I did this accidentally while setting up my first dish, a 2.8 meter solid reflector one (not mesh) at a radio station in 1983. Heard people across the street talking at normal levels. Put a microphone at the focus and have the ultimate shotgun mic.

The idea that the USA is a republic rather than a democracy is a recent manipulation of language. It is a representative democracy with the legal form of a republic. That was a settled fact until maybe 15 years ago, when the "not a democracy" slogan started to spread.

No code, it is literally true.

The part of this that chilled me the most is that the vice principal thought this sort of thing was tolerable. maybe they will claim that parents signed a consent form for this? Anyone with a normally functioning mind, rather than a prison warden attitude, would know in an instant this would cause outrage. These days school really is prison for students in every way. Where did this "warden" imagine that he has any authority over what kids do at home anyway?

I am sorry there seems to be no way to permanently "retire" a brand name. RCA has been dead a long time and should be buried. This bogus thing is the last straw. Even the real RCA was a cheating gang of lawyers so if the public were aware of RCA history the name would be worthless.

it is truly frightening that the FCC has no one at a high level, or anyone listened to at high levels, who has ANY knowledge of how RF signals behave. Otherwise they would have rejected the BPL idea out of hand, it is that bad. The rawest of radio beginners know this.

This is an example of new is best, old is trash, no matter how good the old is and how utterly unsound the new is. Putting HF signals on open power lines is technical insanity and not just for hams. Fortunately it also doesn't work at all well and therefore will die. Ham radio's 100 year history is a GOOD thing. It is a mix of old and new technologies and that is also a good thing.

Oh I forgot one more thing. I am not a computer professional, I am a radio station technical professional - an older career choice for nerds than computers. I had to learn computers as they appeared in radio stations.

You took me wrong. I was calling the designers of the HDTV converter box stupid for putting the IR receiver on its top where many people will cover it up. I don't blame the grandma at all, no doubt she has been putting doilies on things like that since before we were born.

the FCC protects FM stations from nearby interference only out to the third adjacent channels and 87.75 (tv channel 6 audio) is about 9 channels away from 89.5. I see no reason shutting down channel 6 can affect a station on 89.5. Channel 6 does affect the noncommercial stations on 88.1 and 88.3. Locally there are licensed FM stations on 101.1,101.9, and 102.9.

His grandma represents way too many people who have no idea. Just as disturbing is what kind of stupid does it take to put the IR receiver on a surface that is likely to be obstructed? I have cable TV so I don't have to worry about this, and anyway long ago gave up on TV as a pile of insulting garbage. I don't know how any intelligent person can sit though a sitcom, and the rest isn't a lot better. There is some danger that the same thing will happen to radio. It would serve the interests of the monster corporations that own most of radio now by wiping out what independent stations still exist. The big ones own the patents on digital radio and every station on digital has to pay big software royalties. So far no dropdead date has been set for analog radio but the drums are being beaten. Digital radio has a host of technical problems but that never stops robber barons and lawyers.