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Bush: Broadband for the people by 2007


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quote:

Originally posted by Wolferz:

Whew! My Fron is spinning LOL

I have been chuckling to myself while reading through this thread and picturing Jag feverishly thumbing through his equipment specs binder/s to get all those equipment model numbers,

Calculating radio waves and the antenna lengths needed to transmit them, etc etc

Don't take this the wrong way, but Hams are somewhat obsessive compulsive individuals

And they have been extremely instrumental in making the vital communication systems we have today. I salute you all.


Obsessive compulsive? You ain't seen nothing until you have been to field day.

Field day this year will be the weekend of June 26th. Last weekend I went to an antenna "party", where we put together and tuned our new antennas for 15 and 20 meter. Took 3 hours to tune the 20 meter beam, but it has a 1.2 to 1 SWR all across the voice band, so obsessive is right, we wanted it PERFECT. The 15 took us 20 minutes, and it is 1.1 to 1 across the voice band.

Field day is when you see 200 Hams radio operators and their families all show up at a huge field, with all their gear, put antennas up on temporary towers all over and start transmitting at 11:00AM on Saturday, and go straight through to 11:00AM on Sunday.

We transmit from 6 different stations, plus the temp and experimental stations that won't go the full 24 hours.

So, obsessive is right, compulsive? That happens at swap meets and Ham radio flea markets. OOOHHHH, I want that, OK, ooohhh, now that's cool, I want that, oooohhh, that's new, I gotta get me one of those!!!

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So, my description was bang on then.?

I have seen a group of hams gathered in one room at an Electronics certification exam.

They all had their handheld units and were jabbering away about some new radio bands that the FCC was turning loose for ham use.

For all intensive purposes to them, I wasn't even there. I attempted a conversation with one of them and got a look like I was a water spot on his Beemer. I had never felt so invisible in my life.I was thinking, "shove a Yugi Oh up your crannies vertically" you anti social misfits.

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quote:

Telephone 101:

Most of Americas' Telephone system was installed by the company that bore the name of the man who obtained the first patent for the Telephone.

The Bell Telephone Co. spread far and fast. When the company approached monopoly status, our steadfast stewards in DC deemed it appropriate to bust the company up.

On the technical side, we have enough "old" copper telephone wire strung on the poles to go to the moon and back numerous times. Therein lies the problem. The lines are very old. They do fine for carrying voice signals, but high speed digital signals run into some serious roadblocks like chokes and amplifiers. We have so many little telephone companies now,(We call them Baby Bells) that it wouldn't be economically feasible for the older and larger ones to string new wire.


Well .. i wasn't aware of that so much .. however

In Canada all telephone lines belong to Bell Canada. If you make a local call, you go trought bell, no way around it. Only with long distance calls you can go through a different company.

Which it IS a monopoly, there are federal regulations as to price limitations, just like the price of energy. If the price needs to go up, the companies need to ask the federal government, which has all the rights to refuse (and does at times). I'm not sure about the other provinces, but Hydro-Qu├®bec (energy) is a public company, yet Bell Canada is a private company.

As far as old wires - this is probably related to the fact that there's no monopoly. If my memory serves me well, it was because energy was privatised in california that there were brownouts. Too busy about the competition and they just don't maintain the system. It is a reason why Qu├®bec is a prime area in N.America for telecomms, because our lines are well maintained.

Furthermore, if we need more speed, i think we should look for VDSL technology first...

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VDSL will be great if all our little Baby Bells decided to run Fiber Optic cabling, which is a tad expensive.

In the mean time, we are limited on how far we can be from the central office, to get DSL.

I'm lucky enough to have a CO right up the road from my house, probably a mile or so.

As communication lines are updated, the new lines are now buried instead of being strung on poles. Fiber Optic is the best choice for these replacements due to the number of fibers in a cable, If one happens to break somewhere in the middle it only needs to be switched to another fiber. This is being done, slowly but surely but it's going to take awhile to complete.

If the US government had left Ma Bell intact our communication services would be rivaled by no one. For example; The telephones supplied by Bell were extremely rugged, almost bullet proof.

My parents had one for over 30 years before it finally puked out. I'm sure it would have lasted another 30 years by simply replacing the dialing keypad.

Now you have to go to a store and buy a cheap POS phone that will break if you look at it wrong.

Made in America used to mean something; First quality goods that lasted a long time.

No more. It's all engineered and built cheap in foreign countries as throw away junk, to perpetuate consumerism. For US companies it has become the same ideology out of necessity for survival. It's sad really.

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I still have an Old Bell telephone and it still works. It is my emergency phone, I plug it in when the power goes out.

All these fancy dancy new phones all need their own separate power, the old bell phones just used power from the phone lines, and they were heavy duty, just as you said. I love that phone, I keep it lovingly in a small box, wrapped in foam pad to keep it safe. LOL

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LOL Jag,

You could use the thing as a chock block for a semi and not hurt it. I think they would probably survive an A-bomb.

It was nice having a phone that used line power instead of a lousy transformer plugged into the nearest outlet.

I used to have a little fun with newbie techs while connecting emergency dialers. I would hand them the phone line, with newly clamped on bare fork connectors exposed, then tell the guy I needed to check something real quick. I would then go to the main connector block in the building and hook a test set to it and dial the dedicated line number for the dialer. 80 ringer volts dc pumped into those bare copper connectors and... Yeeeeouch!

Yeah, I know, I'm evil

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quote:

For all intensive purposes to them, I wasn't even there. I attempted a conversation with one of them and got a look like I was a water spot on his Beemer. I had never felt so invisible in my life.I was thinking, "shove a Yugi Oh up your crannies vertically" you anti social misfits.

Just like anywhere else: "there are the good and the bad"

Not ALL hams are anti social misfits, with their nose's up in the air.( My ham club has its own club house and private air strip, and some of those guys think their sh*t dont stink. but many of them are down to earth, real people, too. )

:D

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quote:

All these fancy dancy new phones all need their own separate power, the old bell phones just used power from the phone lines, and they were heavy duty, just as you said. I love that phone, I keep it lovingly in a small box, wrapped in foam pad to keep it safe. LOL


well we have one of those "fancy dandy new phones" with a screen and lots of options .. and it still works even when the power is out, like you like so much.

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WTF!? I just found out how Bush is going to pay for this and I am mad as hell now!!

Dear Valued Verizon Online DSL Member,

We'd like to inform you of an important charge that will affect your

Verizon Online DSL bill.

Starting May 1, 2004, Verizon Online will begin adding a monthly

Supplier Federal Universal Service Fund (FUSF) Recovery fee on DSL

Service.

Verizon Online is assessed the FUSF fee by its suppliers (companies

that provide the network services Verizon Online uses to bring you

DSL service), which are required to contribute to the Federal

Universal Service Fund on revenues they receive for transporting

Internet services over telephone lines.

The fee will be no greater than the current quarterly rate set by the

Federal Communications Commission to cover the FUSF fees Verizon

Online pays to its suppliers. For the vast majority of our customers,

the fee will be between $2.00-$3.00. Some customers with higher-grade

DSL services, primarily business customers, will pay more depending

on their type of service.

While the price of your Verizon Online DSL Internet service itself

will be the same, your bill will now include this new additional

monthly charge.

More information is available online at www.verizon.net/fusf.

Thank you for choosing high-speed Verizon Online DSL. We value your

business.

Sincerely,

Verizon Online"

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quote:

I just found out how Bush is going to pay for this and I am mad as hell now!!

What did you expect??? LOL I have more than ONE bone to pick with this administration. They may as well, keep stacking them up. ---->(sarcasim)---------->"I love MY country!

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And Bush is responsible... how exactly? Just because they added that doesn't mean jack crude, it's a FEDERAL thing (GOVERNMENT not ADMINISTRATION)

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quote:

Originally posted by Kalshion:

And Bush is responsible... how exactly? Just because they added that doesn't mean jack crude, it's a FEDERAL thing (GOVERNMENT not ADMINISTRATION)

You're right. I didn't have time to research the issue because I needed to get to work. Call it a heat of the moment thing when I saw the Email and the first thing that came to mind was Bush and his 2007 plan. In, fact this FUSF was initiated 1996 during clinton's reign.

FCC

NTIA's Guide

Oh, I'm not done yet I'm gunna find out what culprit initiated this in the first place. I'll be dammed if I'm gunna pay $2-$3 a month so that others (those of low income or just plain lazy bums with 5+ kids and more on the way who live off of welfare) afford a phone and internet connection. It's bad enough that the taxes and fees on my phone bill almost equal what I spend for my calls. Now they have the nerve to hit me up for $3 more bucks. I'm mad as hell now and I'm not gunna take it no more!!!

States Decry FCC's Universal Service Plan

"Competition is supposed to drive down rates, but who will want to compete where the infrastructure is so much more expensive?"

My sentiments exactly.

[ 05-05-2004, 11:43 PM: Message edited by: LostInSpace ]

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quote:

Originally posted by Kalshion:

Chavik, it's public knowledge that the Government has been trying for years to put a TAX on the internet

I know. The States have been salivating for years over the potential revenue. The Fed has been the one to slow it down.

That is at least how I understand it.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

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Ya know, it's funny.

A few years back, when the stories about internet taxation first trickled onto the web, I sent a letter to my congress critter voicing my displeasure of the very idea of it.

I received this nice parchment like letter from the Congress critter telling me that no such thing would ever be allowed to happen.

Fees for telephone come through the FCC at the behest of the current administration.

The FCC is not a seperate entity. It is just another department of the Federal government that oversees control of communication in this country, and a front for collecting money for "other" things that would raise a stink if money was appropriated from the treasury.

Kind of like the gold toilet seats on military transport planes.

Make your own conclusions.

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