Riding the Waves

Chapter 27

Question 1
When Alex arrived in alaska in 1970, why didnt
people in the Alaskan bush have
telecommunications services? How did rural
Alaskans communicate over long distances?

Answer 1
The terrain was too rough and the distances between villages to
great for laying telephone lines to be cost effective. Rural Alaskans
could write letters or make radio broadcasts.

Question 2
How did Alex draw on his earlier work in Alaska
when developing Wi-Fi technology?

Answer 2
He used radio waves to develop a communication
system without wires

Question 3
Why wouldnt shortwave radio solve the
communications problem in rural Alaska? How did
satellites solve the problem? Be sure to define the
term wavelength in your answer.

Answer 3
Shortwave radio did not work because its signals were often distorted
by the Aurora Borealis. A wavelength is one complete wave, from one
peak to another. The short wavelengths in Alaska bounce off a layer
in the atmosphere called the ionosphere, and come back to earth.
The Northern Lights interfere with this bounce. Satellites solve this
problem because the satellites have a much higher frequency. This
means that the wavelengths are extremely small- small enough to
pass freely through the ionosphere to satellites and back to the
people

Question 4
What is the frequency of the broadcast by your
favorite radio station?

Answer 4
A station at 93.9 broadcasts at 93.9 megahertz, or 93,900,000 Hertz.
One Hertz is one cycle per second.

Question 5
Draw a communications diagram of a typical wi-fi
network call. Label the parts with the following
terms: sender, receiver, signal, encoder, and
decoder. Label where the signal s an electrical
signal and where the signal is a radio wave.

Answer 5

Question 6
Some rural Alaskan villages are not on the alaskan
power distribution grid. List a few ways that the
towns might power the communications
technologies they now use.

Answer 6
They could use solar cells, or have a generator that runs on fuel
piped or shipped in from other locations in Alaska. The generator
could also be turned by wind power

Question 7
Using the internet and the library, find other
common communications technologies that use
radio waves. List at least 3 in addition to those
mentioned in this chapter.

Answer 7
Cell phones, radio-controlled model airplanes, and GPS units.