A new semiconductor research paradigm?

The recent issue of the IEEE Spectrum online news letter has an article entitled The Recession’s Silver Lining in which two top representatives of the Semiconductor Industry Association deplore the fact that for 50 years, no major (in the sense of radically new) development has taken hold in the semiconductor industry. They call for a concerted effort of semiconductor companies to fund academic research centers in a pre-competitive fashion, and hail the graphene based BiSFET as an example of such an undertaking.

Illegal to exhale

The new head of the Umweltbundesamt, the German environmental protection agency, Jochen Flasbarth, expressed the vision of a CO2 free Germany by 2050, according to German TV station ZDF.

Now, even assuming what he really meant was that Germany should be CO2 emission free by 2050, doesn’t that mean that it would be a federal offense for humans (and animals) to exhalte?

I’ll be 93 by then and might still be around, so I do care …

Emergency use of Echolink technology

Hilltop crossband repeater

Echolink as a communication link for emergencies sounds like a stupid idea, at first. After all, doesn’t the attraction of amateur radio in emergency situation lie in its ability to communicate without infrastructure? So how much sense is there in using an Internet-based technology like VoIP, which forms the foundation of Echolink?

But then, all disasters are regionally limited in scope.  So it may very well be that, say, 30km away the infrastructure is in perfect working order. Accessing an Echolink node there would provide highly reliable connections to the outside world, with 24h availability. What is more, connections could be made into emergency operations centers without amateur radio capability, using Internet connections only (even though that would require either access to the firewall, or use of an Echolink proxy server).  I recall that this is how storm spotters in the US routinely communicate with the National Weather Center offices.

Sluggin’ it out with an emergency radio afficionado

I should first mention that I am big into emergency applications of amateur radio. Firmly believing in ham radio’s ability to provide vital communication links “when all else fails”, I am using my activities in Emergency Medical Services at the county, and over the last years also at the state level, to plug this topic (which is not that popular in Germany) wherever I can.

So naturally I was looking for emergency radio applications when visiting the Ham Radio 2009 convention in Friedrichshafen. Little did I know that this quest would leave me quite upset and even physically assaulted …

Selective Perception

“We’re just glad you escaped the witch’s cauldron in Ulm.” I encountered this statement, uttered in a very serious tone, when arriving at our company’s board meeting on May 2. It left a rather strange impression on how different news and own experience can be.

Redundancy boys, redundancy …

Leading German mobile phone operator T-Mobile was struck by a major outage yesterday. For reasons yet unknon, two of three Home Location Register servers failed for several hours, possibly after a software update gone awry. This left about 75% of T-Mobile’s subscribers without service for several hours.

In cold blood

Swabia, the area of South Germany we live in, has a reputation to be safe, affluent, and a bit boring. This atmosphere of sedateness has lately been shattered by two incomprehensible crimes, both committed by young men (boys, really), both at present without apparent motives.

Hams 1 – Vandals 0

LinkedIn’s ARRL HAM Radio Operators group made me first aware of an interesting story which unfolded in Silicon Valley on April 9, 2009. A group of as yet unknown vandals cut multiple fiberoptic transmission cables which link the South Bay area and several Californian counties. This affected mobile and fixed phone service as well as broadband Internet access, including the 911 emergency system.

Sun sets over large communication towers

The winter sun sets behind the Ermingen communications tower near Ulm

The other day I had to check on some antennas on a large communication tower near Ulm – part of my responsibilities for the analog communication system linking the county’s emergency medical service ambulances to their dispatch center in Ulm.

Not having been at the site for over a year, I was struck by how empty the installation was. When I first took on this (volunteer) job, there were still two engineers working at the installation, taking care of the various microwave links owned by Deutsche Telekom, as well as the radio and TV transmitters which share the site. Now, the tower is operated by Deutsche Funkturm GmbH, who used to have at least an office downtown where we could get the keys – not anymore. Gladly, the police communication specialists have a set of keys which they are willing to share.

Not a genius?

2011 marks the 200th anniversary of a tragic event in aviation history. On May 31, Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger, in Germany fondly known (or maybe belittled) as the Tailor of Ulm failed to fly across the Danube in a scheduled event before the King of Württemberg, who earlier had invested some money into Berblinger’s endeavour. To commemorate the historic date, the City of Ulm announced today a big competition for airplanes with alternative propulsion systems. The local newspaper Südwestpresse celebrated the competition but was quick to add that Berblinger “was not a genius like Einstein”.