[R-390] antenna trim red dot

[Barry Hauser]

Jim wrote:

> Can we please stop using this "non A" nonsense! No one here is named Dr.
> Spock and we are not on the Star Ship Enterprise. You either have a R-390
or
> a R-390A. I have yet to see, and I am sure that none of you have seen, a
> radio, marked by the manufacture, as R-390 non A.

Heh heh -- odd coincidence, your name is Jim!  So, imagine this coming from
Mr. (non-Dr) Spock ...

"Jim, the use of the term "non A" is not nonsense, it is ... logical.  It is
a known fact in communications that it is not reliable to use the presense
or absence of a designa-TOR -- a suffix in this case -- to distinguish
between two similar but quite different pieces of equipment.  Long ago our
ancestors on Vulcan determined that it is wise to use a positive identifier,
and even your primitive human computer and communications engineers learned
to use operative descriptors rather than nulls.  This is very important,
especially in interstellar communications where the reference to the
receiver may be the last word in the transmission and the transmission may
break off prematurely as foretold by your great philosopher, Murphy, the
creator of intergalactic law.  Imagine what would happen, Jim, if a
technician were guiding an operator to repair a receiver and the "A" did not
come through on the first communication.  That operator might well be trying
to jam a 6082 into the audio deck of an R-390A.  This is not logical.  That
is why, on Vulcan, our Collins engineers designated all of our original
receivers of the series as the R-390-1 and the cost reduced, mechanical
filter version as R-390-2, and all the way up to the Vulcan R-390-41, which
is not simply receiver, but also the control head for a particle beam
weapon, also know as a phaser.  Not only that, Jim, but we very precise
Vulcans, due to exposure to humans, and joining many of your list reflector
groups, have picked up the human tendency to generalize and even truncate
components of our email.  So now even we Vulcans have started to call the
first receiver by the appellation of "Non-A", especially in making reference
to the Earth-contract units, which lack the Vulcan -1 suffix on their tags.
Finally, Jim, there is the third and most important reason."

Jim:  "And just what is that Mr. Spock?", he said, smirking, rolling his
eyes and playing to the camera, as usual.

"Well, Jim, on the interstellar R-390 reflector list, the term "Non-A" has
become ... TRADITION!"

Spock now breaks into the first few bars of the show tune while dancing
around the flight deck, jumping up on the consoles, etc.  If you can picture
that, you're as crazy as I am.

Seriously though -- we have sort of migrated to using "non-A" as a red flag
to catch the eye of the reader so it's clear that the writer is talking
about that receiver.  Simply writing "R-390" is not enough.  In fact, the
name of this list is "R-390" (no A), while most of the posts are about the
A-version.  scuze me ... Spock!  Get off that table!  Have you been sniffing
the DeOxit again?!

Barry