‘I will live in a very quiet world’
By David Searle
Robin Wood and the aerials that neighbours have complained about.
Robin Wood and the aerials that neighbours have complained about.

A BLIND amateur radio ham fears he may lose his contact with the outside world if he is given an antisocial behaviour order over the aerials he keeps in his garden.

Robin Wood, 61, of Ombersley Close, Woodrow, is a licensed amateur radio operator who has had aerials in his garden for 15 years.

But after a visit from an ASBO officer, Redditch Council wants to reduce the size of the aerials, meaning he will no longer be able to communicate with his friends around the world.

"I'm blind and the radio is the only way I can communicate with the outside world. I use the radio as my social life," said Mr Wood.

"I'm not prepared to lose my quality of life. I feel threatened when I go outside and haven't been out on my own for 15 years.

"I can't watch the TV either - without my radio, I will live in a very quiet world."
advertisement

Mr Wood uses the radio to keep in touch with friends from as far afield as New York, Australia and Canada but the reduced sized aerials would not be able to transmit that far.

"The council just won't listen to me. They won't find anyone technically competent enough who can tell me exactly what the problem is and exactly what I have to take down and why I have to do it.

"They've threatened me with court if I don't take them down. I speak to them but they don't take anything on board," said Mr Wood.

Mr Wood's wife June said: "When you think of ASBOs, you think of young delinquents, not a 61-year-old man."

Mr Wood is now involved in talks with lawyers about the steps he can take to keep his aerials the same size.

A council spokesman said: "Residents are concerned about the visual impact of this resident's aerials, the radio interference they are experiencing and the nuisance this is causing them.

"Following legal advice, we're working with the resident and the relevant organisations involved to come to a solution that meets the needs of all parties."

This is bullshit.... Hams here in the US are required to take the steps to reduce and/or eliminate interference and I am sure it is the same in the UK.... Someone has a beef with someone and they bend the laws to take them out....

Just like the DoD jumps on hams on the coasts for the interference to PAVE/PAWS radar... but why is it now a problem? I can not seem to find out why?

see link http://www.eham.net/articles/16786

*update*

"Let's see if I understand this: The Anti Social Behavior Officer is wanting to remove the primary social outlet of an individual because of neighbors who are not very sociable. OK, I thing I have it. The antisocials are upset that he is being sociable. The Anti Social Behavior Officer is trying to enforce antisocial Behavior."

I Will Live In A Very Quiet World (from Redditch Advertiser)

iPhone APRS

Steve Dimse, K4HG, the brains behind findu.com, is planning to do a version of APRS for the iPhone. (That might push me over the brink to buy an iPhone myself!)

Here is what Steve posted this morning on the APRSSIG:

Just curious if anyone else will be getting an iPhone at the end of the month.

It seems that Steve Jobs backed off from the closed architecture he initially proposed, and rumors abound that Apple will release an SDK next week at their developer’s conference. I’m an Apple developer, and I will be writing an APRS version to run on the iPhone if it is possible. Whether it is web based or APRS-IS based depends on what the SDK allows. One rumor is that the SDK will be a modification of Mac OS X widget, which does not allow access to ports to connect to the APRS IS stream, in which case a web app will be the only option.

If anyone gets an iPhone and wants to beta test whatever I develop email me privately.

Steve K4HG (steve@dimse.com)

APRS tracking on a cell phone... Would be great for bike races and the like....

iPhone APRS

Meraki Networks, pioneer of the first consumer wireless mesh Internet network designed to “unwire the world,” today announced the new Meraki Outdoor repeater and the Meraki Solar accessory, that together can cover entire neighborhoods with Wi-Fi access.

Priced at just $99, Meraki Outdoor can send a signal up to 700 feet. Paired with Meraki’s existing indoor $49 Mini, the Meraki Outdoor repeater can power access for dozens of households sharing one high speed connection. Meraki Outdoor can be easily installed on a wall or even a pole outside the house. It marks another step forward in Meraki’s efforts to change the economics of Wi-Fi access, driving the cost per household of high speed connections to $1 to $2 a month.

Adding the Meraki Solar accessory kit will allow the repeater to broadcast a signal without being connected to any electrical source, making it an ideal solution for any community, even emerging markets where electricity is scant or unreliable. Once connected, Meraki Solar’s power usage can be distributed throughout the day and managed by the Meraki Dashboard service ensuring the repeater is powered during peak usage times. The Meraki Dashboard is a web-hosted management tool designed to make monitoring, configuring, and monetizing a Meraki Network easy and is included with all Meraki products for no additional charge. The solar kit includes a solar panel, battery pack and an outdoor Ethernet cable.

Cool I am thinking about trying to snag one of these to use for internet access in outside garage.

June | 2007 | Meraki

ARRL to FCC: Shut Down "Grossly Noncompliant" Ambient BPL Pilot Project (Jun 1, 2007) -- The ARRL has again demanded that the FCC shut down Ambient Corporation's broadband over power line (BPL) pilot project in Briarcliff Manor, New York. On May 21 the FCC called on the BPL equipment maker and system operator to demonstrate it's complying with all terms of the Part 5 Experimental license authorizing the system, or face possible enforcement action. In a May 31 letter to FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division Chief Kathryn S. Berthot, ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, contended that it's "long past time that the Commission enforce its own rules," and again objected to the Commission's "inexplicable inaction" in the face of evidence the system is noncompliant. Imlay pointed out that the FCC's May 21 letter made no mention of Condition #1 of Ambient's Part 5 Experimental license.

ARRL to FCC: Shut Down 'Grossly Noncompliant' Ambient BPL Pilot Project

By the time the series is finished, the author will have documented how to build a simple audio-bandwidth spectrum analyzer and function generator using Linux and the PS3.

PS3 fab-to-lab, Part 1: Build Linux lab equipment from a Sony PLAYSTATION 3

Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Georgia propose using polysaccharides, or sugary carbohydrates, from biomass to directly produce low-cost hydrogen for the new hydrogen economy.

We are stuck so much on generation of hydrogen. I read more and more ways to create it but not many on how to create or adapt the current distribution infrastructures to transport and contain it.

I like the idea of a self-contained hydrogen generation. Like the aluminum-gallium pellet process found by accident by Purdue researchers. (LINK)

Novel sugar-to-hydrogen technology promises transportation fuel independence

The technology could be used to drive small internal combustion engines in various applications, including portable emergency generators, lawn mowers and chain saws. The process could, in theory, also be used to replace gasoline for cars and trucks, he said.

"The method makes it unnecessary to store or transport hydrogen..."

This is the type of 'fuel-cell' that I see being a usable and more
'green' way of becoming less oil dependent.

Aluminum-based pellets make hydrogen when wet, offering alternative fuel source.

Thanks for learning about a part of Dayton's, and the nation's, history.

NPT (PBS) in Nashville ran this program (on DVD)a few weeks ago and it was a great DOC. to see.

The size of these large computers and what they did makes my jaw just drop.

Check it out on the topic of 'code'

The Dayton Codebreakers...

Word reaches the Deeplung ear that Intel's Yonah processor, which ships under the Intel Core Duo moniker, has features that aren't being exposed to the consumer. Intel's Sossaman is the key, and Sossaman is the codename for an ultra low voltage Yonah to be shipped under the Xeon brand, into the server and workstation space.

And it transpires that Sossaman supports iAMD64, er, sorry, 'EM64T', symmetric multi-processing with another Sossaman Xeon, and hardware virtualisation. Intel's implementation of the 64-bit extension to x86, SMP and hardware VT are all missing from the official specs of Intel Core Duo consumer processors, despite Yonah and Sossaman being the same thing.

While hardware VT and SMP aren't really on the consumer radar for notebook users, the ability to move to a 64-bit version of Windows or Linux, with a supporting platform of course, surely appeals. It's therefore surprising to see Intel seem to hide away that ability in its Intel Core Duo chips, which now power a range of Apple products lest we forget.

Why so, Intel? Possibly even more beanworthy, especially if you love your CPU silicon as much as we do, is the whisper that Intel also engineered a version of Pentium-M with HyperThreading, 'back in the day'. While that matters little with the way the Core Duo platform has debuted, since it would seem to offer nothing that two complete cores can't do better, it's an interesting HEXUS.bean nonetheless, eh readers?

Hmmm ...

Intel Yonah hidden features exposed

LAPD in an effort to limit the number of high speed chases in the Los Angeles are is going to test a GPS dart system. The police cars will be equipped with an air gun fitted to the radiator, that will fire a dart equipped with a Global Positioning System that will stick to the suspect vehicle. That will eliminate the need of high speed pursuits, since the police will be able to monitor the cars location. A small number of cars will be equipped with the system at first in order to test it’s effectiveness in real world situations. Although it seems like an excellent idea, I am not sure if the test will be successful, since the dart according to the reports has a range of just 20 metres.

LAPD to test the use of GPS darts to end high speed chases