Please mod this post up. Anybody who runs carbons and 2000' reels in this day and age deserves better than a zero score!
Hundreds of shows? Hell, I've run year-old prints in grind houses that must have seen xenon at least 1500 times and that were still in decent shape! I miss my Peerless Magnarc Type G's and Super Simplexes from the Kingsway, dammit!!
Damn. I must have run Fight Club in the multiplexes a zillion times but I was never monitoring the sound when that exchange came up. Mind you, in 19 years doing it for a living I've never heard anybody call cue marks "cigarette burns."
As to splicing single frames of pr0n into features, it's a nice urban legend but in reality anybody even casually watching will notice the frame. Go back to the changeover cues we were just talking about -- each of the two cues is printed on 4 frames, or about 1/6th of a second. They HANG there on the screen. One frame of something totally different would be CLEARLY visible to even the most clueless observer.
Not to mention, the jump that would occur on the screen and the pop in the sound about a second and a third afterwards.
As for it being a shit job, you tell me...I've run probably 5,000 films or more, watched likely well over half of them and was paid a reasonable salary for the priviledge. At the height of my career in that industry I worked 5 days of 10-hour shifts one week and two days of 10-hour shifts the following week. I got to work with toys I loved, learned an incredible amount about electronics and sound and got to sleep in till the crack of noon most days.
Ahh....No.
Those are Changeover cues. Two of them at the end of each 20-minute reel, the first separated by eight seconds from the second, and the second about 3/4 of a second from the last frame. Gives projectionists using older equipment the signal to startup the incoming projector with the light path blocked, then, at the second cue, instantaneously switch image and sound from one projector to the other for the next reel. It's the way it was done up util about the 80s or so. Now most cinemas have only one machine and a film transport system called a platter that handles the entire print. The problem is that one operator now handles an entire huge multiplex and is running from one booth to another, so he or she can't be around to catch any problems. Coupled to the fact most of these operators couldn't count their balls/boobs and get the same number twice, and you have the reason that 35mm projection is often so bad, especially in smaller cinemas.
There are still many two-projector installations in the United States and Canada. I ran just about every one of them in Toronto in the 80s and 90s, and I still miss doing so to this day. Forget digital projection and stick with 35 and 70mm film. Just put properly-trained projectionists behind the equipment and the experience the movie-goer will get will be increased by an order of magnitude.
Its nice to go to the Cinema and have amazing sound, now we can watch the films and not have scratchy, popping, projected images!
Maybe if the chains hired back some real projectionists who can put on a good show without scratching the print to ratshit after 3 passes you would have your wish. Expert film handlers and a good 35mm print (or dare I suggest it -- 70mm) will beat the optical quality of ANY digital projection system currently in use or likely to come down the pike in the next decade.
If you ever get the opportunity to do so, carefully examine a 35mm print and a digital release of the same title. Look for the "swirling snow" digital artifacts in any light-coloured scenes (like snow or sandscapes); blocky shadows; colour that just doesn't look "right."
It's still possible to put together a booth of older equipment that will put on a beautiful show for about $15,000 or less -- I've seen it done for under $8,000. No THX for that money, but good optical stereo, a nice, bright image and solid, mechanically-reliable hardware. Just add in a relatively-cheap DTS player and you're off to the races.
Now consider that just a single Digital projector will cost, conservatively, $150,000. That's without the B-chain sound hardware (amps, wiring, speakers, etc). Out of a $10 ticket price, the exhibitor MAY see $1 to $1.50 per ticket if they're lucky. Most couldn't increase the concession prices any higher without having a full-time loan officer on site, so that's not much of an option either.
The problem is that Digital is still very much the buzzword-du-jour. It's still not ready for prime-time, but idiot movie-goers are prepared to sit through a vastly inferior presentation (unless a 35mm projectionbaboon screws up) just to say "I saw it in Digital. Duh."
> I got a digital signal processing enabled high-frequency transceiver optimized for carrier-wave communication! > Even more surprising, it was made in America by Americans:-)
So Santa gave *YOU* my asked-for HF rig! Razzafrazza!@#$$#&
Mind you, I guess I got a couple of nice prezzies...TO4E online logs are back up and I'm in the log, and I finally snared 3B9FR after months of trying.
But still...
*Must Get An Orion* *Must Get An Orion* *Must Get An Orion* *Must Get An Orion* *Must Get An Orion*
OK, a really nice fancy chiropractic pillow, but A Freakin' Pillow!
Partially redeemed by seasons two and three of Babylon 5 on DVD (that I'll never watch since I've seen each ep a zillion times).
In-laws from the UK got me a bottle of *awesome* Single-Malt (1993 Longrow, Springbank distillery bottling, Campbeltown) however, so I think I'll go sleep myself to drunk now...*HIC*...
And not just cordless phones either. Baby monitors and other non-licensed equipment at 49 MHz will be toast. Certainly HF radio will get clobbered by BPL, but VHF-Lo will become unusable, as you'll see below.
BPL is touted as the saviour for rural residents away from cable and DSL service, right? Hope you enjoy your nice fast broadband when your house is on fire and your kids are trapped upstairs, because guess what, bunky? *MOST RURAL FIRE DEPARTMENT RADIOS ARE VHF-Lo Band* -- between 30 and 50 MHz -- since that band has much better range than VHF-Hi, UHF and 800+ over flat country. Ditto for the volunteer rescue squad and sheriff's office in Podunk County...better start IMing them for help and directions when the burglars drop by for tea, since their squad-car radios won't pick up a blasted thing as they travel on the county roads underneath all those Porn-Packed Power Lines!
Maybe you can forget about all this nonsense and just watch a little TV? Oh, I almost forgot. If you've got an outside antenna to receive local broadcast television, you can almost write off channels 2 - 6, which operate between 54 and 88 MHz, unless you're almost right under the transmitter. Don't worry about watching the weather warnings on Channel 3 a few towns away, your weather radio will warn you of the twister heading for community -- unless a nice second harmonic is creating a strong enough local signal in your house to blot out the 162 MHz band (81 x 2 = 162 MHz, where weather radios operate). Mightn't radiate very far, but it could pack just enough of a wallop to cause your WX radio to fail as that F5 bears down on you knobby little body.
And better get some more homeowners' insurance if you live near a major airport cuz one of the ILS approach nav-aid beacons ("fan marker") sits smack-dab at 75 MHz. Not to mention the possibility of radio-controlled model airplanes losing contact with their control box and going awry when junior is flying them in the park near home -- they're also around 72 and 75 MHz.
This is NOT your average FUD. This is very real, and I've heard/seen what this can do in Briarcliff Manor, a small test market north of New York City. Please wander over to http://www.ac6rm.net/mailarchive/html/elecraft-lis t/2003-08/msg00562.html to get an idea of what this is all about.
Ok, let's rephrase that then: wouldn't it make more sense to simply require broadband over powerline to not emit any significant energy in the HF spectrum?
And while we're at it, let's require that the laws of physics be re-written by Congress! You just don't understand what we're talking about. Power lines are great for low-frequency AC (60 Hz power), but inefficient for higher-frequency signals.
The proposed Broadband over Power Lines service would be a shared user of frequencies between 2 MHz and 80 MHz. Again, these frequencies wouldn't propagate as well over power lines, so they would be sent at high power levels. Much of their energy would be lost in the transmission from the upstream connector to your home -- i.e. radiated out the miles-long antenna formed by the power line! Simply put, you CANNOT have non-interfering BPL if it uses the 2-80 MHz spectrum. Period.
FEMA and other governmental users' radios are scattered between typically 2 and 50 MHz in different sub-bands that are used depending on the time of day, how active the ionosphere is and the overall path of intended communications. Ditto for fixed services, land-mobile, aeronautical and marine services, beacons, short wave broadcasters and amateurs.
The problem is two fold: 1) anybody trying to receive a signal between about 2 and 80 MHz would be unable to do so. 2) Legally-licensed transmitters in that range would cause untold interferance to these "Part 15" devices. Part 15 means they can't legally cause interferance and must live with any interferance they get. Aunt Millie's not going to be happy when her cordless phone is rendered useless by broadband and Uncle Phil will be pissed when he can't surf porn because the clean and licensed 1000 Watt transmitter up the block is on the air.
Be careful what you wish for. http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/10/03/ 3/
NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 3, 2003--With final action pending by the US House and Senate on a Fiscal Year 2004 federal budget bill, the fate of the Space Environment Center (SEC) in Boulder, Colorado, hangs in the balance. The FY 2004 Senate appropriations bill eliminates funds for the SEC and for all space weather-related activities in the center's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The House version of the appropriations bill holds the center's funding at $5.2 million--a 40-percent reduction from FY 2002 levels. President George W. Bush requested $8.3 million for the SEC. Seattle-based ARRL propagation bulletin editor Tad Cook, K7RA, says the possible loss of Space Environment Center funding has him very concerned.
"The NOAA SEC provides all of the data for our weekly propagation bulletin," Cook said. "It is SEC staff that prepares the forecasts that I rely on when I tell readers what the geomagnetic and solar indices will be during a given forecast period." Cook says he suspects the proposed cuts are due to some misunderstanding about the SEC's mission, and his contacts with congressional offices have borne out that belief. Cook is encouraging ARRL members to contact their senators and representatives in Congress, urging them to vote to fund the SEC.
The Space Environment Center provides real-time monitoring and forecasting of solar and geophysical events (see the Space Weather Now Web site). Those include solar flares and geomagnetic disturbances that can affect radio wave propagation. The SEC Radio User's Page includes data and information specific to the current state of the ionosphere. The center also conducts research in solar-terrestrial physics and develops techniques to forecast solar and geophysical disturbances.
See the full article at the URL posted at the top. I have no clue as to how to post a clickable URL (tried the usual HTML code and it just shows up as [arrl.org].
Old Motorola two-way radios can only be programmed by propriatary software that must be run on nothing faster than a 386 or 486SX25 machine. Motorola hasn't released newer versions since the radios themselves are officially obsolete. Tell that to countless Police, Fire and EMT agencies still using them.
To that end, I'm still looking for a decent laptop of that vintage with a good battery and serial ports.
Amateur radio will never be big with Slashdot readers. Why? No porn!
Depends on your definition of pr0n I suppose. If you mean nekkid wimmin, well, yeah. If you mean images so vile that they go against the morals of a decent and civil society, then Pictures from the Dayton hamfest
surely qualify.
Think 22,000 sweaty, smelly, unbathed, short, fat, old, bald white guys.
On second though, Don't.
Still one of my guilty pleasures even though it's become a real dive in the past 10 years or so.
- Why was morse code originally required for amatuer radio operators?
It's the one method of communication that hams would have had in common (at that time) with government, marine and military communicators.
For example, hams would be able to assist in disaster comms with shipboard radio operators on the high seas, a scenario which would -- again, at that time -- likely only possible with CW.
Speaking of SMS-junkies, funny thing but did you ever notice that on certain brands of phones, when you get an SMS message the alert tone are the letters S M S in the International Morse Code?
The original poster wasn't entirely wrong with his observations of hams who can barely operate their PC's.
As an active and avid DXer I rely on my PC interface extensively. But in dealing with far too many other hams -- and vendors of amateur software -- it's all too evident to me that most hams think the pinnacle of computer technology is a 386 or first-generation pentium, with a staggering 64 whole Megs of RAM. Mention W2K, XP, 802.11b, LANs, etc, to this bunch and their eyes will glaze over, their pacemakers will go into "puree" mode and their depends will start to sag.
Take a look around your next hamfest at what's being sold -- and BOUGHT by these elite technical wizards.
OK, I say Mea-Culpa to one aspect of this -- I'm looking for a 486 SX laptop myself, but that's for programming old radios with ancient (non-updated) software that can't handle anything faster!
Other than that, though, I find it frustrating to try and demonstrate modern loggers or PSK-31 or any newer technology to the generation that still holds their 5 1/4" floppies near and dear to their hearts.
Try talking to some logging or contest software vendors sometime about the technical expertise of their customers if you really want an interesting insight. Most have said the same thing -- they have to dumb down the user interfaces, take menu choices away, etc, because the level of frustration amongst their users goes into the stratosphere if they make everything user-configurable.
Oh, and it has to work on a 386 with 8 megs of RAM, preferably under DOS or maybe for the elite, under Win95. Gaaaah. It also has to cost no more than $19.95 -- even if it took 3 years to develop and test.
Thankfully more and more hams are getting into the real world, but I think there's a very long way to go before that generation is able to fuse ham radio and computers.
Every time someone proposes that CW be dropped as a requirement for amateur licensing in the US and Canada, the old tired arguement goes out that CW will get through in emergencies when phone or digital modes can't. So, during the blackout when Hams were providing emergency comms, how many vital or urgent messages were relayed using CW?
And yes these guys do drink beer for breakfast." It's only 10 in the morning, I'm dumping out the half pot of coffee left, and cracking open a Boddingtons! Do it!
Don't Do It!! Read the post again -- it's American Beer! Real beer, like Boddingtons, will give vastly different results!
Just look at the number of comments on this thread. Nobody cares.
The Internet killed amateur radio, it's that simple. You can more easily (no skill needed) talk to more people than were ever on the radio
Killed amateur radio? Not hardly. New licensees are are increasing at a greater rate than SK's and non-renewals combined. At least that's what the FCC's numbers say, as well as Industry Canada and from what I saw in an RSGB item last year, the same in the U.K.
Take a listen across those few HF bands that have propagation this weekend and see just how "dead" ham radio has become. Take a listen during any of the big contests -- and just *try* to hold a QSO on the top fringe of 20 Meters during CQWW.
Tune PSK-31 on 14.070 some evening and try to find a little sliver of the band to get in on. Listen to most big-city 2M/450 repeaters during rush hours.
Go have a listen to 75 at night. Sure, it's the GallBladder Network most of the time, but still...it's a pretty full spectrum most evenings.
Next time (if only) a P5, KP1, KP5 or VU7 shows up on HF take a spin across the band and see how "dead" the hobby is. I *still* can't bust the Iraq or Afghanistan pileups when those entities show up.
Go to Dayton next year and tell me how dead the hobby is. Granted, attendance is down a bit, but still, 25,000 hams at one show ain't a bad gathering.
The hobby is what you make it. I've just finished DXCC on three bands in the last 2 years with 100W and a dipole. I'm now getting back into VHF, since the solar cycle is on the wain, and I'll try 40 and 80M DXing this coming winter. I just got hooked on PSK and RTTY, and can't wait to play with SSTV a bit more. Oh, but wait...I don't like CW so I can't be a real ham. Sorry, never mind.:-)
If you're in NYC and want to have some fun this weekend, check out the Hall of Scinece club's fun field-day station in the hall's back parking lot. If you hear us on the air, please listen for WB2JSM and say hi -- and ask if W2IRT's at the mic! 5-9 NLI!
Do any of the TiVO competitors collect such data? I'm looking at a PVR this summer, but I'll be damned if I'm going to support one that spams my personal viewing habbits if another does not.
Any of you PVR-addicts up ont he differences between the services?
Oh, that's right. They did just fine -- because now we have a market for assembly robot designers, robot repairmen, plant designers (industrial engineers).
Oh really? Have you ever worked on an assembly line? Let me tell you that those line workers who are displaced are not going to be designing or fixing robots, designing plants or any other such task. They are going to be unemployed, and many will remain unemployable in any other position for the rest of their lives.
Yes, society will fill the void to some degree by supplying graduate robot engineers, etc, to the auto industry. However, all of a sudden, you have thousands of blue-collar middle-aged auto workers who just got dumped on by a society more worried about a short-term bottom line than anything else.
We are losing sight of the common man in all of this. We now hear the term "jobless recovery" to describe our economic situation in North America. This short-sightedness is getting extremely dangerous.
I have to wonder how many high-school educated (!) workers from the 50s, 60s and 70s have been laid-off in the last recession? Do you think many of them will ever work again? We're not talking future tech workers here. We're talking people who look at you funny when you string the letters MCSE together in their presence. What are these millions of HUMAN BEINGS going to do when all the jobs for their education level have been automated? It's in society's interest to keep a level of decent-paying employment for the masses at that level. They pay the taxes, they pay the health-care costs, etc.
When the last burger flipper is laid off, who'll buy the burgers?
I got into IT when my unionized job of 19-years was made redundant by automation in the 90s. I was never lucky or smart enough to go to college, so I did what I could to survive and put bread on my family's table. Now IT -- what everybody said would always be there -- is rapidly moving to India and elsewhere. Burgers no longer need to be flipped (they cook both sides at once now). Salesmen need do nothing more than scan bar codes on boxes. There are few actual repairmen left in any field. Who fixes TVs and air conditioners when they break? You toss 'em and buy new junk made offshore.
Where does the mid-level or lower-level HUMAN BEING go to feed his family all of a sudden, and especially since all you conservatives did such a good job of breaking the unions? College grads of today will still find work easily after downturns, but what of the millions who never got that far in life? Should we all just turn ourselves in to the local Soylent Green factories now and decrease the surplus population?
I don't mean to sound negative, but all you MBA-type anti-union 20-somethings and 30-somethings need to understand that you ain't the only peas in this pod. There are a HELL of a lot of 40, 50 and now 60-somethings who are facing oblivion because of your desire to cut everything to the bone today, globalize this, free-trade that, yadda yadda. If IT was unionized when times were fat a couple of years ago, do you still think the mass exodus to India would be happening?
In a theater and time of war, all bets are off. You use any frequency you damned well want to if you have the ability to do so and believe it is tactically sound to do so. I also refuse to believe any heavily-armoured equipment in the US military is not frequency agile from DC to daylight. Hell, if you can build a ham radio for $99.95 that does it, they sure as hell can buy the necessary hardware for less than the cost of a Pentagon Ball-peen hammer.
Wanna go spread-spectrum across 200-500, go right ahead. Whose army's going to stop you:-)
It's in the non-combat scenario that band limits must be respected and in a non-combat scenario, it could be argued, is 175 MHz really necessary?
Also, even at 60 or 70 MHz, if the Good Guys are using frequency-hopping and DSS, you have to *detect* it's in use in the first place (NOT easy to do in the slightest), and THEN find a way to jam it. Again, not easy. Jamming conventional is easy. Jamming FH/DSS is something I'd have to wonder if any of our enemies are even capable of doing. Considering the recent "jamming of GPS signals" incident in Gulf War II, and how laughably easily it was handled, I tend to think our comms don't have much chance of being interfered with to any significant degree.
I would also suggest that there is considerable use of 1.9 and 2.4 GHz wireless data in that situation, and it's possible tactical commands are given by data, not voice.
Actually, that part of the spectrum is called land-mobile radio and is blocked off to individual users grouped in services (schools radio systems falling into the block called Local Governemnt, and allowed to use frequencies within certain ranges).
Anybody can use radios in the VHF and UHF spectrum for personal or business communications, provided (on most frequencies) a license is issued and radios meet a certain technical standard. There's also a group of five VHF frequencies that anybody can use license-free, (MURS), as well as the FRS service in the UHF region. The best-kept secret, though, is GMRS. Yes, a license from the FCC is needed ($75), but you have access to 7 repeaterized relatively high-powered frequencies in that range that are just perfect for personal communications.
Of course, the best personal use of radio (in my somewhat-biased opinion) is amateur radio, where users may use thousands of frequencies, up to 1,000 Watts of power and with much less technical restrictions on hardware.
What I'm afraid of with this announcement, however, is that organizations like the CTIA et al will start to take a long and hard look at amateur frequencies themselves. I had a really sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read that story.
Hopefully Bush will give more of the radio spectrum to public use, as it IS the public's country, not ClearChannel's. Yes, some should definately be sold to industry for money, but a good amount should remain deregulated (within reason) for public use.
This issue is not about the use of broadcast frequencies and the occupants thereof. It's a far greater issue than what you listen to between 530 and 1700 kHz and 88-108 MHz. It's about the entire radio spectrum. It's about who gets to transmit where and how compact their signals are. The more efficient the use of the spectrum, the more users can access it.
I also don't see any new terrestrial broadcast bands being set up within our lifetimes, either for community or corporate use. There are (for the moment) technical reasons why the current FM broadcast band can't be expanded (TV channel 6 is below it and the civilian aviation frequencies are immediately above it). Maybe if VHF television signals ever disappear -- still not likely IMHO -- the FM broadcast band could be expanded downward, but don't hold you breath!
I love when Bush uses the military for photo ops and then screws them on benefits and crap like this.
Last night I wrote in the thread about over-the-air broadcasting how the gubmint should start re-farming part of the military aircraft band to other spectrum requirements. In retrospect, that post would have been more apropriately made here.
In a nutshell, that band is massive -- 175 MHz, or the width of 29 TV channels. Back "in the day" when encrytion was relatively primitive the need for so many frequencies was greater so users could "hide through obscurity" This is no longer needed, and a significantly smaller mil-air band would more than suffice given current DES-encrypted digital-spread-spectrum transmissions that are ultra-efficient in bandwidth requirements.
So it's much safer to re-farm let's say 2/3 of that chunk to other needs (give most to land mobile -- it's in a frequency range that's ultra-usable for them) and move cell and data around up above 800-900, etc. Everybody wins. Heck, I'd dearly love to see another amateur band in this region or an expansion of the 420-450 band.
To reply directly to your post, however, it's NOT screwing the military, despite their protests. They have the technology to use existing spectrum efficiently and securely. Spectrum efficiency is very much what's needed. Land Mobile is currently under orders to decrease bandwidth significantly in coming years and I don't see why other spectrum users can't be made to follow the same path. With effecient use, more users can have access to the same pie.
As to who gets what, well, that's a differnt story and one for another day and another thread!
The military and other government users are (naturally) concerned about security of communications. Current levels of data and voice encryption in fact allow for strategic security as well as tactical. The days of needing to hide through obscurity are gone.
I suspect this is more a case of a few spectrum-hungry technocrats not wanting to give up or share their exclusive-use and rather massive RF playground.
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Hundreds of shows? Hell, I've run year-old prints in grind houses that must have seen xenon at least 1500 times and that were still in decent shape! I miss my Peerless Magnarc Type G's and Super Simplexes from the Kingsway, dammit!!
Damn. I must have run Fight Club in the multiplexes a zillion times but I was never monitoring the sound when that exchange came up. Mind you, in 19 years doing it for a living I've never heard anybody call cue marks "cigarette burns."
As to splicing single frames of pr0n into features, it's a nice urban legend but in reality anybody even casually watching will notice the frame. Go back to the changeover cues we were just talking about -- each of the two cues is printed on 4 frames, or about 1/6th of a second. They HANG there on the screen. One frame of something totally different would be CLEARLY visible to even the most clueless observer.
Not to mention, the jump that would occur on the screen and the pop in the sound about a second and a third afterwards.
As for it being a shit job, you tell me...I've run probably 5,000 films or more, watched likely well over half of them and was paid a reasonable salary for the priviledge. At the height of my career in that industry I worked 5 days of 10-hour shifts one week and two days of 10-hour shifts the following week. I got to work with toys I loved, learned an incredible amount about electronics and sound and got to sleep in till the crack of noon most days.
I'd sell my left nut to do that today.
Ahh....No. Those are Changeover cues. Two of them at the end of each 20-minute reel, the first separated by eight seconds from the second, and the second about 3/4 of a second from the last frame. Gives projectionists using older equipment the signal to startup the incoming projector with the light path blocked, then, at the second cue, instantaneously switch image and sound from one projector to the other for the next reel. It's the way it was done up util about the 80s or so. Now most cinemas have only one machine and a film transport system called a platter that handles the entire print. The problem is that one operator now handles an entire huge multiplex and is running from one booth to another, so he or she can't be around to catch any problems. Coupled to the fact most of these operators couldn't count their balls/boobs and get the same number twice, and you have the reason that 35mm projection is often so bad, especially in smaller cinemas.
There are still many two-projector installations in the United States and Canada. I ran just about every one of them in Toronto in the 80s and 90s, and I still miss doing so to this day. Forget digital projection and stick with 35 and 70mm film. Just put properly-trained projectionists behind the equipment and the experience the movie-goer will get will be increased by an order of magnitude.
Maybe if the chains hired back some real projectionists who can put on a good show without scratching the print to ratshit after 3 passes you would have your wish. Expert film handlers and a good 35mm print (or dare I suggest it -- 70mm) will beat the optical quality of ANY digital projection system currently in use or likely to come down the pike in the next decade.
If you ever get the opportunity to do so, carefully examine a 35mm print and a digital release of the same title. Look for the "swirling snow" digital artifacts in any light-coloured scenes (like snow or sandscapes); blocky shadows; colour that just doesn't look "right."
It's still possible to put together a booth of older equipment that will put on a beautiful show for about $15,000 or less -- I've seen it done for under $8,000. No THX for that money, but good optical stereo, a nice, bright image and solid, mechanically-reliable hardware. Just add in a relatively-cheap DTS player and you're off to the races.
Now consider that just a single Digital projector will cost, conservatively, $150,000. That's without the B-chain sound hardware (amps, wiring, speakers, etc). Out of a $10 ticket price, the exhibitor MAY see $1 to $1.50 per ticket if they're lucky. Most couldn't increase the concession prices any higher without having a full-time loan officer on site, so that's not much of an option either.
The problem is that Digital is still very much the buzzword-du-jour. It's still not ready for prime-time, but idiot movie-goers are prepared to sit through a vastly inferior presentation (unless a 35mm projectionbaboon screws up) just to say "I saw it in Digital. Duh."
> I got a digital signal processing enabled high-frequency transceiver optimized for carrier-wave communication! :-)
> Even more surprising, it was made in America by Americans
So Santa gave *YOU* my asked-for HF rig! Razzafrazza!@#$$#&
Mind you, I guess I got a couple of nice prezzies...TO4E online logs are back up and I'm in the log, and I finally snared 3B9FR after months of trying.
But still...
*Must Get An Orion* *Must Get An Orion* *Must Get An Orion* *Must Get An Orion* *Must Get An Orion*
A *pillow*
OK, a really nice fancy chiropractic pillow, but A Freakin' Pillow!
Partially redeemed by seasons two and three of Babylon 5 on DVD (that I'll never watch since I've seen each ep a zillion times).
In-laws from the UK got me a bottle of *awesome* Single-Malt (1993 Longrow, Springbank distillery bottling, Campbeltown) however, so I think I'll go sleep myself to drunk now...*HIC*...
And not just cordless phones either. Baby monitors and other non-licensed equipment at 49 MHz will be toast. Certainly HF radio will get clobbered by BPL, but VHF-Lo will become unusable, as you'll see below.
s t/2003-08/msg00562.html to get an idea of what this is all about.
BPL is touted as the saviour for rural residents away from cable and DSL service, right? Hope you enjoy your nice fast broadband when your house is on fire and your kids are trapped upstairs, because guess what, bunky? *MOST RURAL FIRE DEPARTMENT RADIOS ARE VHF-Lo Band* -- between 30 and 50 MHz -- since that band has much better range than VHF-Hi, UHF and 800+ over flat country. Ditto for the volunteer rescue squad and sheriff's office in Podunk County...better start IMing them for help and directions when the burglars drop by for tea, since their squad-car radios won't pick up a blasted thing as they travel on the county roads underneath all those Porn-Packed Power Lines!
Maybe you can forget about all this nonsense and just watch a little TV? Oh, I almost forgot. If you've got an outside antenna to receive local broadcast television, you can almost write off channels 2 - 6, which operate between 54 and 88 MHz, unless you're almost right under the transmitter. Don't worry about watching the weather warnings on Channel 3 a few towns away, your weather radio will warn you of the twister heading for community -- unless a nice second harmonic is creating a strong enough local signal in your house to blot out the 162 MHz band (81 x 2 = 162 MHz, where weather radios operate). Mightn't radiate very far, but it could pack just enough of a wallop to cause your WX radio to fail as that F5 bears down on you knobby little body.
And better get some more homeowners' insurance if you live near a major airport cuz one of the ILS approach nav-aid beacons ("fan marker") sits smack-dab at 75 MHz. Not to mention the possibility of radio-controlled model airplanes losing contact with their control box and going awry when junior is flying them in the park near home -- they're also around 72 and 75 MHz.
This is NOT your average FUD. This is very real, and I've heard/seen what this can do in Briarcliff Manor, a small test market north of New York City. Please wander over to http://www.ac6rm.net/mailarchive/html/elecraft-li
Ok, let's rephrase that then: wouldn't it make more sense to simply require broadband over powerline to not emit any significant energy in the HF spectrum?
And while we're at it, let's require that the laws of physics be re-written by Congress! You just don't understand what we're talking about. Power lines are great for low-frequency AC (60 Hz power), but inefficient for higher-frequency signals.
The proposed Broadband over Power Lines service would be a shared user of frequencies between 2 MHz and 80 MHz. Again, these frequencies wouldn't propagate as well over power lines, so they would be sent at high power levels. Much of their energy would be lost in the transmission from the upstream connector to your home -- i.e. radiated out the miles-long antenna formed by the power line! Simply put, you CANNOT have non-interfering BPL if it uses the 2-80 MHz spectrum. Period.
FEMA and other governmental users' radios are scattered between typically 2 and 50 MHz in different sub-bands that are used depending on the time of day, how active the ionosphere is and the overall path of intended communications. Ditto for fixed services, land-mobile, aeronautical and marine services, beacons, short wave broadcasters and amateurs.
The problem is two fold:
1) anybody trying to receive a signal between about 2 and 80 MHz would be unable to do so.
2) Legally-licensed transmitters in that range would cause untold interferance to these "Part 15" devices. Part 15 means they can't legally cause interferance and must live with any interferance they get. Aunt Millie's not going to be happy when her cordless phone is rendered useless by broadband and Uncle Phil will be pissed when he can't surf porn because the clean and licensed 1000 Watt transmitter up the block is on the air.
This has to be killed and killed NOW.
Be careful what you wish for./ 3/
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/10/03
NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 3, 2003--With final action pending by the US House and Senate on a Fiscal Year 2004 federal budget bill, the fate of the Space Environment Center (SEC) in Boulder, Colorado, hangs in the balance. The FY 2004 Senate appropriations bill eliminates funds for the SEC and for all space weather-related activities in the center's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The House version of the appropriations bill holds the center's funding at $5.2 million--a 40-percent reduction from FY 2002 levels. President George W. Bush requested $8.3 million for the SEC. Seattle-based ARRL propagation bulletin editor Tad Cook, K7RA, says the possible loss of Space Environment Center funding has him very concerned.
"The NOAA SEC provides all of the data for our weekly propagation bulletin," Cook said. "It is SEC staff that prepares the forecasts that I rely on when I tell readers what the geomagnetic and solar indices will be during a given forecast period." Cook says he suspects the proposed cuts are due to some misunderstanding about the SEC's mission, and his contacts with congressional offices have borne out that belief. Cook is encouraging ARRL members to contact their senators and representatives in Congress, urging them to vote to fund the SEC.
The Space Environment Center provides real-time monitoring and forecasting of solar and geophysical events (see the Space Weather Now Web site). Those include solar flares and geomagnetic disturbances that can affect radio wave propagation. The SEC Radio User's Page includes data and information specific to the current state of the ionosphere. The center also conducts research in solar-terrestrial physics and develops techniques to forecast solar and geophysical disturbances.
See the full article at the URL posted at the top. I have no clue as to how to post a clickable URL (tried the usual HTML code and it just shows up as [arrl.org].
73
Old Motorola two-way radios can only be programmed by propriatary software that must be run on nothing faster than a 386 or 486SX25 machine. Motorola hasn't released newer versions since the radios themselves are officially obsolete. Tell that to countless Police, Fire and EMT agencies still using them.
To that end, I'm still looking for a decent laptop of that vintage with a good battery and serial ports.
Depends on your definition of pr0n I suppose. If you mean nekkid wimmin, well, yeah. If you mean images so vile that they go against the morals of a decent and civil society, then Pictures from the Dayton hamfest surely qualify.
Think 22,000 sweaty, smelly, unbathed, short, fat, old, bald white guys.
On second though, Don't.
Still one of my guilty pleasures even though it's become a real dive in the past 10 years or so.
It's the one method of communication that hams would have had in common (at that time) with government, marine and military communicators.
For example, hams would be able to assist in disaster comms with shipboard radio operators on the high seas, a scenario which would -- again, at that time -- likely only possible with CW.
Speaking of SMS-junkies, funny thing but did you ever notice that on certain brands of phones, when you get an SMS message the alert tone are the letters S M S in the International Morse Code?
The original poster wasn't entirely wrong with his observations of hams who can barely operate their PC's.
As an active and avid DXer I rely on my PC interface extensively. But in dealing with far too many other hams -- and vendors of amateur software -- it's all too evident to me that most hams think the pinnacle of computer technology is a 386 or first-generation pentium, with a staggering 64 whole Megs of RAM. Mention W2K, XP, 802.11b, LANs, etc, to this bunch and their eyes will glaze over, their pacemakers will go into "puree" mode and their depends will start to sag.
Take a look around your next hamfest at what's being sold -- and BOUGHT by these elite technical wizards.
OK, I say Mea-Culpa to one aspect of this -- I'm looking for a 486 SX laptop myself, but that's for programming old radios with ancient (non-updated) software that can't handle anything faster!
Other than that, though, I find it frustrating to try and demonstrate modern loggers or PSK-31 or any newer technology to the generation that still holds their 5 1/4" floppies near and dear to their hearts.
Try talking to some logging or contest software vendors sometime about the technical expertise of their customers if you really want an interesting insight. Most have said the same thing -- they have to dumb down the user interfaces, take menu choices away, etc, because the level of frustration amongst their users goes into the stratosphere if they make everything user-configurable.
Oh, and it has to work on a 386 with 8 megs of RAM, preferably under DOS or maybe for the elite, under Win95. Gaaaah. It also has to cost no more than $19.95 -- even if it took 3 years to develop and test.
Thankfully more and more hams are getting into the real world, but I think there's a very long way to go before that generation is able to fuse ham radio and computers.
Consider it a true test of the /. servers :-)
I admit, I always get a good laugh whenever that topic makes it onto eHam or QRZ. Good for hours of reading!
Yeah, about what I thought.
Don't Do It!! Read the post again -- it's American Beer! Real beer, like Boddingtons, will give vastly different results!
"Wait; don't go! Is's a COOKBOOK!"
Just look at the number of comments on this thread. Nobody cares.
:-)
The Internet killed amateur radio, it's that simple. You can more easily (no skill needed) talk to more people than were ever on the radio
Killed amateur radio? Not hardly. New licensees are are increasing at a greater rate than SK's and non-renewals combined. At least that's what the FCC's numbers say, as well as Industry Canada and from what I saw in an RSGB item last year, the same in the U.K.
Take a listen across those few HF bands that have propagation this weekend and see just how "dead" ham radio has become. Take a listen during any of the big contests -- and just *try* to hold a QSO on the top fringe of 20 Meters during CQWW.
Tune PSK-31 on 14.070 some evening and try to find a little sliver of the band to get in on. Listen to most big-city 2M/450 repeaters during rush hours.
Go have a listen to 75 at night. Sure, it's the GallBladder Network most of the time, but still...it's a pretty full spectrum most evenings.
Next time (if only) a P5, KP1, KP5 or VU7 shows up on HF take a spin across the band and see how "dead" the hobby is. I *still* can't bust the Iraq or Afghanistan pileups when those entities show up.
Go to Dayton next year and tell me how dead the hobby is. Granted, attendance is down a bit, but still, 25,000 hams at one show ain't a bad gathering.
The hobby is what you make it. I've just finished DXCC on three bands in the last 2 years with 100W and a dipole. I'm now getting back into VHF, since the solar cycle is on the wain, and I'll try 40 and 80M DXing this coming winter. I just got hooked on PSK and RTTY, and can't wait to play with SSTV a bit more. Oh, but wait...I don't like CW so I can't be a real ham. Sorry, never mind.
If you're in NYC and want to have some fun this weekend, check out the Hall of Scinece club's fun field-day station in the hall's back parking lot. If you hear us on the air, please listen for WB2JSM and say hi -- and ask if W2IRT's at the mic! 5-9 NLI!
Do any of the TiVO competitors collect such data? I'm looking at a PVR this summer, but I'll be damned if I'm going to support one that spams my personal viewing habbits if another does not.
Any of you PVR-addicts up ont he differences between the services?
I moved to the US in 2000, but I'm now somewhat confused...What part of "Land of the Free" am I not understanding?
Might just be time to dust off my Canadian passport.
Oh, that's right. They did just fine -- because now we have a market for assembly robot designers, robot repairmen, plant designers (industrial engineers).
Oh really? Have you ever worked on an assembly line? Let me tell you that those line workers who are displaced are not going to be designing or fixing robots, designing plants or any other such task. They are going to be unemployed, and many will remain unemployable in any other position for the rest of their lives.
Yes, society will fill the void to some degree by supplying graduate robot engineers, etc, to the auto industry. However, all of a sudden, you have thousands of blue-collar middle-aged auto workers who just got dumped on by a society more worried about a short-term bottom line than anything else.
We are losing sight of the common man in all of this. We now hear the term "jobless recovery" to describe our economic situation in North America. This short-sightedness is getting extremely dangerous.
I have to wonder how many high-school educated (!) workers from the 50s, 60s and 70s have been laid-off in the last recession? Do you think many of them will ever work again? We're not talking future tech workers here. We're talking people who look at you funny when you string the letters MCSE together in their presence. What are these millions of HUMAN BEINGS going to do when all the jobs for their education level have been automated? It's in society's interest to keep a level of decent-paying employment for the masses at that level. They pay the taxes, they pay the health-care costs, etc.
When the last burger flipper is laid off, who'll buy the burgers?
I got into IT when my unionized job of 19-years was made redundant by automation in the 90s. I was never lucky or smart enough to go to college, so I did what I could to survive and put bread on my family's table. Now IT -- what everybody said would always be there -- is rapidly moving to India and elsewhere. Burgers no longer need to be flipped (they cook both sides at once now). Salesmen need do nothing more than scan bar codes on boxes. There are few actual repairmen left in any field. Who fixes TVs and air conditioners when they break? You toss 'em and buy new junk made offshore.
Where does the mid-level or lower-level HUMAN BEING go to feed his family all of a sudden, and especially since all you conservatives did such a good job of breaking the unions? College grads of today will still find work easily after downturns, but what of the millions who never got that far in life? Should we all just turn ourselves in to the local Soylent Green factories now and decrease the surplus population?
I don't mean to sound negative, but all you MBA-type anti-union 20-somethings and 30-somethings need to understand that you ain't the only peas in this pod. There are a HELL of a lot of 40, 50 and now 60-somethings who are facing oblivion because of your desire to cut everything to the bone today, globalize this, free-trade that, yadda yadda. If IT was unionized when times were fat a couple of years ago, do you still think the mass exodus to India would be happening?
This doesn't hold water.
:-)
In a theater and time of war, all bets are off. You use any frequency you damned well want to if you have the ability to do so and believe it is tactically sound to do so. I also refuse to believe any heavily-armoured equipment in the US military is not frequency agile from DC to daylight. Hell, if you can build a ham radio for $99.95 that does it, they sure as hell can buy the necessary hardware for less than the cost of a Pentagon Ball-peen hammer.
Wanna go spread-spectrum across 200-500, go right ahead. Whose army's going to stop you
It's in the non-combat scenario that band limits must be respected and in a non-combat scenario, it could be argued, is 175 MHz really necessary?
Also, even at 60 or 70 MHz, if the Good Guys are using frequency-hopping and DSS, you have to *detect* it's in use in the first place (NOT easy to do in the slightest), and THEN find a way to jam it. Again, not easy. Jamming conventional is easy. Jamming FH/DSS is something I'd have to wonder if any of our enemies are even capable of doing. Considering the recent "jamming of GPS signals" incident in Gulf War II, and how laughably easily it was handled, I tend to think our comms don't have much chance of being interfered with to any significant degree.
I would also suggest that there is considerable use of 1.9 and 2.4 GHz wireless data in that situation, and it's possible tactical commands are given by data, not voice.
Actually, that part of the spectrum is called land-mobile radio and is blocked off to individual users grouped in services (schools radio systems falling into the block called Local Governemnt, and allowed to use frequencies within certain ranges).
Anybody can use radios in the VHF and UHF spectrum for personal or business communications, provided (on most frequencies) a license is issued and radios meet a certain technical standard. There's also a group of five VHF frequencies that anybody can use license-free, (MURS), as well as the FRS service in the UHF region. The best-kept secret, though, is GMRS. Yes, a license from the FCC is needed ($75), but you have access to 7 repeaterized relatively high-powered frequencies in that range that are just perfect for personal communications.
Of course, the best personal use of radio (in my somewhat-biased opinion) is amateur radio, where users may use thousands of frequencies, up to 1,000 Watts of power and with much less technical restrictions on hardware.
What I'm afraid of with this announcement, however, is that organizations like the CTIA et al will start to take a long and hard look at amateur frequencies themselves. I had a really sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read that story.
Hopefully Bush will give more of the radio spectrum to public use, as it IS the public's country, not ClearChannel's. Yes, some should definately be sold to industry for money, but a good amount should remain deregulated (within reason) for public use.
This issue is not about the use of broadcast frequencies and the occupants thereof. It's a far greater issue than what you listen to between 530 and 1700 kHz and 88-108 MHz. It's about the entire radio spectrum. It's about who gets to transmit where and how compact their signals are. The more efficient the use of the spectrum, the more users can access it.
I also don't see any new terrestrial broadcast bands being set up within our lifetimes, either for community or corporate use. There are (for the moment) technical reasons why the current FM broadcast band can't be expanded (TV channel 6 is below it and the civilian aviation frequencies are immediately above it). Maybe if VHF television signals ever disappear -- still not likely IMHO -- the FM broadcast band could be expanded downward, but don't hold you breath!
I love when Bush uses the military for photo ops and then screws them on benefits and crap like this.
Last night I wrote in the thread about over-the-air broadcasting how the gubmint should start re-farming part of the military aircraft band to other spectrum requirements. In retrospect, that post would have been more apropriately made here.
In a nutshell, that band is massive -- 175 MHz, or the width of 29 TV channels. Back "in the day" when encrytion was relatively primitive the need for so many frequencies was greater so users could "hide through obscurity" This is no longer needed, and a significantly smaller mil-air band would more than suffice given current DES-encrypted digital-spread-spectrum transmissions that are ultra-efficient in bandwidth requirements.
So it's much safer to re-farm let's say 2/3 of that chunk to other needs (give most to land mobile -- it's in a frequency range that's ultra-usable for them) and move cell and data around up above 800-900, etc. Everybody wins. Heck, I'd dearly love to see another amateur band in this region or an expansion of the 420-450 band.
To reply directly to your post, however, it's NOT screwing the military, despite their protests. They have the technology to use existing spectrum efficiently and securely. Spectrum efficiency is very much what's needed. Land Mobile is currently under orders to decrease bandwidth significantly in coming years and I don't see why other spectrum users can't be made to follow the same path. With effecient use, more users can have access to the same pie.
As to who gets what, well, that's a differnt story and one for another day and another thread!
The military and other government users are (naturally) concerned about security of communications. Current levels of data and voice encryption in fact allow for strategic security as well as tactical. The days of needing to hide through obscurity are gone.
I suspect this is more a case of a few spectrum-hungry technocrats not wanting to give up or share their exclusive-use and rather massive RF playground.