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Telamon wrote:

Much of the western USA has no cellular service period.

Most of the population is on the coast and has cell service.


Yeah? That's swell, but we were talking about area.

"Last I checked, the AT&T
Wireless 850mHz GSM (whatever name it is called now) network covers 98%
of the surface area of the U.S."

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On Jan 20, 12:46*pm, David wrote:
John Kasupski wrote:

IOW, self-setting clocks as consumer items are a convenience, not a
necessity. I'd be more concerned about wireless phones not working due
to the fact that this renders them useless for placing emergency
calls, rather than because it prevents these devices from updating
their time displays.

73 DE John, KC2HMZ

I like my atomic clocks and my atomic watches because they are always
correct, without having to use the internet. *I have always insisted on
having the correct time (see Ken Nordine). *The example of the clock
that only set itself 3 times a week was to show that they can work
inside a commercial building, albeit not terribly well.

- If you're between Tucson and El Paso, or between El Paso
- and Laredo, etc., you'd best be carrying a 4 Watt CB radio
- for emergencies. That fancy telephone is very hit and miss.

David - Yes the CB Radio is still one of the Best Emergency
Back-Up Communications Systems for the majority of
Non-Technical Consumers in an Emergency : When the
Power Goes Off.

RadioShack CB Radios - http://tinyurl.com/35n497

That is very true -IF- you live in many rural and remote areas
at the far-end of the Power Line. Either a Car/Truck 12 Volt
power source or a spare 12 V Battery is required. ~ RHF

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On Jan 20, 4:05*pm, Telamon
wrote:
In article , David
wrote:





Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
John Kasupski wrote:
Note that we're probably talking errors in the amount of nanoseconds
(per second) here, certainly not errors that are going to cause
somebody to be ten minutes late for work, but for commercial or
scientific applications requiring a time reference that is related
directly to a national or international reference, GPS may not
necessarily cut the mustard.

Yes, but don't loose sight of the fact that this discussion is really
about consumer items. One person metioned in a previous post that his
clock syncs three times a week, other than that, it "runs free".

So IMHO if you build a consumer device that syncs every 5 minutes to
a GPS or GPS based standard, it will be a lot more accurate than
the average one that syncs every 2-3 days to a radio signal.

If it were to sync every minute to a time signal inserted in a cellular
control channel, it be even more accurate. Last I checked, the AT&T
Wireless 850mHz GSM (whatever name it is called now) network covers 98%
of the surface area of the U.S.

Since it is a receiver it can be broadbanded and if it were to cover
the GSM 850/900 mHz and 1800/1900 mHz bands it would work everywhere
there is GSM coverage. Except for Estonina and Brazil, an 850/900 mHz
receiver would be enough.

This does leave out parts of the Pacific Rim (Japan and Korea) and
some parts of Oz, but on the whole it cover almost the entire
populated earth.

Geoff.

Much of the western USA has no cellular service period.

Most of the population is on the coast and has cell service.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Telamon,

'Most' Ain't "All" and when there is a major Power Grid
disruption you will be yelling into your Celphone :
HELP ! - Can Any Body Hear Me ? and nobody will.

David was Right the CB Radio is still one of the Best Emergency
Back-Up Communications Systems Dollar-for-Dollar for the
majority of Non-Technical Consumers in an Emergency :
When the Power System Goes Down.

RadioShack CB Radios - http://tinyurl.com/35n497

That is very true -IF- you live in many rural and remote areas
at the far-end of the Power Line. Either a Car/Truck 12 Volt
power source or a spare 12 V Battery is required. ~ RHF

NIST Considers East Coast WWVB Broadcast
 

On Jan 20, 5:07*pm, "Brenda Ann" wrote:
"Telamon" wrote in message

....

Much of the western USA has no cellular service period.

Most of the population is on the coast and has cell service.

- Until they travel away from the populated areas. *Big stretches of
Death
- Valley with no service. May have changed since I *was last there in
2000,
- but there were even quite a few dead spots on the highway between
Stockton
- and Fairfield. By contrast, here in the ROK, we have nearly 100%
cell
- penetration (can't say absolutely 100%, since there is the
occasional dead
- spot inside a building or a tunnel, but even most tunnels have
service...
- they make sure there is a cell tower posted at at least one end of
every
- tunnel).
-
Of course, the states is a much bigger place, so much more difficult
- to get 100% penetration of service.

BAD - 100% Cell Phone Penetration ! - Sort of sounds like . . .
the Latest High Tech Sex Crime. :o) ~ RHF

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"Telamon" wrote in message
...
In article
,
" wrote:

On Jan 20, 8:31 pm, David wrote:
"Last I checked, the AT&T Wireless 850mHz GSM (whatever name it is
called
now)
network covers 98% of the surface area of the U.S."

They may have licenses that allow them to cover 98% of the surface
area (to use your number), but actual coverage is nowhere near that.

http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer

(And this includes both the older 850 MHz and newer 1.9 GHz bands.)

That link is not working right now but you can go here
http://www.mountainwireless.com/cingular_licenses.shtml


Worked fine for me. Looks like a vast difference between the 98% claim and
reality.

NIST Considers East Coast WWVB Broadcast
 

In article ,
"Brenda Ann" wrote:

"Telamon" wrote in message
...
In article
,
" wrote:

On Jan 20, 8:31 pm, David wrote:
"Last I checked, the AT&T Wireless 850mHz GSM (whatever name it is
called
now)
network covers 98% of the surface area of the U.S."

They may have licenses that allow them to cover 98% of the surface
area (to use your number), but actual coverage is nowhere near that.

http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer

(And this includes both the older 850 MHz and newer 1.9 GHz bands.)

That link is not working right now but you can go here
http://www.mountainwireless.com/cingular_licenses.shtml


Worked fine for me. Looks like a vast difference between the 98% claim and
reality.

It's probably the old version of Safari I'm using then. I've noticed
that I have more trouble with some web sites these days as Apple is not
supporting this version of the browser any more. The latest operating
system Leopard still has some issues and I'll probably wait a little
longer to upgrade.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

NIST Considers East Coast WWVB Broadcast
 

TV stations that synchronize to avoid ATSC into analog interference use
GPS as well. *They have to be within 6 Hz of each other.

For that matter, there is an ATSC standard for broadcasting television
on a single-frequency network within an area of license. That is, a
station would have multiple transmitters (lower power, of course) all
broadcasting in sync and on the same frequency (the assigned TV
channel). The advantage, besides potentially less expensive
transmitter facilities, is that a broadcaster can put up antenna in
such a way as to ensure better coverage over their entire market.

Yes, there would be destructive interference in places, but since the
signal is 6 MHz wide and at 600 MHz, only a small portion of the
entire band would be affected at any given location. The error
correction takes care of it.

The timing requirement for this is quite tight.

- Jonathan

NIST Considers East Coast WWVB Broadcast