[R-390] antenna trim red dot

[Jim Brannigan]

I am reminded of the old WWV North Atlantic WX broadcast.

Part was proceeded with WARNING (pause) then the forecast.
If there were no dangerous wx conditions the broadcast was:
WARNING (pause) none.

A mariner wrote an impassioned plea to the NBS for a change in the
broadcast.  I seems he spend anxious hours listening to the weather
broadcast just to hear WARNING - pause - (static crash/QSB) and finally, to
his great relief  heard WARNING - none.

Jim


> 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