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Boston TV Signals Disrupting Police Radio in NJ
jeffy124 writes "WCVB, a digital TV station in Boston, is disrupting police radio communications in South Jersey. It seems that under certain weather conditions, the signal reaches here travels 270 miles (it's normally 50) and blacks out the police frequencies, making communication between officers and from 911 call centers impossible. The article seems to suggest that as more TV stations go digital, more small-town police radio will be affected, as the digital signal is significantly stronger than analog. Insert Joisey-joke here."
I think it's a safe bet that we'll see more donut commercials on digital television broadcasts- it ensures that it reaches the best possible demographic that will be influenced by donut commercials (cops, of course).
NJ got all the toxic waste dumps. You see, California drew the short straw and got all the lawyers.
Really? What frequency?
--
Damn the Emperor!
Maybe this will slow down the adoption of the Digital TV...
tropospheric ducting.
Ok, this is slightly OT, but speaking as someone who lives in Southern NJ, I would like to state for the record that no one around here speaks with that type of accent. We all pronounce Jersey with the letter R, thanks!
:)
Most people have a large misconception about New Jersey, especially thinking that it all looks like Newark, every woman has huge hair and long fingernails, and that none of us pronounce the letter "R". While this isn't entirely untrue (head up to Northern NJ to see what I mean), it does not describe the area of NJ being affected by the Boston signals. As I always say, they should split up Northern & Southern NJ, and combine the Dakotas.
Back on topic, I saw this story on the local news here tonight. It's a very big problem, as peoples lives can potentially be at stake. This is something we will be seeing a lot more of in the future; we already have frequency problems with 802.11, and now it seems that TV broadcasts will be continuing the trend.
OK I'm in position
Cue the comercial...now!
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
How is it that the FCC registered digital TV frequencies overlap the FCC registered police emergency frequencies at all, miles apart or no?
Are we talking too much power on the TV's sideband, bleeding into the police frequency?
Are we talking a grandfathered police operation when the frequencies were reallocated to digital TV where the cops have had years now to realize that they were playing with fire and replace their communications system?
Surely the FCC didn't intentionally allocate a police frequency smack in the middle of the exact same bands they set aside for digitial TV. So what's the real story?
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Right. Cause you don't make fun of southerners, canadians, or the french.
I live in San Francisco. I'm not gay, no dick goes in my ass, and I have a girlfriend.
You can make fat jokes about overweight computer programmers as long as they are funny. Not funny, and we'll have Dennis Nedry from Jurassic Park sit on you while he "debugs" you. (Please note: any lack of humor in the previous joke was intentional)
I'm not gay, no dick goes in my ass
Only in California do you have to state these as two separate items
I work for a PBS station in VA, WHRO. We are currently being sued by a station WBOC-TV Salisbury, Md to stop the rollout of our Digital TV because it disrupts their signal on the Chesapeake side of the water.
From what I understand of the problem their were bad assumptions made by the FCC when it came to the digital signal.
1. That it would not bounce and doppler like analog signal does. Well it turns out it is even more prone to it than analog was due to the higher frequencies and watages involved.
2. That this would not affect a $Properly setup atena. Seems reasonable until you find out what the variable properly is. Apparently the FCC does not care about interference unless the atena is aligned directly towards the sending tower (that never happens and varies from channel to channel) and that it is not higher than 30 feet (one story home. Any deviation from that and it becomes your problem, not theirs.
This is also not the first case of this to happen. Their are previous cases in california and milwauke. Read more
here
This is going to crop up as more and more channels go digital. You will start seeing it reported more as stations start to battle each other. The sad part is that most likely the FCC will wash their hands initally and the airwaves will become as if the FCC does not exist.
Papa Legba come and open the gate
I used to do a lot of flying and can attest that high-frequency navigation signals travels maybe 70 miles line-of-sight at 2000 feet -- the height of some broadcast antennas -- and farther at higher altitudes. But reflections were weak or nonexistent.
Communication frequencies, and this is aviation only, numbered some 720 (it's been a few years). Police communications are probably just as narrow and could be slotted any number of places, and being low-altitude would not cause much town-to-town interference. But instead they plant it in a frequency spread reserved for TV? (TV channel bandwidth is astonishing, dominating most of the available spectrum to deliver Gilligan's Island reruns and professional wrestling.)
I know some people are excited by the advent of digital programming -- no, wait, actually I don't know any, though most agree it looks neat -- but the way the equipment manufacturers and FCC colluded to ram digital down the throats of consumers and broadcasters stinks. I for one will hang onto my analog set until the picture is no more than a faint flicker.
Ok, I'm the submitter. I see a few posts denouncing the "Joisey" reference. I'm from NJ. It takes a sense of humor to live in NJ. I know that SJ is vastly different from the smokestacks of Newark.
Am I the only person who lives in NJ with a sense of humor?
(oh, and for the record, I live between exits 3 and 4)
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
I heard this once but never confirmed it: Is it true that Air Force One's broadcast system uses the same frequency as, and occasionally interferes with, garage door openers?
Just in case you would like to know what tropospheric ducting is.
Meh.
Even my friends who live in Jersey make fun of Jersey.
Do you even know how to pump your own gas?
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
I can see it now: "We better get over to Maple and 10th, Sergeant Friday is making a bust; it sounds like the perps got 'Reefer Madness' and Ponch is down, I repeat PONCH is DOWN!"
Yes, I know I do, found that out on a trip to SC on spring break earlier this year.
This has been a test. Had this been a real emergency, we would have fled in terror and you would not have been informed.
Alright now I have to speak up. I live in north jersey and no one here speaks without the "r", in fact ive never even heard that. What we do do though is turn some "a"s into "o"s. Ex: its not tomato its tamato. Looks weird on print but it sounds right to me.
About the newark thing, some of jersey does look pretty damn shitty, but if you go west, belive it or not, there are farms, with real cows. I live in a pretty rich area and I think its beatiful here. Belive it or not, I love NJ!
What signature defines me as a person?
I honestly don't see what the big deal is. Radio interference where a signal travels farther than intended and interferes with other communications is an old problem, and inherent in most communication methods in use. Its a technical problem, and should be treated like one with resolution in an objective manner. The digital T.V. station should probably change the frequency its using (since the police radios may not be able to without buying new ones)
Do you even know how to pump your own gas?
or make left turns? there are cloverleaves _everywhere_ in jersey, even on single lane roads. what the hell is up with that?
[cop] breaker breaker we have a
*shhkt*
Johnny!. Don't you walk out on
*shhhkkt*
a caucasian male running down to
*shhkkt*
The LOVE boat...
*shhlkt*
suspect changing direction, now he
*shhhkkt*
was the president of the united states, saying
*shhhkt*
God dammit! where the hell is that
*shhkt*
sheik condom. Barely there for the most pleasure
=)
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
VHF / UHF Tropospheric Ducting Forecast Maps
These maps graphically display unstable signal areas.
Quote from the website:
The areas noted in the forecast have the necessary atmospheric conditions to produce tropospheric bending of UHF or VHF TV and radio waves. Tropospheric bending extends the range of stations well beyond their normal limit. Distant reception along straight line paths becomes possible..though the longer the path, the higher the Index required. The pursuit of distant stations is called "DXing".
Don't worry -- this will pass soon, and then Slashdot readers will quit making fun of New Jersey and go back to doing what they do best: making fun of the Slashdot editors.
On a serious note, I do understand how you feel. When I went to school in Minnesota, all the tasteless Southern jokes really started to piss me off. I think it works like this:
Rule 1: Making fun of someone else's state is condescending and can piss people off.
Rule 2: Making fun of your own state is OK because, since you live there too, there's not so much condescention (how do you spell that?) involved.
Rule 3: It is always appropriate, no matter what the circumstance, to make fun of France and the French.
Steve
Why did the chicken cross the turnpike?
To go down the shore for a grinder.
He didn't specify funny Joisy joke . . .
Under FCC regulations, any interference with official bands (IE, police, fire, ambulance) by a TV station is considered illegal by law and MUST immediately stop of be fined per day per channel that experiences the interference.
This occurred with one cable TV station over in one town that i stayed in. They had brought up another channel into their lineup using AINCENT cable equipment that generated a harmonic with the City police's repeater and caused massive interference with their communications. The city immediately moved and filed a complaint with the FCC on this and the Gov't submitted a court order stating that the cable company shut down ALL services until this issue was cleared up. The channel was immediately shut down and the station was shifted to another channel that was more clearer and did not cause any further problems.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Like the article says, the TV station is broadcasting in the 506 through 512Mhz range.
Insert Joisey-joke here.
Hey! We don't really tawk like that.
Let the Jersey jokes continue!
Why are New Yorkers so damned Depressed?
B/C the light at the end of their tunnel is New Jersey.
Make all the jokes you like about File Allocation Tables. See if we care. This is a Microsoft-bashing site after all.
California and Texas both have more superfund sites than NJ. And Gary, Indiana puts Newark to shame
..........FULL STOP.
Reporter: How does this make you feel, knowing that cops may not be able to receive necessary 911 information? Area Man: Heh, heh. Fuggiddaboudit.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
Why bother, I can have someone do it for me (in the freezing snow, rain, spiners, etc), it keeps my hands from smelling and it's cheaper than most of the country.
Do you cook your own hamburgers/steaks when you go out and eat? - no someone doe sit for you.
..........FULL STOP.
"OK. I'm from New Jersey and I don't appreciate jokes making fun of my state. It's not cool and it's not funny."
How about we just make fun of people with no sense of humor instead?
If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?
Instead of learning how to pump gas, we learn extortion, how to make it look like an "accidental" death, how to hide a body/evidence, how to whack people and not make a mess on our suits, and how to get even.
Get the idea
Don't mess with Jerseyans.
..........FULL STOP.
Yes, without New Jersey we wouldn't have...uhhh...hmmm...
A convenient place to make fun of?
"Slashdot, new for nerds, stuff that matters"
First there was the pumpkin PC, then the Dune book, and now a story that takes pertains only to NJ. I am officially suing slashdot for breach of contract.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Jay Sherman (in a straight jacket): It stinks!
Psychiatrist: Yes Mr. Sherman. Everything Stinks...
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
From the /. article header...
"The article seems to suggest that as more TV stations go digital, more small-town police radio will be affected, as the digital signal is significantly stronger than analog..."
Actually, the type of modulation (digital or analog) has little to do with the signal "strength" (which is a function of transmitter power output, transmission line losses, and antenna design and orientation).
Now, with that said, digital modulation, being much closer to a square wave than an analog voice signal, is much richer in HARMONICS than said analog signal.
I've lost count of how many times I've heard interference from digital paging transmitters bleeding into ham radio repeaters. The harmonics from the digital modulation mix with the transmitter's carrier, and that of whatever other transmitters happen to be on the same hilltop, and close to the same frequency range. It sounds awful, and it looks even worse on a spectrum analyzer screen.
The problem may be correctable through (as others have pointed out) better receiver design, in terms of filtering, and good installation practices being followed where the transmitter and antenna system are concerned. Good filtering and modulation techniques at the transmitter end won't do any harm either.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
Geena Davis: "Easy, sport. I got myself out of Beirut once, I think I can get out of New Jersey."
Sam Jackson: "Yeah, well don't be so sure. Others have tried and failed... The entire population, in fact."
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Anyway, since the WTC is down, the plan now is to build a 600-meter mast in NJ near the Statue of Liberty and have all the NYC area stations broadcast from there. So, NJ could retaliate pretty good. If they broadcast pictures of those NJ topless gas pumpers back to Boston, the New Englanders would be demoralized and surrender ASAP!
Digital television won't affect small towns very badly. Many small towns are still on the 460 mHz band, rather than the higher bands that Digital TV will use. Remember, the FCC is clearing out the lower broadcast bands and moving everything up into the UHF and Microwave bands, where police don't do a whole lot of talking.
Trying is the First Step to Failing --Homer Simpson
It seems to me a rather bad and outdated idea to try broadcasting digital signals in this method.. using lots of power and just blasting the signal out for miles around. It makes more sense to devote more of the spectrum to the public it belongs to and use wireless networking to route the data intelligently to where it needs to go. If I can stream a DVD-quality movie over a fairly congested WiFi network at home I don't see why television couldn't be broadcast in the same way and quite a lot cheaper than building an expensive tower and licensing your own spectrum. The mesh networking units /.'d yesterday look like they'd work for this with few tweaks required. I'd probably create a smart routing protocol that'd let multiple users view the same stream rather than copying it along the route for each user but that isn't a new concept so it'd probably be possible to use off the shelf technology for that also.
:)
Anyone else find it odd that their cell phone and wifi equipment works fine but emergency dispatch equipment goes in the shitter? I knew the FBI used cell phones (well on X-Files at least) for good reason.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
-magic
Because that's not fair. Poor quakeslut was born with no sense of humour whatsoever - a condition known as humerus absentis. That's right, quakeslut was born without a funnybone. He is a humourless git.
The modern world is a terribly confusing place for the humourless git. Everywhere they go and whoever they talk to, there are instances of humour to contend with. Take a moment, if you will, to step into the world of the humourless git.
You would never need more than one person to change a lightbulb. A priest, a minister and a rabbi would never be in the same room for any reason. And a pie fight is nothing more than a very messy waste of food.
As you have by now discovered, humourlessness is a serious problem in today's world, but even though there is no cure as yet, the condition need not be totally debilitating. Some humourless gits work within their disability to become productive members of society, although more often they are employed as accountants, politicians, corporate lawyers, parking inspectors, etc.
It may take years to develop a cure for humorlessness, but we are determined to find it. In the meantime, please support the Foundation to End World Humourlessness.
Please give, that they may laugh.
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
A lot of innacurate information has been passed around here.
UHF communication frequencies generally go from 450-470 mHz and were fully populated years ago. What the FCC did is to allocate certain UHF TV channels to communications, in the 470-512 range; ie TV channels (not cable channels) 14-20 for communications use in certain areas. The areas in question are laid out in a plan, so that in some areas a certain channel is used for TV and and in some areas that same channel is used for communications.
This came about because in a given area you cannot have adjacent TV channels used by TV or they interfere with each other. Also, UHF TV was never really popular with broadcasters and many channels were loped off on the upper end (ch 70-88 as I recall).
Thus it is perfectly in accordance with the FCC plan to have Channel 20 allocated to TV in Boston and to communications in Southern New Jersy. Up to now, however, channel 20 was never used in Boston, it was empty and now has been allocated to digital TV.
Analog TV stations must convert to digital by a certain date (2006, but keeps slipping....). During the interim period, the station may transmit Analog on its present channel, and digital on the new channel. This is precisely what WCVB is doing. Eventually the station will be strictly digital on Channel 20 and the Analog VHF transmission will terminate.
East coast atlantic tropospheric ducting is common and radio hams and others are well aware of it; I am surprised the FCC did not take this into account when they allocated the channels. If I had to speculate, I would say that the FCC will require WCVB to reduce power, use a directional antenna or change channels - which may be tricky. This will be fertile ground for hordes of lawyers.
You know how us Americans are... :)
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. - George Orwell or George Bush?
Yes, without New Jersey we wouldn't have...uhhh...hmmm...
:)
A place to put our toxic waste?
But seriously folks...
Jon Bon Jovi? Paul Simon? Allen Ginsburg? Jack Nicholson? Joe Piscopo? Kevin Spacey? Frank Sinatra? Meryl Streep? Ray Liotta? Michael Douglas? John Travolta? Elizabeth Shue (hubba hubba)? Jerry Lewis (ok, we could do without him...)
Thomas Edison? Irving Langmuir (Incandescent lamp)? Edmund Germer (Flourescent Lamp)? Lloyd Conover (Tetracycline)? James Hillier (Electron Microscope)? Donald Fletcher Holmes (Polyurethane)? Roy Plunkett (Teflon)? Lewis Sarett (Cortisone)? Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (Cathode-Ray Tube)?
First college football game (Rutger v. Princeton, 1869)? First organized baseball game? First pro basketball game?
Campbell's soup? Cranberry Sauce? Salt water taffy?
Electric guitar (Les Paul, 1940)? First submarine (1878)? First ferry (between Hoboken and Manhattan, 1811)? First brewery (Hoboken, 1642)?
No, I am not a Jerseyite. I live in Arizona and have never been to New Jersey. (Ain't the web wonderful? It's always good to learn new things - especially at my advanced age.) Of course, none of these things is enough to motivate me to vist.
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. - George Orwell or George Bush?
This is actually an issue the other way as well.
As the FCC forces digital broadcast and begins to sell off the UHF and VHF ranges for communications equipment....what will happen if a TV station is still broadcasting.
For instance, in San Diego the local Fox affiliate actually has their broadcast tower in Mexico (they can get a permit for a stronger signal there). If a nationwide carrier developes communications equipment uses that part of the spectrum...their equipment won't work in San Diego.
How will the FCC control 'foreign' signals?
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
The duct covered roughly 1600km LOS on a few watts. I don't know if that's a record, but it certainly impressed me.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
The license application for the 8VSB signal had to have gone through an FCC attorney, who would want the engineering reviewed by a consulting engineer. This is partially the fault of the consulting engineer, and mostly the fault of the FCC in not anticipating tropo.
The irony is in the fact that digital television is supposed to be predicated on the television stations giving up their VHF allocations for other purposes. The other purposes are digital communications for public safety -- police.
So until the VHF channels are vacated and the equipment manufacturers actually have type-accepted equipment for the new bands, the police in this community are basically screwed.
Or maybe they need to get a STA (special temporary authorization) and retune their equipment and get a new frequency.
... the radio waves are noisy in joisey?
I would RTFA, but the link is broken.
However, I find this somewhat surprising. Most police band radios operate in the 800MHz trunking band, which is reserved just for that purpose.
I didn't think the FCC was allowing digital TV anywhere near those frequencies - in fact that is why UHF TV channels 68 and up (IIRC) were taken out of service - to make room for the public service trunking band.
I would guess that what probably happened was that the station in question was mixing with another signal, and spattering into the police band.
In all probability, the cops didn't hear what the station was transmitting - Jersey is using Motorola Astro trunking, perhaps even digital mode, so the cops' radios would simply have said "this isn't the signal I was looking for. Move along."
Does anyone have a link to a cache?
www.eFax.com are spammers
Also live from Montclair... I just get tired of people going on as if any old freak could live here (and why would they want to?) I'll have you know that you have to pass a strict exam in order to live in NJ....
AHHHHHHH! I'm burning with goodness again!
- Reakk, Sluggy Freelance
How do the FCC and CRTC deal with this now in Canada-US border areas?
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
I live in New Jersey. Answer: no.
I lived in another state for 4 years (College). Never did I sit in the car and wait endlessly for an attendant to come pump my gas, but I did do this: One day, I started pumping gas. Then I went into the store, did an ATM withdrawal, paid the clerk, maybe bought a sandwich or something, looked at the newspaper, walked out of the store, got in the car, and drove off...
SNAP!
Good thing that gas pumps actually have a connector that's designed to snap off in case an idiot like me drives off with the nozzle STILL IN THE TANK. I replaced the nozzle on the pump, kinda coiled up the hose next to it, and sped off.
Luckily, this was about a month before I moved back, so I never really had to use that gas station again. Of course, I drove past it a few times, and as far as I know it took at least a month to fix. And now, in Jersey, sometimes I get out of the car to pump gas, and everyone wonders what the hell I'm doing...
True Story -
I have a friend who serves as a supervisor for a local police department - at a party he related the following story:
"So John, how was your week."
John replies: "Really bad, we had an officer involved shooting and it was embarrasing."
So I ask the obvious. "Why, was he at a donut shop or something."
John moans and says "Yes."
Have you compiled your kernel today??
Hokay - now for some Radio Reality(tm).
VHF/UHF transmissions (those used by both digital TV and police) are nominally line-of-site. The time when this changes are due to weather phenomenon, i.e. temperature inversions. It is REAL common to communicate between Santa Barbara and San Diego (better than 200 miles) during the summer on VHF frequencies.
Periodically we also hear Hawaii through tropospheric ducting here on the west coast.
The FCC has set up systems to help keep users apart under normal circumstances. The likely answer is the cops are using an older system that needs to be moved. I'd be interested in finding out the frequency their on!
Have you compiled your kernel today??
It was not humor. Just a marketing stunt. :)
"Yeah, well don't be so sure. Others have tried and failed... The entire population, in fact."
Sam Jackson's a little bit off. The NJ/NY Port Authority makes tons of money off those desperate to leave New Jersey. I really hope Rhode Island and New Hampshire don't decide to follow suit and proceed to gangbang Massholes like me who will be fleeing Big Dig-related taxes in a few years.
...that Parcells went to the Jets. Doesn't matter that we won the Super Bowl.
Payback's a bitch mother*&^%er! ROFL!
"The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance." -Thomas Jefferson
Normally when a licensed or unlicensed (or unintended) operator causes interference then, regardless of their transmitting privileges (say 100W with a 4.5dB gain omni directional antenna at site A), they must change their transmissions (reduce power, new site and/or antenna) to not interfere or stop the transmitting.
This includes licensed taxi radios, licensed ham operators, and unintended radiators like power utility companies (transformers on poles -- pole pigs can produce RF harmonics when in need of repair).
So why not Digital TV broadcasters? Is it because it been a FCC pet project for what nearly 10 years now?
That's basically the bottom line. Its easier to spout a few stereotypes than it is to actually have any real knowledge.
The main problem is most people fly into Newark airport and think THAT is what NJ is like. Fact is Newark airport, and its surrounding area especially as you get closer to New York are just ugly industrial areas. The other 95% of the state is what gives it the name the Garden State. By percentage most of NJ is very rural wooded areas. The rest of it is normal communities just like in any other state. Also joking about the Turnpike is like joking about the 405 in California. I mean yes a lot of people who live near it take it, but its not like every other state in the nation doesn't have one road which is popular for crossing the state.
Anyway you may now continue on without your igornant stereotypes.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Why does this always happen?! Just last night I'm reading in Practical Antenna Handbook (excellent book, btw) about how atmospheric conditions can increase radio communications range.. and I check Slashdot this morning and there's a relevant story.
#33. Hehe. That's one of those things you never, ever forget ...
... but that's already TMI ....
Especially the gnats nipping at me
There is an international organization (ITU) to deal with this, and there are treaties that are *usually* followed in this regard. The US has very long borders with both Canada and Mexico and spectrum management has long been dealt with (not always perfectly).
The only good weather is bad weather.
The FCC wants digital TV for spectrum efficiency and modernity reasons. The movie industry wants it for better display, and of course now for DRM reasons. The broadcasters objected to the mandated expense, until things changed to allow them to sell additional services on it in addition to TV, and for them to use it to hold onto additional channels for a while.
The big problem with VHF/UHF broadcast TV in the US is that it is extremely wasteful of very valuable spectrum. There is a limited (by physics) amount of spectrum available for mobile applications, and broadcast TV takes about a third of it!
But... except for a few cases, broadcast TV does not NEED to operate on mobile spectrum. Almost all TV is either multipoint fixed, which can be done at much higher frequencies, or already carried by cable and consumes no air spectrum at all (except for leaks).
A more rational system would eventually phase out high power VHF/UHF TV broadcast - digital and analog, and let it be replaced by satellite and cable. The released spectrum could then be used for high spectral efficiency mobile communications, for which there is a rapidly growing demand.
The only good weather is bad weather.
The Mason-Dixon line, when extended eastward, divides New Jersey. There used to be a truck stop in NJ on one of the main roads just south of the line. Confederate flags and all of that stuff around. The worst of both worlds -- chitluns, hocks and hominy, NJ style, served by a NJ waitress.
If anyone is wondering, that quote is from the 1997 movie "The Long Kiss Goodnight". It's a very good movie, mainly action, with some humor through-out.
It's a bit of a far-out story though... You know. The head of the CIA plots to kill about 4,000 Americans in a staged terrorist attack, and put evidence in place that makes it look like Muslim terrorists did it. Oh wait...
I'm sure that, thanks to recent legislation, we will never again see any movies with a negative depiction of the CIA.
Whoop... There's a knock at the door, I better go now.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Oh I don't know... Hey, why don't we send US representatives down there to negotiate international issues? Hey, we could call them diplomats!
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
http://www.google.com/search?q=8vsb+spectral+envel ope
Europe (DVB) picked COFDM instead of 8VSB. There was a huge debate in the US for a few years about whether we should also go with COFDM, but the FCC decided to stick with 8VSB (relatively recently, like last year). And before you say "that's a stupid decision", go read the FCC report in which they announced their decision. They're not ignorant -- they considered the evidence and made a decision on the basis of it. Well, OK, maybe a few billion dollars of NAB influence had an affect ...
One simple rule for its versus it's
A list like this without Bruce Springsteen? That's a first...
The first ever Ultimate Frisbee video game: here (now
The FCC may want it for those reasons, but it does bring good things as well...
& the Movie industry hates the idea... Which is why they've insisted on DRM. The Movie industry wants to limit the use of their products (movies) to get the greatest monetary gain from them... HDTV & high resolution aren't big are their lsits of features...
& the problem with foregoing VHF/UHF & DIgital broadcasts in favor of cable or Sat is that alot of people don't a) want it & b) want to pay for it (just look at the Canadian DirectTV underground to see a perfect example of item b). My parents fall into this category for example... They refuse to pay for TV & they don't see any need for the benefits of cable or Sat... Heck I had trouble convincing them that DVD's were a good thing (as opposed to VHS).
The best way to show a difference over normal TV would be in quality (hence HDTV), but Sat is slow on adding it (& doesn't yet draw enough of the right customers to make it feasable to change over entirely) & Cable companies don't seem to care if their product looks like crap... Ever complained about your picture quality? I've seen people complain, but normally the best you get is a "We'll have a technician come check out your setup as you must be doing something wrong & we'll do this at our convenience"... So HD doesn't interest them either...
But locally I have a PBS station which airs in HD (WICQ channel 50) & the quality of the images on an HDTV convinced my parents they needed an HDTV...
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
Next on NewsCenter 5ive: Natalie Jacobson conducts a hard-hitting one-on-one interview with the Ghost of Frank Sinatra, while Tony Soprano puts a hit on Dick Albert for misforecasting a nor'easter while making bad jokes.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
I have to make an...um... withdrawal from a few banks. Yeah, withdrawal, that's it...
"That's what the main problem with NJ is... too damn many laws and regulations. The state govt there has run amok with overbearing, overzealous, overregulation of anything and everything they can think of, "
Not so much the state, as the townships. The townships seem to think they've got the power to do whatever they wish, and the state doesn't step in until either someone complains loudly enough, or the township does something against a state law. The NJ DMV is about the worst I've ever seen for organization and such, but in all honesty, I had my license transfered in about two or three hours when I got here, so I can only complain but so much. What's really funny to see is when a large company comes in and completely disregards all the local townships laws and such. Lowes recently decided to place a new location in Lumberton with a hiring office in Mt Holly. They got the usual building permits and such, but never even bothered to ask either township if it's ok, let alone went to a township meeting to discuss the location, parking, etc with the board. The result? Nothing; they're far too large a company for either township to mess with. In many of the townships, if you want to start a business, you have to meet with them and explain what your business is doing, what location you want to move into (even if the building is already there), and talk about a few other things, such as whether you have adequate parking. They then either approve or decline your request, and that's that. Sound silly? Well, it is, and I have a feeling it'll only take one court case to remove that "power" from the townships.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
It's been a banner year for crazy VHF/UHF propagation. (Look through some back issues of QST, the ARRL's magazine, for some info in their VHF and Beyond column)
This past year, down at 144 MHz (2 meters), my amateur radio club's repeater was getting regularly triggered by some Canadians who had a repeater on the same frequency a few hundred miles north. (Yeah yeah, I know we should be using a PL tone, but it's disabled for various reasons.)
Apparently, some of the hardcore VHFers in our area had our repeater tuned in constantly, even though the W2CXM (Cornell Amateur Radio Club) repeater was usually idle (Most people used the county repeaters). When they started hearing faint signals coming from Canada triggering the repeater, they knew it was time to point their 6-meter antennas east. Contact with Europe on 6 meters (50 MHz) is usually unheard of, but this past year (both due to weather and oddball ionospheric occurrences) it's been common.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?