Unwired Adventures

220 volt plugs in the UK

We've traveled to the UK a few times. While there, I've been impressed at the electrical wall plugs. They're very nicely engineered. Each of them have a small switch, holes spaced widely and, large holes and the electrical contacts are deep inside. This requires larger and longer "pins". The standard UK electrical outlet as quite child safe. I've seen versions that have spring loaded latches that make them nearly child proof. I've never seen anything as nice in the US. Our plugs seem so weak in comparison. I find the US plugs I often need to bend the plug blades so they'll stay in the plug. So many time I need to push in all the plugs around my office and especially under my desk where my feet seem to bump them.

In the UK, you flip the switch up for off, down for on. I wonder why we do this the opposite. I don't see an advantage either way.

Heathrow Public Internet

While waiting for our flight home to Los Angeles in June. I turned on the wifi scanner in my PDA. At any given moment there were 10-25 wifi Access Points detected. Internet access was everywhere. See these public Internet kiosks:

What did Marconi really do with wireless?

Imagine a time when many scientists believed that radio waves would only travel line of sight. A time when the only way to send a long distance message was over telegraph cables.

Just over a hundred years ago this was the case.

Guglielmo Marconi in 1901 proved that wireless waves were not affected by the curvature of the Earth, he used his system for transmitting the first wireless signals across the Atlantic between Poldhu, Cornwall England, and St. John's, Newfoundland.

I’m sure most of us remember the centennial celebration in 2001 of Marconi’s achievements.

On a recent trip to Cornwall England last month, I visited both the Marconi Poldhu and Lizard Point wireless stations where Marconi performed his early experiments. In order to make this transmission over the Atlantic tremendous obstacles needed to be overcome.

Only during this visit did I realize the magnitude of what Marconi did in 1901.

At the next SOCALWUG meeting I’ll present some of the fascinating events that lead up to Marconi’s success.

I’ll have stories, video and photos of these two historical wireless sites and information you may not find elsewhere.

The So Cal Wireless Users Group is meeting, Thursday 07/27/06 at 7pm (Pacific). http://www.socalwug.org

AZ-EL Mount for Arrow Yagi

This is a mount for the dual band Arrow Yagi that Frank showed at the meeting last night:

http://www.emilyshouse.com/W0EEC/ArrowMount.php

Here it is at the Salton Sea attached to a tripod...

http://www.emilyshouse.com/gallery/album11/img_1103

and at the Grand Canyon.

http://www.emilyshouse.com/gallery/album11/img_1174

SOCALWUG - LagunaBroadcasting.net Accsense.com

Video Presentation: LagunaBroadcasting and Accsense Frank Keeney opened the meeting talking about EVDO bandwidth limiting and which service is faster. Next month is our EVDO Shootout! Ryan Caenn and David Mitchell from www.LagunaBroadcasting.net discussed the company background and showed us how they have been lighting up Orange County with Wi-Fi access for mobile users, in-marina boating, and utility meter telemtry. They also brought in the Tropos outdoor mesh radio which they are using for muni-wireless in Laguna Beach. Tobin Greensweig from www.Accsense.com showed us their new wireless sensor network system. Using a self-generated wireless mesh network, these sensors can be placed around a building or hillside to provide continuous telemtry accessible through a web-service backend. Visit www.socalwug.org for more.