When discussing the various people involved in handling a message, words like “Sender” or “Receiver” can be ambiguous. For example, does “Sender” mean the person that wrote the message? Or does it mean the radio operator who is sending the message?

We define the following terms to unambiguously identify the different people involved in the message passing process:

  • Message author: Creator of the message (often a third party)

  • Sending station: Radio operator sending the message

  • Receiving station: Radio operator receiving the message

  • Relay station: Acts first as a receiving station, then as a sending station

  • Origin station: The first sending station

  • Destination station: The last receiving station

  • Message recipient: The person/position to which message is addressed (often a third party)


The Origin Station and Destination station are particularly important because we use the message numbers that they assign for logging and tracking the message, even when a relay is involved.