DAREDX

My last post like this elicited a good exchange over email with Francois D, and he agreed to allow it to be publicly accessible, so I thought it might push the issue a bit further along.  I welcome any comments on the issues we raise…

On Sep 19, 2008, at 10:48 AM, Francois Daigneault wrote:

Hello, Matthew,

Why radio, when we have the internet?
That very question has been on my mind for a few days.

After reading your post about the TX workshop, I wondered if some access to low-power AM or FM might be a good thing for Canada BUT could not help thinking that we have the internet with blogs, vlogs, streaming, etc…
Why risk chaos on the airwaves ?

well, for one thing, I think radio (even community based, low power, broadcast) builds community unlike any other medium.  The internet tries, and succeeds on a certain level, with the web 2.0 tech, but I think it is fundamentally different than hear someone’s voice.  Hearing the inflections in the words.

I don’t think chaos would result either.  If there were to be an ‘allowance’ under a certain PEP wattage, say 1 watt even, then I doubt that we would see an explosion on the airwaves, but rather the few people that this would benefit, would make a station.  I have been thinking about how great ti would be for DARE-DARE to have a legitimate station, one that was so low power it would only extend in the very close vicinity of the park, and what that might mean for the people that spend allot of time there.  You know, someone brought a soccer ball yesterday there, and people had a blast - happiest I’ve seen them in a long while.  Maybe ‘DJing’ a station like that would give them a voice, and something to do, to think about.  DARE-DARE could also use the system too - they plan on having events like movie night outside, and rather than just blasting the audio, they could instead transmit it, and people could listen on their headphones, or smaller radios.

If a low-power limit were set, then in fact it too could be regulated, and any interference could be dealt with in a professional way, rather than an aggressive one.  Maybe IC [Industry Canada] could even assist in being sure that these LPFM transmitters perform as they should.  So for a small price, organizations, and communities could realize some of the potential of radio as it was seen by some of its earliest practitioners.

Me, a ham for nearly 40 years, thinking that the internet trumps radio ??? I guess it depends on what one wants to achieve:

- A chance for anyone to express his views or creations ?

- An outlet for dissenting opinions ?

- Bring back a sense of community, a connection to local things ?

- A global forum for issues affecting humanity ?

Radio is saddled with a couple of handicaps:

- Entry barriers:

Radio transmission remains somewhat complicated.

Technical standards, equipment costs, risk of interference, …

- Limited audience:

I don’t see countries granting wide-open access to chunks of the spectrum capable of great distances.

I agree with this as well, and is why I always said that I’m not a ‘total’ anarchist :)  There needs to be regulation, especially when we start to talk about communication technology that can potentially reach the world.

That said, maybe you could shed some light on things from a technical perspective.  I have read from a few theoreticians, that in fact, allocation could be a thing of the past if we allowed certain type of technology similar to what is used for WiFi (802.11 right?) whereby these devices transmit and receive all on the same set of channels, yet my packets and my neighbors don’t get confused.  So let’s dream big for a moment, and imagine that this type of technology (is it spread spectrum in a way?) was slowly introduced for the ‘rest of the spectrum’. could this in a way alleviate the issue of interference, and then presumably, we could open the allocations?  Now I know for many different reasons this will probably never happen, but as an artist, I feel obliged to ask this kinds of questions, so excuse me if you imagine me going way out of orbit here

Think of an international ham band on a contest weekend and multiply the activity by a factor of 10:  the result would be akin to ‘noise’ wall-to-wall from stations competing for attention.

Allocations can only be VHF+ with limited coverage.

Again, agreed here, for the ‘un-licensed’ low power FM folks that I imagine could be very useful on a variety of levels. Worldwide abilities definitely need a degree of understanding before you try and jump into that pond.  I hardly feel that I am authorized, but the more I practice the better off I and everyone else out there is.

Computers and the internet have opened-up ready access to audiences, near or far, it all depends on the contents you offer.

Distance and time are no longer impediments to exchanges.

I think of radio as a ‘niche’ for specific purposes.

I think of the internet as a medium that has filled every niche of niches. I don’t even want to look in the darkest corners :)  Look at the wide range of information that exists on the net.  There’s so much, and almost so little, and sadly most of what you read, see and so on, is re-hashed from somewhere else online.

Now, if the infrastructure or society breaks down, if government or corporations misbehave, we have a problem but isn’t that the exception rather than the rule ?

hmmm, governments and corporations misbehave as the exception, this may be where we have to agree to disagree on a friendly level.  I can’t speak for Canadian politics, as I don’t feel exceptionally well versed in the history here and I still have problems keeping up with current events, but I can speak from the country I come from, and I can name a laundry list of things I don’t agree with which they have done.  Governments in a large scope, the big ida of government is of course not out to hurt the people who it governs, but the problem is that when you mix corporations with government I think it becomes a very bad mix.

I think that we only need to look at the case of AT&T drag-netting the internet / telephone node for the US government last year that was brought to light by the technician whistelblower as reason enough to consider creating networks outside of the internet, child of arpanet…

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/interviews/klein.html

I don’t wish of a societal breakdown (as much as it may seem after reading all of this), but what I would like, is for us to re-think our positions on these issues.  They are the biggest issues at hand today I believe.  Bigger than oil even.  Communications technology is what it’s a built upon - without communication we wouldn’t even know where to send the oil. (or at what prices

have a look at this article - nothing earth shattering, but a good one nonetheless: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/opinion/30wu.html

François

[ Lately, I have bookmarked a couple of blues 'radio' stations, one in New-Jersey, the other in Texas.  http://www.live365.com/ I can't have access to that over the airwaves at such little cost. ]

True, absolutely - I don’t think we should abolish either, they serve differing needs - but I think that radio could serve many more, and I think we should re-examine the use of both technologies.  As one begins to grow up (the internet) i think its a great time to examine the root, and evaluate it.  Maybe even re-define it.  Society is so hung up on the newest, latest, greatest tech - that we are creating a huge amount of waste.  Why not look at what is already there.  There is something so comforting about the transceiver I have and knowing that as long as I take care of it, I wont need to replace it for any reason.  14Mhz isn’t going the way of Microsoft Windows 3.1.  I have been using that as a selling point for radio by the way at Cabot.

[ Did you see the CBC's Newsworld taking video Skype calls from viewers in the evening as part of their election coverage ? ]

This almost require a whole separate email.  I am still out on how I feel about these ‘citizen’ reporters.  I miss the days of the pros - but then the pro channels have their own agenda, and they co-opt citizen views.  Im just not sure, and I am really confused about this - but I do spend allot of brain power on this issue.

Francois, I really appreciate all of your questions and input - you continue to challenge me in a very positive way…its great. I hope I’ve clarified some of my points - I was just writing off the top of my head, so excuse some of the ramblings

Would you mind if a clipped our discussion above and posted it to the blog? I think this type of exchange is so crucial.  If you don’t feel comfortable, its no problem, I will totally respect that and not ask again, but I do enjoy exchanging with you…

Now I have to head down to the square…
all the best,
matthew