Most correct term for radio switching noise?
I'm wondering what's the most correct term (if any) to use for "switching noise" of a radio transceiver? By that I mean the spikes that originate from turning the power amp on/off while switching between sender and receiver.
Apart from switch noise (which is easy to confuse with switching regulators), spectral splatter appears to be a common term.
Looking at formal radio standards, The EN/ETSI standards just vaguely mention transient power. While MIL-STD-461 calls it switching transients, which I find more self-explanatory. I can't find any relevant term at all in FCC Part 15. Are there any other "canonical" sources for the most proper technical terminology?
1 answer
I don't think there is a formal term that means exactly what you describe.
Switching transients generally means short term glitches that might cause noise, usually resulting from power being switched on or off. Note that this refers to the transients that cause the noise, not the noise itself.
To describe the noise you hear in a radio as a result of switching transients, you might say switching noise or power switching noise. That doesn't specify whether the noise is in the radio output due to the circuit being perturbed by the transients, or due to the transients causing radio interference that is picked up by the radio receiver.
If you need to be more specific, then use more words to describe what you really mean.
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