Weird and Wonderful

The following item appears in the 'Weird and Wonderful' section of this week's Wireless Institute of Australia news.

Sometimes older technology can be just as good, or even better, than new innovations.

A good example of that was the demonstration on television that Morse code is quicker than modern SMS texting on a mobile phone.

Now a technology that existed prior to the telegraph has come up trumps, as Jim Linton VK3PC explains.

"Paul Julius Reuter would be most pleased indeed on hearing news that a homing pigeon has been able to move data faster than Telkcom, South Africa's leading Internet service provider.

"Reuter used pigeons in the 1850s to transmit financial market information between Berlin and Brussels, and on that was built the Reuters economic service and news agency that continues today.

"The lack of broadband and its high cost is of concern to many within South Africa.

"A company called Unlimited IT enlisted a pigeon named Winston, who took just over an hour to fly between two of its offices with a data card strapped to his leg.

"Including the flight time, the downloading of the card took just over two hours, while during the same time only four per cent of the same data could be transferred using a Telkom line.

"Internet should become faster and cheaper when a new underwater fibre optic cable links southern and eastern Africa to other networks, just in time for the Soccer World Cup being held in South Africa next year".

Wireless Institute of Australia