Aliens trivia question (best, coming, made)

[sunbelt]

In the movie 'Aliens' (the 2nd one with Sigourny Weaver) where the ship is coming into the atmosphere with the Colonial Marines, the pilot says: "We're in the pipe, 5 by 5", I know the pipe is the area the ship should travel in, but what exactly does 5 by 5 mean? I did some startpage searching but couldn't find any definitions for it. Is it just a made up term? My roommate and I got to talking and now we just have to know.

[Mercury Cougar]

"Five by five" is the best of 25 possible subjective responses used to describe the quality of communications. As receiving stations move away from an analog radio transmitting site, the signal strength decreases gradually while noise levels increase. The signal becomes increasingly difficult to understand until it can no longer be heard as anything other than static

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by Mercury Cougar

"Five by five" is the best of 25 possible subjective responses used to describe the quality of communications. As receiving stations move away from an analog radio transmitting site, the signal strength decreases gradually while noise levels increase. The signal becomes increasingly difficult to understand until it can no longer be heard as anything other than static

Yep. It's a common expression in both the military and police forces. Often shortened to "five by."

[Giesela]

I forget exactly but one I think refers to signal strenth/loudness and the other to "readability" how well they can hear what you say vs. static
so if the first number is loudness and the second is how clear
and the reception is very loud but terrribly static and can't hear whats said the call would be 5 x 1
so 5 x 5 is loud and clear