Magic Cap Users Mailing List

Tuesday September 03, 1996

From: Charles Ashley <charlesa@netventures.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 10:54:22 +0100
Subject: farcast blackout?

Hi all -

My inbox has not had anything from Farcast since last week, and messages
I've sent there come back saying something about being offline for
maintaince.  Anyone else experiencing a Farcast blackout?

C.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Charles Ashley    charlesa@netventures.co.uk    www.netventures.co.uk
======================================================================

From: "Dennis D. Giguere" <giguere@LR.NET>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 08:32:08 -0300
Subject: Help me unsubscribe!

------------------------------------------------
Help!

I have tried everything to unsubscribe from this
list, but without success. Can anyone help?

Dennis

From: "Michael H. Phillips" <michael_phillips@USA.NET>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 11:03:19 -0400
Subject: Re: Help me unsubscribe!

Dennis D. Giguere wrote:
>
> ------------------------------------------------
> Help!
>
> I have tried everything to unsubscribe from this
> list, but without success. Can anyone help?
>
> Dennis

http://www.netspace.org/cgi-bin/lwgate/MAGICCAP/

Visit this web site and unsubscribe there.

Regards, Mike Phillips

From: Manuel Veloso <veloso@APIX.COM>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 11:33:42 -0500
Subject: See you all!

Hi everyone,

Well, it's been a strange and kinda fun two years in the Magic world, but
it's time to move off into the future. See y'all! And remember,
option-power nukes transient!

Manny


-----------------------------------------
Manny Veloso          Digital Plumber
Active Paper, Inc.    http://www.apix.com
-----------------------------------------

From: Wayne Sanderson <whsander@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 12:37:49 -0700
Subject: ricochet to ricochet

I will soon be coming into a few grand that I can tap to play around with. I
have been eyeing the Ricochet modems and am anxious to try them but, alas,
there is no coverage in NJ, nor does there appear to be any on the horizon.
Metricom says they will sell the modems outright, and they can be operated in
pairs. I am also a radio nut of sorts, and the spread spectrum technology that
is beginning to proliferate has alot of possibilities. I want to hear from
anybody who has used the modems in pairs. What kind of range can you expect
from them unmodified; I can get cheap/free space on a radio tower and would
place a full size base antenna at an altitude of approx. 100 feet. Anybody
tried this or know who has?

From: "Tim J. Clevenger" <TClevenger@AOL.COM>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 19:00:29 -0400
Subject: ricochet to ricochet

[This message may have contained graphics created by a Magic Cap device on
America Online.]


Do they sell the repeaters?  Maybe you could start a network.  :-)

From: TC Lai <tclai@UCLA.EDU>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 17:51:15 -0700
Subject: Re: ricochet to ricochet

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

As wireless communications is a crucial factor in the sucess of hand-held
computing devices (MagicCap among them), I'll add my little bit to this
thread.

Firstly, I'd talk to the local government (ie City Council, etc.) and your
local utility as to whether or not they are currently in talks with Metricom
  If so, then you'd want to lend your support to the installation of a
Ricochet system in your area.  Los Angeles is on the list, and I'm planning
to call up tomorrow and see what the status is.

If not, then I'd call Metricom up myself and see if they couldn't sell me
some test equipment to put up a set of local repeaters (I believe that you
need them every mile or so) and find a local provider who would be willing
to wire an access point for you (assuming that you want network access as
well.)

For everyone who isn't familiar with the Metricom Ricochet system, drop by
 and take a look.  A very interesting (and viable)
technology.

TC


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------------------------------------------------------------------------
    TC Lai                   Pre-Cognitive Science Undergraduate,
                             Graphic Designer, & Student Animator
    tclai@ucla.edu           University of California, Los Angeles

 Fingerprint (512bit): 9B BA 0A F8 B5 CE 79 3A  8F D0 6F 22 B8 D0 55 FB
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 http://users.aol.com/tclai/personal/pgp.html or e-mail for public key
           Copyright (c) 1996 by TC Lai. All Rights Reserved.

From: Josh Carter <josh@genmagic.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 1996 18:43:01 -0800
Subject: Re: ricochet to ricochet

Hi Wayne,

Wayne writes:
 > I want to hear from anybody who has used the modems in pairs. What
 > kind of range can you expect from them unmodified; I can get
 > cheap/free space on a radio tower and would place a full size base
 > antenna at an altitude of approx. 100 feet. Anybody tried this or
 > know who has?

A Ricochet modem will typically have a 1/4 mile range. If it's line of
sight, for which the radio tower would help, I'd say you might get 2-3
times the range, but it really depends on obstructions and how radio
opaque they are. Ricochet modems operate from 902-928 MHz, so the
signals can bounce a bit, but if you're in a building that isn't 900
MHz-friendly you're out of luck.

Ricochet modems are quite neat, especially in that they emulate "real"
modems using the AT command set and do their own packet framing to
provide a virtual-serial data link, so getting it to work usually
takes a minimum amount of effort. I use one in the bay area on a daily
basis with both a Magic Link and my Macintoshes, and I'm quite happy
with it. Setting up a peer-to-peer link and also a peer-to-bridge
system is very easy, although I don't typically do that since I have
coverage from Metricom.

Best regards,
Josh