Wednesday, June 07, 2017

Ham Radio - more mixed signals


Just noting a slight grammatical inconsistency.

In recent HAM radio dialog, the term "destinated" has come into common usage.  While the term is not grammatically correct, the meaning is unambiguous.  It means "I have arrived at my destination and will not be talking to you any more, so let's say farewell now."  This is a good deal of useful information to deliver in a compact and economical package.

In order to implement consistent habits, I propose that all such terms be treated with equal grammatical mangling.  One of the frequent terms I hear on the air is the awkward "mobile and monitoring".  It might as well be shortened to "mobilated", with the same "-ated" suffix as the previously noted term.

I was imagining this kind of grammatical foreshortening applying to all such phrases, but some come across as too arcane or obscure.  I occasionally employ the popular term "kerchunk" which is coined in aonomatopoeia, a word that phonetically imitates, resembles or suggests the sound that it describes.  In this case, the radio repeater makes a noise at the end of a PTT transmission, a "kerchunk" which lets listeners know that it is their turn next.  This is needed since FM dialog on radio repeaters is "simplex", only one speaker at a time.

Anyway, absent further esoterica, the term "kerchunkated" is far too awkward and cumbersome to be useful as a shorthand term.

Sunday, June 04, 2017

Telling the Truth


It matters not that we manufacture endless categories of nuance.  Fifty shades of gray is still not white.  Darkness is the absence of light.  Wrong is never right.

Whatever you decide to call the dog's tail, it will never be a leg.