dscott8 wrote:In On Basilisk Station, when Honor sends word back to Manticore that the Peeps are coming, it's noted that "Case Zulu" is never, ever used for any other purpose than to announce an imminent invasion. Yet, in The Shadow of Saganami, when Hexapuma's Marine company goes to take out Norbrandt's hidden bunker, "Case Zulu" is used to annouce that the enemy has modern heavy weapons and the action shifts from a police function to a military assault. What's up with that? Sloppy com discipline, or is this a Marines versus Navy procedural thing?
It reminds me of my own Army com training, where they told us to use "say again" instead of "repeat", because the latter could be misheard as "retreat" and screw up a perfectly good strategy. The RMN appears to use "repeat" and "Say again" interchangably, but maybe their com quality is a lot clearer.
I worked a long time in the army as a radio op, and in radio intercept. The reason the army adopted "say again" was for both Fires control reasons (someone else addressed that) but there was an even older reason. Older less capable radios didn't have as much capability for squelch control, and static was a major hazard to communications. You said "say again" because "repeat" could sound a lot like "three" in the static. Its why you say niner and fife instead of Nine or five-- because in the static-filled trenches, what you hear are the vowels. 5 and 9 are particularly difficult to distinguish.
Today's equipment is a lot better.
Rob
