Re: QX

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>>From: "Aaron Teske" <mithramuse@njaccess.com>
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>>>Having recently read the Lensman books, is Smith's use of "QX" based 
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>on real codes, made up from something like the above, or just 
>wholly invented? It is pretty obvious what it *means* but I'm curious 
>if anyone has any insight as to whether it really "came from" 
>someplace. <<
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>>Not sure if it applies here, but many old abbreviations, especially 
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>with odd letters, are from amateur wireless Morse practice. <
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>Not so amateur... many odd-looking abbreviation still in use come from 
>standard Morse codes that were used to reduce the amount of 
>transmission time needed to ask FAQ's, particularly with the then state

>of the art in long-distance and airborne radios -- e.g., QNH and QFE 
>from air navigation. It's a heck of a lot quicker to send QFE to a 
>ground station than "What is the current ground-level air pressure?", 
>and equally the reply "QFE 2994" is a lot quicker and easier to 
>comprehend than a full sentence. We have better radios these days, so 
>Morse is a dying art, but the codes are still used.
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>Getting back to Smith, I always thought that QX was a sneaky way of 
>showing how language evolves over time. Kim Kinnison and co. use it 
>where we'd use OK, and comparing the letters made me think that this 
>was an unmentioned case of a gradual slide from one to the other 
>between now and whenever the stories were set. Don't think it had 
>anything to do with the use of Q in radio codes, except very 
>peripherally.
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>Phil
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E. E. (Doc) Smith was born in 1890 and	that for him it wasn't language 
evolving
but language original. I suspect that he may have been into amature 
radio and just as nobody
today would question the use of  "browser" or "html" in a story so in 
his day amature radio
terms would be up-to-date.The first book in the lensman series 
(Triplanetary) shows a
copyright of 1948 (I checked my copy) which is actually pre computer 
(not counting the
clasified ones).

Smith wasn't that bad but he continuously used the term "hot jets" in 
his Lensman series which
drove me up the walls till I noted the copyright date and figured that 
the "hot jets"	was the new and
improved of his day.

Scott

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