[LINK] Better uses of the Radio spectrum was Re: Ex IBM Employer reveals TV abandonded analogue band for RFID

[Marghanita da Cruz]

The move from Analog to Digital TV and Radio is to free up spectrum for all
kinds of applications:

Including additional free to air TV stations. In Sydney, there are a couple of
extra free to air TV channels - NITV and Federal Parliament/Teachers Channel.
Though the Community Channel 31 doesn't seem to have migrated yet.  There are
possibly also private/subscriber pay broadcasts.

RFID is probably just one of many new uses of the spectrum....though I suspect
3G wireless broadband is the biggest demand.

and though I haven't figured out what it is:
> Google Latitude
> See where your friends are right now
> Start using it on your phone
> 
> See your friends' locations and status messages and share yours with them.
<http://www.google.com.au/latitude/intro.html#dc=lath>

Marghanita

grove at zeta.org.au wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I got this on a completely unrelated mailing list and thought it interesting enough to post here.
> 
> I cannot comment on the veracity, I will leave that up for yourselves to discuss and discover!!
> 
> Apologies for the formatting.  MS products don't like having their text copied/pasted into a UNIX terminal window.
> 
> 
> rachel
> 
> 
> Fw: Ex-IBM Employee reveals TV Abandoned Analog Band to Make Room fo
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ALD-forum/message/22717;_ylc=X3oDMTJyYmY0ZmVpBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzcxODU5NDAEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA0Mzc1BG1zZ0lkAzIyNzE3BHNlYwNkbXNnBHNsawN2bXNnBHN0aW1lAzEyNDc1OTI0MDM->
> 
> There is no slippery slope toward loss of liberties, only a long 
> staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the 
> American people and their leaders .--Alan K. Simpson
> 
> Ex-IBM Employee reveals TV Abandoned Analog Band to Make Room for RFID Chips
> Monday, July 13, 2009, 2:52 AM
> 
> It's your freedom and reasonable expectation of privacy.
> 
> Ex-IBM Employee reveals TV Abandoned Analog Band to Make Room for RFID Chips
> Posted by sakerfa on July 12, 2009
> 
> According to a former 31-year IBM employee, the highly-publicized, 
> mandatory switch from analog to digital television is mainly being done 
> to free up analog frequencies and make room for scanners used to read 
> implantable RFID microchips and track people and products throughout the 
> world.
> 
> So while the American people, especially those in Texas and other busy 
> border states, have been inundated lately with news reports advising 
> them to hurry and get their expensive passports, ~Senhanced driver~Rs 
> licenses,~T passport cards and other ~Schipped~T or otherwise trackable 
> identification devices that they are being forced to own, this digital 
> television/RFID connection has been hidden, according to Patrick Redmond.
> 
> Redmond, a Canadian, held a variety of jobs at IBM before retiring, 
> including working in the company~Rs Toronto lab from 1992 to 2007, then 
> in sales support. He has given talks, written a book and produced a DVD 
> on the aggressive, growing use of passive, semi-passive and active RFID 
> chips (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) implanted in new 
> clothing, in items such as Gillette Fusion blades, and in countless 
> other products that become one~Rs personal belongings. These RFID chips, 
> many of which are as small, or smaller, than the tip of a sharp pencil, 
> also are embedded in all new U.S. passports, some medical cards, a 
> growing number of credit and debit cards and so on. More than two 
> billion of them were sold in 2007.
> 
> Whether active, semi-passive or passive, these ~Stransponder chips,~T as 
> they~Rre sometimes called, can be accessed or activated with ~Sreaders~T 
> that can pick up the unique signal given off by each chip and glean 
> information from it on the identity and whereabouts of the product or 
> person, depending on design and circumstances, as Redmond explained in a 
> little-publicized lecture in Canada last year. AFP just obtained a DVD 
> of his talk.
> 
> Noted ~SSpychips~T expert, author and radio host Katherine Albrecht told 
> AMERICAN FREE PRESS that while she~Rs not totally sure whether there is a 
> rock-solid RFID-DTV link, ~SThe purpose of the switch [to digital] was to 
> free up bandwidth. It~Rs a pretty wide band, so freeing that up creates a 
> huge swath of frequencies.~T
> 
> As is generally known, the active chips have an internal power source 
> and antenna; these particular chips emit a constant signal. ~SThis allows 
> the tag to send signals back to the reader, so if I have a RFID chip on 
> me and it has a battery, I can just send a signal to a reader wherever 
> it is,~T Redmond stated in the recent lecture, given to the Catholic 
> patriot group known as the Pilgrims of Saint Michael, which also is 
> known for advocating social credit, a dramatic monetary reform plan to 
> end the practice of national governments bringing money into existence 
> by borrowing it, with interest, from private central banks. The group~Rs 
> publication The Michael Journal advocates having national governments 
> create their own money interest-free. It also covers the RFID issue.
> 
> ~SThe increased use of RFID chips is going to require the increased use 
> of the UBF [UHF] spectrum,~T Redmond said, hitting on his essential point 
> that TV is going digital for a much different reason than the average 
> person assumes, ~SThey are going to stop using the [UHF] and VHF 
> frequencies in 2009. Everything is going to go digital (in the U.S.). 
> Canada is going to do the same thing.~T
> 
> Explaining the unsettling crux of the matter, he continued: ~SThe reason 
> they are doing this is that the [UHF-VHF] analog frequencies are being 
> used for the chips. They do not want to overload the chips with 
> television signals, so the chips~R signals are going to be taking those 
> [analog] frequencies. They plan to sell the frequencies to private 
> companies and other groups who will use them to monitor the chips.~T
> 
> Albrecht responded to that quote only by saying that it sounds 
> plausible, since she knows some chips will indeed operate in the UHF-VHF 
> ranges.
> 
> ~SWell over a million pets have been chipped,~T Redmond said, adding that 
> all 31,000 police officers in London have in some manner been chipped as 
> well, much to the consternation of some who want that morning donut 
> without being tracked. London also can link a RFID chip in a public 
> transportation pass with the customer~Rs name. ~SWhere is John Smith? Oh, 
> he is on subway car 32,~T Redmond said.
> 
> He added that chips for following automobile drivers ~V while the concept 
> is being fought by several states in the U.S. which do not want 
> nationalized, trackable driver~Rs licenses (Real ID ) ~V is apparently a 
> slam dunk in Canada, where license plates have quietly been chipped. 
> Such identification tags can contain work history, education, religion, 
> ethnicity, reproductive history and much more.
> 
> Farm animals are increasingly being chipped; furthermore, ~SSome 800 
> hospitals in the U.S. are now chipping their patients; you can turn it 
> down, but it~Rs available,~T he said, adding: ~SFour hospitals in Puerto 
> Rico have put them in the arms of Alzheimer~Rs patients, and it only 
> costs about $200 per person.~T
> VeriChip, a major chip maker (the devices sometimes also are called 
> Spychips) describes its product on its website: ~SAbout twice the length 
> of a grain of rice, the device is typically implanted above the triceps 
> area of an individual~Rs right arm. Once scanned at the proper frequency, 
> the VeriChip responds with a unique 16 digit number which could be then 
> linked with information about the user held on a database for identity 
> verification, medical records access and other uses. The insertion 
> procedure is performed under local anesthetic in a physician~Rs office 
> and once inserted, is invisible to the naked eye. As an implanted device 
> used for identification by a third party, it has generated controversy 
> and debate.~T
> 
> The circles will keep widening, Redmond predicts. Chipping children ~Sto 
> be able to protect them,~T Redmond said, ~Sis being promoted in the 
> media.~T After that, he believes it will come to: chip the military, chip 
> welfare cheats, chip criminals, chip workers who are goofing off, chip 
> pensioners ~V and then chip everyone else under whatever rationale is 
> cited by government and highly-protected corporations that stand to make 
> billions of dollars from this technology. Meanwhile, the concept is 
> marketed by a corporate media that, far from being a watchdog of the 
> surveillance state, is part of it, much like the media give free 
> publicity to human vaccination programs without critical analysis on 
> possible dangers and side effects of the vaccines.
> 
> ~SThat~Rs the first time I have heard of it,~T a Federal Communications 
> Commission official claimed, when AFP asked him about the RFID-DTV issue 
> on June 2. Preferring anonymity, he added: ~SI am not at all aware of 
> that being a cause (of going to DTV).~T
> 
> ~SNigel Gilbert of the Royal Academy of Engineering said that by 2011 you 
> should be able to go on Google and find out where someone is at anytime 
> from chips on clothing, in cars, in cellphones and inside many people 
> themselves,~T Redmond also said.
> 
> To read Redmond~Rs full lecture, go to this online link:
> 
> Full Lecture ~V Click Here
> http://dprogram.net/2009/07/12/ex-ibm-employee-reveals-tv-abandoned-analog-band-to-make-room-for-rfid-chips/ 
> <http://dprogram.net/2009/07/12/ex-ibm-employee-reveals-tv-abandoned-analog-band-to-make-room-for-rfid-chips/>
> 


-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202