Absorbed glass mat (AGM) battery:A lead-acid battery in which the electrolyte is held
in fiberglass plate separators. The mat, which separates the battery plates, is saturated with
electrolyte, effectively immobilizing the liquid.
AC ripple:A measurable amount of AC current that will leak through a typical rectifier cir-
cuit designed to convert pure AC to DC. Excessive AC ripple can be a source of electronic
noise. It can also cause batteries to overheat if they are connected to a battery charging
source that has excessive leakage.
American Wire Gauge (AWG):A U.S. measurement standard for the diameter of non-
ferrous wire, which includes copper and aluminum. The smaller the AWG number, the
thicker the wire, and vice versa. Although this seems counterintuitive, it is easily explained.
In making wire, metal is pulled through a series of increasingly smaller dies to create the
final wire size. The AWG number is the number of dies. The more dies, the larger the
number and the smaller the diameter.
Ampere interrupting capacity (AIC):An important fuse or circuit breaker rating that
describes the amount of amperage the device can be exposed to and still function as a circuit
interrupter.
Anode:The negative electrode in a galvanic cell. The positive terminal in an electrolytic cell.
Antenna gain:A measure of the effectiveness of a directional antenna as compared to a
standard nondirectional antenna. Also called “gain.”
Apparent power:The total electrical energy actually delivered by the power supply (i.e., a
utility company, an AC generator, or a DC-to-AC inverter).
Attenuation:The amount of signal loss per given length of the cable.
Available short-circuit current (ASCC):How much current can flow through a circuit in
spite of resistance factors. Current available beyond a circuit breaker’s interrupting capacity.
Bandwidth:A range within a band of frequencies or wavelengths. Also, the amount of
data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time; the data rate supported by a net-
work connection or interface. Commonly expressed in bits per second (bps).
Baseband:The original band of frequencies of a signal before it is modulated for transmis-
sion at a higher frequency. Typically used to refer to the digital side of a circuit when the
other side is broadband or frequency based, meaning the signal is modulated. For exam-
ple, in a cell phone, “RF to baseband” means pulling out the analog or digital data from
the modulated RF signal received from the cell phone tower and converting it to pulses for
digital processing.
Black box:A sealed, unserviceable electronic control box that serves various functions
within an electronic or networked system.
Bonding system:Protects a boat against stray-current corrosion by electrically tying
together all the metals on the boat and then connecting the bonding wires to the boat’s
common ground point.
Broadband:In general, broadband refers to telecommunication in which a wide band of
frequencies is available to transmit information.204
GLOSSARY
Copyright © 2007 by Edwin R. Sherman. Click here for terms of use.