As analogue TV is switched off, frequencies become available for other purposes. As it happens, this band is going to be taken over for other purposes and sold off.
Until now, these frequencies have been used for UHF video transmissions. While the big boys go off and make digital work on some other waveband, small groups or individuals could use this for such purposes as faster packet radio, public access TV channels, slow scan TV, faxing, Morse code, cellular networks to deliver free Wi-Fi and sundry other purposes.-- nineteenthly, Feb 26 2008 Isn't this a rant? "Instead of licensing use of [some public good] to the highest bidder, government should give it away."-- angel, Feb 26 2008 I feel very calm about this. I thought, if anything, it'd be either advocacy or WIBNI.
What is a rant? Does it require the poster to come across as emotional in their post? Whose mind is that interpretation in? I am strangely interested.-- nineteenthly, Feb 26 2008 (-) I'm a ham, or at least have the license and a bunch of expensive equipment I don't use, as I assume [19th], you are. What is the advantage of these frequencies over just doing the same things on Wi-Fi or Ham bands?
And I also agree, there is no idea here, or certainly no new one. Ham have been asking for every frequency ever offered. And come on Morse code on UHF? Fishbone for that alone.-- MisterQED, Feb 26 2008 I'd have thought that UHF is pretty much L-O-S, so not much use to hammerchewers.-- coprocephalous, Feb 26 2008 I would say that if you're suggesting the government do XYZ with some unused resource, that would be advocacy; as it is, you're suggesting some alternative policy than one which is already established. You're saying, "They should have done XYZ, not the ABC which they have done". It's a woolly distinction, I think.No offence was intended either way.-- angel, Feb 26 2008 None taken, [angel], see the bottom.
I was being facetious about the Morse. The way i understand it though, ham radio frequencies are enough for slow-scan TV but not for video. I'm perfectly prepared to accept that data compression could get round this, but i'm thinking of a relatively low-tech approach to telly with something you can knock up with a vacuum pump and a garage, or resurrecting or scavenging old equipment, rather than anything you have to buy from Maplin or Radio Shack.
[angel], i often fail to understand grounds for MFDs, probably because i think about them too much. However, you've interested me because i am now wondering what a rant really is. Is it in the mind of the ranter, the mind of the reader or somewhere else?-- nineteenthly, Feb 26 2008 Yeah, morse in 5.1 stereo sound with a cat's meow for a dash and a dog bark for a dot.
Also isn't this (the idea, not the morse) what Google trying to do? Create a frequency that cell phones can use where people create cells by connecting a box to the internet?
I get DIY radio projects, but if I was going to spend the time to do a L-O-S project, I'd do it with lasers and get something the internet can't give me, crazy bandwidth.-- MisterQED, Feb 26 2008 Hm...finally a real way to do pirate television!-- DrCurry, Feb 26 2008 <unable to resist the temptation>
"Avast, ye scurvy dogs. We'll be returnin' after a few good words from the innkeepers at the Blind Pig. Don't ye be touchin' that dial or we'll cut off yer weasly hand and feed it to the bilge rats. Arrr."
<utrtt>-- Canuck, Feb 26 2008 The MFD that used to be called "rant" has long ago been rename to "advocacy", precisely to avoid the implication that the ranter is mad or emotionally overinvested in some way.
Having the government distribute access to the airwaves for the public good is a long-standing principle, if an increasingly gutted one - I don't think this request is all that outlandish or, for that matter, new.-- jutta, Feb 26 2008 The government ought to invent some new frequencies is what the government ought to do. All the frequencies that the government *says* are available are numbered, but there's nothing to stop them using letters instead. It's a conspiracy by the military to dominate the communications channels.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 26 2008 The 458Mhz band for telemetry was deregulated in the UK about 20 years ago. There's lots of kit for it available.
UHF spectrum is useful, but not that useful. More spectrum in the lower bands would be nice.-- 8th of 7, Feb 26 2008 Interesting. That's quite a high bandwidth at least.
OK, so advocacy=rant. Thanks for clearing that up.-- nineteenthly, Feb 26 2008 // advocacy=rant //
Not always. No-one stuck an mfd on it so it's not a proper rant, and you have more buns than bones, so it looks like you got away with it - this time. But, " Beware the Bubbawock by son (the teeth that bite, the claws that catch....)"-- 8th of 7, Feb 26 2008 random, halfbakery