bote@uunet.uu.net> (04/06/90)
I accomodated the Moderator by not enclosing quoted text.
I also followed the age-old recommendation of USEnetiquette by reading
all replies to this message before replying myself. I am glad I did;
it was quite amusing to see how the discussion took on a tangential
life of its own :)
My best guess is that since the original poster described this as a
long distance call over AT&T, the microwave transceivers his friend's
call traversed were out of tune. This is not uncommon, even with
today's ubiquitous fiber circuits.
I have heard a similar occurence on many LD calls in the past, by and
large over AT&T.
The sidebands of adjacent channels could be heard, sometimes clearly,
many times sounding just like Donald Duck. Each path in such a call
occupies one multiplex channel, one going out and one coming back.
Stack them up on a wideband circuit and your path to Cornell is
sitting next to someone else's (who is talking to her Auntie May in
Kansas). You hear Auntie May and not her niece because only Auntie
May's channel is next to yours and the channels may be out of tune
enough such that her sideband slops over into your channel.
In any case, this is a much more likely explanation than getting
tephone calls from all over the world every time it gets the least bit
damp or wet.
John Boteler {zardoz|uunet!tgate|cos!}ka3ovk!media!csense!bote
NCN NudesLine: 703-241-BARE -- VOICE only, Touch-Tone (TM) accessiblelarry@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> (04/09/90)
> The sidebands of adjacent channels could be heard, sometimes clearly, > many times sounding just like Donald Duck. Each path in such a call > occupies one multiplex channel, one going out and one coming back. One Saturday I was playing around and connected my Kenwood ham rig up to the baseband output on the satellite receiver and tuned over to one of the Westar Birds -- and sure enough -- I was able to pick up complete telephone conversations in session being sent over the satellite. This one transponder seemed to be filled with communications from Hawaii - which I assume is common. ...!iuvax!ndmath!nstar!larry -or- larry@nstar