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Wet Country Wireless; How British Weather Killed a Billion Pound Tech Company

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Re: Wet Country Wireless; How British Weather Killed a Billion Pound Tech Company

#51

Post by Scoundreller »

walrus01 wrote: post #6
vzaliva wrote: post #2

Warning: long-winded story with catchy title which is misleading. The only reference to weather is that the service was "dropping out during wet weather." No further explanation is provided. They also cite another problem due to "tree foliage", but this has nothing to do with weather.

PtMP 3.5 or 3.65 services should never be implemented with non line of sight, or through trees. In a typical TDD airtime system, no matter what it is, one client out of twenty on an AP radio with poor signal (let's say, -77 on both chains) will consume more air time and drag down the performance of the entire AP. There's a reason why all the deployment guides for modern WISP PTMP radios are quite insistent on true cl…

I think the other issue is that demand increases the most when it’s raining, just when supply is the lowest, further crushing any weak systems.

Re: Wet Country Wireless; How British Weather Killed a Billion Pound Tech Company

#52

Post by raverbashing »

llampx wrote: post #44
raverbashing wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're in a pandemic and even now people seem to have a hard time opening windows in northern parts of Europe. Really

Durchzug mördet!

You got it /s

Re: Wet Country Wireless; How British Weather Killed a Billion Pound Tech Company

#53

Post by Scoundreller »

ckdarby wrote: post #49
Scoundreller wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new Toronto streetcars have AC, replacing the 60s era streetcars. Now the windows don’t open. Maybe that’s fine for temperature control, but there can be many good reasons to have open windows on public transit.

The reason is the city is loud enough and after a hard day of work you don't want to jump on the streetcar to hear the deafening of the city because someone wants the window open. The other reason is someone will open the window but not close it and when the AC turns on all the cold air just goes out the window.

My comment is more about smells getting stuck inside.

Aircraft, trains and other vehicles have all tried to emphasize how well they filter recirculated air, but it’s not going to win against an open window in a moving vehicle for airflow.

Re: Wet Country Wireless; How British Weather Killed a Billion Pound Tech Company

#55

Post by ansible »

magicsmoke wrote: post #54

That patch antenna array looks both beautiful and a pain in the ass to design and simulate.

> That patch antenna array looks both beautiful and a pain in the ass to design and simulate.

These days, it isn't too hard. You can usually just import your antenna design CAD file into the simulation tool, and go from there. Set the material properties, thickness of the PCB and its composition, and such.

Re: Wet Country Wireless; How British Weather Killed a Billion Pound Tech Company

#56

Post by toast0 »

hvs wrote: post #43
pjc50 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked there for a while too! Zeus technology, the subsequent tenant. Very expensive. The ionica sign was still lying in the bushes behind the generator outbuilding. An additional problem with opening the window was the smell from the nearby sewage farm on some days.

I shudder to think what a "sewage farm" is, but I imagine it is something mundane that just happens to have a name that makes Americans think, "why on Earth would you farm sewage?"

My guess is a sewage treatment plant? Many of those have parts exposed to the air and don't smell nice.

Re: Wet Country Wireless; How British Weather Killed a Billion Pound Tech Company

#57

Post by elliekelly »

zdragnar wrote: post #45
elliekelly wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a giant block of concrete (as a ‘thermal battery’) to manage the heating and cooling Can you explain how this worked? Or how it was supposed to work? Was it just a literal block of solid concrete? I’m so intrigued and I have so many questions!

Thermal insulators (air) conduct heat poorly. Thermal conductors (metal) transfer hear rapidly, but "hold" onto limited amounts. Thermal batteries (concrete, earth, water, marble) balance heat storage and transference. Geothermal systems use the ground as a sort of battery- drawing heat in winter, dumping it in summer. Smart designs will use concrete floors in front of windows to store and release heat from the sun i…

Interesting! TIL, thanks for the explanation!

Re: Wet Country Wireless; How British Weather Killed a Billion Pound Tech Company

#58

Post by zdragnar »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #48
zdragnar wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thermal insulators (air) conduct heat poorly. Thermal conductors (metal) transfer hear rapidly, but "hold" onto limited amounts. Thermal batteries (concrete, earth, water, marble) balance heat storage and transference. Geothermal systems use the ground as a sort of battery- drawing heat in winter, dumping it in summer. Smart designs will use concrete floors in front of windows to store and release heat from the sun i…

If you've never been in a place intentionally built like this, chances are you've still experienced the effect in the shape of a brick house. Especially in the spring, when the sun is strong but before it's warm, it'll sometimes be enough to cover most or all of overnight heating requirements.

Alas, where I live, tornados are more common than brick houses are (though not nearly as common as some places).

Then again, at the rate lumber is increasing in price, maybe brick will start becoming feasible again...

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