I welcome your introduction of such into the realm of consumer electronics, if you can make it happen.

Hoppers are actually commonly used by utilities and in industrial settings. They have been for at least a decade. It's not high tech at all anymore.

What you are referring to as frequency hopping isn't really - you're just automatically moving to a less congested band. True frequency hopping involves both the sender and the receiver alternating their communications frequencies on the fly. This is typically only used by governmental bodies who use it to scramble communications and make it nearly impossible to eavesdrop and requires some serious hardware - most of it restricted use.

For mobile, what you actually need is spread-spectrum technologies because it allows for decent bandwidth for very low power consumption. That's also one of the downsides of the higher frequency bands: power consumption is at a premium.

That probably has enough viability to rain as anything else the EPA comes up with. LOL

When I was a little kid in NJ a few million years ago, I noticed that one of the first droughts we experienced seemed to come just a few years after the State of NJ made it illegal to burn leaves in the fall.

I'd theorized that it was the lack of available condensation nuclei for the raindrops to form around...

Go figure. :)

Agreed. REminds me of the local man who wanted to build a big greenhouse. The city inspector showed up and told the man who he should continue which made thegreenhouse look more like a guest house with many windows. The man got real angry, grabbed a
baseball bat and shased the inspector off the property shouting that if he came back he would kill him. He never did show up again and the man
had his self-designed greenhouse.
That inspector was our neighbor for a while and I am certain he was at least a borderline psycho-
pat who had toldl us we could not cut any trees
over 3 inches in diameter without permission. We did, many times, but the fool was afraid of my husband who once had told him to get lost.
I do believe that for some of those busybodies
intimidation works for they are cowards.
Wonder how far we could go with that ...?

Dear O.A. So true about racoons. Luckily my neighbor is a sharpshooter and is making inroads in the coon population (as he does not have any problems with their cute faces). Sigh.

P.S. Upon further reflection I may not have been clear. Both Bastiat and Hayek argued against such notions as positive economic benefit from breaking a window so the glazier would have work, noting that this ignores the reality that this revenue would have been spent anyway and benefited the spender more. Economically it would be a wash except for the benefit to the spender. Keynes would have supported such actions oblivious to this consideration.

Wonder how EPA plans on handling those pesky forest fires that are allowed to burn all that horrible wood? Remember, forest fires are critical for healthy forests! What a conundrum! If wood burning stoves in rural areas are so terrible how does one justify allowing forest fires to burn? Wonder if anyone has done a study of the amount of smoke particles produced by an average forest fire compares to all wood burning stoves say in the United States? I suspect one forest fire far exceeds all wood burning stoves combined.

Hello loneeagle,
I recall a natural history program on TV some years ago that asserted rightfully, that populating the continent has reduced the natural state of forest fires. People have cleared land and combated forest fires, thus reducing the acreage nature would and has burned in the past. The notion then that man has increased the pollution above what would be natural is therefore discredited. If anything man has reduced the pollutants associated.
Respectfully,
O.A.

Another reason why Michigan still has people that love the establishment in all parts of this country. End of the year winter season and people up hear cannot find wood and if they do try $300.00 a cord. Just a few weeks ago it sold for $50-$60.00 a cord.I truly believe in capitalism, but those who do not are taking advantage of those who really need it. Those who have run out that sell I have talked to say well will those who buy from them now will they buy again in the future. I have kept their numbers and will not forget. Just sayin'

Greetings Notperfect,
Indeed. A face cord of split hardwood is still selling for $60 dollars just a few miles from me in northern Oakland county. Anyone gouging will lose customers. If the price is that high more people will sell and drive the price back down. That is a perfect opportunity for someone more competitive to enter the market. Still, it is best to buy early while the supply is plentiful.
Respectfully,
O.A.

Hello amagi,
You could be right. Bastiat probably was the originator. I have studied both. Keynes did support such notions though. He may have been the one that suggested the equivalent; the notion that economic activity such as digging holes and refilling them would be just as valuable to an economy... Nonsense either way and Hayek's arguments to the contrary are more persuasive.
Regards,
O.A.

Hello amagi,
Yes, those little buggers can really dig. I bury the fish deep and place a large patio stone over the spot temporarily. If the raccoons are too persistent I live trap the buggers, finish them with a .22 between the eyes and then use them for fertilizer as well! We have an open season on them here because they are plentiful, carry rabies and will tear into your house. I had one that ripped shingles up trying to get into my attic. He is now contributing to a beautiful new Norwegian pine.
Regards,
O.A.

Dear O.A., The broken window, I believe, was
by Frederic Bastiat.

Do you have the site: EPAabuse.com ?
They would appreciate your comments.

I tried that, and the racoons send me thank-
you notes.

Kindred spirits. I have a 1/4 acre pond stocked with catfish, blue gill and small mouth. All are fun to catch. You could say that the prize catch around here is the blue gill. Go further south and it is all about deep sea fishing.
I have to agree about the fishing pole. It is time to fight if you mess with mine.
I submitted an idea to the local school here about a program for kids, "teach a kid to fish" where they can learn a positive sport that can be done alone or with others. Anything to help keep them focused and out trouble. Have not heard back but a few teachers think it is a great idea. Time will tell.

In theory if you have enough SNR, you can cram huge amts of data in a narrow bandwidth, but in practice you're limited by the need for low-cost transceivers. So I think you're right that lower bands are not that useful. Higher frequencies in the 60GHz range, however, will be becoming more practical.

Dynamic freq allocation is all the rage in the technical journals now. Some stuff like MIMO that sounded impractical to me 15 years ago is now cheaply deployed in many 802.11(n) chipsets. There is a huge explosion in mobile data right now. So I tend to think elements from current journal articles about spectrum sharing that sound fanciful today will come to pass.

http://www.element14.com/community/commu...

Thanks! as a ham radio person, I wonder about such things. the 700 MHz band sounds like a real conglomerated mess, if you believe wikipedia! -- j

yes and you can also use it to marinate then fry them up, add rice, gravy and biscuits yum. Use olive oil if you are cutting back and if not try pure lard. I know that sounds old fashioned but hey it is good.

Living in suburbia and tree farming on the side, we save about $5 every night when burning wood in cold weather. The woodstove is old, trustworthy and so are we.

Channels 2-6? Still used as channels 2-6, just split using digital technology. It was the 700 MHz band that was pulled by the FCC for "public service" radio usage.

I'll be friend. They say a real friend will hold your hair for you. :)

Not me... OK, I can see the attraction of Belize, but I would miss my 4 seasons... the snow... the big big trees... the mountains way too much.