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Hams Complain about Powerline Broadband
dwm writes "Think
broadband over power lines (BPL) would be wonderful? There might be some collateral damage. The American Radio Relay League (your friendly neighborhood ham radio operators) have documented dramatic HF radio interference in areas where BPL is being tested (Check out the video of actual interference)."
Come to think of it, maybe that was the problem all along. ;)
And don't say ham radio would be useful in some sort of natural disaster, seeing as the internet WAS designed to withstand a nuclear attack!
Not only that, but where the hell am I going to find a HAM operator after an earthquake? That's probably the least of my worries.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Please tell that to the multitudes of HAM operators in my area that refuse to abide by the rules and cause MASSIVE TV reception interference. We've already HAD the FCC patrol vans checking them out before, and it did no good.
What goes around, comes around...
lets keep that old ass system alive for the old badgers and not proceed with new technology, RIGHT.
tell the old turds to get a new hobby.
We have seen that living things are too improbable and too beautifully "designed" to have come into existence by chance.
yes but broadband is obviously more important than emergency services for gods sakes. Jesus man, get your head out of your ass and THINK before you speak, sheesh.
christ, get over it. Yes radio is a fallback when absolutely every modern technology fails, just one step before carrier pigeon or worse, snail mail.
But there are ham blackout areas already and lots and lots of things that interfere with radio on various frequencies. The answer is to discover which frequencies this interferes with and move the hams off of those frequencies. Hams get free air space, they actually literally get trillions of dollars worth of free airspace to play on. And HF isn't used for emergency services, most of the hams on HF are the old timers and are still using morse code for god sake.
"Seriously, you can send signals with fractions of a watt in the right conditions and get good readable copy on the other side of the world"
Exactly, and that is what those bands are used for... to chat globally. EMERGENCY services tend to be with the guy 2 mile away who is checking in to say he found the kid under the log or there is a fire. If you find a fire, you don't radio someone on the other side of the globe, the other side of the globe can wait to find out the news if that is what it takes to get the greatest communication medium that has ever existed the last mile.
We aren't talking cheaper and faster here... we are talking about bridging the last mile, bringing internet not just cheaper for those who can already get it, but bringing to those who cannot.
Ham radio has it's purposes, and hams should have their allocated bands (whether they need trillions of dollars worth of them is a debate for another day, I personally believe those bands have been robbed from your average unlicensed joe who they really belong to giving them to hams has been made to look like they were "given to the people"). But it's time for ham radio to give way to the technology which has already proven to be a medium for communication and information exchange that by far exceeds anything ever before known to man.
"take some more ground from the commons"
As I've heard so many hams tonight proclaim, ham radio is licensed, it's NOT the common grounds.
That's one thing that truely sucks, the hams have stolen what should be public property. They've got everyone thinking that the bands in their turf constitutes the spectrum being given to the people... that's not true, ham is an elitist club who has hoarded frequencies that SHOULD be unlicensed. Oh I'm not saying that there shouldn't be personal licensing for amatuers to play with and have some chance of keepin it to themselves (although really, I doubt many who would take advantage of these frequencies aren't already hams), but it should be the hams who are tied to a tiny cb style range and the rest should be public grounds instead of the other way around.
Alas your right, they are just polluting the airwaves and not really transmitting or using the band for wireless transmission... But I think we are talking about a small price to pay for the technology. When the technology to fix this problem is inexpensive enough, or there is another already developed and working technology to reach the last mile with as much speed and as cheaply as this, I think we should fix it.
Until then, the lesser gives way to the greater, we are talking about a small piece of radio spectrum here that would be useless for transmissions to accomplish one of the greatest technical challenges that faces mankind.
To bring p0rn to every man, woman, and child on earth! Err, to transmit libraries of knowledge, allow perfect voip communications globally without per connection fees, to transmit information and allow collaboration globally etc.