I’m only on the start of season 4 of Stargate Atlantis, but I watch the sci-fi channel all the time and I’ve seen enough promos to more or less figure out what’s been going on. However, I was SO happily surprised to see Jewel Staite on the show as the one doctor -the first time I saw her, I kept thinking “she sounds like someone from Buffy, I just can’t remember who...” before I finally realised she was in Firefly.
Anyways, that brought up a question: What exactly does the expression “five by five” mean? Shortly after watching a Stargate Atlantis episode where one of the characters said it, I went into my living room, and my roommates were watching an episode of Buffy where one of the characters kept saying it a lot, so that made me really curious.
Being trained as a Military Communicator, I'll field that question. In the early days of radio, two factors were determined to cause signals to not be understood, intelligibility and strength. Operators used a simple graph with 5 levels of signal strength (volume) and five levels of signal quality (clarity). The best signal was five by five or sometimes stated as "Loud and Clear." We always shortened it to, "I copy you 'fivers' Mate, how me?"
Yes, the other guy at the other end of the wire or radio shot was always called Mate, a tribute to the old ship to shore commutations.
For a lot more detail and background, surf for "Allied Communications Publication (ACP-131)(D)—"Q" and "Z" Operating Signals"