CW stands for what in radio communications?

• A. Continuous Wave
• B. Carrier Wave
• C. Clock Wave
• D. Curved Wave

Answer: (A)

In radio communications, CW stands for Continuous Wave, and it refers to sending Morse code by turning a carrier on and off. When the transmitter is keying, the carrier is present (a steady sine wave) for a dot or dash, and absent for spaces, creating the coded messages without changing the carrier’s amplitude or frequency beyond the on/off gating. This method works well for weak signals and long-distance work because it minimizes bandwidth and keeps the signal clean. The other options aren’t standard terms for this signaling method: the carrier wave is the unmodulated signal itself, while clock wave and curved wave aren’t used to describe Morse signaling.