5 by 5

[Huggyu2]

"How does this radio sound?"
"5 by 5"

That means "loud and clear", right? So, settle a bet for me:
My radio is loud but staticy/scratchy. Does that mean it is "5 by 2" or "5 by 3"?
If it is a clear transmission, but very weak, am I "1 by 5"?

 

[Goose Egg]

I think there's something in the AIM about it. I don't have my copy with me and I'm just too darned lazy to look it up online. "Five by Five" refers to signal strength and clarity. In other words, I think the examples that you gave would be correct.

-Goose

...and a 500-ish hour CFI knows this and a zillion hour-ish military guy doesn't... why?

 

[HAL]

You got it.

The first number is the 'loud', the second number is the 'clear'.

1 x 5 is very quiet, but clear

5 x 1 is very noisy and almost unreadable.

other numbers are a mixture of the two.

HAL

 

[Wild Weasel]

...and a 500-ish hour CFI knows this and a zillion hour-ish military guy doesn't... why?

don't you know us mil types are "strong like bull, smart like tractor" .... they tell us to say 5 by 5....thats what we say

OBTW...thanks HAL....

 

[ISaidRightTurns]

5 by 5

The first one is signal strength, measured by SWR which is standing wave ratio.

The second 5 is clarity of modulation.

But I do know the first 5 has something to do with being an actual ratio, not just a number scale picked at random.

 

[Flyingdutchman]

Correct.

It's either 1 X 5, 3 X 5 or 5 x 5

FD

 

[MKaprocki]

All you ever wanted to know about the RST System:
http://www.ke4jcd.com/rst.htm