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Old August 10th 04, 02:03 PM
Paul Murphy
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"Cyde Weys" wrote in message
9.11...
I'm selling an Apple Airport Extreme on eBay. A buyer asked me this
question - "Does it work in England?" What am I supposed to say? "No, it
doesn't work in England, the law of electromagnetism is different
there"?!?!


Firstly, the question by the British chap isn't as silly as you make it out
to be! You hit the nail on the head with your introduction of the word
"law" - just in the wrong context. The bidder will be referring to whether
the frequencies fall within the same range used here in England (where I'm
living). It's a legal requirement for wireless hardware sold here to operate
within certain parameters and attempting to install foreign built/specified
equipment with different specs can sometimes result in an incompatibility
(as well as possibly breaking the law). This also applies with many
different types of radios, TVs (USA use NTSC format and Brits use PAL I),
cellular/mobile and even cordless landline phones..... the list goes on and
on. Dont get me started with other international differences in equipment
such as mains plug and telephone jack design, left versus right hand drive
cars - how on earth did that come about?

Things would be so much simpler with just one standard for everything like
this but countries will insist on having things there own way and once
established there's no going back - just imagine the uproar if George W Bush
announced that all future cars made in America must be right hand drive.

If I were you I'd reply to the bidder with detailed specs of its
frequencies, perhaps even researching this on the Apple website first to try
and obtain a definite answer.

Paul
PS as an O/T bit of useless trivia, did you know that on most fixed wing
aircraft (conventional planes) the captain/pilot sits in the left hand seat
yet on helicopters its the right hand seat - where's the logic in that?