From the AP:

Washington Dog Phones 911 for Fallen Owner.

Faith, a Washington State Rottweiler, Phones 911 After Owner Falls Out of Wheelchair

RICHLAND, Wash. Oct 29, 2004 -- Faith the service dog phoned 911 when her owner fell out of her wheelchair and barked urgently into the receiver until a dispatcher sent help. Then the 4-year-old Rottweiler unlocked the front door so the responding police officer could come in.

"I sensed there was a problem on the other end of the 911 call," said dispatcher Jenny Buchanan, who answered the call from Faith.

"The dog was too persistent in barking directly into the phone receiver," Buchanan said at Benton County's Southeast Communications Center. "I knew she was trying to tell me something."

Faith is trained to summon help by pushing a speed-dial button on the phone with her nose after taking the receiver off the hook, said her owner Leana Beasley, 45, who suffers grand mal seizures. . . .

Guided by experts at the Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound, Beasley helped train Faith herself.

"She's a real trooper," Beasley said Thursday. . . .

The day of the fall, Faith "had been acting very clingy, wanting to be touching me all day long," Beasley said.

The dog, whose sensitive nose can detect changes in Beasley's body chemistry, is trained to alert her owner to impending seizures before they happen.

After the call from Faith, Buchanan dispatched Richland police Cpl. Scott Morrell. He arrived to see Faith and her predecessor, now-retired service dog Bronson, peering at him from Beasley's front window.

Morrell knocked, and then realized the door was unlocked.

"Faith had already opened the door for him," Beasley said. The dog has been trained to recognize police officers, firefighters and medical personnel as "special friends with cookies."

Full story here (until ABC pulls the link :-()

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=210508 (external link)

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Porn, gambling, spam, and now, to a lesser degree, non-betting gaming, have produced the most on-line profit since the public internet began. All this garbage is getting ported to cell phones in other countries and there's no stopping it here. Too much money. Not practical yet? No problem, the big players will get on-board the wireless train now, with some kind of service, then develop it later as technology rolls along. Don't expect the wireless trade groups to help, they don't represent the consumer. As long as their lawyers can figure out a way to avoid things like the Child Endangerment Act, well, everything on the net will be on your phone. And special services just for the phone. What the Japanese are doing now is clever and depressing. One example:

"There is software for both men and women, for the timid as well as the adventurous . . . You can enjoy the likes of 'Strip Rock-Paper-Scissors,' 'Erotic Campus' or 'Extreme Nurse' on the small screen. Like their PC predecessors, most of these games promise an erotic image reward if you pick the right answer to a series of simple questions."

And so it goes.

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Ken Schmidt (internal link) is out with another e-mail newsletter on cell carriers, tower construction, and wireless industry news. Click here to look at it online and to subscribe. http://www.steelintheair.com/CellTowerIndustryNews.htm (external link)

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Historical romance at privateline.com!? Well, sort of. Judith B. Glad, privateline reader, book writer, and botanist, has a new book out: The Imperial Engineer.

Click here to go to Judith's website (external link)

It's available in e-form or hardcopy. Read this from the gripping release: :-)

"Tony Dewitt, his reputation in tatters, is hired to install a newfangled telephone system in Hailey, Idaho. Racial prejudice is rampant, so Tony, who is Chinese, passing as white, conceals his ancestry."

"Lulu King is of mixed race and proud of it. Having seen firsthand what misery bigotry can cause, she has devoted her life to the campaigns for women's suffrage and equal rights for all."

"They were childhood friends, but conflicting goals drove them apart. Now fate has brought them to the same small town and the old attraction is difficult to deny. Sabotage to the telephone system and a boycott by the Anti-Chinese League threaten Tony's career and Lulu's convictions. The consequences of their one night of love shadow their future. How long before their very lives are endangered?"

Judith adds, "It's a historical romance, but the history is as correct as I could make it (while taking a few liberties with the calendar). As historian, you will probably find the quotes at the chapter heads interesting -- they're from various sources, but mostly local newspapers at the time the book takes place. The cover is from an 1884 lithograph of Hailey, Idaho, and the telephone lines show clearly."

http://www.judithbglad.com (external link)

Good luck to Judith with her new book. Her niche publisher is small and has an interesting idea, they continue to print the title as long as it sells. They also sell in almost all electronic forms:

http://www.awe-struck.net/index.html (external link)

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UMTS or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (external link) is the grand name for upgraded GSM networks. (internal link). More services, faster data speeds. But unlike upgrading your computer by adding more memory or a larger hard drive, UMTS changes GSM's operating system. GSM's old TDMA scheme gives way, at last, to modern CDMA. And therein lies a big problem. Engineers and overeducated theoreticians steeped in TDMA thought and culture (representative example, (internal link) now guide American UMTS networks to an uncertain, rocky rollout.

Poor service, bad coverage, slow data rates, and unhappy customers, will all result from poor network upgrade decisions being made now. Like cutting costs by using some present base station equipment incompatible with CDMA and in general ignoring CDMA principles. Is there hope? Yes. If the TDMA people choose to learn from the CDMA people. That won't happen at first. And it may be like asking a Mac owner to use a PC.

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What's the wireless term that confuses you most? Here's where to look it up. From the good folks at Agilent, this page deserves a bookmark:

http://wireless.agilent.com/dictionary/a.html

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Speaking of networks, could there be a solution to tie the cellular radio network into other wireless networks to carry voice? So that your cell phone might communicate with a WiFi hotspot or perhaps the Bluetooth network in your car? People are working on this and what a wonderful thing it would be. Of course, any system developed now would have to be patched together, not built from scratch, still, the promise of unifying different networks is very compelling:

http://www.arcchart.com/blueprint/show.asp?id=362 (external link)

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Need a good, easy to read wireless primer? Download this .pdf file: Taking IT to the Streets: A Guide to Wide Area Wireless for the Non-Technical Business Professional. (internal file in .pdf, 334K) It was written by Kristi Urich and Kelly Ungs of Intermec Technologies Corporation. Clear writing and a good glossary. Well done.

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Need a coal fired plant built? Or an electrical distribution system installed? How about some wireless cell sites or something more complicated? Like the terrestrial arm of Sirius Satellite Radio? Contact Black & Veatch (external link). This infrastructure company, like the others listed below, put together the facilities we use every day. This is interesting about Sirius:

"Enabling the successful operation of Sirius Satellite Radio, specifically the terrestrial repeater network, was the job of the Black & Veatch Telecommunications Division. Turning this vision into a reality was a unique challenge for Black & Veatch, said Black & Veatch Director of Wireless Projects Mike Berry. Our role was to help make this entertainment-changing vision a reality by designing and constructing a nationwide network of 92 terrestrial repeater sites in the 56 largest U.S. cities. These sites are needed to fill in gaps in the satellite signal coverage which are created by the impact of land based facilities that block the satellite signal from the intended receiver. The facilities blocking signals are most typically tall buildings and other large facilities that interrupt the line of sight between the satellites and the vehicle antenna."

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General Dynamics has done a great deal of work for NEXTEL and Sprint:

"General Dynamics Network Systems, headquartered in Needham, Ma., has been designing and building complex telecommunications networks for nearly 50 years. More than 4,000 skilled technical personnel provide design, integration, installation and support services for enterprise, wireless and space-based networks."

"General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, employs approximately 57,000 people worldwide and had 2002 revenues of $13.8 billion. The company has leading market positions in land and amphibious combat systems, mission-critical information systems and technologies, shipbuilding and marine systems, and business aviation. More information about General Dynamics is available at http://www.generaldynamics.com (external link)."

And what about Alcoa? (external link) Huh? Aren't they an aluminum company? Well, not just aluminum anymore. They've done a great deal for Sprint:

"When Sprint upgraded its network to third generation (3G) technology, AFL Wireless Services managed the installation of new equipment on more than 900 sites. Our management team provided program management, construction management, site acquisition/property management, architecture & engineering, system integration, and maintenance services. The system integration services included installation, commissioning and optimization."

"The equipment installation included base station removal, installation/replacement, transportation, anchoring and RF cabling. We removed, installed and replaced radio-frequency equipment, antennas and coax cable. The commissioning included batteries, digital cards, optical modules and cables, installation of power and T1, DC cables, amplifiers and rectifiers. Optimization included amp relocation, antenna replacement and downtilt, with a full digital report prior to and upon completion."

"Our full-service professional engineering and management teams have managed more than 28,000 network sites across the country for leading wireless companies, including PCS, broadband networks, two-way radio, fiber, satellite, and microwave networks.'

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9:56 p.m. update. Okay, more on the other companies below Wednesday, for right now, more on Bechtel, courtesy of writer Tim Will:

"Most people do not know that in 1971, Bechtel was not only an investor in MCI Communications Inc. but also was building the MCI microwave system. Since MCI was up against the largest corporation in the world, AT&T, the Bechtel investment of $1 million was risky but 11 months later on June 22, 1972, the MCI IPO returned to Bechtel $10 million, plus another $64 million to MCI in loans from 4 banks to build the entire system. Included in the MCI IPO was also the first domestic satellite corporation: MCI Lockheed Satellite Corp.(MCIL). Thus putting Bechtel in proximity to building a space port."

"Six months after the MCI IPO, Comsat buys into this domestic satellite startup and creates Comsat-MCI-Lockheed (CML). Since Edgar Kaiser had participated in creating Comsat and Steve Bechtel's Jr. Dad had built the Boulder Dam with Henry Kaiser -- CML was a reunion of sorts -- only this time in outer space and telecommunications."

5:38 p.m. I lost electrical power this morning at 8:00 a.m., just as I was getting ready to write the daily notes. Power was not restored until 10 hours later. I was going to write a little about other hidden wireless telephone companies, as described below. In Bechtel's class there's General Dynamics, Alcoa, and a privately held company called Black & Veatch. Let me see if I can write a little about them tonight. Until later . . .

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Many people assume wireless networks get built by the companies that own them. AT&T, for example. That's not always so, in most cases it is not. I'll try to have a little more on these hidden telecom companies in the days to come. Bechtel Telecoms, for example, has been upgrading and redoing most of AT&T's wireless network since 2000. At a cost of $600 million dollars each year. I normally don't quote this much of a press release in my daily notes, and much of it is self serving, but I do find it fascinating how little we know on how things actually get built."

"Bechtel is managing end-to-end deployment of new cell site builds and supporting transition from a 2.5G network to a 3G high-speed data network for AT&T Wireless Services (AWS). Underway since 2000, the project has moved the network from TDMA through GSM, GPRS, and EDGE capabilities, into wideband UMTS services. Bechtel is also supporting the AWS E911 Phase II compliance initiative through the installation of TDOA and AOA technologies."

"In the past 4 years, AWS has doubled their footprint from 114 to 226 million POPS and has built a brand new GSM network with 2.5 GPRS/EDGE software. This software provides speeds nearly double other national wireless data networks, and is up to three times faster than traditionally wired dial-up services. In addition, AWS has deployed a true 3G UMTS network in four select cities, which will provide data services in 2G range. These high-bandwidth connections now link wireless phones and laptop computers to the Internet, letting consumers surf the Web, connect to their office desktop, play online games, take and transfer photographs in real-time, and will eventually allow video-conferencing."

Bechtel's Role

"Four years ago, AWS chose Bechtel to help manage the capacity and coverage needs of their network with the deployment of TDMA sites. In 2001, Bechtel was selected to manage the transformation of the network from a TDMA network to a 2.5G GSM/GPRS/EDGE network, capable of handling high-speed data. This upgrade and expansion involved the overlay of 30,000 existing sites with both 1900 and 850 GSM technology. In 2003, Bechtel was asked to provide further enhancements with the implementation of the full 3G UMTS capability in four key cities, as well as support capacity and growth requirements in the existing network.

Much of this work was turnkey, with Bechtel providing network RF planning, civil design, site acquisition services, transport testing and acceptance (including microwave design, installation and testing), and construction management. The work encompassed a wide range of cellsite types from well-hidden stealth sites in major city cores, through the standard monopole and tower cell sites, to distributed antenna systems in airports and other large venues.

In addition, in 2002, Bechtel was requested to support the AWS commitment to the FCC for the implementation of E911 Phase II technology, using Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) and Angle of Arrival (AOA) technologies. Bechtel has installed these technologies in approximately 14,000 cell sites in 37 states, supporting 199 Public Service Access Point (PSAP) requests, allowing AWS to meet their commitments to the FCC." Continues at the Bechtel site-- http://bechtel.com/ppATT.htm (external link)

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David Robertson (internal link) writes:

"Later this month I'm giving a major talk about my hero Alec Reeves at the IEE. To save boring you here, details are at http://www.iee.org/events/alecreeves.cfm. (external link)"

"As part of the work for my paper for the IEE, I'm trying to get to grips with the 'antecedents' of PCM - the ideas and technologies on which Reeves may have drawn. Do any of your readers have ideas or comments? We know that sampling had been suggested by Miner and Squier, while Morse or his assistant Vail came up with what we now think of as regeneration."

"What's much less clear -- at least to me -- is whether anyone else had the idea of transmitting speech in a 'telegraph-like' way - perhaps the key feature of PCM. Some writers (including, interestingly, Reeves' boss Maurice Deloraine in When Telecoms and ITT were Young) have suggested that Page, Bourseul and Reis were attempting to do exactly that when, in their early experiments with what eventually became telephony, they sought ways to turn speech into a form suitable for transmission over the telegraph network."

"It appears to me that such attempts were doomed to failure as we know they largely were are 'digital' only in the very limited, technical sense that the telegraph was all they knew about and hence was the model they were exploring. Reeves, by contrast, came after Bell and hence was proposing to sample the by-now-existing 'analogue' signal and turning these samples into 'digital', that is, a telegraph form. This appears to me a far more subtle and more complex task. In making this suggestion, I don't want to appear to denigrate what Page et al did, but I really don't see them as part of the 'digital' story."

"What do you think ?"

Tom Farley:

"Yes, you are totally correct. The early inventors, those before Bell, were all on the wrong path, thinking they could reproduce speech in those early years by making and breaking a circuit, just like with the telegraph. They were a million miles from success, just plodding along, electricians in a field that needed people familiar with electricity and acoustics. They weren't on this path deliberately but blindly, so I would pay them little attention in a history of digital beginnings."

"To quote my own telephone history series: internal link)"

In 1861 Johann Phillip Reis completed the first non-working telephone. Tantalizingly close to reproducing speech, Reis's instrument conveyed certain sounds, poorly, but no more than that. A German physicist and school teacher, Reis's ingenuity was unquestioned. His transmitter and receiver used a cork, a knitting needle, a sausage skin, and a piece of platinum to transmit bits of music and certain other sounds. But intelligible speech could not be reproduced. The problem was simple, minute, and at the same time monumental. His telephone relied on its transmitter's diaphragm making and breaking contact with the electrical circuit, just as Bourseul suggested, and just as the telegraph worked. This approach, however, was completely wrong.

Reproducing speech practically relies on the transmitter making continuous contact with the electrical circuit. A transmitter varies the electrical current depending on how much acoustic pressure it gets. Turning the current off and on like a telegraph cannot begin to duplicate speech since speech, once flowing, is a fluctuating wave of continuous character; it is not a collection of off and on again pulses. The Reis instrument, in fact, worked only when sounds were so soft that the contact connecting the transmitter to the circuit remained unbroken. Speech may have traveled first over a Reis telephone, however, it would have done so accidentally and against every principle he thought would make it work. And although accidental discovery is the stuff of invention, Reis did not realize his mistake, did not understand the principle behind voice transmission, did not develop his instrument further, nor did he ever claim to have invented the telephone.

This page continues here ----> (internal link), with many great comments by Don Kimberlin. (internal link)

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Professor Richard Levine and Mark van der Hoek contribute more valuable information on frequencies and call processing in IS-136.

Q: What are the frequencies for the control channel in IS-136 and EDGE?

A: Mark van der Hoek (internal link): "The control channels for IS-136 would be the same as for AMPS. In theory they could be any set of 21 channels, but in practice they are 334-354 for the B side carriers, and 333 to 313 for the A side. EDGE should follow the GSM control channels, although GSM is not my strong point. Some IS-136 handsets are dual mode compatible and so would seek only digital control channels." (continues here -->, internal link)

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Ken Schmidt (internal link) now produces a newsletter with news and views on tower and cell site issues. Subscribe or read it on-line here: http://www.steelintheair.com/CellTowerIndustryNews.htm (external link)

Going backward with voice quality

Although IP is the future for data networks, does it have to be for voice? Are we going to kill our legacy circuit switches (internal link) and consequently voice quality (internal link) because of it? MCI recently announced they are going to route their international gateway traffic to "carrier class voice over IP." That means they'll use their own internet protocol network to send traffic, minimizing latency. But that problem will still be there. How long will it be until the other major telcos go IP for international? And then domestic? Perhaps sooner than we thought.

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http://semacode.org/ (external link)

Finally, a real use for camera phones: reading semacodes. Barcodes identify individual items or products to machine readers; our modern supermarkets and delivery systems would break down without them. Semacodes are a web equivalent, they identify individual web pages. Point your camera phone at the image above, hit the right button on your semacode enabled camera phone and whoosh!, you're taken to a specific webpage.

Print a semacode on the back of your business card and direct clients to your site. All they have to do is let their camera phone image it. No more typing in hideously long URLs. Use semacodes in print magazine ads so customers can find out more about your product or to order it. Neat, eh? How about printing a semacode on registration papers for new products? Scan the code, wirelessly connect to the manufacturer, register, and be done with it. That would make life easier.

Semacode's site is lost in geekspeak, it's a web developer's site, really, but I think the idea is a good one and if kept out of Microsoft's hands might actually succeed. As ubiquitous as barcodes are now, semacodes might someday rival them in number.

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I've commented many times that cellular radio is a great technology that has been sold poorly since the start: confusing rate plans, one year, now two year contracts, bogus coverage maps, salespeople on quotas that don't know what they are talking about, and on and on. J.D. Power and Associates, though, has just released their 2004 Wireless Retail Sales Satisfaction StudySM (internal link, interesting reading in .pdf). T-Mobile ranked highest in overall retail sales customer satisfaction. J.D. Power's Kirk Parsons states the obvious, "Retail outlets that set the proper expectations and do not oversell the product or service generate significantly higher ratings and, more importantly, increase the likelihood of repeat purchases." Of course. How simple.

Cellular has been successful in spite of its retail methods, not because of it. People have put up with poor service because they need the product and because the industry has been so profitable that they've been able to ignore customer complaints. Only in the last two to three years, with increased competition, are they starting to worry about how they treat people. Well, they're starting to. Speaking of which, the leftist but effective American Association for Retired People, or AARP, is targeting the cellular industry, now that wireless is trying harder to sell to older Americans.

The New York Times reports today that, ". . .AARP is not happy with what it has heard from its members: complaints about incomprehensible service contracts, confusing bills and dead zones that are not clearly marked on coverage maps. They are the same concerns that have been expressed for years by other consumer advocates, who now have a new champion in the 35-million-member AARP." The Times quotes Steve Largent of the CTIA, "For whatever reason, the AARP has been coming after us. It is very troubling." Indeed. And you have no one to blame but yourselves.

I read many wireless industry publications; customer service and complaints have not been a concern. They figure you'll go to another carrier if you have a problem. Some customers walk. They call this turnover "churn." Lovely word. Anyway, it was cheaper for them to accept a certain percentage of churn than it was to put money into better customer service or to fix dead spots out in the field. When churn started getting too high carriers introduced two year contracts to lock customers into place. Only now, again because of increased competition, are they starting to throw money into sales help and technology. It will take many years but sales and coverage among national carriers will eventually improve. Not because the carriers are happy to, but because they are forced to. A wonderful product sold poorly. A shame.

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"Whosoever shall entertain high and vapourous imaginations, instead of laborious and sober inquiry of truth, shall beget hopes and beliefs of strange and impossible shapes." Francis Bacon

Great reading from Arcchart.com:

"US spectrum wars

The saga of US spectrum policy is starting to read like a soap opera from the days of Prohibition. A few powerful bodies control a commodity that is tightly restricted, putting it at the centre of increasingly expensive and destructive turf wars. All attempts by the current US administration to liberalize availability are hitting bitter opposition from the controlling powers -- the major cellcos and broadcasters. The ongoing battles over allocation of spectrum in the 700MHz and 800MHz bands illustrate the vicious delaying tactics and lobbying techniques that can hold back attempts to open up new wireless services. And these raise fears that the much anticipated auctions of valuable 1.9GHz assets could be similarly marred, severely holding back the US' urgently needed liberalization of spectrum. . ." --> (continues at Arcchart.com, external link)

More abbreviations to come

I'll have something on professional degrees later today, in part of the continuing discussion written about below.

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MCDST: Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technicians

MCSA: Microsoft Certified Systems Administrators

MCAD: Microsoft Certified Application Developers

MCSE: Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers

MCDBA: Microsoft Certified Database Administrators

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Q. What's personal radio like in mainland China today? Do people have C.B. radios and cell phones?

A. C.B.'s, no, cell phones, yes. China's brutal collective dictatorship, otherwise known as Communism, limits personal technology. Mark van der Hoek (internal link, China pictures) and Geoff Fors (internal link, China pictures), both of whom have lived and worked in China, comment below.

Geoff Fors here. The main thing to remember about the country is that it is still communist and most aspects of daily life are controlled more strictly than other nations, although this is easing as the years go by. The idea of people having CB radios (internal link) is probably still scary to Chinese lawmakers. There are various dissident groups and troublemakers who could make good use of CB, so there isn't any CB. Of course now that everybody has a cell phone in China, you almost have the same thing, except that the government controls the network (not directly but politically speaking) and has the capability of monitoring any call they choose as well as tracing calls.

[Editor's note: Trying to crush the Solidarity movement, Soviet lackey Wojciech Jaruzelski disconnected Poland's telephone system when he declared martial law on December 13, 1981. Trade union organizers in different cities couldn't communicate for several days, amongst themselves or to the Polish people. The shutdown gave Jaruzelski time to round up dissidents and seize control. The sixteen month Solidarity experiment was stopped temporarily by, in part, turning off the public telephone system. A country could do the same thing today. But, you say, today we have the internet. True, but the internet uses the telephone system to connect itself. The internet is laid over the PTSN. Kill the telephone system and the internet in that country dies with it.]

"There are probably some factories producing CB radios for export. There are some private business radio systems, mainly UHF and above equipment, manufactured by Motorola and used by large corporate entities. The Chinese police on a local and national scale are converting to the new integrated Motorola Tetra digital radio system (external link to Tetra information). The present systems are FM and UHF analog plus a few VHF analog. Shanghai appeared to be all UHF. There are (usually) no radios in the police cars, they rely exclusively on hand-held units."

"There is amateur radio to a limited extent in China. Something like 10,000 licensed amateurs, most of whom use club stations. I can't lay my hands on a Chinese amateur frequency allocation chart at the moment but I believe they either have no 2 meter band or just a restricted 144-146 range allocation. There is UHF activity on the 432 MHz amateur band but most of it is not repeaters, just simplex. There are a few UHF repeaters, in the Beijing area. At the time I was there at the end of 2001, there were no UHF repeaters in the Shanghai area."

"Nearly all of the amateur gear in China is Japanese made, e.g. Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, etc. and some rebranded equipment which seems to be made by Yaesu but labeled with a Chinese name. I recently saw some HF transceiver equipment which bears no resemblance to anything Japanese I am familiar with, which may be an actual Chinese made product ("Oriol" name) or it may be a Japanese domestic item which hasn't been sold in the United States."

"That's what I know about amateur, CB and business radio in China. Military radio is a different subject; I am in the process of compiling a web directory of Chinese military radios, 1949-80 + -, with photos and specs."

Regards, Geoff Fors

"Mark van der Hoek here. Cellular radio is all around China. GSM and CDMA are both used. My first project there was the deployment of a new CDMA system for a GSM operator. My second was for a CDMA operator. I heard of a possibility of an iDEN (Nextel type) system being put in Shanghai earlier this year, but I don't know if that project was completed. It would have been fairly small scale."

"Oh, what Geoff said about China producing look alike equipment. That's common over there -- a Chinese company partners with a foreign company and a plant is built to produce the foreign product with the Chinese firm's name on it. The product is exactly the original except for the name. Then the Chinese brag about what a great thing they've produced! "

Best, Mark van der Hoek

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Academic titles, mostly American useage:

Doctoral degrees:

In the traditional, classical sciences:

Ph.D.

In the engineering sciences, including electrical and electronic, often

Sc.D. or ScD. Sometimes called a D.Sc. In the United Kingdom, however, the D.Sc may be a higher doctorate. DEng and EngD for Doctor of Engineering are also seen.

Masters' science degrees:

Usually written as a Masters. MIT calls their Masters of Science degree a S.M. Most universities are more conventional, using terms like the following: MEng for master of engineering or MSTC for Masters in Telecommunication. The list can be endless: MSci, MChem, MComp, MMath, MPhys, and so on.

Bachelor of science degrees:

B.S., B.Sc., or Sc.B.

Examples abound: BASc, Bachelor of Applied Science; BCompSc, Bachelor of Computer Science, BEng or BE, Bachelor of Engineering; BMath, Bachelor of Mathematics; BTech, Bachelor of Technology; BSEE, Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.

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This week, a focus on job titles, licenses, and professional accreditation in telecom.

From Mark van der Hoek, Senior RF Engineer.:

"RF Engineer is a very broad term. It simply means an engineer who works with RF: Radio Frequency stuff. Kind of like saying 'mechanic'. Well, what KIND of mechanic? Passenger cars? Diesel engines? Does he only work on transmissions? Big truck transmissions? Or does he specialize in fuel systems? These are all mechanics.

RF engineers may work on designing RF circuits -- the actual hardware. They may design cellular networks. They may design and optimize cellular networks (most will do both -- and I wouldn't hire anyone who hadn't done both unless he were very fresh out of school.) They may work on transport described below, designing microwave networks. They may work on radar systems. They may do all of this at some time in their career. As to kinds of engineers, well, we could go on forever. Let's look at just one today, a transport engineer"

"Transport has to do with getting the phone calls from the cell site back to the switching center (the MTSO, in cellular terms) and from one switching center to another. These may be between different MTSOs in the cellular network (Verizon Los Angeles has perhaps a half dozen or so) or between the MTSO and the landline phone companies. It will involve either microwave or leased lines of some kind. So a transport engineer is focused on this area. He's often an RF engineer, but focused on transport."

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Stick with me here, this gets a little complicated. A reader named Fadi commented, thank you very much, that MSCE typically stands for Master of Science in Civil Engineering, not Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. One is MSCE, the other MCSE. See the difference? Microsoft has a whole host of other titles with similar lettering: MCDST, MCSA, MCT and so on. These get too easily mixed up with genuine, university granted titles. Which is why I want to write about this subject this week, to go through as many abbreviations as I can, put them together as a list, so that it's easy to tell a persons' qualifications or background. Perhaps a few British titles, non-nobility, of course :-), as well. Stay tuned, at the end of this week this should all make more sense. And if you have any comments or contributions, please feel free to e-mail. Tom

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Q: I'm a telecom recruiter and I'm confused about all the different titles and abbreviations used in this field. What's the difference for example, between, a P.E., which means Professional Engineer, and a MCSE, which stands for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer?

A. A state issues a P.E. to someone calling themselves an engineer. Usually in a field we think of as true engineering: construction, electrical power distribution, public utilities design, you know, civil engineering. The requirements and tests needed to get a P.E. are very, very tough. Quite often you're entitled to be an expert witness in court if you have a P.E.

An MCSE, by comparison, is a company granted title, for someone who has passed Microsoft's own testing. Your past experience, credentials, and references aren't checked before getting certified, you just need to know their material. Two titles with the word engineer in them, but with vastly different requirements.

The lnstitute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, or IEEE (external link), usually called the I-Triple E when speaking it, serves electrical, electronics, and computer engineers. Here's their position on the title Engineer:

"IEEE-USA recognizes that the title, Engineer, has a multiplicity of meanings within the context of laws of various U.S. jurisdictions. All jurisdictions protect the titles Professional Engineer, Licensed Engineer, Registered Engineer, or some variation thereof, to refer to individuals licensed in those jurisdictions to practice engineering. In addition, some jurisdictions protect the title, Engineer, with no qualifying words added. The purpose of protecting these titles is to ensure that the public can easily identify those individuals who possess the requisite skill, knowledge and competence to protect public safety, health and welfare in the practice of engineering. Generally, the public interprets the term, Engineer, to mean a person who is qualified to practice engineering by reason of special knowledge and use of the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences, and the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, acquired by engineering education and engineering experience.

It is our position that the title, Engineer, and its derivatives should be reserved for those individuals whose education and experience qualify them to practice in a manner that protects public safety. Strict use of the title serves the interest of both the IEEE-USA and the public by providing a recognized designation by which those qualified to practice engineering may be identified. The education and experience needed for the title, Engineer, is evidenced by:

"Graduation with an Engineering degree from an ABET/EAC accredited program of engineering, coupled with sufficient experience in the field in which the term, Engineer, is used; and/or Licensure by any jurisdiction as a Professional Engineer."

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Unbelievable! The F.C.C. is now using Doraemon's image for their kids' site. Doraemon is equivalent to Mickey Mouse in Japan, a much loved cartoon character. I've written about him over the years, such as this blurb from 2002 (internal link, bottom of the page). But the F.C.C. doesn't call him Doraemon, they call him Broadband. And now he's brown, not blue. This is very sad. Would you like Mickey Mouse to be called Broadband? Or Charlie Brown turned blue and called Narrowband? No credit given to revered creators Fujimoto Hiroshi and Motoo Abiko. Perhaps the F.C.C. felt safe poaching his image because the Doraemon cartoons have not been dubbed in English or released for American television. None of his cartoon books are in our language. Still, that doesn't make it right . . .

April 15, 2006 update. The F.C.C. is still using this image without credit. Arrgh!

To view the piracy go here:

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/kidszone/

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