Quote:
Originally Posted by Levansic
In another thread in the electrical forum, there were complaints about the field system. We didn't have problems on the practice field, but many teams had on-field failures of the radio links. Quite a few came back to the practice field trying to diagnose their problems. Some were genuine power supply issues, but not one team noticed or mentioned that there were over a dozen active Wi-fi networks in the half of the arena where the competition field was.
My point is that the cause of failures is many and varried. Often convenience and relying on hearsay causes the finger of blame to point to one component or technology, when a more thorough examination without preconceptions will unearth the true cause of problems.
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I totally agree about the number of WiFi networks at the events. It's really crazy compared to the normal density of networks even in a place like downtown Manhattan. There are easy ways to get a feel for it, given the number of 'smart phones' available, there are Android and iOS apps that can show you the networks and their respective strengths. Many are free.
During the one event we had trouble at last year there were at least 10 networks sitting on the default channel according to my Android copy of WiFi analyzer. Not sure how or why that was allowed to happen. There was a time when a person with a Agilent spectrum analyzer would sit right near the field to watch for stuff like this.
Additionally you are absolutely right, an open mind is the best policy in the absence of quantifiable evidence of an issue.