🚀 go-pugleaf

>   "A certain kind of radiation, escaping from the cable, attracted
>    alligator sharks which chomped through the cable.  The solution
>    was to use heavier armour."
>
> My question:  what kind of radiation escapes from a *fiber optic* 
> cable?  After thinking about it for a while, I suppose that there
> could be repeaters inside the cable that are powered by plain
> old copper wires, and the current could generate an electro-magnetic
> field.  But wouldn't the armor act as a shield?  

Yup, you got it, there are repeaters in there, powered by plain old
high-voltage DC as I recall.  The "armor" they are speaking of may not
be metallic, and even so I'd wonder about incomplete shielding.

A lot of the comsat people were kind of happy about this -- fiber looks
like nasty competition for them.  But one observer commented something
like "if this is the best argument against fiber, I'd say 'boy, the
satellite people are getting desperate'".
-- 
Legalize			Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
freedom!			{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry