In message , Fractenna
writes
Also keeps those pesky UFO's in check:-)....

Hmmm..I though cars were better shielded than that.
Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/arti...259138,00.html

73,
Chip N1IR

In the UK, we're not supposed to use 'unproved' commercial equipment in
modern cars (although I think we can still use homebrew). This is
supposedly to avoid the risk of interfering with the electronics
(although I can't really think why 'approved' equipment should be
better). It's all to do with being a part of the European Community, and
the rule-making bureaucrats in Brussels.

Obviously, the real solution to the problem would be to improve the
immunity of the car electronics (which costs), but you now have a good
reason to justify not doing this.

In the UK, we pay a TV licence. There are detector vans which track down
offenders. The obvious way was to look for the radiation of the local
oscillator in the tuner. However, a radiating local oscillator is a 'bad
thing' because it interferes with things. With modern sets, it's
probably easier to look for the rubbish from the switch-mode power
supplies (which is often worse when the set is in standby).

It used to be said that the TV manufacturers were actually willing to
improve their designs in order to reduce the radiation, but were
pressured not to do so! I'm not sure how true any of this is. I've a
sneaky feeling that costs again come into it somewhere.

Cheers,
Ian.
--