Re: [OT] Re: Meaning and origin of term I've heard in a few movi

Los spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

> I'm not disagreeing with you. While I know more than my fair share
about carrier ops,
> that's the first I've ever heard about 5x5 originating from there.
What I do know for a
> fact is that 5x5 has been used (forever) as an indication of signal
strength and clarity
> by radiomen and Ham operators. In particular when almost all long
range communications
> were conducted with morse, a system of brevity for reception
confirmation was required
> to ensure receipt of radio messages, in particular when antennas had
to be tweaked to
> get the right bounce of the atmosphere or whatever. (Something still
done in SPECOPS
> HF/VHF long range commo) It is possible that pilots, themselves
required to do much
> "work' in the radio/communications world, could have started spreading
the term around
> for other uses. In fact five by five now has widespread usage in all
kinds of ways but
> usually means everythings peachy. (more or less) <g>

Actually, now that I've seen some of the explanations, I'd have to 
say that some of the cases came from the comms background, although 
any references by pilots relating to glidepath (such as the one in 
aliens) is derivative from the Aircraft Carrier grid. 

Having built AM and FM transmitter systems myself, they are twitchy 
beggars (when not made solid-state). And the antennae and any 
couplers used along the way are major offenders. Tuning the antennae 
for long distance work is probably a lot less painful than it would 
have been in years gone by, but your comment above recalls to me the 
story of the SAS guys in desert storm (Bravo Two Zero) that  hadn't 
been given the right frequencies for the part of the desert they were 
in so their comms didn't work. I just never knew that the phrase 5 by 
5 in a comms environment had to do with signal strength and clarity. 
You learn something every day.... :)  

Tom.