[lug] OT: Avaya Card Performance -- Was: cheap 802.11b for linux...

[J. Wayde Allen]

On Thu, 21 Mar 2002, Nate Duehr wrote:

> and all sorts of other stuff for 2.4 Ghz.  It's getting to be a busy
> band, and considering it was "too high" for everyday use and generally
> unused just a few years ago, it's a tribute to RF engineers that
> they're still pushing the envelope on size, power, and frequency.

Anyone know what the availability of equipment for 802.11a operation at 5
GHz is right now?  The best information I've found is at
<http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010510S0080>.  Then there is the work
chaired by the DOC Boulder Lab's own Roger Marks for the new 802.16
standards <http://standards.ieee.org/announcements/80216app.html>.

> (Of course, some ham operators just made the world's first recorded 
> contact on 322 Ghz recently.  Heh heh... the "world's record" is like 
> 170 feet there right now.  Hard to make a radio contact when the air 
> molecules are heating more than they're passing RF!  A 170 foot contact 
> reminds me just a little too much of the Verizon guy... "Can you hear me 
> now?  Gooood.")

Thats nothing the laser guys have been talking at terahertz frequencies
for a number of years now <wink>.

Actually 322 GHz is pretty impressive.  The highest frequency RF system
I've worked on ran at 110 GHz.  I'm curious what they were using for a
signal source - gunn oscillator, klystron, gyrotron ...?

- Wayde
  (wallen at lug.boulder.co.us)