[ILUG] OT: internet access/MMDS

[Colm Buckley]

Kevin Dunleavy writes:

> Can anyone confirm a story I heard about a particularly high powered
> microwave link in operation in TCD? Apparently it'll do you a serious
> amount of damage if you get between the transmitter/receiver! The urban
> myth part of it revolves around lots of dead pigeons dropping from the
> sky as they fly through the line of sight.

Deny.

We do have a uw link in operation (or at least, we did up to quite
recently) as a link to our "outpost" in St James' Hospital (IIRC,
transmitting from the tower in DIT Kevin Street), but it's a normal
ethernet uw link, not nearly intense enough to fry a pigeon.  I strongly
doubt that a transmitter that intense would be sanctioned by the
relevant authorities.

Perhaps if you stood in front of it for a couple of hours, you'd have
problems.  Isn't there a sign up on Three Rock, indicating how long it's
safe to stand in front of the dishes up there for?

           Colm

-- 
Colm Buckley B.A. B.F. # colm at tuatha.org colm.buckley at tcd.ie colm at computer.org
Department of Computer Science      # +353 87 2469146 # whois cb3765
Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland. # http://www.tuatha.org/~colm/
A good pun is its own reword.