POLARIZED GLASS |
But why? Is that the networks are all over-subscribed? Or is it all
to be blamed on the surge in solar flare activity in the 11 year cycle?
Hardly.
Electricity has inductive properties, an electric
charge that moves and cause other nearby cables to become charged if the
flow and charge is strong enough. This property is used in generators
to spin coils to generate electricity.
Consequently as power is delivered around our communities in
overhead power lines the air too can become charged with power that if
not taken care of properly can leak into sensitive communication
equipment. Sadly some of the earthing equipment can fail to meet our
needs when cosmic activity raises above normal thresholds and sends
higher states of energy down to the earth in the form of solar
irradiation from Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) from the sun that hit
earth's atmosphere.
I've often had friends complain about connectivity issues at
home and gone to use online resources to check what is going on in space
only to find out nothing is happening. on arriving at their location i
spot conditions that don't work well in their favor. Things such as
faulty microwaves, high voltage equipment, thick concrete walls with
iron rods in them and the worst of all polarised glass. What!? Yes!
These are obstacles to radio signals which act in a way to not only
absorb and interfere with radio signals but unintentionally, in the
case of the polarised glass in businesses. The polarisation is meant to
protect the interior from UV rays by converting light waves (of energy)
into harmless heat energy while letting some light through.
This works by twisting the light energy and absorbing (photochromic
- light based reaction) some bands of light energy on select spectrum
bands. Such as in sunglasses where the glare is neutralized by blocking
the vertical (magnetic) components of light. In communication
technologies it can cause a loss of information quality carried by radio
waves, attenuation. These effects can be impacted by the temperature of
the surrounding area as well. With sunglasses sometimes worn for
fashionable or medical reasons the photochromic properties can take
longer to be effective in protecting the wearer from UV rays the warmer
it is. With electricity the warmer the air is the easier it is for
interference to impact the radio quality of signals being transmitted
through the air.
(Radio blackout indicator graph showing signal disruption; Source NOAA/SWPC)
Just
imagine the warm ground of roads radiating the heat back into the air
from the sun making it harder for cell phones to communicate with
cellular towers as well as the electronic noise from overhear powers
lines competing with towers as well. Now imagine the stress of the
telecom companies' towers responding to all the cellphones trying harder
to send their signals to towers as well. This makes for a chaotic
environment.
Perhaps the next time you feel your cellular network
is cheating you on the quality of the services you are expecting you
may want to check on some of these things in the environment where you
are. Dropped calls? Chances are going outside to make that important
call or waiting to get to a place you know things work well to try again
would be best for you. 4G technologies are being deployed which operate
at higher frequencies that can overcome some of the problems the lower
frequencies suffer from.
@AfricanWombat
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