information suppression by universities
 

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Out of curiosity, does that include the IEEE Transactions on Antennas
and Propagation and the IEEE Antenna and Propagation Magazine? I'm
currently debating the merits of re-joining the IEEE mostly to obtain
these publications. In the past, they were literally gold mines of
interesting ideas on antennas. However, like all gold mines, I had to
dig through a considerable amound of rubble and useless garbage to
find the gold. I've seen little of this stuff on university web
piles, except after publication by the IEEE. I drag myself up to UCSC
and borrow a few issues, but I prefer to have them online
(downloadable and searchable) which costs money.

Do I spend the money, or do I seach for your secret horde of free
university publications on antenna design?

A lot of universities have Transactions for most of the societies like A
& P as well as the Proceedings. IEEE members get free access to online
Proceedings and all past issues of Transactions for all societies they
belong to. For example, if you're a member of Antennas and Propagation,
you can access online any paper in any issue of the Transactions on
Antennas & Propagation. The incremental cost for joining a society is
modest -- A & P is $36.00 per year once you're an IEEE member. (I think
you can get Trans. on A & P or others without joining, but at a much
higher price.) I just renewed my membership and joined the Microwave
Theory & Techniques Society for only an additional $14.00. Now I'll have
online access to all the past Transactions for that group.

Incidentally, anyone can purchase and download any individual IEEE paper
online for around $20. A lot of other organizations like the IEE (U.K.),
physics societies, etc. have a similar offer. I've gone this route a
number of times when it was worth it to me to avoid the hassle of going
downtown to the university library or waiting for an interlibrary transfer.

If you're used to looking at A & P transactions from the '40s through
the '60s, you'll probably be disappointed with current issues. Research
has always concentrated on where the money is, and now it's coming from
much different industries than it was a few decades ago. Samplings from
the current issue: "Synthesized-Reference-Wave Holography for
Determining Antenna Radiation Characteristics" and "Parallel In-Core and
Out-of-Core Solution of Electrically Large Problems Using the RWG Basis
Functions". No Brown, Lewis, and Epstein papers, those! But there was an
interesting paper on putting RFID tags on explosive ordnance as a
possible way to locate it when unexploded and buried, and a short paper
on coax loss.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

information suppression by universities
 

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:01:35 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

Do I spend the money, or do I seach for your secret horde of free
university publications on antenna design?

Hi Jeff,

Surely you must realize that this is not about money (a convenient
foil in this troll topic), but about skill (what the troll lacks).

The cheesy inventions that we have been breathlessly advised of have
the commensurate value of the bandwidth they return in a simple Google
search. It takes very little effort to recognize the moldy
fluorescence surrounding those meager offerings.

If you want the exact article specified, yes you can shell out money.
If you want the research behind it, and probably more data than you
would care to wade through, you simply investigate the investigator.

Myself, if I don't want to spend any more than the cost of bus fare, I
go to the engineering library, check it out, bring it home, scan it,
and its done. As I am on campus twice a week anyway (and the cost of
bus fare is already covered for my other activities), it is hardly an
imposition and the university certainly isn't suppressing me as they
give alumni library privileges.

Even public libraries have online access to special topic databases
(subscriptions) - unless you live in Bumf**k, Illinois.

Now, if you happen to be a troll who visits a campus infrequently only
to spit on their library shelves, I can well imagine the ego-bruised
outrage that is visited upon us here after they give you the bum's
rush.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

information suppression by universities
 

Art Unwin wrote:
Many of us have checked the net for the latest advances in antennas.
Advances are usually arrived at public university research units some
of which are partially funded by outside sources Most, if not all,
the results are presented to the IEEE as a way of getting recognision.
But this information such as advancement in science is not provided to
the public even tho they came from a public institution. Thus you
cannot access it on the net as a member of the public as access is
with held UNLESS
you hand over some money to the IEEE. Why are the universites not
sharing their work with the public?
Is it because academics feel they are part of a special club divorced
from the public? Ofcourse I may be wrong
in taking that view in light of the fact that these study results are
available in libraries but why are they not put on the web for the
good of science and the general public at large?
Art

Absolutely, with public colleges and universities ... if they use public
funds, the knowledge is public. Perhaps, someday, a decent attorney
will take them to task. The college I hold a position with knows all of
this, we make as much as humanly possible available--we are educators
and we take our responsibility SERIOUSLY!!!

But, somehow the trash has gotten into the system ... :-(

Regards,
JS

information suppression by universities
 

"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:51:06 -0800 (PST), Art Unwin
wrote:

From a ham radio point of view we have the ARRL organization but the
do not seem interested in advances in the science
even tho they have the vehicle (QST) to keep its members up to date.

You might want to look at QEX magazine. It's the ARRL technical
publication for experimenters:
http://www.arrl.org/qex/

Also, publication, free or otherwise, constitutes disclosure, which
has signifigant effects on the patent process. Premature public
disclosure can easily invalidate a patent. It must be done carefully,
with due consideration for the implications of publication. Here's a
short summary of the situation:
http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/rpc/InventionDisclosure.asp

The ARRL's interest in advances in the sciences is intentionally
limited to their applications to amateur radio. While hams may have a
good general interest in scientific advances, the number that apply to
amateur radio is rather limited. I have specific opinions about some
of these advances, such as the ARRL's discovery of Wi-Fi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_speed_multimedia
but I don't have the time or strength for yet another endless debate.

In my never humble opinion, the ARRL's support and publication of ham
inspired new technology has been usually late, limited, and sometimes
wrong. (NBFM using commercial radios, FM repeaters, packet radio,
packet networks, computahs, etc)[1]. Fortunately, this has not always
been the case, as PSK31, bizarre antennas, satellite, and SDR have
been well supported and published. Personally, I would be quite happy
if the ARRL concentrates on what nobody else is doing, which is acting
as a lobbyist for amateur radio with the FCC and the government.


[1] I still recall articles in QST in the late 1960's and early 1970's
on how to convert commercial FM radios into AM radios. I often
wondered what the ARRL was thinking.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Excellent post. The problem with QEX is not enough submissions. As for the
QST AM mods, I was thinking that was ATV, but maybe you were talking about
something else. The same applies to QST. If there aren't enough
submissions, the only recourse is to hire writers to do columns or fill the
empiness with drivel and ads like 73. The best things to come out of 73 was
the Star Trek communicator clone and Byte magazine. I hate how Ham Radio
magazine died out. I was President of the local ham club for a while, and
wound up doing the newletter too. For the three or four years of that, I
only got 3 submissions from the membership. All the rest I had to either
pull out of my A** every month or go around like a reporter and interrogate
people.

On the other hand - What neat inventions can we come up with to share with
the World, so it can be exploited and give reason to take more of our
spectrum? Interesting to note how public safety volunteers showed Los
Angeles Sheriff how neat ATV was and they turned around and petitioned the
FCC for those frequencies.

Oh well, we will probably all be shot in head by the next regime because we
are an irritation.

information suppression by universities
 

"Cecil Moore" wrote in message
...
Art Unwin wrote:
Why are the universites not
sharing their work with the public?

Because socialism has not completely taken over?
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com

When socialism has completely taken over, they will be shot in the head
because nothing they know will be useful for picking rice.

information suppression by universities
 

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:47:48 -0800, Roy Lewallen
wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Out of curiosity, does that include the IEEE Transactions on Antennas
and Propagation and the IEEE Antenna and Propagation Magazine? I'm
currently debating the merits of re-joining the IEEE mostly to obtain
these publications. In the past, they were literally gold mines of
interesting ideas on antennas. However, like all gold mines, I had to
dig through a considerable amound of rubble and useless garbage to
find the gold. I've seen little of this stuff on university web
piles, except after publication by the IEEE. I drag myself up to UCSC
and borrow a few issues, but I prefer to have them online
(downloadable and searchable) which costs money.

Do I spend the money, or do I seach for your secret horde of free
university publications on antenna design?

A lot of universities have Transactions for most of the societies like A
& P as well as the Proceedings. IEEE members get free access to online
Proceedings and all past issues of Transactions for all societies they
belong to.

It's the ability to search and download proceedings, reports, and
articles that interest me. I do that now at the local multiversity
(UCSC) but there are problems. However, there are problems. Since
I'm not an alumnus, teacher, or employee, the annual cost is about 1/3
of an IEEE membership plus 2 IEEE society memberships. In addition,
some items of interest are not available off campus. The local
library has access, but that requires a pilgrimage to the library
every time I want something. As long as my reading requirements were
minimal, a few trips to the library or paying for individual papers
was cheaper than IEEE membership.

The current economics a
IEEE membership: $169/yr
A & P membership: $24/yr
I couldn't find the current costs of the various printed transactions
and magazines. My guess is at least $40/yr.
With only downloaded issues, that's about $200/yr or $17/month. I
value my working time at about $75/hr. If joining saves me 3 hours of
time, it's break even. That's about how much time I waste on just one
trip to the local university, so I guess membership is justified.
http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/Cost/dues.html
http://www.ict.csiro.au/aps/
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=8

What go my attention and inspired my questions was the alleged free
availability of antenna design articles from various secret university
archives. I've found a few, but nothing compared to the online IEEE
A&P collection.

For example, if you're a member of Antennas and Propagation,
you can access online any paper in any issue of the Transactions on
Antennas & Propagation. The incremental cost for joining a society is
modest -- A & P is $36.00 per year once you're an IEEE member. (I think
you can get Trans. on A & P or others without joining, but at a much
higher price.)

I haven't checked the current numbers but last time I checked, the
annual subscription price was exactly the same as joining the IEEE.
I'm sure that was planned.

I just renewed my membership and joined the Microwave
Theory & Techniques Society for only an additional $14.00. Now I'll have
online access to all the past Transactions for that group.

Hmmm.... I hadn't heard of that group. So many groups, no little
time.

Incidentally, anyone can purchase and download any individual IEEE paper
online for around $20. A lot of other organizations like the IEE (U.K.),
physics societies, etc. have a similar offer. I've gone this route a
number of times when it was worth it to me to avoid the hassle of going
downtown to the university library or waiting for an interlibrary transfer.

I'd forgotten about the wait, which requires two trips to the library.
I ordered several articles from the local library. Apparently, it's a
common thing, costs nothing, and is fairly simple. All the articles
and abstracts are easily searchable on the IEEE web pile, so obtaining
the necessary identification was trivial. What I didn't expect was
that to save the library some money, they only ordered such transfers
on Tuesdays and only delivered perhaps a week later. There was no
charge for hard copy, but an extra charge for having it delivered on a
CDROM, which methinks seems backwards. This was about 2 years ago,
and I haven't done it since.

If you're used to looking at A & P transactions from the '40s through
the '60s, you'll probably be disappointed with current issues. Research
has always concentrated on where the money is, and now it's coming from
much different industries than it was a few decades ago. Samplings from
the current issue: "Synthesized-Reference-Wave Holography for
Determining Antenna Radiation Characteristics" and "Parallel In-Core and
Out-of-Core Solution of Electrically Large Problems Using the RWG Basis
Functions". No Brown, Lewis, and Epstein papers, those! But there was an
interesting paper on putting RFID tags on explosive ordnance as a
possible way to locate it when unexploded and buried, and a short paper
on coax loss.

Sigh. Such esoteric and obscure research pays the bills and feeds the
academics, but also adds considerable clutter. My areas of interest
is probably considered equally narrow and arcane. With a suitable
search engine and filter, I can live with it.

Actually, the current issue doesn't look that horrible:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isYear=2008&isnumber=4685873&Submit3 2=Go+To+Issue
For example "Internal Coupled-Fed Shorted Monopole Antenna for
GSM850/900/1800/1900/UMTS Operation in the Laptop Computer" appears to
genuinely useful.

Incidentally, there are "delayed" RFID tags of sorts, that use long
term chemical action on the chip or PCB, to activate its operation
after a pre-determined interval. Basically, the chip arrives shorted,
and the short disappears over time. The logic is that RFID can be
used to locate unexploded mines and ordinance after the battle or war
is finished, but not during the action.

Thanks much...

Roy Lewallen, W7EL
--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

information suppression by universities
 

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:59:01 -0800, Richard Clark
wrote:

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:01:35 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

Do I spend the money, or do I seach for your secret horde of free
university publications on antenna design?

Surely you must realize that this is not about money (a convenient
foil in this troll topic), but about skill (what the troll lacks).

If I had money and the necessary skills, I wouldn't be asking dumb
questions in this newsgroup.

The cheesy inventions that we have been breathlessly advised of have
the commensurate value of the bandwidth they return in a simple Google
search. It takes very little effort to recognize the moldy
fluorescence surrounding those meager offerings.

Wrong. Techno-hype became somewhat of a hobby of mine. During the
dot.com boom of the late 1990's, I was deriving considerable income
from doing technical sanity checks on business plans and projects.
During this time, I accumulated a fair collection of patents and ideas
that are pure bogus, yet were successfully promoted at least to the
point of being funded by technically clueless investors. Many are
still around today. Considering extent of the problem, and the fair
number of bogus patents, I would suggest that it is NOT easy to
recognize technical quackery.

If you want the exact article specified, yes you can shell out money.
If you want the research behind it, and probably more data than you
would care to wade through, you simply investigate the investigator.

I've been shelling out the money. I just want to shell out less
money. Your suggestion that there was some secret horde of free
research articles on antenna research at universities caught my
attention. I guess not.

Myself, if I don't want to spend any more than the cost of bus fare, I
go to the engineering library, check it out, bring it home, scan it,
and its done. As I am on campus twice a week anyway (and the cost of
bus fare is already covered for my other activities), it is hardly an
imposition and the university certainly isn't suppressing me as they
give alumni library privileges.

I haven't been on a bus in perhaps 25 years. The local multiversity
(UCSC) is on top of a mountain. I like to bicycle but at my age, the
hill is a challenge. Parking is impossible, expensive, or both. I'm
not an alumni, but am tempted to take exactly one class just to become
one. I've been "borrowing" accounts, but that has it's limitations.

Even public libraries have online access to special topic databases
(subscriptions) - unless you live in Bumf**k, Illinois.

Thanks, but I've tried that. See my other rant in this thread.

Now, if you happen to be a troll who visits a campus infrequently only
to spit on their library shelves, I can well imagine the ego-bruised
outrage that is visited upon us here after they give you the bum's
rush.

Punch my name into the Google Groups search page and read some of my
past postings. Then decide for yourself if I'm a troll or not. This
might help:
http://groups.google.com/groups/profile?hl=en&enc_user=tWGMphwAAAAGTj9X4k0U7wKkGyU 8QhaBhaxMG2M1PWkMtCZAt5tdxQ

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

information suppression by universities
 

On Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:14:18 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

Surely you must realize that this is not about money (a convenient
foil in this troll topic), but about skill (what the troll lacks).
....
Punch my name into the Google Groups search page and read some of my
past postings. Then decide for yourself if I'm a troll or not.

You didn't originate this decrepit topic did you? Connect the dots.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

information suppression by universities
 

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:59:01 -0800, Richard Clark
wrote:

On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:01:35 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

Do I spend the money, or do I seach for your secret horde of free
university publications on antenna design?

Surely you must realize that this is not about money (a convenient
foil in this troll topic), but about skill (what the troll lacks).

If I had money and the necessary skills, I wouldn't be asking dumb
questions in this newsgroup.

The cheesy inventions that we have been breathlessly advised of have
the commensurate value of the bandwidth they return in a simple Google
search. It takes very little effort to recognize the moldy
fluorescence surrounding those meager offerings.

Wrong. Techno-hype became somewhat of a hobby of mine. During the
dot.com boom of the late 1990's, I was deriving considerable income
from doing technical sanity checks on business plans and projects.
During this time, I accumulated a fair collection of patents and ideas
that are pure bogus, yet were successfully promoted at least to the
point of being funded by technically clueless investors. Many are
still around today. Considering extent of the problem, and the fair
number of bogus patents, I would suggest that it is NOT easy to
recognize technical quackery.

Sure it IS easy. Unfortunately, there are plenty enough people who have
Mad Skillz in the suspension of disbelief.

Looking at technical guano and judging it as such is not difficult.
There are ways that dilettantes or the intelligent uninformed can detect
the aroma of hi-tech manure.

In a field where I am mostly ignorant - finance -I called shenanigans
when I first heard of heard of the new breed of ATM's. I yelled fraud
when I heard of the sub prime loans, and shook my head in disbelief as
80 year old people took out 50 year mortgages that folded interest and
principle back into the loan. And yet while I knew the present economic
crisis was coming back around 2003, it seems a whole lot of people
couldn't see that. And I was told by enough of them that my "old school"
view of economics was surely evidence of my stupidity.

In science, economics and technology, the evidence is all there, the
fundamentals are still quite serviceable, and analysis is not
difficult. The problem is that people start out with a basic premise
such as "Owning a house is the American Dream", or "The old guard is
saying that all is already known about antennas", and then trying to fit
everything into *that* philosophical Iron Maiden.

So I can take a look at say Art's antenna, and draw the conclusion that
it is very likely an inductor on the end of a pole, and it will tend to
perform like an EH antenna, with the coax serving as the major radiator.
Contacts can certainly be made. I don't even condemn it out of hand, I
don't think it is anything new, and after looking at it, it just seemed
to be a lot more effort to build than I wanted to trouble myself with.

Yet I'm an uneducated dilettante dummy - most people out there are a lot
smarter than me, so how come they can't figure this out when I can?


`- 73 de Mike N3LI -

information suppression by universities
 

On Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:29:20 -0500, Michael Coslo
wrote:

Yet I'm an uneducated dilettante dummy - most people out there are a lot
smarter than me, so how come they can't figure this out when I can?

Hi Mike,

As a girlfriend of mine once offered:
"They've had the common sense educated out of them."

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC