In article 7t8zb.4012$US3.3773@okepread03, says...

Well, 802.11 is the standard used for WiFi, or wireless networking cards
you can purchase for your home computers. Many people have found that
with amplifiers (even to the legal limit) covers quite a distance. Nothing to
do with Ham radio though, except that WiFi is co-mingled partially with one
of the U.S. ham bands at 2 GHz and 5 GHz.

More specifically: The current standards are 802.11b and 802.11g.
In terms of security, wireless networking is iffy at best. WEP can be
cracked in a matter of hours.

Hams are dying now by the droves, and the modes and skills of operators is
drastically changing. No longer are the skills of building a rig from scratch
what drives new hams. They mostly want to communicate, and not be here
just for the electronics.

Excuse me?! Speak for yourself! I've always been in it for the fun
and learning of messing with the guts of the radios and associated
goodies themselves. In fact, I went and made RF services part of my side
business, dedicated heavily to hams who want to use commercial hardware
(mostly Motorola) on the ham bands, but who may lack the skill or
equipment to get such working on them.

I will say that there's a -lot- more "appliance operators" on the
air, but the techies among us are still around. You just have to look a
little longer and harder to find them.

73 de KC7GR

--
Dr. Anton Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Institute
(Known to some as Bruce Lane, KC7GR)
kyrrin a/t bluefeathertech d-o=t c&o&m
Motorola Radio Programming & Service Available -
http://www.bluefeathertech.com/rf.html
"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" (Red Green)