A ship station operating in the port operations service in which messages are restricted to navigational communications and which is capable of operation from the ship's navigational bridge or, in the case of a dredge, from its main control station, operating on a frequency or frequencies in the 156-162 MHz band. [NTIA]

The part of a signaling system in which ringers associated with a particular line are connected across that line.

Any portion of a loop that is not in the direct talking path between the central office and the service user's terminating equipment. A bridged tap may be an unused cable pair connected at an intermediate point or an extension of the circuit beyond the service user's location.
Note: A bridged tap creates an impedance mismatch within the transmission line,… (Read More →)

A parallel connection used to extract some of the signal energy from a circuit, usually with negligible effect on the normal operation of the circuit.

At a given frequency, the loss that results when an impedance is connected across a transmission line.
Note: Bridging loss is expressed as the ratio, in dB, of the signal power delivered, prior to bridging, to a given point in a system downstream from the bridging point, to the signal power delivered to the given point after bridging.

An attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to emit a given amount of light.
Note 1: "Brightness" should be used only for nonquantitative references to physiological sensations and perceptions of light.
Note 2: "Brightness" was formerly used as a synonym for the photometric term "luminance" and (incorrectly) for the radiometric term "radiance. "

See Brillouin scattering.

In a physical medium, scattering of lightwaves, caused by thermally driven density fluctuations.
Note: Brillouin scattering may cause frequency shifts of several gigahertz at room temperature. [From Weik '89]

1. Synonym [in analog technology] wideband.
2. A descriptive term for evolving digital technologies that provide consumers a signal-switched facility offering integrated access to voice, high-speed data service, video-demand services, and interactive delivery services. [FCC]

A communications switch capable of interconnecting channels having bandwidths greater than voice bandwidth.