digital broadcasting – Steve Blum's Blog

AM radio, born in the 1920 election, dies as 2020’s votes are counted

3 November 2020 by Steve Blum
digital broadcasting, fcc, geek stuff, kdka, wamd

If 2020 wasn’t 2020, I’d be in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today, listening to election returns on KDKA and honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of broadcasting. Then owned by Westinghouse, a radio manufacturer, KDKA signed on and reported the results of the 1920 presidential race between republican (and victor) Warren Harding and democrat James Cox.

Some experimental stations were on (and, mostly, off) the air early in the preceding decade, but were shut down during World War I.… More

The future of wireless internet service

14 November 2008 by Steve Blum
community networks, digital broadcasting, Internet of Things, M2M, mobile, mobile broadband, rural broadband, wireless opportunities, WISP

Forget trying to build a wireless Internet business with any idea of serving people in their homes or businesses. In general, wireless technologies don’t work as well as the hard-wired options. Wireless Internet service will succeed where wireless technology holds an advantage.

Wireless broadband technology has three advantages over landlines:

It is ubiquitous.
It can be rapidly deployed for a far lower initial capital outlay.
It excels at delivering the same bit stream to many people at the same time.

… More