Unfortunately you are correct. Given Microsoft's war chest of billions, a piddly mult-million fine is just the cost of doing business.
To use an old quote:
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Gates wields a lot of financial power.
I just spewed coffee all over my desk! To quote the article...
"Malicious hackers and vandals are lazy and wait for Microsoft to issue patches before they produce tools to work out how to exploit loopholes in Windows, say experts."
Ok, all you lazy good-fer-nothing lazy script kiddies -- get out your disassemblers and get to work! Service pack 2 is just around the corner and guaranteed to keep you busy for weeks! Brush up on VB scripting.
OK, Darl says that Linux is a threat to National Security, but the NSA who is responsible for National Security contributes to Linux.... Therefore logic says that Linux is good for National Security. But Microsoft says that they are more secure than Linux. Who's on first, what's on second...
Yeeow! Nothing like a paradigm shift without using the clutch!
At least one thing will come of this. When the equipment begins blacking out HF spectrum, the furor should put this half-baked technology out to pasture once and for all. Imagine overseas flights using 10MHz HF SSB communications not able to get clearance to enter US airspace because their comms are blacked out by this garbage?
If this gets to the point that it's deployed in my area, I plan to become *extremely* active on the HF Amateur Radio bands with *full* legal power. If it means fighting fire with fire, then by all means I'm prepared. They operate under the part 15 "non interference" rules. I operate under full FCC license to transmit. IOTW, I win. Hmm... when is the next DX contest???
To quote Part 15: "must not interfere" means that they legally cannot interfere with my operation, and "must accept any interference" means that if I kill an entire neighborhood's internet feed, that's just the breaks. They cant stop my transmissions as long as I am complying with the rules and regs.
But, being a realist, I suppose that once "big business" gets involved, then all they have to do is throw money, and they have plenty, at lobbyists and get congress to pressure the FCC to toss us hams off the air. Sadly, amateur radio does not have the status it once had.
Here's the manufacturer: http://www.hailstop.qc.ca/en/hailst op/
The apparently believe in their technology enough to stand behind it with a warranty:
"Anti-Hail clause
In order to respect its obligation of fully satisfied or money back warranty, Hail Stop Equipment inc. warrants to the users of its product a protection against hail on a 500 meters (1650 pi.) radius. If the customer had damages caused by hail inside the protected zone, then Hail Stop Equipment inc. will compensate the customer's losses."
However, I agree with you in that this seems to fly in the face of known meteorology. Interestingly enough, they seem to be willing willing to "bet the farm" on their technology. I wouldnt want to live near it though.
When I worked at the National Data Buoy Center, a division of the National Weather Service, one of my tasks was to install and qualify new meterological payloads in ocean buoys. Try sitting down inside a 40 foot diameter discus buoy, 50 miles out in the ocean, in 3-5 foot slow swell seas. Add in the tropical air temp of 95 degrees. Now try to stay focused on a electrical drawing while the world rocks to and fro.
We kept a convenient bucket (we called it the chum bucket) with us sized correctly to fit between your feet as you sit on an equipment rack. I could survive by going topside every few minutes, but others didnt fare as well.
Of course the smell of the old diesel tanks that used to power generators that ran the buoys before solar power, was tasty, and the bilge slime was equally aromatic. Combine that with vomit and the strongest of us would eventually yield to the urge.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but wasnt Samba 3.x shown to "blow the doors" off of Server 2003???
Funny, our experience here at the office is that the only time we have had to do anything with the Linux box is replace hardware when it fails. The windows users cant even tell any difference between the Linux server (running Samba) and the XP domain controller, nor the aging Netware box.
Besides, what cost of ownership is less than FREE?
I blew my stack because I didnt think that I was going to be flamed at the infantile level I was. I am not some crackpot, I feel I am educated and know what I am talking about. And I welcome open discussion. But to have some idiot make insulting childish flame-war comments put me over the edge.
I used to read and post here as I enjoyed the discussion. But if you read some of the comments, they were frankly, disgusting. I have a choice with whom I associate with, and what I do, and I choose here to shake my head in disgust and leave it to them. That's my perogative. My blood pressure is high enough already, and I dont need anything else driving it higher. But thanks for the comments. I let my anger get the best of me.
Sorry I even bothered posting. Seems I dont hold a popular position as I have been taken to task by an endless parade of drivel.
Dont worry, I wont be back.
Great - they're at it again. There is absolutely no proven link between the minute RF field radiated by a handset and health problems. Basically there is too little energy for measurable tissue heating, the electromagnetic field is too weak to induce currents in the brain proper.
What everyone seems to forget is the fact we live in an ocean of pretty powerful RF energy that ranges from VLF (very low frequency) up to the microwave region (SHF). Every time you turn on an appliance you are exposing yourself to magnetic and RF fields magnitudes greater than that of a cell phone handset. Drive past a broadcast station and you're exposed to a field density measured in volts per meter, not millivolts. To put it perspective, your common FM broadcast station operates between 5 and 100 kilowatts ERP (effective radiated power). A television transmitter can operate up to 2-4 Megawatts of ERP. Where is the uproar over that?
Your common cellphone operates at a modest 3 watts (for car-mounted 800 mhz units) to a puny.1 to 100 milliwatts for the hand-held PCS units. That's barely enough to dimly light a flashlight bulb.
Remember these facts: You live in an ocean of electromagnetic energy. A bolt of lightning radiates tremendous RF energy. Mother earth gives off VLF emissions herself. The sun bathes you in RF in the microwave region. And have you cleaned those gaskets around the door of your microwave oven? It operates at 800 to 1000 watts of power at 2.4 GHz. All it takes is a grungy gasket or a bent door and your taking on watts of very effective heating.
I am the holder of a First Class FCC license, an Extra Class amateur license, and have worked with broadcast, land mobile, fixed service, radar, and amateur radio for decades. I have never experienced, nor have I ever encountered anyone who has experienced a health related problems for working in a high RF field. People are more likely to be injured from high voltage, burns, and mechanical means.
Please stop trying to get funding by spreading this faux academic nonsense. Quit manipulating data to make yourselves look right and then run out and cry the sky is falling. We're all tired of this and have heard quite enough.
...why governments like Germany, etc, etc, are switching to either Linux or Unix. Windows is just one big gaping security hole. Windows is insecure. It has evolved from a single-user simple desktop on top of DOS to what we have today without much thought to security except for an easily circumvented login.
Unix (whatever your favorite flavor - Linux, Solaris, HPUX, even OSX etc, was designed from the ground up to work in a networked environment. That at least gives you a fighting chance of maintaining some level of security provided you or your MIS department set the system up right (like... dont use a default root password).
If Microsoft wants to save their market share, they should start looking into a Unix-type OS. Either port BSD (they have anyway in their TCPIP stacks) or buy someone out (um, SCO maybe - or maybe I'm psychic?).
Stop trying to push a derivitive of WinNT which came from MS OS/2 launched back in the late 80's.
Sorry to rant on so much and restate the obvious, but geez. How many times before people wise up. Every time some script kiddie throws together some crap and unleashes it, corporations and governments get clobbered.
Jail time for virus authors isnt going to solve the problem, it's time to attack it at the source: Windows.
If the beacons are still up, then it might not be too late. Galaxy 4 went topsy-turvy about 7 years ago and a lot of services, such as paging, TV network feeds, and long distance, went toast. The satellite was forever lost. So at least T4 is still in it's orbital position and the antennas are still pointed at earth. Hmmm... Could it be another case of faulty uploaded software, like what started SOHO into tumbling???
Actually I do hold a grudge against NVIDIA for killing 3dfx. Personally I had excellent performance with my Voodoo cards. When I was forced to switch to an NVIDIA when I built my new PC, I was disappointed beyond belief.
Strange that they absorbed 3dfx, but didnt noticably incorporate anything of theirs into their design.
Someone needs to get into the monopoly to keep the players honest.
Not so. For awhile the motherboard manufacturers were incorporating grapics chipsets into their designs, but stopped about 4 years ago.
But those graphics chipsets were atrocious. Most were barely above VGA and they were frequently turned off in bios and a decent AGP card installed.
They were only good for office PC's where the person using it was just doing spreadsheets and writing documents.
I have to wholeheartedly agree. It is their own effort, 100% backed by their government, and any resources they need will be made available to them. They are not hamstrung by managers like NASA is, they are stricly outcome oriented - whatever it takes to do the job. The only thing holding them back is their technology. A little more importation from other countries (overt or subvert) and they will be there.
Trying to get a bunch of different countries to agree upon a common goal is hopeless (look at the UN).
Now if the Chinese can just launch a heavy lifter without wiping out nearby villages....
Finally, someone has awakened to the fact that we dont have ANY kind of national purpose. It took the USSR launching a basketball-sized transmitter that did nothing but beeped on HF frequencies to rattle our cages enough to get off our duff and DO SOMETHING. It was only the fear that they could replace that little toy with a nuclear warhead aimed for anywhere in the US that got us off our fat arses.
On the upside, the 60's space race enriched science, engineering, mathematics, and provided the United States with a common goal. Education suddenly came to the forefront instead of the sad, dismal shape it is in now. (Anyone remember the "new math").
If you dont think that space technology doesnt give enormous paybacks then please throw your cell phone away, sell your computer, unhook your satellite TV, get rid of your landline phone, find a tube-type TV and hook it up to an outside aerial. Find an automobile with breaker-point ignition and a carburetor and throw it away at 60,000 miles. Forget about virtually every technological toy that makes your life easier. They all ultimately owe their exhistence to the space race.
What is it going to take? Another rude awakening similar to Sputnik to rattle our cage? The Chinese are committing themselves to manned flight. Other countries are wanting in too. Why are we so busy sitting doing nothing examining our navels?
All we have right now is a broken, aging, shuttle with no immediate replacement. The ISS is incomplete. No one even gave a crap about manned flight until the Columbia burned up. Then suddenly, it's a national tragedy. NASA is running on a shoestring budget and it keeps getting chopped.
Most commercial satellites are launched by SeaLaunch (a US/Russian consortium), ArianeSpace (French), and even a few by the Chinese (notably EchoStar I). We are even using RD80 Russian engines on our launch vehicles. We are falling behind, folks.
I find it refreshing that FINALLY someone is talking about getting us back into space. It is man's destiny to explore. We have pretty much exhausted the earth's surface, we are beginning to explore the deep ocean, but manned space exploration is forgotten. We stagnate without a challenge.
What happens if someone amateur astronomer with an 8" telescope discovers the "great impactor", an earth shattering asteroid that will wipe out all life on earth? Will we then decide to advance space flight to the front burner? Do we have to wait until disaster looms to do something?
Look up, people! The future is out there.
OK, now here we have two groups trying to sue each other essentially over a adopted name of a FRUIT!!? What next? Someone is going to sue over the name "watermelon"???
What happened to reason? This is why the court system is in a helluva mess. There is zero product/market confusion between Apple Computer and Apple Corps. It's like the silliness of Harley-Davidson trying to copyright the "potato-potato-potato" sound of their motorcycle exhaust system.
These frivolous lawsuits make me sick. Just like some fatso trying to sue McDonalds for making him fat. Geez - get a life.
I agree. Other than the basic requirement of transmitter type acceptance, there are no rules as to how well the receiver performs. The closest is Part 15 compliance to make sure the receiver itself does not cause interference. There should a minimal set of engineering specs of a planned system that have to be met before a license can be granted. It comes down to money. Cell operators can afford the best equipment - otherwise they lose customers. And they maintain it. But once a public service is locked into whatever bill of goods is pawned off on them, then they are stuck. Nothing like a tight budget and a mayor bent on re-election to put the screws to a department.
Most PCS systems use direct synthesis rather than a multiplier chain thus eliminating complexity and cost. However, even in the case of a synthesizer and multiplier chain exciter, these submultiples rarely get any distance due to the low energy levels involved. Most likely problem interference scenario here is a cell phone on the officer's belt alongside his patrol radio. That could cause potentially cause problems, but it would require a tri-mode phone that covers 800 mhz as well as 1900. If the phone is transmitting on 800 mhz then desense could happen to the patrol radio's front end.
The 1900 mhz PCS system would not readily radiate these emissions due to the high VSWR the antenna would have to these lower frequencies, thus the system has a natural high-pass filter.
However, if the phone (or even the tower) has a defective or poorly designed power amplifer, then the potential for generating spurious parasitics exists. The parasitic oscillations could fall within the patrol radio's band and cause interference.
These are FM transceivers, not AM or SSB. There is no AGC. Intermodulation interference, as defined, is when two or more signals produce mixing products across non-linear devices in the receiver's front end. These can interfere with communications by actually appearing on a frequency of interest. Interference can be mild, such as inability to squelch the annoying signal, to severe enough to capture the FM receiver preventing the reception of the intended receiver. What you are describing is actually desense. It occurrs when the front-end is saturated with an near-band signal that cannot be rejected by the filters.
This is not new. This has been a problem in the past when Police and Fire services used the 150 MHz band and suffered interference from taxi, mobile telephone (152 mhz), and business service. That, plus the interoperability problem between departments, fueled the move to 800 mhz trunking.
Besides - most wireless phones operate in the 1900 Mhz band using CDMA, TDMA, and GSM. This has zero interference potential to 800 mhz.
To preface my comments, I am a holder of a First Class Radiotelephone FCC license, and an active Amateur Radio Operator. I have been involved in communications of all types, from TV and FM transmitters to engineering two-way radio installations. Now with that said --
What a load of crap! It's not the problem of the wireless providers, it's a problem of coverage due to poor system engineering.
Most, if not all, 800 mhz emergency service systems operate on what is call a "Trunking System". What this is, essentially, a system of linked towers that communicate with the vehicle or officer on the street, then relay from tower to tower ultimately connecting to either the dispatcher or another officer. These systems are designed to be interoperable with each service, such as police, fire, ambulance, etc, so a single dispatch facility can communicate with everyone, and all services can communicate with each other.
To work effectively, you must have sufficient towers properly placed to assure that there is no dead zones. Given the expense involved in site purchase, permits, tower erection, equipment installation, and backup generators, the bare minimum is pretty much the rule. Plus, you cannot physically survey the entire area of coverage, you use topo charts to try to make sure your engineering is sound.
To blame the wireless providers is silly and stupid. Modern 800 mhz equipment is very selective, most newer systems operate via spread spectrum digital, and the chances of interference are minimum.
Additionally, emergency services have priority so if there is a provable case of direct intererence, the wireless provider must take steps to either stop the interfering signal, or cease operations entirely.
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I think I'll start driving an antique car with a non-computerized breaker point ignition. No on-star, no cell phone.
Please dont label me as a flame-bait paranoid, but I'm a little tired of the whole world being so damn interested in where I am and what I am doing.
All this RFID crap, cell phone tracking, now your car is supposed to tell everyone what it's up to? Geez, aint it time for a little reality check.
Just because technically you _can_ do something, doesnt necessarily make it a good idea.
Unfortunately you are correct. Given Microsoft's war chest of billions, a piddly mult-million fine is just the cost of doing business. To use an old quote: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Gates wields a lot of financial power.
Why bother? They've been shooting blanks for years...
I just spewed coffee all over my desk! To quote the article...
"Malicious hackers and vandals are lazy and wait for Microsoft to issue patches before they produce tools to work out how to exploit loopholes in Windows, say experts."
Ok, all you lazy good-fer-nothing lazy script kiddies -- get out your disassemblers and get to work! Service pack 2 is just around the corner and guaranteed to keep you busy for weeks! Brush up on VB scripting.
Whee-hoo!
OK, Darl says that Linux is a threat to National Security, but the NSA who is responsible for National Security contributes to Linux.... Therefore logic says that Linux is good for National Security. But Microsoft says that they are more secure than Linux. Who's on first, what's on second...
Yeeow! Nothing like a paradigm shift without using the clutch!
At least one thing will come of this. When the equipment begins blacking out HF spectrum, the furor should put this half-baked technology out to pasture once and for all. Imagine overseas flights using 10MHz HF SSB communications not able to get clearance to enter US airspace because their comms are blacked out by this garbage?
If this gets to the point that it's deployed in my area, I plan to become *extremely* active on the HF Amateur Radio bands with *full* legal power. If it means fighting fire with fire, then by all means I'm prepared. They operate under the part 15 "non interference" rules. I operate under full FCC license to transmit. IOTW, I win. Hmm... when is the next DX contest???
To quote Part 15: "must not interfere" means that they legally cannot interfere with my operation, and "must accept any interference" means that if I kill an entire neighborhood's internet feed, that's just the breaks. They cant stop my transmissions as long as I am complying with the rules and regs.
But, being a realist, I suppose that once "big business" gets involved, then all they have to do is throw money, and they have plenty, at lobbyists and get congress to pressure the FCC to toss us hams off the air. Sadly, amateur radio does not have the status it once had.
Comments?
de N5DH
Here's the manufacturer:t op/
http://www.hailstop.qc.ca/en/hails
The apparently believe in their technology enough to stand behind it with a warranty:
"Anti-Hail clause
In order to respect its obligation of fully satisfied or money back warranty, Hail Stop Equipment inc. warrants to the users of its product a protection against hail on a 500 meters (1650 pi.) radius. If the customer had damages caused by hail inside the protected zone, then Hail Stop Equipment inc. will compensate the customer's losses."
However, I agree with you in that this seems to fly in the face of known meteorology. Interestingly enough, they seem to be willing willing to "bet the farm" on their technology. I wouldnt want to live near it though.
No way. You have to have an RF field at 2.45GHz to shake water molecules. Microwave ovens do it, but you dont have much chance at 60 hertz.
We're all starving out here!!!!
When I worked at the National Data Buoy Center, a division of the National Weather Service, one of my tasks was to install and qualify new meterological payloads in ocean buoys. Try sitting down inside a 40 foot diameter discus buoy, 50 miles out in the ocean, in 3-5 foot slow swell seas. Add in the tropical air temp of 95 degrees. Now try to stay focused on a electrical drawing while the world rocks to and fro.
We kept a convenient bucket (we called it the chum bucket) with us sized correctly to fit between your feet as you sit on an equipment rack. I could survive by going topside every few minutes, but others didnt fare as well.
Of course the smell of the old diesel tanks that used to power generators that ran the buoys before solar power, was tasty, and the bilge slime was equally aromatic. Combine that with vomit and the strongest of us would eventually yield to the urge.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but wasnt Samba 3.x shown to "blow the doors" off of Server 2003???
Funny, our experience here at the office is that the only time we have had to do anything with the Linux box is replace hardware when it fails. The windows users cant even tell any difference between the Linux server (running Samba) and the XP domain controller, nor the aging Netware box.
Besides, what cost of ownership is less than FREE?
I blew my stack because I didnt think that I was going to be flamed at the infantile level I was. I am not some crackpot, I feel I am educated and know what I am talking about. And I welcome open discussion. But to have some idiot make insulting childish flame-war comments put me over the edge.
I used to read and post here as I enjoyed the discussion. But if you read some of the comments, they were frankly, disgusting. I have a choice with whom I associate with, and what I do, and I choose here to shake my head in disgust and leave it to them. That's my perogative. My blood pressure is high enough already, and I dont need anything else driving it higher. But thanks for the comments. I let my anger get the best of me.
Cheers!
Sorry I even bothered posting. Seems I dont hold a popular position as I have been taken to task by an endless parade of drivel. Dont worry, I wont be back.
Great - they're at it again. There is absolutely no proven link between the minute RF field radiated by a handset and health problems. Basically there is too little energy for measurable tissue heating, the electromagnetic field is too weak to induce currents in the brain proper.
.1 to 100 milliwatts for the hand-held PCS units. That's barely enough to dimly light a flashlight bulb.
What everyone seems to forget is the fact we live in an ocean of pretty powerful RF energy that ranges from VLF (very low frequency) up to the microwave region (SHF). Every time you turn on an appliance you are exposing yourself to magnetic and RF fields magnitudes greater than that of a cell phone handset. Drive past a broadcast station and you're exposed to a field density measured in volts per meter, not millivolts. To put it perspective, your common FM broadcast station operates between 5 and 100 kilowatts ERP (effective radiated power). A television transmitter can operate up to 2-4 Megawatts of ERP. Where is the uproar over that?
Your common cellphone operates at a modest 3 watts (for car-mounted 800 mhz units) to a puny
Remember these facts: You live in an ocean of electromagnetic energy. A bolt of lightning radiates tremendous RF energy. Mother earth gives off VLF emissions herself. The sun bathes you in RF in the microwave region. And have you cleaned those gaskets around the door of your microwave oven? It operates at 800 to 1000 watts of power at 2.4 GHz. All it takes is a grungy gasket or a bent door and your taking on watts of very effective heating.
I am the holder of a First Class FCC license, an Extra Class amateur license, and have worked with broadcast, land mobile, fixed service, radar, and amateur radio for decades. I have never experienced, nor have I ever encountered anyone who has experienced a health related problems for working in a high RF field. People are more likely to be injured from high voltage, burns, and mechanical means.
Please stop trying to get funding by spreading this faux academic nonsense. Quit manipulating data to make yourselves look right and then run out and cry the sky is falling. We're all tired of this and have heard quite enough.
...why governments like Germany, etc, etc, are switching to either Linux or Unix. Windows is just one big gaping security hole. Windows is insecure. It has evolved from a single-user simple desktop on top of DOS to what we have today without much thought to security except for an easily circumvented login.
Unix (whatever your favorite flavor - Linux, Solaris, HPUX, even OSX etc, was designed from the ground up to work in a networked environment. That at least gives you a fighting chance of maintaining some level of security provided you or your MIS department set the system up right (like... dont use a default root password).
If Microsoft wants to save their market share, they should start looking into a Unix-type OS. Either port BSD (they have anyway in their TCPIP stacks) or buy someone out (um, SCO maybe - or maybe I'm psychic?).
Stop trying to push a derivitive of WinNT which came from MS OS/2 launched back in the late 80's.
Sorry to rant on so much and restate the obvious, but geez. How many times before people wise up. Every time some script kiddie throws together some crap and unleashes it, corporations and governments get clobbered.
Jail time for virus authors isnt going to solve the problem, it's time to attack it at the source: Windows.
If the beacons are still up, then it might not be too late. Galaxy 4 went topsy-turvy about 7 years ago and a lot of services, such as paging, TV network feeds, and long distance, went toast. The satellite was forever lost. So at least T4 is still in it's orbital position and the antennas are still pointed at earth. Hmmm... Could it be another case of faulty uploaded software, like what started SOHO into tumbling???
Actually I do hold a grudge against NVIDIA for killing 3dfx. Personally I had excellent performance with my Voodoo cards. When I was forced to switch to an NVIDIA when I built my new PC, I was disappointed beyond belief. Strange that they absorbed 3dfx, but didnt noticably incorporate anything of theirs into their design. Someone needs to get into the monopoly to keep the players honest.
Not so. For awhile the motherboard manufacturers were incorporating grapics chipsets into their designs, but stopped about 4 years ago. But those graphics chipsets were atrocious. Most were barely above VGA and they were frequently turned off in bios and a decent AGP card installed. They were only good for office PC's where the person using it was just doing spreadsheets and writing documents.
I have to wholeheartedly agree. It is their own effort, 100% backed by their government, and any resources they need will be made available to them. They are not hamstrung by managers like NASA is, they are stricly outcome oriented - whatever it takes to do the job. The only thing holding them back is their technology. A little more importation from other countries (overt or subvert) and they will be there. Trying to get a bunch of different countries to agree upon a common goal is hopeless (look at the UN). Now if the Chinese can just launch a heavy lifter without wiping out nearby villages....
Finally, someone has awakened to the fact that we dont have ANY kind of national purpose. It took the USSR launching a basketball-sized transmitter that did nothing but beeped on HF frequencies to rattle our cages enough to get off our duff and DO SOMETHING. It was only the fear that they could replace that little toy with a nuclear warhead aimed for anywhere in the US that got us off our fat arses. On the upside, the 60's space race enriched science, engineering, mathematics, and provided the United States with a common goal. Education suddenly came to the forefront instead of the sad, dismal shape it is in now. (Anyone remember the "new math"). If you dont think that space technology doesnt give enormous paybacks then please throw your cell phone away, sell your computer, unhook your satellite TV, get rid of your landline phone, find a tube-type TV and hook it up to an outside aerial. Find an automobile with breaker-point ignition and a carburetor and throw it away at 60,000 miles. Forget about virtually every technological toy that makes your life easier. They all ultimately owe their exhistence to the space race. What is it going to take? Another rude awakening similar to Sputnik to rattle our cage? The Chinese are committing themselves to manned flight. Other countries are wanting in too. Why are we so busy sitting doing nothing examining our navels? All we have right now is a broken, aging, shuttle with no immediate replacement. The ISS is incomplete. No one even gave a crap about manned flight until the Columbia burned up. Then suddenly, it's a national tragedy. NASA is running on a shoestring budget and it keeps getting chopped. Most commercial satellites are launched by SeaLaunch (a US/Russian consortium), ArianeSpace (French), and even a few by the Chinese (notably EchoStar I). We are even using RD80 Russian engines on our launch vehicles. We are falling behind, folks. I find it refreshing that FINALLY someone is talking about getting us back into space. It is man's destiny to explore. We have pretty much exhausted the earth's surface, we are beginning to explore the deep ocean, but manned space exploration is forgotten. We stagnate without a challenge. What happens if someone amateur astronomer with an 8" telescope discovers the "great impactor", an earth shattering asteroid that will wipe out all life on earth? Will we then decide to advance space flight to the front burner? Do we have to wait until disaster looms to do something? Look up, people! The future is out there.
OK, now here we have two groups trying to sue each other essentially over a adopted name of a FRUIT!!? What next? Someone is going to sue over the name "watermelon"???
What happened to reason? This is why the court system is in a helluva mess. There is zero product/market confusion between Apple Computer and Apple Corps. It's like the silliness of Harley-Davidson trying to copyright the "potato-potato-potato" sound of their motorcycle exhaust system.
These frivolous lawsuits make me sick. Just like some fatso trying to sue McDonalds for making him fat. Geez - get a life.
I agree. Other than the basic requirement of transmitter type acceptance, there are no rules as to how well the receiver performs. The closest is Part 15 compliance to make sure the receiver itself does not cause interference. There should a minimal set of engineering specs of a planned system that have to be met before a license can be granted. It comes down to money. Cell operators can afford the best equipment - otherwise they lose customers. And they maintain it. But once a public service is locked into whatever bill of goods is pawned off on them, then they are stuck. Nothing like a tight budget and a mayor bent on re-election to put the screws to a department.
Most PCS systems use direct synthesis rather than a multiplier chain thus eliminating complexity and cost. However, even in the case of a synthesizer and multiplier chain exciter, these submultiples rarely get any distance due to the low energy levels involved. Most likely problem interference scenario here is a cell phone on the officer's belt alongside his patrol radio. That could cause potentially cause problems, but it would require a tri-mode phone that covers 800 mhz as well as 1900. If the phone is transmitting on 800 mhz then desense could happen to the patrol radio's front end. The 1900 mhz PCS system would not readily radiate these emissions due to the high VSWR the antenna would have to these lower frequencies, thus the system has a natural high-pass filter. However, if the phone (or even the tower) has a defective or poorly designed power amplifer, then the potential for generating spurious parasitics exists. The parasitic oscillations could fall within the patrol radio's band and cause interference.
These are FM transceivers, not AM or SSB. There is no AGC. Intermodulation interference, as defined, is when two or more signals produce mixing products across non-linear devices in the receiver's front end. These can interfere with communications by actually appearing on a frequency of interest. Interference can be mild, such as inability to squelch the annoying signal, to severe enough to capture the FM receiver preventing the reception of the intended receiver. What you are describing is actually desense. It occurrs when the front-end is saturated with an near-band signal that cannot be rejected by the filters. This is not new. This has been a problem in the past when Police and Fire services used the 150 MHz band and suffered interference from taxi, mobile telephone (152 mhz), and business service. That, plus the interoperability problem between departments, fueled the move to 800 mhz trunking. Besides - most wireless phones operate in the 1900 Mhz band using CDMA, TDMA, and GSM. This has zero interference potential to 800 mhz.
To preface my comments, I am a holder of a First Class Radiotelephone FCC license, and an active Amateur Radio Operator. I have been involved in communications of all types, from TV and FM transmitters to engineering two-way radio installations. Now with that said --
What a load of crap! It's not the problem of the wireless providers, it's a problem of coverage due to poor system engineering.
Most, if not all, 800 mhz emergency service systems operate on what is call a "Trunking System". What this is, essentially, a system of linked towers that communicate with the vehicle or officer on the street, then relay from tower to tower ultimately connecting to either the dispatcher or another officer. These systems are designed to be interoperable with each service, such as police, fire, ambulance, etc, so a single dispatch facility can communicate with everyone, and all services can communicate with each other.
To work effectively, you must have sufficient towers properly placed to assure that there is no dead zones. Given the expense involved in site purchase, permits, tower erection, equipment installation, and backup generators, the bare minimum is pretty much the rule. Plus, you cannot physically survey the entire area of coverage, you use topo charts to try to make sure your engineering is sound.
To blame the wireless providers is silly and stupid. Modern 800 mhz equipment is very selective, most newer systems operate via spread spectrum digital, and the chances of interference are minimum.
Additionally, emergency services have priority so if there is a provable case of direct intererence, the wireless provider must take steps to either stop the interfering signal, or cease operations entirely.