Many of the questions asked so far have been excellent. I am curious about the more basic infrastructure.
1. What power source does Sealand use? Is it dependent on power from Britain / able to buy power from Britain?
2. What is the fuel source for that power, if not supplied from Britain?
3. The fortress does not appear to have any land, so what is Sealand's source of food?
4. Do you create your own fresh water on Sealand?
I would be curious to know what by what methods these systems can be maintained in the event of blockade. It appears to me that this would be the most cost-effective attack against Sealand by any other country, especially Britain. Britain is not likely to entertain any other country sending an invasion fleet to Sealand, and I doubt it would be interested in risking British lives to stop Sealand. But trying to starve you out would be a politically viable (read: no lives necessarily risked) option, and could even work as a training exercise for Her Majesty's Navy. A joint blockade would also be possible.
Overall, I really like the whole idea of Sealand. There have been a few posts questioning viability on the basis of size, but I think the precedents of other small countries (Monaco, Luxembourg, and the Vatican) indicate that sovereignity is independent of size in Europe.
I think the author is right on target. I realize that the costs would be quite high, but this would help raise interest in Ham radio if it could be done. Since it would be one of (if not THE) first civilian landing on the moon, I would think there would be options for research grants to help with the funding. Multi-purpose satellites are not unheard of in Ham radio, and contributions from several countries should be also possible. I think maybe doing a launch from the new International Space Station would be a great idea. Carry the parts up there, launch from the ISS to save weight on the lander's rocket.
Another idea: piggyback on one of NASA's long-range probes that might be using the moon for a slingshot. Being a replacement for ballast on a flight has gotten several of our satellites into orbit.
I do a lot of training of Hams and often am asked to cover this chapter, so here goes....
There is a limit to the frequency that will be refracted (bounced back) by the ionosphere. Typically frequencies above 50 Mhz tend to pass through on a regular basis. Below this frequency, the bending (and absorption) is more pronounced. There are definite night and day patterns that have to do with the charging of the ionosphere by the Sun. At night, the absorption of lower frequency (below 20 Mhz) is lesser, so long skips are possible with 3 and 7 Mhz signals. This is why you can pick up far-off AM radio signals (.8 - 1.6 Mhz) at night. Your friends should have some good information about this, ask them if they have a copy of Now You're Talking, a popular study guide for the Technician exam. Look at the chapter on Propagation and that should explain things pretty well.
I can't agree with the "Probably $0" on the public cost of the Pentium bug. I had recently transitioned from a research position to the computer field when the Pentium bug was found. I remember it being a *real* concern for researchers who were using Pentium machines for statistical analysis of their experiments. Their experiments were in many cases recursive and with this obscure error in the mix, they became unable to feel they could confidently report on their results. It effectively required them to redo, in some cases, years of work in order to verify their results before publication. Especially difficult for them was a key question - who would pay for the time to redo when the original research time had been paid for by a one-time grant fund that was now all dried up? Also - consider the cost of the time involved on the part of any company that sold a customer a turn-key package system based on a Pentium computer with a bad chip: that company might have had to fly a tech out to the end user to replace the chip under warranty. That is a small but non-trivial expense.
And one last note: On a SCO Unix machine running X windows, the error could be clearly seen anytime one moved the mouse - a diagonal line would appear on the screen if the mouse was moved in a certain direction (like left to right). Eventually the session looked like a copy of Space Invaders gone haywire.
The problem is, the US Constitution is the only thing that allows you to be able to consider saving your child from any kind of peril at all.
Most countries which lack a Constitution such as ours have been big on taking people's children off to be killed (in battle, or gas chambers) without recourse by anyone. Incidentally, they also take everything else so that any remaining children starve to death.
The country already has people who are anxious to tear the Constitution apart. It is interesting that you think you would have any opportunity to rebuild it once it is destroyed. This method of thinking has enslaved many peoples in the past. Only when it is too late do they realize what was given up, and it is always the children who suffer.
I am a Ham radio operator, and to be honest, we already have better satellites.:-)
Before typing further, I'd like to say I do appreciate the spirit in which the idea was posted.
Actually, I should clarify: We have small, special purpose units that each do their jobs well and are manageable by our Ham Radio satellite organization, AMSAT. The link is available at http://www.amsat.org . They manage the sats we have and work internationally to develop new ones. Ironically, here in the U.S. a few years back when Iridium was just a twinkle in the eye, they tried to steal our frequencies for their network. (I am assuming the Little LEO's became Iridium). We all sat back and asked, 'Why in the world would a company want 2400 baud satellite info at 150 Mhz?' Apparently, to lose several billion.
To be honest, I hate seeing that much cash go bye-bye, and losing several nice working satellites is a real bummer, but I'd rather have their frequencies auctioned off to someone who can use them. That way, Hams do not have to fight off that company to keep the frequencies we already have (and have collectively spent real personal money to buy equipment for).
Come to think about it, since Hams can contribute to AMSAT's satellites, in work and technology, share the maintenance by helping relay health data from the satellite back to AMSAT, and all Hams worldwide can use them for free once they are orbiting, I guess we also already have an Open Source satellite network. (I know, I don't think the words really apply either, but hey...)
Let me get this straight - a 620 watt halogen pencil lamp, permanent magnets, 22 awg wire, and a signal injection point? So a good Halogen work lamp for $19.95. Two bar magnets from the Science store. 22 gauge speaker wire from RadShack, and a BNC from the same place. Build two - one to receive and one to transmit, plug in your Ham radio and go to town?!? ---Did anyone notice that they said they observed increased plant growth? It sounds like someone did already build the thing, but why would plants grow faster? That's the scary part for me - remember, Madame Curie gave herself radiation poisoning playing with Uranium.
Let me see if I got this straight - Wireless, flat fee/Advertising supported jukebox with unlimited capacity... So we would set up transmitters in every city, and a phone line where listeners could call in and ask for a song to be played, and have different kinds of stations play different kinds of music! And support it by ads - we could even offer news and weather on the hour! And THAT could be sponsored by advertisers too! People could have little players that fit in cars, on their wrist, on their heads! Maybe we could call it - FM Radio!!! Genious? No - maybe something else.
There is another side to your question. Nuclear physics is *different* than chemistry. The problem is that you take uranium that exists in nature and use it to extract energy by splitting it into totally different atoms. Yes, the two (or more) pieces that you have left have less energy. But the parts can wind up combining with others to create new atoms that are *more* troublesome. Like Plutonium or any of the really high atomic numbered things at the bottom of the atomic table. Those things usually don't exist in nature, they are created, and have a short half life. But they are created as part of a nuclear reaction. This is how a breeder reactor works. You take a lot of low grade -uranium, let's say- and put it in a reactor that is designed to create heavy atoms -like weapons grade plutonium- from the lighter uranium. Two tons in, 300 lbs out - net loss of energy but a by-product with a bunch more energy potential. And a bunch of contaminated atoms of other normally safe stuff. Like Hydrogen. Add a neutron from the nuclear fission and you have Deuterium, which is radioactive hydrogen. Two deuterium plus one oxygen gives water - innately radioactive water (called Heavy Water). That is where the nuclear waste part shows up. And that's why it is tough to control. Still behaves like water but don't drink (Chernobyl's revenge?)
Um, I already have more than one e-mail account, my work and my personal. So I just gave them addresses of me that were different than my name. I plan to check first with my friends and see if they mind my using their e-mail addresses. But like everyone else mentioned, don't bother entering. I want the AIBO! www.aibonet.com - Very Interesting.
There had been a lot of hand-wringing about the time of the 486-100 / Pentium 66 Mhz introduction about heat. The P-66 was about as hot as a chip could get, as I recall, and a lot of them failed due to heat. But there were several saving graces that happened around the same time. One biggie was the change to 3.3 volt chips, which run cooler because of lower voltage (just like turning down a dimmer on a light bulb - less volts, less heat). The others have been covered by the responses already made (lower micron technology, making smaller parts to radiate less heat). I just bought one of the Compaq's that the article mentions with the K6-2 for $550 with 64 M of ram. I don't need a lot of horsepower and can think of other things to do with the remaining $1000 for a new system. The speed is OK, I know I'm buying obsolete technology but hey, I know what it takes to make me happy.
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Many of the questions asked so far have been excellent. I am curious about the more basic infrastructure.
1. What power source does Sealand use? Is it dependent on power from Britain / able to buy power from Britain?
2. What is the fuel source for that power, if not supplied from Britain?
3. The fortress does not appear to have any land, so what is Sealand's source of food?
4. Do you create your own fresh water on Sealand?
I would be curious to know what by what methods these systems can be maintained in the event of blockade. It appears to me that this would be the most cost-effective attack against Sealand by any other country, especially Britain. Britain is not likely to entertain any other country sending an invasion fleet to Sealand, and I doubt it would be interested in risking British lives to stop Sealand. But trying to starve you out would be a politically viable (read: no lives necessarily risked) option, and could even work as a training exercise for Her Majesty's Navy. A joint blockade would also be possible.
Overall, I really like the whole idea of Sealand. There have been a few posts questioning viability on the basis of size, but I think the precedents of other small countries (Monaco, Luxembourg, and the Vatican) indicate that sovereignity is independent of size in Europe.
Best wishes and good luck!
I think the author is right on target. I realize that the costs would be quite high, but this would help raise interest in Ham radio if it could be done. Since it would be one of (if not THE) first civilian landing on the moon, I would think there would be options for research grants to help with the funding. Multi-purpose satellites are not unheard of in Ham radio, and contributions from several countries should be also possible. I think maybe doing a launch from the new International Space Station would be a great idea. Carry the parts up there, launch from the ISS to save weight on the lander's rocket.
Another idea: piggyback on one of NASA's long-range probes that might be using the moon for a slingshot. Being a replacement for ballast on a flight has gotten several of our satellites into orbit.
I do a lot of training of Hams and often am asked to cover this chapter, so here goes....
There is a limit to the frequency that will be refracted (bounced back) by the ionosphere. Typically frequencies above 50 Mhz tend to pass through on a regular basis. Below this frequency, the bending (and absorption) is more pronounced. There are definite night and day patterns that have to do with the charging of the ionosphere by the Sun. At night, the absorption of lower frequency (below 20 Mhz) is lesser, so long skips are possible with 3 and 7 Mhz signals. This is why you can pick up far-off AM radio signals (.8 - 1.6 Mhz) at night. Your friends should have some good information about this, ask them if they have a copy of Now You're Talking, a popular study guide for the Technician exam. Look at the chapter on Propagation and that should explain things pretty well.
I can't agree with the "Probably $0" on the public cost of the Pentium bug. I had recently transitioned from a research position to the computer field when the Pentium bug was found. I remember it being a *real* concern for researchers who were using Pentium machines for statistical analysis of their experiments. Their experiments were in many cases recursive and with this obscure error in the mix, they became unable to feel they could confidently report on their results. It effectively required them to redo, in some cases, years of work in order to verify their results before publication. Especially difficult for them was a key question - who would pay for the time to redo when the original research time had been paid for by a one-time grant fund that was now all dried up?
Also - consider the cost of the time involved on the part of any company that sold a customer a turn-key package system based on a Pentium computer with a bad chip: that company might have had to fly a tech out to the end user to replace the chip under warranty. That is a small but non-trivial expense.
And one last note: On a SCO Unix machine running X windows, the error could be clearly seen anytime one moved the mouse - a diagonal line would appear on the screen if the mouse was moved in a certain direction (like left to right). Eventually the session looked like a copy of Space Invaders gone haywire.
The problem is, the US Constitution is the only thing that allows you to be able to consider saving your child from any kind of peril at all.
Most countries which lack a Constitution such as ours have been big on taking people's children off to be killed (in battle, or gas chambers) without recourse by anyone.
Incidentally, they also take everything else so that any remaining children starve to death.
The country already has people who are anxious to tear the Constitution apart. It is interesting that you think you would have any opportunity to rebuild it once it is destroyed. This method of thinking has enslaved many peoples in the past. Only when it is too late do they realize what was given up, and it is always the children who suffer.
Before typing further, I'd like to say I do appreciate the spirit in which the idea was posted.
Actually, I should clarify: We have small, special purpose units that each do their jobs well and are manageable by our Ham Radio satellite organization, AMSAT. The link is available at http://www.amsat.org . They manage the sats we have and work internationally to develop new ones. Ironically, here in the U.S. a few years back when Iridium was just a twinkle in the eye, they tried to steal our frequencies for their network. (I am assuming the Little LEO's became Iridium). We all sat back and asked, 'Why in the world would a company want 2400 baud satellite info at 150 Mhz?' Apparently, to lose several billion.
To be honest, I hate seeing that much cash go bye-bye, and losing several nice working satellites is a real bummer, but I'd rather have their frequencies auctioned off to someone who can use them. That way, Hams do not have to fight off that company to keep the frequencies we already have (and have collectively spent real personal money to buy equipment for).
Come to think about it, since Hams can contribute to AMSAT's satellites, in work and technology, share the maintenance by helping relay health data from the satellite back to AMSAT, and all Hams worldwide can use them for free once they are orbiting, I guess we also already have an Open Source satellite network. (I know, I don't think the words really apply either, but hey...)
Let me get this straight - a 620 watt halogen pencil lamp, permanent magnets, 22 awg wire, and a signal injection point? So a good Halogen work lamp for $19.95. Two bar magnets from the Science store. 22 gauge speaker wire from RadShack, and a BNC from the same place. Build two - one to receive and one to transmit, plug in your Ham radio and go to town?!? ---Did anyone notice that they said they observed increased plant growth? It sounds like someone did already build the thing, but why would plants grow faster? That's the scary part for me - remember, Madame Curie gave herself radiation poisoning playing with Uranium.
Let me see if I got this straight - Wireless, flat fee/Advertising supported jukebox with unlimited capacity... So we would set up transmitters in every city, and a phone line where listeners could call in and ask for a song to be played, and have different kinds of stations play different kinds of music! And support it by ads - we could even offer news and weather on the hour! And THAT could be sponsored by advertisers too! People could have little players that fit in cars, on their wrist, on their heads! Maybe we could call it - FM Radio!!! Genious? No - maybe something else.
There is another side to your question. Nuclear physics is *different* than chemistry. The problem is that you take uranium that exists in nature and use it to extract energy by splitting it into totally different atoms. Yes, the two (or more) pieces that you have left have less energy. But the parts can wind up combining with others to create new atoms that are *more* troublesome. Like Plutonium or any of the really high atomic numbered things at the bottom of the atomic table. Those things usually don't exist in nature, they are created, and have a short half life. But they are created as part of a nuclear reaction. This is how a breeder reactor works. You take a lot of low grade -uranium, let's say- and put it in a reactor that is designed to create heavy atoms -like weapons grade plutonium- from the lighter uranium. Two tons in, 300 lbs out - net loss of energy but a by-product with a bunch more energy potential. And a bunch of contaminated atoms of other normally safe stuff. Like Hydrogen. Add a neutron from the nuclear fission and you have Deuterium, which is radioactive hydrogen. Two deuterium plus one oxygen gives water - innately radioactive water (called Heavy Water). That is where the nuclear waste part shows up. And that's why it is tough to control. Still behaves like water but don't drink (Chernobyl's revenge?)
Um, I already have more than one e-mail account, my work and my personal. So I just gave them addresses of me that were different than my name. I plan to check first with my friends and see if they mind my using their e-mail addresses. But like everyone else mentioned, don't bother entering. I want the AIBO! www.aibonet.com - Very Interesting.
There had been a lot of hand-wringing about the time of the 486-100 / Pentium 66 Mhz introduction about heat. The P-66 was about as hot as a chip could get, as I recall, and a lot of them failed due to heat. But there were several saving graces that happened around the same time. One biggie was the change to 3.3 volt chips, which run cooler because of lower voltage (just like turning down a dimmer on a light bulb - less volts, less heat). The others have been covered by the responses already made (lower micron technology, making smaller parts to radiate less heat). I just bought one of the Compaq's that the article mentions with the K6-2 for $550 with 64 M of ram. I don't need a lot of horsepower and can think of other things to do with the remaining $1000 for a new system. The speed is OK, I know I'm buying obsolete technology but hey, I know what it takes to make me happy.