Howard mensch90249 wrote in message . ..
On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 18:36:11 -0500, Tom Ring
wrote:

Ian Jackson wrote:

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.

Which reminded me of the "Cat Detector Van" sketch. Monty Python was so
good.

tom
K0TAR
Don't you mean the "Looney Detector Van"?

But . . but . . so the cop punches the button, turns loose a monster
burst of RF and the perp's engine sputters out. What prevents the RF
from also shutting down the engine in the Looney Van? The cops will be
issued Looney Vans equipped with RF-proof 1956 Stromberg carburetors
or what?? That would thrill the EPA and the EU envirofreaks no end . .

Sometimes I wonder about these academics . . last month it was the
University of Rhode Island . .

Howard

w3rv