Entries Tagged as 'radio'
Posted in All on
November 17th, 2007
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In the last two years, the well-known fact of Google offering free WiFi Internet access in Mountain View, California has almost been forgotten (except, of course, by people living in Mountain View and Googlers themselves). At the time of news many were wondering about why Google is doing such a thing. Not it all suddenly became obvious…
Slashdot reports that Google is preparing for a bid in the upcoming auction set up by FCC for a 700 Mhz radio frequency. There are a few interesting twists about the offer - “open access” and “nation-wide”. With these news, it’s hard to see the Mountain View setup as something else rather than a test platform. With the recently released Android open mobile platform, the connections seem obvious.
The stakes for the band are high, and Google is planning to bid at least $4.6 billion USD dollars. And they are paying this all out of their own pocket (not sharing with another company, etc). Wh? Because there are quiet a few things on Google’s agenda.
If you are like me, and need more information on this whole thing, here are a few pointers:
P.S. : Now those Indian telecoms have to re-think their position.
P.P.S. : In the completely unrelated news, Ubiquiti Networks announced world’s first 700 MHz WiFi radio. Here is the official press release.
Tags: 700 MHz, auction, equipment, FCC, google, India, internet, isp, radio, slashdot, usa, WiFi, wireless
Posted in All on
June 24th, 2006
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4 Comments
I’ve mentioned the professional level of Cyprus television in a very recent post, and here I am, got hit with a deja vu. It’s Friday night, and I am at home, after taking a long walk, trying to avoid all pubs and restaurants. Watching Capital channel, which has a 1984 classic - “Starman” with Jeff Bridges.
About 40 minutes into the film, it suddenly restarts. No advertising, no breaking news. Just starts showing from the very beginning all over again. Instant rewind to the opening credits. It’s been going now for at least 15 minutes…
I am not going to watch it once again. Especially when there are no guarantees that they won’t rewind it again a couple of times.
Off to bed.
Tags: Cyprus, radio, television
Posted in All on
December 7th, 2005
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There are some things that I would like to do and nothing in particular stops me from doing them, but I still don’t do them for some metaphoric reasons, which aren’t even good enough to blog about. One example of the thing that I wanted to do was to listen to the original “The War of the Worlds” radio show. I could have downloaded the mp3 at any moment and listen to it, but something was stopping me.
Today I finally did it though. “The War of the Worlds” mp3 was tossed into a bunch of other stuff that I was getting for my growing podcast hunger, and so it ended up on my phone and as a next item in the playlist.
By the way, if you don’t have a slightest idea of what I am talking about, you should probably read “The War of the Worlds (radio)” Wikipedia entry. If you want to listen to the show yourself, then you can get it from The Mercury Theatre on the Air website. If you have a feeling that the title sounds familiar, but somehow doesn’t fit the content, then you are probably thinking about the “The War of the Worlds” movie, which I’ve also seen some time ago and reviewed in this post.
[Read more →]
Tags: aliens, radio, space
Posted in All on
November 26th, 2005
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2 Comments
It looks like I am about to engage in a new hobby - HAM or Amateur radio.
I’ve been reading up about it for the last few days and the more I read the more I find it fascinating. It also appears that there are a lot of people in Cyprus who are into HAM. Surprisingly, I even know few of them pretty good. I just never new that they were into it.
I talked on the phone to one guy, here in Limassol, and he was very helpful and showing me the way. Basically, I need to ask for an application form from the Ministry of Telecommunications. (I am planning to do just that on coming Monday.) The application will cost about 10 CYP. It’ll take about a month for the Ministry to respond. Usually they say ‘yes’ to everyone.
To get the license, there is an exam. Ministry holds the exam twice a year, so it can be anywhere from 4 to 6 month until the next one. This will give me enough time to study. I was told that if it was 10 years ago, I would have to buy a few books. But these days, all the information is availble on the Web.
Another good thing is that until August of this year, there were two levels of certification. One was for the beginners and was rather limiting in frequencies and actiosn that were allowed. Another one was for advanced hobbiests and professionals and required passing the Morse code exam. In August though, the law was changed and now there is only one exam that, when passed, gives access to everything there is.
The license costs 30 CYP for the first year, and 15 CYP for all consecutive years. Beginner’s equipment costs are somewhere around 100-150 CYP. Sound affordable to me.
Tags: Cyprus, ham, hamradio, hobby, Personal, radio
Posted in All on
November 23rd, 2005
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Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user tvset on 2005-11-22
Tags: ham, Links, radio
