In the early days of military wireless communications, radio equipment was acquired from commercial manufacturers, the sets were known under their commercial type designation.

Shortly after, abbreviations were used for the different stations. The letters usually indicated the intended use, so TL for „Tragbar Leichte Funkstation“ („Portable Light“), G1.5K for Grosse 1.5 Kilowatt K Kurzwellenstation„ („Big 1.5 kW shortwave station“), partly the designation was followed by the year of introduction, like the SM46, the „Schwere Motorisierte Radio Station 1946“ (Heavy motorised radio station).

In 1951, a new designation scheme was introduced for all wireless equipment used by the Swiss Army. Some older stes got designations according to the new naming scheme.

Since then, all transceivers carry designations following the scheme SE-xxx followed by a three-digit number; some transmitters which could be run as standalone sets got S-5xx designations.

Some transmitters, which were a part of a wireless stations got a designation S-xxx where xxx stands for the SE-xxx designation number.