The Myth of Radio Spectrum Interference

Selanit writes "Just came across a fascinating article on Salon about a technologist who claims that there is no such thing as "interference" in the radio spectrum. He argues that interference is a symptom of inadequate equipment, not a fact of nature, and that with improved transceivers we could open the spectrum up to high-quality broadcasts by anyone. Reference is made to the GNU Radio Project. Neat stuff." We've posted other stories about this. I wonder if the "color" meme will catch on.

I'm not so sure

[gomerbud]

I know a physicist who claims that pi is in fact rational. He claims that the only reason we don't realize it yet is because of the current limitations of our circle measuring devices.

Patented Colours!

[BinaryCodedDecimal]

From the article:

Pantone may own the standard numbers by which digital designers refer to colors, but only the FCC can give you an exclusive license to a color itself.

So I could patent the wavelength of a colour of my choosing, and claim royalties every time someone uses a colour that matches my wavelength? Now there's a way to get rich quick...

Except people wearing clothes using your colour could run away from you really quickly and cause red shift:

"See? It's not the same as your colour. It's very slightly more red. You can't sue me!"

Re:Interesting thing about radio signals

[nycsubway]

While living in Hartford, CT, I used to listen to AM880 (out of NYC, a distance of about 200 miles) from my car. Whenever I stopped at a particular traffic light, the hum in the background got louder. When the light turned green, the hum got lower. After a while I was able to tell when the light turned green without even looking at it.

Sorry, Obligitory Simpsons Quote

[da3dAlus]

Prof. Frink: "A-hem, um, ahem! Excuse me!....Pi is exactly 3!!"

Audience: "HUH?!? WHAT?!?"

Prof. Frink: "Sorry I had to do that, but now that I have your attention..."

Re:The article is crap

[Anonymous Coward]

and at MIT of all places?

I went to a demo of `instruments of the future` they put on in london. It looked like the sort of crap you`d come up with if you`d left your degree course until the last minute, got really stoned and said `lets take a keyboard....but remove the keys and make it so the angle you hold it at changes the pitch`. Yeah, but how do you play it? How do you reproduce a melody. "ah...you...move it around, see....and then..."

Re:Not going to happen

[PhxBlue]

Not that I don't like making waves. . .

Ouch! No pun intended, I hope?

Number system

[billybob2001]

I had always suspected that pi would be rational, if not in denary (decimal), then in another base.

Binary octal and hex don't appear to be too promising, but I now realize the answer:

Base pi

Heck, it might even work in base e or base i

Re:Someone hand this guy a physics book, stat!

[Guppy06]

""Photons, whether they are light photons, radio photons, or gamma-ray photons, simply do not interfere with one another,""

I see somebody skipped out on their physics lab on "Michelson-Morley interferomoter" day. I wonder how he thinks we measured the speed of light...

The resident luddite says...

[buddhaunderthetree]

Reed believes that as more and more of radio's basic signal-processing functions are defined in software, rather than etched into hardware, radios will be able to adapt as conditions change, even after they are in use. Reed sees a world of "polite" radios that will negotiate new conversational protocols and ask for assistance from their radio peers.

Oh. great I can see it now, radio software crashes right in the middle of my favorite program. No thanks I'll stick with my crystal set.

I Need This Guy NOW!

[ONOIML8]

Send this guy on over to my shop. I'll start by putting him in my 911 center. Then he can either convince my bosses of what he says or he can help me fight the interference that is driving me nuts.

Sounds like this guy could use some experience in the real world anyway. Not that I disagree with him, just that I think the world he lives in is a perfect, wonderful, simple place that is not this world.