bonk

n. a sound made by a hand-held radio, indicating a transmission cannot be made, characteristic of digital trunk radio systems typically used by fire and police departments. Also bonking. Subjects: English, Technology

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Citations: 1999 Hector L. Torres @ Baltimore, Md. Fire Chief (June 1) “Cooperative communications”: Unlike our former system, the new system emits a “bonking” tone when a transmission doesn’t go through, so a user can then move to try to establish a better connection. 2004 Marquette County Firefighters Home Page (Detroit, Mich.) (Jan. 5) “Detroit Fire Dept. Message Board”: You find that the digital signal cant get thru the concrete and steel so you get the “out of range” bonking noise—which means you have to go over to a window so you can lean out to get a repeater to receive your signal. 2004 CapeCodFD.com (Cape Cod, Mass.) (July 2) “Communications System Fails”: Several “symptomatic” problems followed over the following days with a static sound trailing transmissions for a brief period and a number of “bonk” situations, where the ability to transmit was prevented for some reason. 2004 Jennifer Lin Philadelphia Inquirer (Pa.) (Oct. 1) “Council hears of radio glitches at fire”: Ayers testified that on the night of the rowhouse fire, firefighters at the scene complained of an excessive level of blocked calls—or “bonking,” as they call it, for the busy signal the radios make when a call cannot be completed. *2004 Channels Close Up (Oct. 1) “Kansas City upgrades and training win praises” vol. 2, no. 1,: A simple anecdote was told about how one of the city’s firefighters was concerned that the “NC bonk"—a feature designed to alert him when the radio was out of signal range—had not activated recently and thus was broken.

Posted 1 Oct 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend