I've been paying attention to intersections a lot lately since I'm
looking at the IFR charts more.

Check this example out; Dial up the MSLIN intersection on your New York
section or skyvector.com.

Looking at that; I've always interpreted that picture as the MSLIN
intersection is at the intersection of V205 and V374, and I could use
the associated radials defining those airways from the closest relevant
VORs to know when I'm at that intersection. Upon closer examination, it
appears to suggest that the intersection is actually defined off of the
LGA VOR, but it doesn't give a clue as to which radial or DME off that
VOR might define it.

All of which appears to be wrong; look at it on the Enroute low-altitude
chart, say L33. First of all, MSLIN is NOT at the intersection of V205
and V374. It is at the 5DME fix off the HUO 030 radial (off the V205
airway quite a bit -- quite different than the location implied by the
VFR sectional).

That other arrow on the IFR chart at MSLIN suggests I can locate the
MSLIN intersection using the DME fix off of the CFB VORTAC (81 DME fix
along V374 / R129). Now, CFB is an "L" VORTAC and normally would have a
service volume of 40 miles, but I guess one has to pay attention to the
rather high 10000 MEA on this airway in order to affix their MSLIN
position using CFB. It prompted me to go back to the AIM Ch 1
service volumes -- it says that the L VORTAC does indeed have a service
volume of only 40 miles, but that service volumes don't apply to charted
IFR routes -- the MEA and route instruction on the chart supersede. So
it appears that one would need to be above 10000 to use this airway in
general and affix MSLIN in particular using CFB.

I guess I learned a couple things today

It does blow my mind though that the VFR sectional has a.) very
misleading and incomplete information on how to locate the MSLIN
intersection, and b.) oh yeah, didn't tell you that you needed to be
10000 or higher in order to fly V374 reliably using the VORTAC
system.... I know I wouldn't pick up any quality signal from an 80nm
distant VOR at 4,000 in that vicinity.

Any other thoughts on what I'm interpreting?

Tman...