Subject: Your letter of 6/15/97, Problem with transponder. Date: 1/27/99 1:47 PM

Dear Sir,

Reference your earlier e-mail in which you claimed to have a problem with your transponder. This has nothing to do with the transponder; it's all taken care of in the encoder. You've got it all wrong.

Inside the transponder is a transducer, which converts pressure to an electrical signal. This is the transponder transducer. But, the signal from the transducer is too large, so it has to go through a reducer, known as the transponder transducer reducer. In most modern transponders, the reducer is actually a resistor attached to a transistor in the transmitter, but it's a very special resistor, very difficult to make, and there is only one transponder transducer transmitter transistor resistor reducer producer left in the country. That's why these things cost so much. And it's going to get much worse, soon, since the guy who handles requests for materials transfer at this company (the head shipping clerk, aka the transponder transducer transmitter transistor reducer resistor producer transport transfer responder) is getting near retirement! Understand now?

Bob Jones, Customer Service