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 RadioShack Consumer Electronics Glossary: W

 
Wall Cloud
Weather: An abrupt lowering of a cloud from its parent cloud base, a cumulonimbus or supercell with no visible precipitation underneath. Forming in the area of a thunderstorm updraft, or inflow area, it exhibits rapid upward movement and cyclonic rotation. It usually develops before strong or violent tornadoes.
 
WAN
Acronym: Wide Area Network
Computers, Networking: A computer network that consists of multiple, interconnected LAN's. Compare to CAN, HAN, LAN, MAN.
 
WAP
Acronym: Wireless Application Protocol
Internet: A method of sending Internet content onto a wireless device, using WML instead of HTML.
 
WARC
Acronym: World Administrative Radio Conference
Communications, Telephony: see WRC.
 
Warning (Weather)
Weather: "Those events that alone pose a significant threat to public safety and/or property, probability of occurrence and location is high, and the onset time is relatively short."
(taken from NWR's "Detailed SAME Specification File" (http://205.156.54.206/nwr/same.pdf))
 
Watch (Weather)
Weather: "Meets the classification of a warning, but either the onset time, probability of occurrence, or location is uncertain."
(taken from NWR's "Detailed SAME Specification File" (http://205.156.54.206/nwr/same.pdf))
 
Water
Weather: Refers to the chemical compound, H2O, as well as its liquid form. At atmospheric temperatures and pressures, it can exist in all three phases: solid (ice), liquid (water), and gaseous (water vapor).
 
Watermark
Computers, Internet: An identifier embedded in the data of an electronic document.
Digital Audio: An identifier embedded into a digital audio file in order to help identify the copyright holder and prevent playback of pirated music.
 
Watt
DIY, Electronics: The unit of electrical power required to do work at the rate of one joule per second, or the unit of electrical power that is expended when one ampere of direct current flows through a resistance of one ohm. Named for James Watt.
 
Wattage
Electronics: The rating of an electrical or electronic device in watts.
 
Wattage, Continuous
Power Conversion: The maximum wattage that a power converter can handle on a continuous basis. Compare to Peak Wattage.
 
Wattage, Peak
Power Conversion: The maximum wattage that a power converter can handle on a short-term (in seconds) basis. This rating is used for devices such as televisions which require a higher wattage during startup, then shift to needing a lower continuous wattage.
 
Wattmeter
DIY: A measurement device used to measure electric power in watts.
 
WAV (.wav)
Digital Audio: An uncompressed audio format developed by IBM and Microsoft.
 
Wave
Digital Audio: A term used to refer to a WAV file.
Electronics: An electric, electromagnetic, or acoustic signal or a mechanical effect with the physical attribute of increasing and decreasing periodically.
 
Wave, Electromagnetic
Electronics, Communications: A wave with a frequency or wavelength suitable for utilization in radio communication.
 
Waveform
Electronics: A visual representation of how an AC signal varies with time. The most commonly encountered waveform is the sine wave or sinusoidal waveform.
 
Wavelength
Electronics: The distance between two points of corresponding phase. Mathematically, wavelength is equal to the waveform velocity divided by the frequency.
Wavelength
 
Waypoint
GPS: A point on a journey or route where a traveler can stop or change course.
 
W-CDMA
Acronym: Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
Telephony: An enhanced generation of CDMA technology that increases the bandwidth, eventually providing data speeds of 2 Mbps (megabits per second).
 
Weather
Weather: The state of the atmosphere at a specific time and with respect to its effect on life and human activities. It is the short term variations of the atmosphere, as opposed to the long term, or climatic, changes. It is often referred to in terms of brightness, cloudiness, humidity, precipitation, temperature, visibility, and wind,
 
Weather, Severe
Weather: Generally, any destructive weather event, but usually applies to localized storms, such as blizzards, intense thunderstorms, or tornadoes.
 
Weather Vane
Weather: Originally used as a wind vane, it is an instrument that indicates the wind direction. The name developed based on observations on what kind of weather occurred with certain wind directions. Creative designs often adorn the tops of barns and houses.
 
Wet Bulb Thermometer: see Thermometer, Wet Bulb.
 
Wet Cell: see Cell, Wet.
 
Wetting
DIY: The condition that occurs when the metals being soldered are hot enough to melt the solder so it flows over the metals to be soldered.
 
Wheat or Wheatie
Metal Detectors: Any pre-1959 penny, so called because of the wheat straw symbol on the reverse of the coin.
 
Wheatstone Bridge
Electronics: A four-arm bridge circuit used to measure resistance, inductance or capacitance.
 
Wide-angle Lens
Digital Video: A lens using a short focal length in order to provide the widest angle of coverage. Also called a Short-focal-length Lens.
 
Wideband Amplifier: see Amplifier, Wideband.
 
Wide Response: see Response, Wide.
 
Wind
Weather: Air that flows in relation to the earth's surface, generally horizontally. There are four areas of wind that are measured: direction, speed, character (gusts and squalls), and shifts. Surface winds are measured by wind vanes and anemometers, while upper level winds are detected through pilot balloons, or aircraft reports.
 
Wind Chill
Weather: The calculation of temperature that takes into consideration the effects of wind and temperature on the human body. Describes the average loss of body heat and how the temperature feels. This is not the actual air temperature.
 
Wind Direction
Weather: The direction from which the wind is blowing. For example, an easterly wind is blowing from the east, not toward the east. It is reported with reference to true north, or 360 degrees on the compass, and expressed to the nearest 10 degrees, or to one of the 16 points of the compass (N, NE, WNE, etc.).
 
Wind, Prevailing
Weather: A wind that blows from one direction more frequently than any other during a given period, such as a day, month, season, or year.
 
Wind Sock
Weather: A fabric cone attached to a metal ring and used to indicate wind direction.
 
Wind Speed
Weather: The rate of the motion of the air on a unit of time. It can be measured in a number of ways. In observing, it is measured in knots, or nautical miles per hour. The unit most often used in the United States is miles per hour.
 
Wind Vane
Weather: An instrument that indicates the wind direction. The end of the vane which offers the greatest resistance to the motion of the air moves to the downwind position.
 
Winding
Electronics: One turn of a conductor wound in the form of a coil. Multiple turns are called either winding or windings.
 
Windscreen
Audio: A cover for a microphone that is usually made of metal or foam. A windscreen minimizes the pops, whistles and thumps heard when air moves across the microphone. It also helps to prevent popping and sibilance caused by vocals.
 
Winter Storm: see Storm, Winter.
 
Wiper
Electronics: The moving element within a variable resistor (potentiometer) or the output terminal of a potentiometer.
 
Wire
Electronics, Cables: A single solid or stranded group of conductors used to make connections in an electrical circuit.
 
Wire-In
Plug 'n Power: Devices that replace wall switches and can be controlled with X-10 commands
 
Wireless
Communications: Refers to systems which transmit audio, video or telephone signals as radio waves or another medium, which requiring a physical connection between the broadcast source and the end user.
 
Wireless, Fixed: see Cellular, Fixed.
 
Wireless Local Loop: see WLL.
 
Wireless Markup Language: see WML.
 
Wireline Cellular Carrier
Telephony: The carrier that is licensed to the local telephone company.
 
Wirewound Resistor: see Resistor, Wirewound.
 
WLAN
Acronym: Wireless Local Area Networks
Computers, Networking: A LAN that uses wireless technology to expand the networking capabilities. The group responsible for setting the wireless networking standard is the IEEE Working Group IEEE 802.11.
 
WLL
Acronym: Wireless Local Loop
Telephony: A wireless communications network that replaces a wired connection with a wireless communication option.
 
WMA (.wma)
Acronym: Windows Media Audio
Audio: Microsoft's proprietary audio codec.
 
WML
Acronym: Wireless Markup Language
Telephony, Internet: A markup language designed to be read by mobile devices, such as cellular telephones and PDA's. It is a compact version of the Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML).
 
Woofer
Audio: A speaker designed to reproduce the lower frequencies.
 
World Administrative Radio Conference: see WRC.
 
World Radio Conference: see WRC.
 
World Wide Web
Internet: A series of Internet servers that support documents formatted in HTML, which can be viewed using a browser or microbrowser. Not all Internet servers are part of the World Wide Web.
 
WRC
Acronym: World Radio Conference
Telephony: An international organization responsible for setting international frequencies. Previous known as the World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC).

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