Good for the French! D-star is just another way to exclude everyone who doesn't want to plop down a kilobuck for their radio...much like "private" repeater organizations in the states. Amateur radio should be free and open to everyone, and D-star clearly doesn't fall into this category!
73,
KD5SFK
Any kind of braodband wire is better than any kind of wireless, 99% of the time. Wireless is RADIO and beyond being affected by network traffic, it is affected by atmospheric conditions, interference, reflections, refractions, etc. Having used a terrestrial wireless (WiFi) ISP myself, and having experience with family members who also use such a service (because it is the only thing available) the wire wins every time.
Peter,
Dude, amen! I'm a ham and I couldn't agree more with your sentiments. I friggen hate the way many hams are constantly proselytizing (especially on the Internet) about how ham radio is going to save the world when "the big one" comes. If my services and/or radios are ever needed for the public good, I'll be glad to help out, but I'm not going to proselytize. I'm happy being geeky with my geeky friends.
I'm a Time Warner San Antonio Roadrunner subscriber and I got a very strange letter from them yesterday....
They want me to trade in my existing modem (which they own anyway) on a new one so I can use "PowerBoost" for free. Apparently, PowerBoost gives you more speed (if it is available) for the first 10MB of a download, then goes back to your normal speed.
Of course, nothing is for free, so I suspect they need me to have this new modem in order to switch to the tiered bandwidth system. So, no thanks, I'll keep my existing one for now. Of course, they can make me trade it out if they want to by cutting it off, but why should I take their bait and make it easier for them to screw me?
BTW, I understand that Earthlink (piggybacking on TW) won't have bandwidth caps, so I'll switch to them if I have to. Don't have TV cable anymore, so to hell with TW. Unfortunately, the cable is my only option until AT&T activates this fiber they buried in front of my house a YEAR ago!!!
I am an amateur radio operator, so I've heard a lot of pros and cons against BPL. Aside from the obvious and well worn HF interference issue, it was my understanding that BPL actually isn't great for rural areas because the distances over which it will work well are way too small. In other words, it needs a fiber connection to feed the powerline grid for a small area. Each area of distribution has to be fed by another fiber run. Seems to me like WiFi or WiMax are much better alternatives for rural areas. And what about the new whitespace frequencies that the FCC recently approved? Wouldn't this make wireless even more attractive?
When I read the headline, I thought they were talking about fire ants--which would be very old news. Fire ants invaded the country decades ago. We've known for years that fire ants have an affinity for electrical equipment. But these little buggers eat fire ants, so I say bring 'em on. I don't see how anything that eats fire ants can be considered to be a pest.
That's what I was going to suggest, but if they don't want a satellite dish, they aren't going to want a WiFi antenna on a 20 or 30 ft pole either. They're either going to have to deal with a wireless data card from one of the cell phone providers, or dialup.
Yeah, and you read Playboy for the articles, right? I'm a homebrewer too, and I drink beer because I like a good beer buzz. The buzz is even better if it comes from a tasty beer that I brewed myself. Get over yourself!
The modeling software wasn't around when this antenna was originally designed 50 years ago, but it has been around for 10 or more years and is very commonly used by amateur radio operators to design antennas or to improve on existing antenna designs. The only reason this antenna and the story behind its design got slashdotted is that it applies to something a little more mainstream than ham radio--hdtv. Most people still think of ham radio as a bunch of 80-year-old guys tapping out morse code on a bunch of 80-year-old tube-type radios in their basements. While I'll admit there are plenty of those folks still in ham radio, there are also plenty of folks in the hobby who are using digital modes, digital signal processing, and GPL software. Some of you who are interested in this HDTV antenna should check out the amateur radio hobby.
This Vista bashing article only has two valid points (see below). The rest is just whining because some things in Vista (and Linux) are different than they were in XP.
1. Vista runs too slow--Probably true because it seems to be full of bloat. All of the other complaints about the UI stuff are crap. Just because some of the Vista UI's are different, doesn't mean they won't do the same things.
2. Linux is harder to use than Windows--again probably true for 90% of the people out there. However, I like the challenge of figuring out how to use Linux, plus all the other good things about it, so I use it as my main OS. The author's main gripe about Linux--that he won't use it because he couldn't find a directory using the same procedure he used in Windows, is crap. It is possible to search for directories, you just have to learn a different procedure--just like you have to learn different procedures for the Vista UI's!
Just because something is different doesn't make it worse!
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Good for the French! D-star is just another way to exclude everyone who doesn't want to plop down a kilobuck for their radio...much like "private" repeater organizations in the states. Amateur radio should be free and open to everyone, and D-star clearly doesn't fall into this category! 73, KD5SFK
Any kind of braodband wire is better than any kind of wireless, 99% of the time. Wireless is RADIO and beyond being affected by network traffic, it is affected by atmospheric conditions, interference, reflections, refractions, etc. Having used a terrestrial wireless (WiFi) ISP myself, and having experience with family members who also use such a service (because it is the only thing available) the wire wins every time.
Peter, Dude, amen! I'm a ham and I couldn't agree more with your sentiments. I friggen hate the way many hams are constantly proselytizing (especially on the Internet) about how ham radio is going to save the world when "the big one" comes. If my services and/or radios are ever needed for the public good, I'll be glad to help out, but I'm not going to proselytize. I'm happy being geeky with my geeky friends.
I'm a Time Warner San Antonio Roadrunner subscriber and I got a very strange letter from them yesterday.... They want me to trade in my existing modem (which they own anyway) on a new one so I can use "PowerBoost" for free. Apparently, PowerBoost gives you more speed (if it is available) for the first 10MB of a download, then goes back to your normal speed. Of course, nothing is for free, so I suspect they need me to have this new modem in order to switch to the tiered bandwidth system. So, no thanks, I'll keep my existing one for now. Of course, they can make me trade it out if they want to by cutting it off, but why should I take their bait and make it easier for them to screw me? BTW, I understand that Earthlink (piggybacking on TW) won't have bandwidth caps, so I'll switch to them if I have to. Don't have TV cable anymore, so to hell with TW. Unfortunately, the cable is my only option until AT&T activates this fiber they buried in front of my house a YEAR ago!!!
I am an amateur radio operator, so I've heard a lot of pros and cons against BPL. Aside from the obvious and well worn HF interference issue, it was my understanding that BPL actually isn't great for rural areas because the distances over which it will work well are way too small. In other words, it needs a fiber connection to feed the powerline grid for a small area. Each area of distribution has to be fed by another fiber run. Seems to me like WiFi or WiMax are much better alternatives for rural areas. And what about the new whitespace frequencies that the FCC recently approved? Wouldn't this make wireless even more attractive?
I wonder if this alternative designed by NASA engineers in their spare time would require shock absorbers: http://www.launchcomplexmodels.com/Direct/index.htm
When I read the headline, I thought they were talking about fire ants--which would be very old news. Fire ants invaded the country decades ago. We've known for years that fire ants have an affinity for electrical equipment. But these little buggers eat fire ants, so I say bring 'em on. I don't see how anything that eats fire ants can be considered to be a pest.
That's what I was going to suggest, but if they don't want a satellite dish, they aren't going to want a WiFi antenna on a 20 or 30 ft pole either. They're either going to have to deal with a wireless data card from one of the cell phone providers, or dialup.
Yeah, and you read Playboy for the articles, right? I'm a homebrewer too, and I drink beer because I like a good beer buzz. The buzz is even better if it comes from a tasty beer that I brewed myself. Get over yourself!
The modeling software wasn't around when this antenna was originally designed 50 years ago, but it has been around for 10 or more years and is very commonly used by amateur radio operators to design antennas or to improve on existing antenna designs. The only reason this antenna and the story behind its design got slashdotted is that it applies to something a little more mainstream than ham radio--hdtv. Most people still think of ham radio as a bunch of 80-year-old guys tapping out morse code on a bunch of 80-year-old tube-type radios in their basements. While I'll admit there are plenty of those folks still in ham radio, there are also plenty of folks in the hobby who are using digital modes, digital signal processing, and GPL software. Some of you who are interested in this HDTV antenna should check out the amateur radio hobby.
This Vista bashing article only has two valid points (see below). The rest is just whining because some things in Vista (and Linux) are different than they were in XP. 1. Vista runs too slow--Probably true because it seems to be full of bloat. All of the other complaints about the UI stuff are crap. Just because some of the Vista UI's are different, doesn't mean they won't do the same things. 2. Linux is harder to use than Windows--again probably true for 90% of the people out there. However, I like the challenge of figuring out how to use Linux, plus all the other good things about it, so I use it as my main OS. The author's main gripe about Linux--that he won't use it because he couldn't find a directory using the same procedure he used in Windows, is crap. It is possible to search for directories, you just have to learn a different procedure--just like you have to learn different procedures for the Vista UI's! Just because something is different doesn't make it worse!