Monthly Archives: October 2009

My boat show photos are online at…

http://www.marinetelecom.net/fortlauderdale2009/

 I’m updating this tonight 10-31-2009 22:05 EDT. I found something that makes nice thumbnail galleries out of a folder full of pictures. So here they are on:

http://aspicer.jalbum.net/100KC813/

I’m going to try and upload the same thing to the previous URL above.

KVH does is again. First the Mini-Vsat (Tracphone V7) and now the TracVision HD7 satellite antenna system has JUST been released. Last year they were saying that you had to get off of DirecTV and subscribe to Dish Network on your boat in order to have High Def. TV and be able to watch multiple programs onboard (different satellites). Doing that before this – one person, say in a cabin or stateroom onboard could change their channel and kill what you were watching. Or, special multiple dishes installations had to be done. Seatel came out with a dish that handled this. But it’s large … and seems to have been done by putting a Slimline 5 Lnb Home Satellite Dish into a tracking hardware. That obviously couldn’t be made into a smaller model because of the size of the Slimline Dish.

 —

Alan Spicer

http://www.marinetelecom.net and http://www.wifiyacht.net

We introduced our WiFi Marine Product there. (See: WiFiYacht.Net)

MBR 1200 – $299.00
Fixed Location / Mobile – Broadband Router – VPN Termination (end-point) Support

ALWAYS CONNECTED
The CradlePoint MBR1200 is a robust 802.11n router with 3G/4G failover capabilities.
Built for home, small business, branch offices, temporary and remote enterprise environments seeking to implement continuous, always-on connectivity. 
With its failover/failback capability, the MBR1200 automatically switches to a secondary connection (either wired or wireless) when your primary service is interrupted.
Once your service is restored, the MBR1200 will automatically failback to the primary connection – keeping your business online with minimal interruption to users.
 

Whether you’re wired or wireless, the MBR1200 Business Series Router keeps your business connected. 

VPN: SECURE AND RELIABLE
The high-performance MBR1200 has the capability to create, manage, and terminate multiple IPSec VPN sessions.
It provides up to five concurrent sessions, supporting transfer and tunnel modes and several Hash and Cipher algorithms.
These encryption protocols protect your communications from one private network to another from end-to-end.
 

ENTERPRISE POWER – SMB SIMPLE
Powered by WiPipe™ technology, the MBR1200 router includes many features found in expensive, enterprise class routers at a fraction of the cost.
With minimal setup and maintenance, including our pre-installed software, it has “right out of the box” simplicity. 
Standard on the MBR1200 are security features such as multiple WiFi encryption modes (WEP and WPA/WPA2 Personal and Enterprise) and built-in firewall, which prevent unauthorized use of your connection. 
With no additional software to load, you’ll be up and running in minutes.  

Contact: Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

Visit: http://www.marinetelecom.net/cradlepoint.html for information about this and all of the Cradlepoint Technology Products. Alan Spicer is an “Authorized Cradlepoint Partner”.

—

Alan Spicer

http://www.marinetelecom.net and http://www.wifiyacht.net

+1 954-683-3426

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

Marine Electronics Dealer Enquiries Wanted! Introducing “LightSpeed” Marine WiFi Hotspot Sharing Router System.

The full brochure and information sheet is here: Light Speed Marine WiFi – Brochure or please see http://www.wifiyacht.net

—

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net and http://www.wifiyacht.net

+1 954-683-3426

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

I was responding to a link up request that I got by email on Windows Live. I had previously created a Windows Live ID using: a_spicer@bellsouth.net and I no longer use that email address. So I had to create another Windows Live ID for that reason and to be allowed to accept the link requests that came to: communications (at) marinetelecom.net.

A_lan Spicerwrote:

“

My Name is Alan, but because of some requirement on here I had to seperate part of my first name, but it brought out something cool. Since I work a lot in Computer Networking. What is A LAN? A Local Area Network. You see them every day on your desktop and portable computers. And guess I am “A LAN” !!!! I was born for this!!!!!!!!!

”

P.S. Too bad my name wasn’t Marine Telecom or something like that

Most users’ LAN stays in one place, but some of them move as well (LANs on Yachts move a lot!), and some groups of people even make a PARTY out of a LAN – a LAN PARTY. Often these are very BIG LAN’s. Often used for Computer Gaming Competitions and for Pure Fun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lan_party

http://www.dreamhack.se/splash/index.html

—

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net and http://www.wifiyacht.net

+1 954-683-3426

communications (at) marinetelecom.net

Trust the Cloud? Americans Say No Way
Tim Greene, Network World

Saturday, October 24, 2009 10:04 AM PDT

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/174301/trust_the_cloud_americans_say_no_way.html?tk=nl_bax_h_crawl

* Alan Spicer Says: This was an interesting article not only about Cloud Computing and a Survey that tells how Americans feel about it, but also about other security issues both physical (personal as in real persons safety) as well as Online Security.

Many readers may not know exactly what “Cloud Computing” is, it is, after all, kind of “cloudy” to most people. It’s buzz wording or a buzz phrase used by I.T. and/or Marketing People. It not only refers to data stored online, like online hard drive storage services we’ve all heard about (and been offered at various times), and Online Banking – which many of us use for it’s convenience, but also other business and personal applications that run online – and can store our personal data, such as Google Apps. In other words online “Microsoft Office”-like applications such as Word Processing, Spread Sheeting, and more.

So in some instances… Online Banking… Email… Online Purchasing… we could already be using some forms of Cloud Computing and not even realize it. We may have more data online than we’d like to believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

Says: Cloud computing is the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources as a service over the Internet on a utility basis.[1][2] Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the “cloud” that supports them.[3] Cloud computing services often provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers.

The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on how the Internet is depicted in computer network diagrams and is an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it conceals.[4]

A technical definition is “a computing capability that provides an abstraction between the computing resource and its underlying technical architecture (e.g., servers, storage, networks), enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”[5] This definition states that clouds have five essential characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.[5]

* In other words, in a network drawing, you draw YOU (your computer and Internet Modem or Customer Premises Equipment [CPE]) connecting to a big wispy white ”Cloud”. On another side of the “Cloud” you might draw your Bank’s Secure Web Site, where you do online banking. Most people don’t know, don’t care, how their transactions get from their Web Browser – Across the Internet – Into the Bank’s Web Servers – and what happens inbetween all of that. That’s pretty “cloudy”. If it doesn’t work, most people have no idea where to start to figure out why it would not work. I make a living and a business out of mostly being able to figure out those kinds of things.

Of course you know… there are Public Clouds and Private Clouds. In other words you can have your own private cloud computing resources and storage. For example if you run your own external hard drive, or Server [web or Microsoft or Linux...?], or even in some Appliances used for networking and multimedia there are Web Servers and such. It’s still in a cloud. It might local to your network (and thus safer?) For example many routers used for Internet Access have a web page. Sometimes my customers get confused, e.g. using an Ericsson W35, or a WiFi Access System – as to what this web page thing is? Well, it comes from the router box that you are using. It is running a mini web server and allowing you to check on, use, and configure that router box. It’s a Management Web Interface for that connection that you are using. And it’s in your “Local Cloud”, in other words it’s just on your local network – not on the Internet. 

* There are several problems I see with Cloud Computing:

1.) Internet Connection is required. What if it slows down? Or goes down? And what if we are not always connected? It assumes that you would always have access to your data and applications – but for my mobile (marine) traveling customers there may be varuous sized “chunks of time” (sometimes days, weeks) where that data and applications would not be available due to lack of Internet connectivity.

2.) Security concerns – as brought out in this article. Many people may not want to trust someone else (or a company) to have access to and hold their data. There are many cases where companies or government agencies, either online, or offline (e.g. laptops, hard drives, removeable media) – have lost their constituents or clients personal data. And on the higher end I can’t imagine, for example, Microsoft – wanting a competitor to be storing it’s financial or other strategic data. Most private citizens wouldn’t want their personal data, pictures, family information, etc. to be available to others to do with what they want.

3.) Failure of the company or organization storing the data and applications – Financial or Business Failure, or just Computer or Network Infrastructure Failure. If they go down – your data goes down with them. Grant it Google probably has tons of redundancy and isn’t likely to Go Down, but others might – for various reasons.

* So should you use any kind of Cloud Computing? Online Storage? Internet Banking? YES and NO. I say it depends on what you are storing online and who is doing the storing. You’d want a reliable company that you have reason to believe you can trust. Google would be a good example. Your bank usually would be a good one as well. Aside from that I would tread lightly as well. I personally like to keep a lot of my personal “stuff” on my own personal computers. The same with my customer data. I also like to have raw CPU “computing power” at my fingertips on my local machine. And I don’t necessarily like Netbook or Netdesk computing. Because I don’t like having “chopped off”, “stripped down” computer equipment. At todays prices I’d rather get a good price and pay a few dollars more for better local computing power at My Location, wherever that might be.

* The article, in part, says:

Americans don’t trust cloud storage for their confidential data, with identity theft ranking as their top security concern, according to a twice-yearly survey by network security consulting firm Unisys.

FAQ: Cloud computing, demystified

Asked what they felt about personal data being stored on third-parties’ remote computers, 64% say they don’t want their data kept by a third party,

(you can read more at the link above…)

* To look at it another way… that survey might be a moot point (?) Because we won’t be the ones controlling when or where cloud computing gets done. This, because, the companies that we use for products and services will be the ones using Cloud Computing – and we won’t even have a choice. (Who’s ad says this: We don’t make a lot of the products you buy, we make a lot of the products you buy Better.)

See: http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2009/ndc3/051809-cloud-faq.html

FAQ: Cloud computing, demystified
What is cloud computing, and can it be trusted? Key questions answered

Everyone in the IT industry is talking about cloud computing, but there is still confusion about what the cloud is, how it should be used and what problems and challenges it might introduce. This FAQ will answer some of the key questions enterprises are asking about cloud computing.

 What is cloud computing?

Gartner defines cloud computing as “a style of computing in which massively scalable IT-related capabilities are provided ‘as a service’ using Internet technologies to multiple external customers.” Beyond the Gartner definition, clouds are marked by self-service interfaces that let customers acquire resources at any time and get rid of them the instant they are no longer needed.

The cloud is not really a technology by itself. Rather, it is an approach to building IT services that harnesses the rapidly increasing horsepower of servers as well as virtualization technologies that combine many servers into large computing pools and divide single servers into multiple virtual machines that can be spun up and powered down at will.

How is cloud computing different from utility, on-demand and grid computing?

Cloud by its nature is “on-demand” and includes attributes previously associated with utility and grid models. Grid computing is the ability to harness large collections of independent compute resources to perform large tasks, and utility is metered consumption of IT services, says Kristof Kloeckner, the cloud computing software chief at IBM. The coming together of these attributes is making the cloud today’s most “exciting IT delivery paradigm,” he says.

Fundamentally, the phrase cloud computing is interchangeable with utility computing, says Nicholas Carr, author of “The Big Switch” and “Does IT Matter?” The word “cloud” doesn’t really communicate what cloud computing is, while the word “utility” at least offers a real-worth analogy, he says. “However you want to deal with the semantics, I think grid computing, utility computing and cloud computing are all part of the same trend,” Carr says.

Carr is not alone in thinking cloud is not the best word to describe today’s transition to Web-based IT delivery models. For the enterprise, cloud computing might best be viewed as a series of “online business services,” says IDC analyst Frank Gens.

What is a public cloud?

Naturally, a public cloud is a service that anyone can tap into with a network connection and a credit card. “Public clouds are shared infrastructures with pay-as-you-go economics,” explains Forrester analyst James Staten in an April report. “Public clouds are easily accessible, multitenant virtualized infrastructures that are managed via a self-service portal.”

What is a private cloud?

A private cloud attempts to mimic the delivery models of public cloud vendors but does so entirely within the firewall for the benefit of an enterprise’s users. A private cloud would be highly virtualized, stringing together mass quantities of IT infrastructure into one or a few easily managed logical resource pools.

(More at the link above from Network World.)

—

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net and http://www.wifiyacht.net

(will be in the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show – but just walking around. Might have something interesting to show yachting visitors!)

+1 954-683-3426

Email: communications (at) marinetelecom.net

“Do you need things in your yacht Communications Set Up to be made Uncloudy?”

“Is it cloudy or foggy as to how to use your Internet and Voice Communications Systems?”

*Let me CLEAR that up for your…

http://www.professionalmariner.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=8818FDCAB4584D94BB8F8A0D45B31294

* I don’t know if the link above will hold and work for you, someone originally emailed the link to me and it wouldn’t work for me. So just in case, here’s how to find it…

That’s it.

<Quote>Iridium and Inmarsat are betting most vessels don’t need the high-speed bandwidth. For simple e-mail and crew calling, some might consider the monthly cost of an unlimited VSAT link an unneeded expense.”</Quote>

* Alan Spicer Says: And I’m betting you might be correct when they are on the deep blue sea. But they do when they are near shore, at anchor, or in dock that situation changes. What I’m saying is that satellite and other 3G and 4G technologies can be made to play nice together, to augment each other, and to save you money and give you the fastests speed for the situation/geographic location. And that’s why I provide systems that provide closer to broadband speeds  – usually using both Cellular Fast Internet (3G) and WiFi Hotspot Sharing – in a tag-team approach so that you can use what is the fastests and least expensive of the available connections. Cellular systems provide Cellular Voice to Analog phones or the vessels PBX system, and WiFi can be used for that purpose as well using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoiP) solutions.

<Quote> Free or paid, at-sea access seems to be a growing necessity for vessel operators who want to retain crew.

“It makes a huge difference on pretty much any size vessel,” said Ship Equip’s Quarders. “Whether it’s a tugboat, a yacht or a ship, it’s difficult to maintain a quality crew if the owners don’t give them the same things they have on the beach.”</Quote>

Alan Spicer Says: I agree with that. I don’t know how far you are going to go with charging yacht crews for Internet or Telephone though. But it can be an option. I think most crew will wait for in dock time (in Cellular 3G or WiFi Range) where the Internet is less expensive and can be included as a benefit for their job. It’s definately good for morale and crew retention. I know because I go aboard yachts all of the time – and if the Internet has been failing you can bet *I* will hear about it.

<Quote> “Let’s say you’re a research vessel that sends out terabytes of information,” Landsfield said. “Then VSAT is a perfect fit for you.” But Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband is a more-than-adequate solution for many vessels, he said. “Even though (VSAT) is a flat fee, it’s quite a bit more money. If a customer’s data profile makes sense for it, then it’s worth it. We ask them, what is the information they want to pass back and forth?”</Quote>

Alan Spicer’s Says: Yes, and also for yachts – Can it wait until the next time close to a less expensive connection (close to land or in dock) ? Fleet Broadband is nice and I think you can still get it pay-per-use without an expensive flat montly bill. That is a big selling point for yachts of all sizes – I think. If you have to go on the Internet for something important (say critical) or for the owner or home office – you might fire up the Fleet Broadband. But for less important (less critical?) you might be able to wait until you are in range of Cellular or WiFi Internet Access, if your vessel is so equipped.

<Quote>”Used to be a 500-foot vessel was the lower end, but now it’s as small as a 55- or 60-foot yacht where a guy might be cruising and want to stay in touch with the stock market,” he said. “There are huge uses for it. Anything you can do from home and the office, you can do from (While at Sea) sea.”</Quote>

Alan Spicer Says: I’ve been in the sail and motor yacht side of Marine Communications for a bit over 5 years and I saw the Inmarsat Fleet Systems when they were pretty much the only thing for the deep blue sea. (We) were putting routers for the KVH and Nera Inmarsat Systems. (We) still do when they are required or asked for. But there have been near-shore options for as many years. I have articles on the evolution of Cellular as it pertains to marine usage. I’ve seen the GSM Cellular Terminals with the voice telephone capability and the akward 9-pin modem connections that had to be made to use GPRS and Edge Internet Services. I’ve even put that 9-pin serial signal over an IP (including onboard wireless) network to make it more portable (to untether the darned thing!) So there have been other options all along, and these things have been evolving and improving – most of this is relatively new in satellite as well as cellular and wifi. That’s why we’ve got to keep our eyes open and keep our heads up into what’s going on with this stuff. This is very good article about this stuff … and it makes us wake up once again and keep trying to find the best systems and solutions for our marine / sail / motor yacht customers.

* I’ve save a PDF Printout of the Options bring choice and affordability to broadband at sea – article and have it available here:

PDF Printout of Options bring choice and affordability to broadband at sea

You can also make such a PDF or Print it out from: http://www.professionalmariner.com web site. And I do recommend that you support such web sites that provide this kind of valuable information and articles.

—

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net

+1 954-683-3426

Email: communications (at) marinetelecom.net

What a croc of … Sorry if I seem (quite a bit) less than overwhelmed about the announcement of Wi-Fi Direct coming. Most of the rags on the Internet just automatically buy into it. They just re-blog (like re-tweet?) what the Press Release says.

http://www.wi-fi.org/news_articles.php?f=media_news&news_id=909

This isn’t a press release, but the Wikipedia page on Wi-Fi Direct:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Direct

Yah it’ll be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. But what if…

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

just like supercalifragilistic is “a nonsense word meaning fantastic”, what if Wi-Fi Direct is a nonsense thing seeking similar attention? (If it aint broke, don’t fix it.)

Now bear with me for a minute. I’m all for making devices easier to connect. Just not on an already over-crowded WiFi band. Let’s look back at the problem of overlapping channels. Don’t we say you can only use channels 1, 6, and 11 when access points are going to be in each others signal area? Now add 10 or 15 more “ad hoc” access points in the same signal area. Now how many overlaps do you have? Yah I know this will work on 5 Ghz as well. How soon before that has overlapping channel problems with this?

Yep, Throw in just everybody doing their own “ad hoc” networks in a possibly already problem area, such as a business (enterprise.), or your home, or your boat.

I just worked on a marine vessel the other day, where they used 2 Wireless Access Points in the same area. One for a WiFi super universal remote control (called Crestron) and one for regular wireless users. They were in close proximity to each other. There were also multiple deck levels (stories or floors for you home or office users). So not only did I have to “1 – 6 and 11″ the regular zones, but also the doubled up (2) access points in some areas.

So now imagine that everyone and every device gets to be a network. Demanding a channel within the wifi frequency space “somewhere”. When you get to 4 devices vying for a channel (1, 6 & 11) – then what’s going to happen? Or are we all (devices, computers) just going to join the local ad-hoc network wether we want to or not? Windows Vista will go nuts incrementing the network number that it’s connecting to. I was working on some Wi-Fi sharing devices the other day using Vista and I was up to connection #16 I think.

Then there’s the issue of security. An enterprise or business is not going to like lots of wireless networks popping up all of a sudden, that they don’t manage. Yes, these things are supposedly going to have automatic WPA2 encryption … but it doesn’t do anything for the firewalling between computers and devices. Users will have file sharing on, but maybe they didn’t want to share their files with EVERYBODY all of a sudden. They may have file “write” enabled allowing just anybody that ad-hocs in to edit or erase their files.

Hopefully there will be an “Wi-Fi Direct” OFF button for every computer and device. That way you can make users shut it off and kill any interference that it causes.

And perhaps there will be “YES”, “NO”, and “MAYBE” buttons for the users to choose from to decide wether or not to connect to some ad-hoc network?

—

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net and http://www.wifiyacht.net

+1 954-683-3426

So how do our clocks have the right time? I mean assuming you don’t have a newer clock that (somehow?) automatically sets itself after having lost power or as soon as you plug it in. (Grant it – there are clocks that have battery back up and can keep the time through a short power outage. But what happens when the battery dies? What happens when the clock is new? What happens after an extended outage such as a storm?)

Many people, when a home or office clock has lost the time due to having lost power or whatever, might set it from a wrist watch (not necessarily very accurate) – but chances are you might tune to a TV channel on Cable or Satellite (or even Over-the-air TV) and get the time from there to set you clock.

But where does the TV channel get their time from? Ahhhhhh. Just like some people might wonder what their family history is (Geneology) – have you ever wondered where THE TIME OF DAY comes from?

WE HAVE TO AGREE on the date and time. I mean, if we have to meet at a certain time, on a certain date, there have to be standards on what time it is (possible article Time Zones?) and what date it is. Something has to keep track of that for us. And your average clock, wristwatch, or computer can’t be relied on – especially past losing power. So where do we go after we’ve lost power to set the time on our devices again?

Some more technically savvy might say GPS – as in Global Positioning System – as some GPS receivers will give the time from the GPS Satellite Signals. But GPS is only a very recent development. It’s not long ago that we didn’t have GPS.

But where do the GPS Satellites get their time from?

Does anybody really know what time it is?

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBF_enUS255US256&q=Do+we+really+know+what+time+it+is%3f%2bsong

There is a song like that, right?

I just posted a blog article below, which has information about Time Standards.

To my knowledge there are two time references in the U.S. And others in other parts of the world. GMT or Greenwhich Mean Time, nowadays known as UTC or Universal Time Coordinated (or the French acronym for that?) We use:

U.S. Navy -and-

NIST

See my other article for more about that.

As a final note there are no doubt some Geo (Earth) and Astro (Astronomical) based reasons behind time and date settings as well. I’m not going there yet. But the Myans and others – way back in time – seemed to know a lot about this as well.

—

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net and http://www.wifiyacht.net

+1 954-683-3426

I would imagine that a lot of you saw the Fort Colins, Colorado “Balloon Boy” story all over TV and other Media. But anyway, “At the tone it will be TIME for that balloon to land and stop costing the taxpayers money”

I Twitter’ed that personally I would have put a WiFi Transmitter on the balloon and set the SSID (Wireless Network Name) to: Marinetelecom.net with no security, backed by a nice 3G card and a Cradlepoint Router. I wonder how high in altitude you can still get a 3G signal on USB type laptop card or such?

Anyway some of us checked and someone in Belgium already registered the Web Domain Name: balloonboy.com so we can’t grab that.

I thought it might make a cool yacht name – especially if the parents were to buy a yacht and name it that. If they wanted to go with a 3 word name (ala Zoom Zoom Zoom) they could go with something like “Falcon Balloon Boy”.

Also as a trivia … Fort Collins, Colorado is home to the oldest radio station in the U.S. which is the Time and Frequency Standard Station with the call letters: WWV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWV_(radio_station)

Many Ham Radio Operators and others (older captains, or depending on your schooling for captain) may know of WWV and the other station WWVH. From my Navy days as well we used that station for a lot of things. For Radio Frequency Standards and Synchronizing things, including getting a “time tick” for “shooting stars” for Celestial Navigation. WWV, as you may know, operates on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 Mhz (Megahertz.) Yes those are Red Letter frequencies. Nice and even numbers. And also frequency standards for such uses as calibration of other radio transmitters and receivers.

What many people may not know is that there are 3 transmitters. WWV and WWVB are both on the site in Fort Collins, Colorado. The third is WWVH located on the Island of Kauai, Hawaii.

Reference:

http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/index.html

What many people also don’t is…

NIST radio station WWVB is located on the same site as WWV near Fort Collins, Colorado. The WWVB broadcasts are used by millions of people throughout North America to synchronize consumer electronic products like wall clocks, clock radios, and wristwatches. In addition, WWVB is used for high level applications such as network time synchronization and frequency calibrations.

* In your computer, chances are, under “Adjust Date and Time” – chances are very good there is an “Internet Time” setting. That allows your computer to be synchronized with a very good “time standard” source. One of the stations that you might choose to synchronize with is “time.nist.gov”. Notice the similarity to the last Internet web site link that I just gave you above.

WWVB continuously broadcasts time and frequency signals at 60 kHz. (Compare that with 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20Mhz from WWV.) 1000 Khz = 1 Mhz. At 60 kHz, this becomes difficult. The wavelength is 5000 m – so some interesting things had to be done to build an antenna array (on towers) to work on that frequency.

The WWV frequencies are considered short wave. But short waves aren’t really short. Consider: 300/f(Mhz) = wavelength in meters. 300/5 (Mhz) = 60 meters wavelength. At 20 Mhz it’s still a 15 meter wavelength antenna. In cellular at 850 Mhz the wavelength becomes 0.35294117647058823529411764705882 meters, which is around 13.8952 inches.

Clocks of WWV. Several cesium atomic clocks provide the precise timing information broadcast by WWV.

View 1 Panorama

View 2 Panorama

View 3 Panorama

Transmitters. These transmitters amplify the time signal that is sent to the antenna.

2.5 MHz Panorama

5 MHz Panorama

15 MHz Panorama

20 MHz Panorama

Work areas. In the center of the station lies the office and the workshop where all general repairs are made.

Office Panorama

Workshop Panorama

Amateur Radio Operators we’re sent to the Pits (search for ”200 meters and down”) and those pits turned out to be everything … frequencies you use every day for anything wireless. Including WiFi, Cellular, Satellite, … 

Amateurs were relegated to 200 meters and down and shocked the world with making excellent use of these higher frequencies — see “200 Meters and Down” by Clinton B. DeSoto. 

Amateur radio operators are known as technical innovators, and have been responsible for important discoveries. For example, in the early part of the 20th century, government officials believed that all the frequencies having wavelengths shorter than 200 meters (1.5 MHz) were useless for radio communications, so they restricted radio amateurs to these frequencies. It was not long before ham radio operators discovered the truth, and were communicating on a worldwide scale using low-power transmitters. Thus the shortwave radio era began.

(Thanks to amateur radio operators, and others, rather than the government back then, radio communications and other things were able to be developed. A.M. Radio is basically 540 Khz to 1600 [or 1700 now?] Khz – which is 0.540 Mhz to 1.6 [or 1.7 now?] Mhz. So basically the government was saying that anything higher in frequency than that was worthless.)

—

Alan Spicer (Radio Amateur KA4UDX)

Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

http://www.marinetelecom.net and http://www.wifiyacht.net

+1 954-683-3426

* AT&T says More Cowbell is coming… (well they used different words than that.)

Cowbell Sound

Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service

Thursday, October 08, 2009 5:15 AM PDT

PC World:

http://www.pcworld.com:80/businesscenter/article/173368/atandt_defends_network_lays_out_hspa_plans.html?tk=nl_snx_h_crawl

AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan defended his company’s wireless coverage against attacks by industry analysts and media while laying out some details about its plans for further network upgrades.

At a Thursday morning event before the keynote, IDC analyst Scott Ellison said AT&T was not prepared for the data use generated by the iPhone and predicted that Verizon Wireless would raise its data rates next year partly to put the focus on its better-performing network.

“AT&T has immolated itself with network capacity issues,” Ellison said.

AT&T is on track to begin testing LTE (Long-Term Evolution), its 4G (fourth-generation) network, next year and deploy it commercially starting in 2011, Donovan said. But he emphasized that the carrier is also aggressively speeding up its 3G network.

The company will upgrade its cell sites to HSPA 7.2 starting this quarter, rolling out the faster technology to 90 percent of its 3G customers by the end of 2011, Donovan said. By the end of this year, the faster system will be available in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Miami and Charlotte, North Carolina, he said. By the middle of next year, 25 of the top 30 markets will have HSPA 7.2.

HSPA 7.2, which is supported on the iPhone 3GS, has a theoretical maximum capacity of 7.2Mb per second. To back up that speed, AT&T plans to aggressively deploy fiber to its cell sites for backhaul to the wired network. It will double the number of cell sites with fiber this year and triple that number in 2010, Donovan said. The upgrade in backhaul will help prepare the carrier for LTE, he added. That technology has been demonstrated at 100Mb per second from one base station.

Donovan also stood up for AT&T against Verizon, which has garnered headlines for its plans to roll out LTE commercially next year.

“If you’re questioning whether AT&T will be left behind by our competitors who are in a rush, the answer is no,” Donovan said. There will be few devices available to use an LTE network next year, apart from data cards for laptops, he said.

“AT&T’s market timing is going to be right. We’re going to hit the sweet spots of worldwide subscriber growth and device availability,” Donovan said.In addition to the iPhone 3GS, all the netbooks AT&T sells support HSPA 7.2, and AT&T will introduce several more devices this year that can use the new network, Donovan said.

AT&T is also 90 percent finished deploying 850MHz spectrum, which offers better indoor coverage than its 1900MHz band, Donovan said. The frequencies were recently rolled out in New York, Houston, Atlanta and Denver.

The carrier also will introduce by year’s end its femtocell product, which it calls a “microcell,” designed to cover a subscriber’s home and use their home broadband connection to link to the wired network, Donovan said in a brief interview following the speech. He called it one piece of the carrier’s overall network infrastructure. AT&T will make the microcells available to all its subscribers but emphasize the technology more in certain markets where it will make a bigger difference in the user experience, such as areas where the carrier is still using 1900MHz, he said.

(Matt Hamblen of Computerworld contributed to this report.)

* Alan Spicer’s Note: The Ericsson W35 http://www.marinetelecom.net/Ericsson_W35/

… is already an HSPA 7.2 device. By the way “7.2″ is not a revision number of the HSPA Technology. It refers to the “up to” download speed.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Speed_Packet_Access

http://hspa.gsmworld.com/

http://www.3gpp.org/

* Here’s a Red Letter Page:

http://www.3gpp.org/GSA-confirms-7-2-Mbps-as-new

GSA Confirms 7.2 Mbps as new baseline for HSPA

July 27, 2009:Half of the HSPA networks in commercial service globally are capable of peak downlink data speeds of 7.2 Mbps or higher, according to research just published by the Global mobile Suppliers Association – GSA.

GSA’s newly released HSPA Operator Commitments Survey confirms 316 HSPA network commitments in 129 countries. A total of 274 operators have commercially launched HSPA mobile broadband services in 115 countries, with around half of them supporting a peak downlink data speed of 7.2 Mbps or higher.

WCDMA has over 73% market share of commercial 3G networks worldwide. Almost 95% of WCDMA operators have now launched HSPA.

A related survey by GSA confirms that 1,605 HSPA devices have been launched by 183 manufacturers. The number of products announced increased by over 121% year-on-year. The number of HSPA-enabled notebooks tripled year-on-year, with the number of phones and smartphones rising by more than 88% in the same period.

Excluding notebooks, a total of 595 HSPA products (over 46%) support peak downlink data speeds of 7.2 Mbps or more.

Alan Hadden, President, GSA said: “With 135 commercial HSPA networks supporting peak downlink data throughputs of at least 7.2 Mbps, and almost 600 user devices launched in the market which are capable of operating at 7.2 Mbps or higher, clearly a new baseline for mobile broadband service and capabilities has been established using HSPA.”

Evolved HSPA (HSPA+) is the next step on the roadmap for many operators, which increases data rates by using higher order modulation schemes and multiple antenna technology (MIMO). 3GPP Release 7 introduced 64 QAM modulation, increasing the downlink peak data bit rate by 50% to 21 Mbps. In the uplink, 16 QAM doubles the peak data bit rate from 5.76 Mbps to 11.5 Mbps. Release 8 allows for combining 64 QAM with 2×2 MIMO for peak rates up to 42 Mbps downlink and 11.5 Mbps uplink (per 5 MHz carrier). Further evolution of HSPA will utilize combinations of multi-carrier and MIMO to reach peak rates of 84 Mbps downlink and 23 Mbps uplink. Almost 40 operators have committed to HSPA+ network deployments.

The world’s first HSPA+ network was launched in February 2009. According to GSA, the number of HSPA+ networks in commercial service has now reached double figures. 10 HSPA+ systems are commercially launched which are using 64QAM modulation to deliver 21 Mbps peak data throughput on the downlink, for a typical user experience up to 8 Mbps, depending on device availability. The world’s first HSPA+ system utilizing MIMO technology has also been launched, in Italy, boosting peak downlink data throughput up to 28 Mbps. The recent GSA HSPA devices survey confirmed that 8 HSPA+ user devices are already launched in the market.

Uplink data speeds are also increasing. 98 operators have committed to HSUPA, with 87 networks now commercially launched, and an increasing number of these networks support 5.8 Mbps peak data throughput. The number of HSUPA user devices announced by manufacturers has more than quadrupled over the past 12 months, and now stands at 305 products. More than a third (102 devices) support, or are upgradeable for 5.8 Mbps peak operation, compared to only 14 products in July 2008.

GSA earlier announced that 31 operators are committed to LTE network deployments, which will significantly further boost network throughputs, improve spectrum and operational efficiencies and performance, and reduce latency for the next step in the user experience. GSA anticipates that up to 12 LTE networks will be in commercial service by end 2010.

More information is available in the WCDMA-HSPA and LTE Fact Sheet (July 27, 2009), which is a free download at http://www.gsacom.com

ABOUT GSA

GSA represents leading GSM/3G/WCDMA-HSPA and LTE suppliers worldwide, covering close to 100% of mobile market share. Industry professionals and organizations globally use www.gsacom.com as a single information resource, targeted to the industry, for authoritative facts, market intelligence, objective analysis and information.

* Additional Note by Alan Spicer:

What’s wrong with this picture? See the following chart…

From: http://www.gsacom.com/downloads/wcdma/3G_WCDMA_Fact_Sheet.php4

* I’m going to mostly let the picture speak for itself. But, ahemmmm, 7.2 Mbps was a 2007 thing. This is, ummm, almost 2010. Of course the answer will be that there were no devices (Cellular 3G Cards, etc.) available until recently.

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