On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 14:28:47 -0500, Michael Coslo
wrote:

Slightly OT, but kinda fun anyhow.....

I'd been trying to locate a reasonably priced USB cable over the weekend
It seems that you often pay as much for the cable as you fo for the
device you are connecting to the computer.

Has stereo voodoo physics entered the computer realm?

Anyhow, I ended up in a Radio Shack store, found the cheapest cable I
could, (20 bucks) and made the mistake of mentioning something to the
salesman about the funny claims on the packages. Big mistake, I had
blasphemed his religion. In the next couple minutes I learned that:

Turns out that different frequencies travel at different speeds down the
cable. Good cables have special formulations of wire that compensate for
this.

Everybody knows that!

He didn't know what velocity factor was, but let me know that he had
taken physics classes, so he knew what he was talking about.

So why have u antenna gurus been misleading us?!


Now that my eyes have been opened I understand....

Looking at an antenna, it becomes obvious that the lower the frequency,
the slower the signal moves. The extra length of the antenna allows the
RF to accellerate enough so that when it reached the end of the antenna,
it has enough velocity to shoot out and not float straight up. Those
really high frequencies are zipping by so fast that they hardly need any
wire to get to TOSP (Take-off speed)

Wow, I have reached true enlightenment...............

Mike, sounds like he is well on the way to a ham licence... did you
sign him up?

Owen
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