Bjorn,
Same problem, at least here in the States. If I use ham frequencies to transmit the data to a site that has Internet access, then that's fine. The public access wouldn't use the ham frequencies. But we can't allow the public to access the systems across amateur frequencies. That's not allowed by our FCC rules.
Also, as you mention, I would think that collecting environmental monitoring telemetry is a fairly low-bandwidth activity and the locations are usually not places where you could or would want to put up a tower and dish, etc. for clear line-of-site in the GHz range. I'm guessing that a lower power VHF solution that's much more forgiving of line-of-site issues, much less visually intrusive, and would probably make more sense for that application.
This discussion started with someone suggesting the use of the higher bands to get higher bandwidths so we could drive more usage with better applications. I'm all for it. But I'm hoping we can come up with what those applications are.
Michael N6MEF
-----Original Message----- From: Bjorn Pehrson [mailto:bpehrson@kth.se] Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 12:58 PM To: AMPRNet working group; Michael E. Fox - N6MEF Subject: Re: [44net] Use of higher bands
An application that is useful and worthhile (and allowed everywhere, I guess), besides emergency situations when everything is allowed, is environment monitoring. Collecting data that are made publicly available for anyone to use. Important but not that much data. Upstream connections from remotely located sensor networks.
Bjorn/SA0BXI
On 07/08/2013 09:40 PM, Michael E. Fox - N6MEF wrote:
(Please trim inclusions from previous messages) _______________________________________________ Right. But if I use ham frequencies, I still have problem #1 that I mentioned, which is that I can't freely communicate with anyone other than a local ham who has also installed the same custom stuff. And that population is very, VERY small. See: Part 97.109(e) Part 97.115 Part 97.219 So that rules out pretty much all inbound traffic over amateur frequencies from all 3rd parties and, to the usual extent, outbound traffic to some 3rd parties -- those in countries where we don't have the right agreements in place. So, what applications can I run over ham frequencies? Can I create an email gateway that automatically forwards inbound email from the Internet over ham frequencies? No. (That's why WL2K has the limitations is has.) Can I put up a web server that forwards inbound traffic from the Internet over ham frequencies? No. ..., etc., etc.