Month: July 2019

Keeping your business up to date with the latest technology ends up leaving you with a lot of waste to dispose of. Many areas do not let you dispose of electronic waste in landfills because of the hazardous materials contained within them. Here’s how to properly dispose of all that e-waste the next time you upgrade your equipment.

Recycling

Look for a company that specializes in IT equipment disposal Toronto. These companies recycle various metals and plastics that make up the equipment. A variety of precious metals such as platinum and gold are reusable and cheaper to recycle than to mine. Make sure the company you choose is a certified recycler and not shipping off your equipment surreptitiously to third-world countries for disposal. Most electronics contain hazardous chemicals such as Hexavalent Chromium known to cause cancer if it enters into the water supply.

Donate

Consider donating your old electronics. Students can benefit from working computers. Ensure all your sensitive information has been deleted properly before donating to anyone. There are even some places that take broken electronics and train people on how to repair and fix them.

Sell

Electronics can easily be sold on many of the online platforms or through the newspaper. Use the extra cash to help pay for that new phone upgrade or new computer system you installed in your office. Some businesses and entrepreneurs look for valuable old technology to get and keep their businesses running because it is cheaper. Your upgrade can help them keep their businesses afloat at a discount.

Options

Some tech companies may take their old equipment back and handle the recycling of it. In the end, recycling, selling and donating are all viable options for getting rid out outdated technology you no longer use. Keeping e-waste out of landfills helps the environment and can save your business money by not being fined for improper disposal.…

We have gotten used to having a tiny device in our pocket that can connect to the internet and make voice calls (if you can get anyone to answer). But what’s really happening when our phone connects to a nearby cell tower?

At Its Heart, It’s Still a Radio

Modern cell phones and tower sites are all digital, even for the voice communications. But it’s using radio frequencies, just like your car radio or a police radio. The radio systems inside your phone are feeding the computer in your device the digital bits that it needs to communicate back and forth. It handles an amazing array of frequency hand-offs as it moves you from one cell site to another. The system finds an open channel and directs your phone to it with no discernible lag.

The Cell Site Itself is a Complex Marvel

Inside the cell site itself, things are even more amazing. Directional couplers allow radio signals to be split off (usually with reduced power) for such applications as feeding a frequency counter, a signal meter, or other peripheral device in the radio circuits. Network systems in the cell site are sending your information upstream to the internet and the rest of the phone system with a combination of wireline circuits and microwaves, depending on the terrain and the situation.

It’s impressive that a device can do what it does for you while being pocket-sized, but it’s also impressive that a small cell site with equipment fitting in a small building smaller than a house trailer can field thousands of calls and route information to and from the rest of the network. Speeds are now rivaling household wifi.

The history of radio communications has been higher frequencies, sites that are closer together and more numerous, and bandwidth that would have been inconceivable a few years ago. The next generation of cellular equipment will be even more amazing.…