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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!ubc-vision!alberta!sask!hardie
From: hardie@sask.UUCP
Newsgroups: rec.ham-radio,rec.ham-radio.packet,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Public Digital Radio Service
Message-ID: <618@sask.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Feb-87 18:37:10 EST
Article-I.D.: sask.618
Posted: Wed Feb 18 18:37:10 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Feb-87 16:08:55 EST
References: <381@telesoft.UUCP> <1805@hoptoad.uucp>
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
Lines: 43
Xref: watmath rec.ham-radio:466 rec.ham-radio.packet:94 comp.misc:260

In article <1805@hoptoad.uucp>, gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes:
> We could build in a cellular phone but that adds $2000 (if handheld) and
> the per-minute charges would eat you alive.  And the bandwidth is bad since
> it's designed for voice.
Whaddya think packet radio is using??? On HF, bandwidth restrictions limit
the rate to about 300 Baud.
> 
> We could use ham packet radio links but the *&^$%#@ hams are too stuck on
> keeping the spectrum free for yammering at each other.  
Why not take away some cellular phone spectrum. It's only used by people
who yammer at each other.
Better yet, there's roughly 1 Mhz of spectrum at about 27Mhz that is only 
used by people who yammer at each other and a fair chunk of that is ILLEGAL
so why not clean it up and make better use of it?

> We could use commercial radio frequencies but then you'd have to pay
> somebody rental to use it, even when just talking between your 'book
> and your home computer.  
The REAL point to the whole thing. What John wants is FREE access to a chunk
of spectrum. The problem is he hasn't really figured out how much spectrum
is really required for what he is proposing. In metropolitan areas the 
ham VHF/UHF bands are very crowded even though hams constitute considerably
less than one percent of the U.S. population. If this book idea were to get
off the ground then John wants to use wide bandwidth so that he can use a
high data rate and also presumably wants to make the book accessible to
everyone. Even though packet radio is an efficient use of spectrum it is
still going to be very difficult to cram the number of users into any
reasonable chunk of spectrum. Certainly there is no room for it in the VHF
bands, whether or not you take the ham spectrum away. The only way I can
see it fitting at all is to get way up into the Ghz range so that not only
can wide bandwidths be accomodated with lots of channels but also the antenna
that is required is very small.
> I am just hoping to slide the idea into a few of your ossified heads
> that you are giving up possibilities that you are incapable of imagining
> by shooting down every proposal to give the public some free access digital
> spectrum space.
Our heads ain't ossified. It's your ossified head that hasn't thought this
through properly.
(I'd wholeheartedly support giving the public free access to the CB band
for digital communications!)

Pete VE5VA
ihnp4!sask!hardie