acronyms (like QSO, pronounced "Q-so") or initialisms (like QSL).

Another helpful place to find the meaning of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms is the Acronym Finder Web site where you can "find out what over 2,435,000 acronyms and abbreviations stand for." And if you can't find it there, the folks at Acronym Finder suggest checking the Acronym Attic and Military Words Web sites. (I use the Acronym Finder Web site often and highly recommend adding it to your Web browser's Bookmarks or Favorites.)

Until next week, keep on surfin'.

Editor' note: Like we wrote last time, Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, tries to avoid using acronyms in his writing, but sometimes it is unavoidable and SOP must be KO'd. QSL? To contact Stan, send e-mail or visit his Web site where you can leave him a note.

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