CB radio at 27 MHz has been around since 1958. The radios were cheap --- remain cheap --- and have significant usable range without the use of repeaters.
CB radio survives because the cell phone isn't the answer to every problem.
Ham Radio: When all else fails, it works. I've never had an issue finding assistance on the ham bands. Even my unlicensed wife managed to get help by using my radio once. On the ham bands, it's about emergency communication and community service. They are there to help.
CB? Good luck finding somebody who 1. cares and 2. knows how to get you help when your cell phone dies. Last time I listened to CB it was a pile of mindless operators who where jawing all the time and never listening. Heaven help you if you needed help. Few cared to listen long enough to ever be helpful, and many where running so much power arguing with the guy next door that I doubt you would actually need a radio to hear them because the light bulbs would be making enough noise.
So I think it was a mistake to give 11 meters to the crazies on the CB band. Wasted some great HF spectrum space on what turned into a horrible mess. But, alas, it's done now and there is no going back.. Which is why I bid 11 meters a fond farewell...
CB is very useful on the road. I don't transmit much at all and usually don't even connect my mic, but it's great for traffic monitoring.
With the advent of cell phones most of the idiots moved off CB. Having a "public" frequency rather than yet another ham band used by a few gummers to chat
about each others piles is a handy thing during disasters etc. Keeps public comms and hamspace separate.
Historically, the CB spectrum used to be part of the Ham allocation. So it got taken from the gummers in the first place... But you missed my point.
I do not begrudge the creation of CB radio, I do however question the selection of the spectrum for CB. There was no need to put it in the HF spectrum and should have been moved up above 6 meters. There would have been a lot less trouble with CB because they would have been limited to spectrum that was a lot less subject to long distance propagation, making it more useful for what it was intended to be, local communications. Antennas would have been smaller, and the problem with linear amps would have been greatly reduced, mainly because nobody would need them.
Obscenity and talking in code is legally frowned upon, but almost everything else is fair game as long as it's not business related on the ham bands, at least between two US stations. International communications are usually limited to technical discussions or communications of a personal nature (how the kids are doing in school, the weather etc), but if you think about it, that makes good sense. Most hams do stick to noncontroversial topics, but that's not legally required. I've heard some pretty heated debates over religion and politics at times, but it's like standing on the street corner and yelling at people when you do that. You can start some lively debates, but nobody but the debaters will care. Not to mention, HF spectrum is a world wide resource, and using it to argue with somebody is a waste.
But all that aside, the issue is the band they used, not that they gave the CBers spectrum space. I'm complaining about the spectrum they selected. It should have been higher frequency, well above 6 meters, say where FRS is now would have been great. It would have avoided lots of the troubles we have with CB radios, allowed for smaller antennas and better overall usefulness because they could have easily increased the legal power output to make local communications much less difficult. As it stands, CB is a total wasteland, with little real purpose, that takes up valuable HF spectrum.
Armature Extra here, how can I help you get licensed? It's not that hard and these days you don't even need to learn Morse code like I had too. Entry level license requires only basic understanding of Ohms Law and Power calculations, a little about RF safety and some basic things about the rules (like what privileges your license gives you, who the FCC and ITU are.)
Great hobby with lots of interesting things to look at. We do community service like weather spotting for the NWS, event and emergency communications. Don't like talking on the radio? There are lots of computer based things to play with, Digital modes like PSK, packet or HSMM stuff. We have software defined radios you can build and program too. I'll bet we can find something of interest for you to play with.
Don't like taking tests? Well, what if I told you all the questions and the correct answers are published in advance and the test is multiple choice. 35 questions are asked and you only need 26 right. You can practice online (usually for free) and know almost for sure if you will pass or not before taking the test. Tests are likely given regularly and very close to you, no matter where you live and cost $15 for as many as you can take and pass. Pass all three to get your Extra and enjoy the full set of Armature privileges available. If you pass, your license will be good for life as long as you keep requesting renewal every 10 years (renewals are currently free if you file yourself online).
CB Radio === Total waste of a good ham band. Would/should have given them something above 6 meters where linears would have been of extremely limited value. But, as it stands we bid you a fond farewell 11 meters...
The problem isn't da burbs, the problem is they were built without integrated light rail.
The "problem" is that light rail is *never* a cost effective way to service the burbs. Infrastructure development of light rail systems is hugely expensive as are operating costs, so large in fact that nobody would be willing to pay the fares required to cover these costs. They end up being supported by government and subsidized out the wazoo in all but the most densely populated urban areas.
Buses are better options financially. They require much less costly infrastructure, are cheaper overall, and a whole lot more flexible. But even then, they cost more than you can charge in fares.
sounds like suburbanite who hasn't traveled outside the US, or even outside his suburb.
I've been a few places outside the USA a number of times. South America generally has ZERO public transit infrastructure, even in the larger cities. Out of the three midsized cities I've visited "south of the border" only one really had public transit, San Jose Costa Rica, but it sure didn't run where I wanted to go, ever. In Santiago Chile there was nothing but my shoes and taxis to get around, at least where I was staying. I think they had buses, but they didn't help me any.
I've made one trip to the UK, which was much better in it's public transportation setup, but it still didn't really cover where I wanted to go in Manchester so we had to take a lot of taxis. When RailTrack did service our needs, we took it, but I understand that Rail in the UK is HIGHLY subsidized because fares just don't cover the costs.
In all these cases, you simply walk, distances which most Americans consider excessive. In America, these distances are longer, simply because we did not pack our homes and businesses in as tightly. We didn't have to, we all owned cars. So now, we are stuck with it, at least for now.
Young people in school aren't stupid. They understand that these are the types of jobs that will be replaced by robots in the future. These jobs are dead-end.
Skilled trades are NOT subject to automation in most cases. But neither are STEM careers..
Dirty, 14 hour shifts, and working in an under-served skillset--not exactly the environment that lends itself to working on things you could take pleasure and pride in.
Farming was the primary motivation for me into a STEM career. Getting up at 3 AM to milk the cows then spending all day in the fields picking up hay only to return to the barn at 5 PM to milk again is a great way to motivate the lazy. I also got a fair amount of experience in mechanics, building and raising cattle so a skilled trade (mechanic, various building trades etc) wouldn't have been a problem, I just decided I liked Air Conditioning better than the great outdoors.
NOW they tell me that I should have been a welder? Um.. No, don't figure it's a good idea to spend my life in cramped spaces, berating heaven knows what welding something. Go ahead and get the engineering degree if you have the aptitude for math and science, but you might want to have a skilled trade or two up your sleeve.
Seriously, STEM isn't dead folks.. It will never be dead. But it's not a seller's market anymore in the engineering world. Right now it's a buyer's market because there are a bunch of us old geezers with decades of experience filing up the ranks, all the young whipper-snappers with the ink still drying on their bachelors degree don't have many jobs to choose from. But give it 5 years, maybe a decade and a lot of the engineering talent will be retiring, aging out or dying off. THEN your degree with 5 years of low level experience will be worth something..
Mid Hudson Valley New York.... and there isn't that much work.
Found the problem... Tell them to MOVE. NY is a pretty bad place for business and will be so for a long time. I hear North Dakota is booming, although you might have to drive a truck or something in the Oil Fields.
Much cooler, you mean, like..."fashionable"? Just pointing out the latest repetition of the price bait-and-switch comparison by Fandroids.
(sarc on)
Only an apple user would consider their phone a fashion accessory... How many 5c's you got there? One of each color so you can match any outfit? Cool there metro man.
(sarc off)
Look, go ahead and buy the phone that floats your boat as long as you can afford it... Me? I'll stick with my 3 year old android, not because I cannot afford a new one, but because I like not paying for a new one and I have other things I'd rather do with the money.
But how this whole discussion has anything to do with the original Tesla vrs Nissan article is beyond me..
Taxes on fuel mostly, which are paid by the users of said roads when they fill up their cars to drive on the roads.. Some are supported by tolls around here too. Or didn't you realize that the government did that? In Kansas I paid for my share of the road in front of my house too though "special taxes". The city/county would pay for the infrastructure up front then literally bill the lot owners for costs and interest over 10 or 15 years. Seemed fair to me. It also seems that, for the most part, roads are paid for by taxes on fuel, cars, registration fees etc, which are paid for by the users of the roads.
Mass transit hardly ever is fully supported by its users. Around here a SALES TAX that supports it and EVERYBODY pays the sales tax. So, even though I don't use or benefit from Mass transit (mainly because it doesn't get anywhere near my house OR my place of employment) I'm still paying the sales taxes that support it. Not that I'm complaining, but I'm making a point that Mass transit is NOT self supporting and could never survive on the fares it collected from those who use it.
BART though... They usually are not self supporting but highly dependent on revenue from government or taxes
Meanwhile, roads and highways and parking lots are natural formations and don't cost money!
Ever heard about taxes on FUEL and TOLL booths? Some roads/bridges pay for themselves though taxes collected by the users of same. Mass transit rarely does this (if it ever does.)
Folks in the USA want to go, when they want to go. They will gladly take the bus, if it's going where they want, when they want and they are assured they can get back when they want, but if any of these requirements are not met, they will take a car.
Except this meme is dependent on the "open road" fantasy, rather than the "daily commute" reality. And the convenience argument goes out the window in a metro area in rush hour. What are you really going to pick, a half-hour trip by BART into San Francisco, or a two hour ride by car plus $20 for parking when you get there?
If the bus/train goes when I where I want and when I want, I'll take it. Problem is that they hardly ever go where I want to go, when I want to go. Further, my experience is not unique, but more common. You can make a financial argument (parking, tolls etc) and that might be worth it to some.
Be careful with systems like BART though... They usually are not self supporting but highly dependent on revenue from government or taxes. Which generally explains why public transit is pretty limited. It simply doesn't make sense financially..
I'm having unpleasant dreams about wheelbarrows full of German cash being used to buy anything and everything one could find, only to discover the wheelbarrow was stolen while you where in the store..
beep, beep, beep..... BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.... BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.... Can you hit the snooze button please?
They are worlds better than the Cable company.... I used to be down for days with the cable provider because somebody on my block insisted on handing out DHCP addresses for some reason. Their tech support guys couldn't seem to figure out who it was. I finally got tired of them and jumped on FiOS when it first came out.
My connection has been rock solid since. I've had maybe 3 outages that where not my fault in 8 years, and two of those where because of the cheap router the provided was too unstable. I just went and got my own hardware and ditched that horrible Actiontec junk.
However, they are the absolute most expensive for the bandwidth you get. They filter/firewall residential DHCP service to keep you from running servers (http, https, ftp etc) but they don't tell you this directly. Also, they have pretty crappy traffic management so even though I pay for 25/25Mbps connection, I can pretty much count on only getting that when speed checking on their servers. Any real traffic can never approach that, even in aggregate.
So I don't recommend Verizon very highly either. Even if it is the lesser of the various evils available to me.
I'd rather get something less likely to have issues, like a PCEngines box running Monowall or a Edgerouter Lite (which I did). More powerful and more open.
I just find it funny how people seem to think that loading OSS firmware is some magic prevention that'll keep the evil NSA away (like they need this exploit to spy on you, they'll just monitor you at your ISP). No, not if you believe the router companies are complicit in implementing it for that purpose. It'd be much easier to just go lower level.
I know what you mean... I think some miss the forest for the twigs too. Even running THOR, the NSA can watch what you do if they are well enough connected (and running THOR might actually make that more likely.) Packets leaving your network enter the wild wild west and are subject to inspection, monitoring and alteration by a great number of folks that you could never detect much less control. Why then are we up in arms about minor issues with our routers/firewalls? My guess is because it's about the only think we can actually do something about..
I will take your point... But The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is part of the Treasury Department is it not? And a Federal Reserve bank needs to be ready to cough up the physical cash should an account holder demand to make a withdraw.
The amount of physical currency in circulation is of course totally irrelevant.
On that point you are correct, but the physical currency is being expanded. What IS relevant, is the expansion of the total money supply and the artificial lowering of interest rates caused by QE. Not all money is physical these days, much is electronic and only backed by physical currency when it hits the streets in your hands. IMHO Inflation will be the result of QE as it has increased the money supply, both physical and electronic. There is no way to avoid it because we have added more to the currency supply than to our GDP growth.
BTW, I'm not an advocate of buying gold as there are better things to invest in beyond something you cannot legally hold in your hand (unless it's in coin form) and have to pay somebody buy and store. Seems stupid to invest in something like that.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey now.. They don't RUN the place... Yet.... At least that's the story.
This is Crony politics as usual...
Crony Politics as usual.. Actually, worse than usual for DC, unless you are from Chicago, in which case it looks like the wind driven snow...
98% of the voters approve... You gotta give them what they ask for, or they might end up voting for somebody else, right?
Where are you getting the 98% number?
CB Radio === Total waste of a good ham band.
CB radio at 27 MHz has been around since 1958. The radios were cheap --- remain cheap --- and have significant usable range without the use of repeaters.
CB radio survives because the cell phone isn't the answer to every problem.
Ham Radio: When all else fails, it works. I've never had an issue finding assistance on the ham bands. Even my unlicensed wife managed to get help by using my radio once. On the ham bands, it's about emergency communication and community service. They are there to help.
CB? Good luck finding somebody who 1. cares and 2. knows how to get you help when your cell phone dies. Last time I listened to CB it was a pile of mindless operators who where jawing all the time and never listening. Heaven help you if you needed help. Few cared to listen long enough to ever be helpful, and many where running so much power arguing with the guy next door that I doubt you would actually need a radio to hear them because the light bulbs would be making enough noise.
So I think it was a mistake to give 11 meters to the crazies on the CB band. Wasted some great HF spectrum space on what turned into a horrible mess. But, alas, it's done now and there is no going back.. Which is why I bid 11 meters a fond farewell...
CB is very useful on the road. I don't transmit much at all and usually don't even connect my mic, but it's great for traffic monitoring.
With the advent of cell phones most of the idiots moved off CB. Having a "public" frequency rather than yet another ham band used by a few gummers to chat about each others piles is a handy thing during disasters etc. Keeps public comms and hamspace separate.
Historically, the CB spectrum used to be part of the Ham allocation. So it got taken from the gummers in the first place... But you missed my point.
I do not begrudge the creation of CB radio, I do however question the selection of the spectrum for CB. There was no need to put it in the HF spectrum and should have been moved up above 6 meters. There would have been a lot less trouble with CB because they would have been limited to spectrum that was a lot less subject to long distance propagation, making it more useful for what it was intended to be, local communications. Antennas would have been smaller, and the problem with linear amps would have been greatly reduced, mainly because nobody would need them.
Obscenity and talking in code is legally frowned upon, but almost everything else is fair game as long as it's not business related on the ham bands, at least between two US stations. International communications are usually limited to technical discussions or communications of a personal nature (how the kids are doing in school, the weather etc), but if you think about it, that makes good sense. Most hams do stick to noncontroversial topics, but that's not legally required. I've heard some pretty heated debates over religion and politics at times, but it's like standing on the street corner and yelling at people when you do that. You can start some lively debates, but nobody but the debaters will care. Not to mention, HF spectrum is a world wide resource, and using it to argue with somebody is a waste.
But all that aside, the issue is the band they used, not that they gave the CBers spectrum space. I'm complaining about the spectrum they selected. It should have been higher frequency, well above 6 meters, say where FRS is now would have been great. It would have avoided lots of the troubles we have with CB radios, allowed for smaller antennas and better overall usefulness because they could have easily increased the legal power output to make local communications much less difficult. As it stands, CB is a total wasteland, with little real purpose, that takes up valuable HF spectrum.
Armature Extra here, how can I help you get licensed? It's not that hard and these days you don't even need to learn Morse code like I had too. Entry level license requires only basic understanding of Ohms Law and Power calculations, a little about RF safety and some basic things about the rules (like what privileges your license gives you, who the FCC and ITU are.)
Great hobby with lots of interesting things to look at. We do community service like weather spotting for the NWS, event and emergency communications. Don't like talking on the radio? There are lots of computer based things to play with, Digital modes like PSK, packet or HSMM stuff. We have software defined radios you can build and program too. I'll bet we can find something of interest for you to play with.
Don't like taking tests? Well, what if I told you all the questions and the correct answers are published in advance and the test is multiple choice. 35 questions are asked and you only need 26 right. You can practice online (usually for free) and know almost for sure if you will pass or not before taking the test. Tests are likely given regularly and very close to you, no matter where you live and cost $15 for as many as you can take and pass. Pass all three to get your Extra and enjoy the full set of Armature privileges available. If you pass, your license will be good for life as long as you keep requesting renewal every 10 years (renewals are currently free if you file yourself online).
Go ahead.. Take a look!
http://www.arrl.org
CB Radio === Total waste of a good ham band. Would/should have given them something above 6 meters where linears would have been of extremely limited value. But, as it stands we bid you a fond farewell 11 meters...
Maybe he should call it "Talking".
Or waving flags if you can use signal flags. I hear smoke signals can work too..
The problem isn't da burbs, the problem is they were built without integrated light rail.
The "problem" is that light rail is *never* a cost effective way to service the burbs. Infrastructure development of light rail systems is hugely expensive as are operating costs, so large in fact that nobody would be willing to pay the fares required to cover these costs. They end up being supported by government and subsidized out the wazoo in all but the most densely populated urban areas.
Buses are better options financially. They require much less costly infrastructure, are cheaper overall, and a whole lot more flexible. But even then, they cost more than you can charge in fares.
sounds like suburbanite who hasn't traveled outside the US, or even outside his suburb.
I've been a few places outside the USA a number of times. South America generally has ZERO public transit infrastructure, even in the larger cities. Out of the three midsized cities I've visited "south of the border" only one really had public transit, San Jose Costa Rica, but it sure didn't run where I wanted to go, ever. In Santiago Chile there was nothing but my shoes and taxis to get around, at least where I was staying. I think they had buses, but they didn't help me any.
I've made one trip to the UK, which was much better in it's public transportation setup, but it still didn't really cover where I wanted to go in Manchester so we had to take a lot of taxis. When RailTrack did service our needs, we took it, but I understand that Rail in the UK is HIGHLY subsidized because fares just don't cover the costs.
In all these cases, you simply walk, distances which most Americans consider excessive. In America, these distances are longer, simply because we did not pack our homes and businesses in as tightly. We didn't have to, we all owned cars. So now, we are stuck with it, at least for now.
Young people in school aren't stupid. They understand that these are the types of jobs that will be replaced by robots in the future. These jobs are dead-end.
Skilled trades are NOT subject to automation in most cases. But neither are STEM careers..
Dirty, 14 hour shifts, and working in an under-served skillset--not exactly the environment that lends itself to working on things you could take pleasure and pride in.
Farming was the primary motivation for me into a STEM career. Getting up at 3 AM to milk the cows then spending all day in the fields picking up hay only to return to the barn at 5 PM to milk again is a great way to motivate the lazy. I also got a fair amount of experience in mechanics, building and raising cattle so a skilled trade (mechanic, various building trades etc) wouldn't have been a problem, I just decided I liked Air Conditioning better than the great outdoors.
NOW they tell me that I should have been a welder? Um.. No, don't figure it's a good idea to spend my life in cramped spaces, berating heaven knows what welding something. Go ahead and get the engineering degree if you have the aptitude for math and science, but you might want to have a skilled trade or two up your sleeve.
Seriously, STEM isn't dead folks.. It will never be dead. But it's not a seller's market anymore in the engineering world. Right now it's a buyer's market because there are a bunch of us old geezers with decades of experience filing up the ranks, all the young whipper-snappers with the ink still drying on their bachelors degree don't have many jobs to choose from. But give it 5 years, maybe a decade and a lot of the engineering talent will be retiring, aging out or dying off. THEN your degree with 5 years of low level experience will be worth something..
Mid Hudson Valley New York.... and there isn't that much work.
Found the problem... Tell them to MOVE. NY is a pretty bad place for business and will be so for a long time. I hear North Dakota is booming, although you might have to drive a truck or something in the Oil Fields.
Hey, what about Verizon FiOS? I got fiber to my house and get as good of service as you can expect from Verizon....
And how's your Netflix streaming?
Getting better over the last few weeks... Still has issues during peak usage though.
Much cooler, you mean, like..."fashionable"? Just pointing out the latest repetition of the price bait-and-switch comparison by Fandroids.
(sarc on)
Only an apple user would consider their phone a fashion accessory... How many 5c's you got there? One of each color so you can match any outfit? Cool there metro man.
(sarc off)
Look, go ahead and buy the phone that floats your boat as long as you can afford it... Me? I'll stick with my 3 year old android, not because I cannot afford a new one, but because I like not paying for a new one and I have other things I'd rather do with the money.
But how this whole discussion has anything to do with the original Tesla vrs Nissan article is beyond me..
Where do you think public roads come from?
Taxes on fuel mostly, which are paid by the users of said roads when they fill up their cars to drive on the roads.. Some are supported by tolls around here too. Or didn't you realize that the government did that? In Kansas I paid for my share of the road in front of my house too though "special taxes". The city/county would pay for the infrastructure up front then literally bill the lot owners for costs and interest over 10 or 15 years. Seemed fair to me. It also seems that, for the most part, roads are paid for by taxes on fuel, cars, registration fees etc, which are paid for by the users of the roads.
Mass transit hardly ever is fully supported by its users. Around here a SALES TAX that supports it and EVERYBODY pays the sales tax. So, even though I don't use or benefit from Mass transit (mainly because it doesn't get anywhere near my house OR my place of employment) I'm still paying the sales taxes that support it. Not that I'm complaining, but I'm making a point that Mass transit is NOT self supporting and could never survive on the fares it collected from those who use it.
BART though... They usually are not self supporting but highly dependent on revenue from government or taxes
Meanwhile, roads and highways and parking lots are natural formations and don't cost money!
Ever heard about taxes on FUEL and TOLL booths? Some roads/bridges pay for themselves though taxes collected by the users of same. Mass transit rarely does this (if it ever does.)
And in some cases, much, much cooler than that Apple...
But hey, I didn't choose the example, but was responding to another's illustration.
Except this meme is dependent on the "open road" fantasy, rather than the "daily commute" reality. And the convenience argument goes out the window in a metro area in rush hour. What are you really going to pick, a half-hour trip by BART into San Francisco, or a two hour ride by car plus $20 for parking when you get there?
If the bus/train goes when I where I want and when I want, I'll take it. Problem is that they hardly ever go where I want to go, when I want to go. Further, my experience is not unique, but more common. You can make a financial argument (parking, tolls etc) and that might be worth it to some.
Be careful with systems like BART though... They usually are not self supporting but highly dependent on revenue from government or taxes. Which generally explains why public transit is pretty limited. It simply doesn't make sense financially..
I'm having unpleasant dreams about wheelbarrows full of German cash being used to buy anything and everything one could find, only to discover the wheelbarrow was stolen while you where in the store..
beep, beep, beep..... BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.... BEEP, BEEP, BEEP .... Can you hit the snooze button please?
They are worlds better than the Cable company.... I used to be down for days with the cable provider because somebody on my block insisted on handing out DHCP addresses for some reason. Their tech support guys couldn't seem to figure out who it was. I finally got tired of them and jumped on FiOS when it first came out.
My connection has been rock solid since. I've had maybe 3 outages that where not my fault in 8 years, and two of those where because of the cheap router the provided was too unstable. I just went and got my own hardware and ditched that horrible Actiontec junk.
However, they are the absolute most expensive for the bandwidth you get. They filter/firewall residential DHCP service to keep you from running servers (http, https, ftp etc) but they don't tell you this directly. Also, they have pretty crappy traffic management so even though I pay for 25/25Mbps connection, I can pretty much count on only getting that when speed checking on their servers. Any real traffic can never approach that, even in aggregate.
So I don't recommend Verizon very highly either. Even if it is the lesser of the various evils available to me.
I'd rather get something less likely to have issues, like a PCEngines box running Monowall or a Edgerouter Lite (which I did). More powerful and more open.
I just find it funny how people seem to think that loading OSS firmware is some magic prevention that'll keep the evil NSA away (like they need this exploit to spy on you, they'll just monitor you at your ISP). No, not if you believe the router companies are complicit in implementing it for that purpose. It'd be much easier to just go lower level.
I know what you mean... I think some miss the forest for the twigs too. Even running THOR, the NSA can watch what you do if they are well enough connected (and running THOR might actually make that more likely.) Packets leaving your network enter the wild wild west and are subject to inspection, monitoring and alteration by a great number of folks that you could never detect much less control. Why then are we up in arms about minor issues with our routers/firewalls? My guess is because it's about the only think we can actually do something about..
I will take your point... But The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is part of the Treasury Department is it not? And a Federal Reserve bank needs to be ready to cough up the physical cash should an account holder demand to make a withdraw.
The amount of physical currency in circulation is of course totally irrelevant.
On that point you are correct, but the physical currency is being expanded. What IS relevant, is the expansion of the total money supply and the artificial lowering of interest rates caused by QE. Not all money is physical these days, much is electronic and only backed by physical currency when it hits the streets in your hands. IMHO Inflation will be the result of QE as it has increased the money supply, both physical and electronic. There is no way to avoid it because we have added more to the currency supply than to our GDP growth.
BTW, I'm not an advocate of buying gold as there are better things to invest in beyond something you cannot legally hold in your hand (unless it's in coin form) and have to pay somebody buy and store. Seems stupid to invest in something like that.