five by five?

[91100 100 set]

Okay, I've been around awhile, and I've heard this lots of times in response to a radio check request, but I've never met anybody who could explain, (or find a written reference somewhere) what "five by five" means. Volume and clarity? Vice versa? Anybody?

 

[active_herk]

I've always taken it to mean LOUD AND CLEAR on a 5 point scale. In other words, 5 by 5 - loud and clear, 1 by 5 - quiet and clear, 5 by 1 loud and unreadable, etc.

 

[TonyC]

Okay, I've been around awhile, and I've heard this lots of times in response to a radio check request, but I've never met anybody who could explain, (or find a written reference somewhere) what "five by five" means. Volume and clarity? Vice versa? Anybody?

In Voice procedure (the techniques used to facilitate spoken communication over two way radios) a station may request a report on the quality and strength of signal they are broadcasting. In the military of the NATO countries, and other organisations, the signal quality is reported on two scales; the first is for signal stength, and the second for signal clarity. Both these scales are from one to five, where one is the worst and five is the best. The listening station reports these numbers separated with the word 'by'. Five by five therefore means a signal which has excellent strength and perfect clarity - the most understandable signal possible.

Five by five by extension has come to mean 'I understand you perfectly' in situations other than radio communication.

Example of a radio readability transmission



This is an example of how the system might be used, using British military voice procedure. Station callsign Alpha One wishes to know how well another station, Alpha Two is receiving him.

Alpha One:Hello Alpha Two, this is Alpha One. How do you read me? Over. Alpha Two:Alpha Two. I read you five by five. Over. The phrase "five by five" was also popularized by a character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer ; the Slayer Faith, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, used it frequently as slang meaning that things were good. "Five By Five" was also the title of an episode which prominently featured Faith.

 

[Bus Driver]

I think in the olden days it was carrier strength and modulation.

 

[jbud]

five by five, is a term used to let other people know that you are a loser..

see also: tally-ho

 

[ATR-DRIVR]

I see we have a winner in the above mentioned category....

Good post Tony.

 

[uwochris]

Here is the scale:

Strength:
1. bad
2. poor
3. fair
4. good
5. excellent

Clarity:
1. unreadable
2. readable now and then
3. readable with difficulty
4. readable
5. perfectly readable.

Thus, "five by five" means you hear the person with excellent strength and the clarity is perfect.

Chris.

 

[minitour]

five by five, is a term used to let other people know that you are a loser..

see also: tally-ho

hah...heard that one for the first time the other day...I don't think I stopped laughing until I crossed the numbers...

 

[91100 100 set]

Okay, thanks. I agree with the tally-ho thing. And the accompanying "no-joy".

 

[unreal]

hah...heard that one for the first time the other day...I don't think I stopped laughing until I crossed the numbers...

Heh, I hear it all the time around here. Heck, I've even said it just to mess around.

 

[Uncle Sparky]

five by five, is a term used to let other people know that you are a loser..

see also: tally-ho

Five by five...........three by four..........four by two.....or any other variation of the theme is proper radio etiquette for informing controllers or other pilots of transmission strength and quality.

see also:inexperienced pilot who needs to read his controller/pilot glossary and AIM! ?

 

[pilotman2105]

Amateur radio (aka: Ham radio) uses something similar, except it has three values. Strength - Clarity - Transmission Quality. Strength is on a 5 scale, and the other two are on a 1-9 scale.

 

[dseagrav]

Actually, the third value is tone quality, only used for morse-code work.
There are letters that modify the last digit, to indicate chirp or other keying errors. We leave out the last number when on voice. 9 is a pure sine-wave, 1 is very rough AC.

You also get "plusses", example 5 and 9 plus 30.
That means the signal strength is S9 plus 30 decibels. (There is a gauge on the front of the radio for this. Some of the real old salts can tell just by hearing, but I'm not that old.)

A lot of people are lazy and will just say "5/9" no matter how the copy is because it's too much to read the radio and give a true number.

 

[MGXsport]

Okay, thanks. I agree with the tally-ho thing. And the accompanying "no-joy".

I think using "no-joy" is better then "we're looking for traffic". It is a lot quicker and gets the point across.

 

[pilotman2105]

Actually, the third value is tone quality, only used for morse-code work.
There are letters that modify the last digit, to indicate chirp or other keying errors. We leave out the last number when on voice. 9 is a pure sine-wave, 1 is very rough AC.

I thought that you could also include the last number on voice transmissions.

Then again, it's been 5+ years since I've picked up a ham radio, so my info is most definitely a bit "stale."

 

[dseagrav]

I thought that you could also include the last number on voice transmissions.

Then again, it's been 5+ years since I've picked up a ham radio, so my info is most definitely a bit "stale."

Tone purity doesn't apply to voice, because that's determined by the recieving radio. Offing the frequency for SSB corrects tone, using the tone knob works for everything else.