 MrMoodyFree range slavePremium
join:2002-09-03
Smithfield, NC | reply to MalibuMaxx
Re: Issues (FCC interested in what?) said by MalibuMaxx:Right now, I think if the FCC wants to provide a free public broadband then they need to launch Wi-Max towers everywhere Why can't the WIA members set up free, ad-supported WiMax? Answer me that one.
WSDs won't get used for (real) broadband, they'll just flood the market, despite having no internet towers anywhere, and wind up as long-range, high-penetration WiFi radios in the TV band. Hackers who care nothing about TV will set up personal, high-powered, high-gain links, bypassing any channel blocks, on it and wipe out everything, including each other. It will be the CB of the digital age. In the TV band!
Picking up DTV cleanly is tough enough already without additional foreign signals nearby. Anyone who's tried knows this. One of the local channels, WRAL-DT, recently dropped temporarily to a lower antenna on the side of their tower so they could change frequency on the main transmitter for the changeover. This reduced their signal in my direction by about 30db (estimated). Their tower is 10.2 miles away, and line of sight. I can literally SEE the lights on the tower at night from my front porch.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of sufficient channel space (!), the FCC saw fit to assign an adjacent channel at the same location. As long as both were at the same effective power it was fine, but with one 30db down from the adjacent frequency NONE of my equipment will receive WRAL-DT at all any more, with my rooftop antenna.
If WSDs are close enough and have enough effective power (input power X antenna gain) they will wipe out not only the channel they're on, but any adjacent channel as well.
So how much bandwidth does this leave WSDs to use in TV markets, the ONLY place the "free broadband" has even a chance of being deployed? Damn little.
This whole idea is even worse than BPL.
--
"It is absurd to say that our country can issue $30 million in bonds and not $30 million in currency. Both are promises to pay, but one promise fattens the usurers and the other helps the people."-Thomas Edison |
