Today a new world record distance for a 5 GHz Wi-Fi link has been achieved by the Italian Center for Radio Activities (C.I.S.A.R), and Ubiquiti Networks, a leading innovator in outdoor wireless broadband solutions. The distance of 304km (188.89 miles) was established from Sardinia Island to Central Italy achieving data-rates of about 5Mbps, using Ubiquiti’s XtremeRange5 (XR5) High-Power Carrier Class mini-PCI radio module and 35dBi 5 GHz parabolic dish antennas.

Wi-Fi transmissions of greater distances have been reported by Gizmag previously, however, this latest endeavor by C.I.S.A.R. has achieved a connection on a 5GHz radio band at transfer rates of 5MBps. “The alignment of two 35dBi antennas at 304km (188.89 miles) spanning sea and land is a very difficult and complicated technical endeavor, but with the Ubiquiti Networks XR5 this was made simple without the need for additional devices. This saved us a lot of time, expense, and resources”, said Mr. Mirco Paesante of the C.I.S.A.R.

The alignment was made by providing a beacon through a semi-directional antenna (short-backfire 17dBi) on the Sardinia Island and one of the two 35dBi antennas on Monte Amiata, which is about 5,220 feet (1,740m) above sea level. It allows operators on Sardinia Island to stay in touch with their community on the Italian Peninsula, and is sure to have a range of applications in the future of Wi-Fi technologies, by incorporating super-high frequencies at far greater distances than ever before.

The C.I.S.A.R. is a non-profit association founded by a group of Italian radio amateur operators in 1981. Its main activities are in VHF and upper band experimentation, interconnecting FM and digital repeaters, providing support for the radio communication community. They have teamed up with “Ubiquiti Networks”, who designs, develops and markets wireless broadband equipment to achieve the new world record distance. After successfully inter-connecting the whole Italian country with analog FM repeaters, C.I.S.A.R. has envisaged a new wide-band digital network, connecting all Italian radio users to each other. “This link was particularly important, because in the event of an emergency, it will provide communications with authorities for help.”

Chairman of the FCC Kevin Martin

Eh…. Not really. Wow that was by far the longest title yet. Well so it happened today, we all new it was going to happen, the 700mhz frequency was approved today by the FCC . The 700mhzland has been long sought after frequency for the great distances it can reach. Since Google wants to melt there doughy little hands into every aspect of every market they said, “Hey lets buy a Radio frequency”. Don’t quote them on that, they probably said something a lot more sophisticated and in-depth.
Now all in all this approval really isn’t that bad, but only if the FCC keeps to its “Open Access” plan. But the FCC being a part of our government we never know who’s hand might get greased to push a vote or favor through. A total of 60 megahertz will be auctioned off, with twenty-two of them “open,” and another 10 set aside for a “national public safety” network. The auctioning off of the frequency is expected to raise as much as $15 billion for the federal treasury.

The auction begins sometime early next year, and so it begins…..

I wanted to give a little info out about Chairman Kevin Martin, and who he has worked for, and what he did in the past. Here is the excerpt about him from the official FCC website:

“Chairman Martin was nominated by President George W. Bush to a Republican seat on the Commission, and was sworn in on July 3, 2001. He was designated chairman by President Bush on March 18, 2005. Chairman Martin was re-nominated for a second term as commissioner and chairman by President George W. Bush on April 25, 2006.

Before joining the FCC, Martin was a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. He served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Team and was Deputy General Counsel for the Bush campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, Martin was an advisor to FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. He has also served in the Office of the Independent Counsel and worked as an associate at the Washington, DC law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding. Before joining Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Martin was a judicial clerk for U.S. District Court Judge William M. Hoeveler, Miami, FL.

Martin received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Federal Communications Bar Association.”

Now Chairman Martin is no virgin when it comes to ethic scandals, does anyone remember the Bellsouth & AT&T merger?

I never try to mix politics with technology but sometimes they just mix , and a lot of the time it ends up in a negative manner. So that is why I am so skeptical of this “Open Access” plan. Now I am not saying Google even has the cash flow to play the game, if it stays open I hope they have the cash on hand. I just hope the FCC plays nice with everyone and does not play favors.

Can anyone give me a reason to not think like this?

For me WIMAX and the whole idea of broadcasted open public free wireless is a thing of beauty. I live for anything that’s wireless and free like slurpee’s . Granted the proposed 37 city wireless project is probably the biggest yet. But don’t be a doubter some of the biggest names in the biz are backing the project like Cisco and Big Blue.

The project is estimated to cost $85-150 million. It will be broadcasted through the silicon valley area, the first test nodes will be in Palo Alto and San Carlos, they will start later this year on testing. I pray for the boys up in the Silicon Forest to start a project like this. The final network will probably start construction around 2008. Google where ya at on the funding??? Oh I forgot they are to busy trying to bribe the FCC…cough cough.

Well the gargantuan’s from Mountain View are creating a shake up in yet another industry sector. Google wants to participate in the FCC 700mhz wifi spectrum auction. They are ponying up the minimum reserve bid of $4.6bil. “Google has also been pressing the FCC to reserve a portion of that spectrum to be used primarily, or exclusively, for broadband communications. The Internet giant wants “open access” rules, fearing that without them, only a few powerful companies, such as telecommunications and cable providers, will become the permanent guardians of the airwaves.”

I really find all of this kind of ironic and hypocritical of Google. They talk about “Open Access” for this truly powerful spectrum, this could be a huge industry changing auction for a lot of companies and Google of all companies is trying to put the face on of “Do no evil”, “Let it be unregulated”. I guess Mr Schmidt, Mr Brin and Mr.Page have never used Google Adwords, no control at all….

From my point of view this is just another one of Googles jedi mind tricks to get everyone to believe that if they win the auction they wont try to control every aspect of it…….. The GOOG better reach deep deep down into that war chest of loot because I guarantee $4.6 billion wont hang long with some of these Google proclaimed “Powerful Companies”. If GOOG wins I hope they will finally muster up the sauce to split 3 to 1 its driving me nuts….

The Geek -

Well kind of lame first post but who cares, we are slowly churning out info. Graphics should be up soon. But your here for the info.

So about a week ago at work I noticed someone was running a phishy “Free public wifi” ad hoc wireless signal over my air. You see if I worked in the middle of a city or suburban area I would not think twice about it, but you see I work out in the boonies, way way out in the middle of no where. I have a pretty large network out in the country, its about a 450 node network with 7 wireless bridges granted they are all locked down very very tight. But the problem arose when I saw this SSID come across my office, you see we have outside sales reps come in with there laptops and they see a couple SSID’s and they try to connect to anything that has a signal.

So to end this long story quickly I ordered a very mild spectrum analyzer. It is the WiSPY 2.0 with external antenna from METAGEEK, it just came today so I have not even had a chance to use it at work, but I am having a ton of fun with it at home. The channalyzer software built into it is great, its a very cool little tool to have for anyone interested in the hidden world of RF frequency. On a side note this only works with the 2.4ghz range.

You can attach any SMA compatible antenna to the device making it even more versatile.

The Channalyzer software is easy to use and very effective.

Overall this is a great product, kind of on the high side for pricing coming in around $399.99 but at the same time most spectrum analyzers run about $2500-3000.

I cant wait to use it at work.

-thegeek out