Re: distributed autonomous networks

>[stuff about possible power sources and transmission media]

A television report on 'Beyond 2000' described meteor-bounce radio.  The
technique extends the idea of bouncing radio waves off the ionosphere (for
distance), to bouncing off the atmospheric trails of micro meteors. 
Reported applications are economical (at least run-time economical,
start-up cost was not discussed) weather telemetry stations in remote
areas.  A solar panel provides the power, a small computer is needed to
direct transmission.

I don't know how reliable 'Beyond 2000' is, but they did show both the
alleged transmitters and telemetry stations using them.

This technique may not be feasible in the context you are describing, but
the telemetry application was parallel in that it also comprises many
independent, self-contained transmitters.


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>  >[stuff about possible power sources and transmission media]

>A television report on 'Beyond 2000' described meteor-bounce radio.  The
>technique extends the idea of bouncing radio waves off the ionosphere (for
>distance), to bouncing off the atmospheric trails of micro meteors. 

Are these particularly common? Or only when there are meteor showers...

>Reported applications are economical (at least run-time economical,
>start-up cost was not discussed) weather telemetry stations in remote
>areas.  A solar panel provides the power, a small computer is needed to
>direct transmission.

Right. what sort of computer? Would it be possible to run this sort
of setup from an 8088? They are pretty cheap at the moment.
:-)

>This technique may not be feasible in the context you are describing, but
>the telemetry application was parallel in that it also comprises many
>independent, self-contained transmitters.

Ahh. Well, I'll have to look into it.

Dwayne.

Dwayne asks about meteor-bounce communications:

> >technique extends the idea of bouncing radio waves off the ionosphere (for
> >distance), to bouncing off the atmospheric trails of micro meteors. 
> 
> Are these particularly common? Or only when there are meteor showers...

The micro-meteors are frequently showering the earth...I seem to
recall most systems having to wait on the order of tens of seconds for
a suitable trail to appear (and then only for fractions of a second).

The transmitters have to be "opportunistic," waiting for a suitable
ionization trail and then blasting away for the few hundred
milliseconds the trail is active.

I think trucks are big users of this system, that is, radio
communication with home bases. The data rates don't have to be high,
and the sporadic, opportunistic nature is OK.

(The same would apply to Net-type communications, of a personal sort,
but not the backbone links, of course.)

Qualcomm builds truck systems that use other techniques, so perhaps
Phil can comment on the current status of meteor-bounce comm systems.

--Tim May


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