3307: Spectrum Allocation
| Spectrum Allocation |
 Title text: Rumor has it that they're finally auctioning off the zeppelin navigation bands, but everyone is worried that the scary boat captains will express interest. |
Explanation[edit]
|
This is one of 51 incomplete explanations: |
Radio waves have a spectrum of frequencies that can be used. To help prevent electromagnetic interference, various parts of the spectrum have been isolated into 'bands', each with a specified use. This comic contains a chart with humorous names for some of them, some that are made up, and yet others that are real but would have to be misplaced relative to other real ones (though there is no marked scale, so any actual positions are purely speculative). It may be that the format of this diagram shows lower frequencies at the top and higher frequencies at the bottom. The higher the frequency, the more data a channel can typically carry, but it also makes the signal more susceptible to being blocked by anything it tries to pass through. A more serious chart, in a different orientation, can be found here.
The title text claims the Zeppelin block will be auctioned because no one uses Zeppelins due to how slow and dangerous they are, but people are worried that the scary boat captains will buy it and make their block bigger, potentially allowing more coordination and shared power between them.
- Radio (shouting)
- Possibly an AM radio band. Such a band may be mainly used for spoken radio rather than music because AM can have a notably lower fidelity, conveying music less well than the spoken word. Any given AM radio station may therefore be currently broadcasting talk and/or sports radio, both of which tend towards excitable and earnest shouting, especially where they invite audience participation and discussion. The biggest purely AM-allocated band in the USA is from 535 to 1705 kHz.
- TV test patterns
- Test patterns are static screens, typically with specific areas to enable easy checking of different aspects of analogue TV signal reception. They are transmitted on TV stations during hours when there is no programming being broadcast (which is now very rare), so these are, in real life, transmitted within the same frequencies as the regular programming, not as a standalone service. The comic is implying that these are a dedicated service with its own reserved band of frequencies, despite the fact that it would be completely pointless to test a signal which carries nothing other than the test itself.
- 1G cellular
- First-generation cellular channel. Voice only, no SMS, no data.
- Radio (music)
- Associated more with the FM radio band (as opposed to the shouting radio). Likely 88 to 108 MHz.
- Radio static
- A fake block. Implies that background noise, which is always present but particularly noticeable when tuned to a frequency where no strong enough signal exists, is a dedicated service, rather than the unwanted result of other sources of electromagnetic activity. This could be referring to bands which are currently unallocated, where you should not expect to hear any actual transmissions.
- Reserved for Zeppelin navigation
- This may be related to the (long-decommissioned) Telefunken Kompass Sender. The idea that a large band of radio frequencies is required for the operation of Zeppelins, which are a niche vehicle in modern times, is absurd. The hope that Zeppelins would become relevant again was referenced in 3298: Aerospace Flowchart.
- TV channels 2, 5, 7-13, 16, 17, and 28
- A reference to large block allocations for specific TV channels. Channel 7-13 is a real block (174 to 216 MHz), while the others would be part of the 2-4, 5-6, 14-20, and 21-36 blocks and not normally allocated separately/together in this manner.
- 2G cellular
- Second-generation cellular channel. Better voice, SMS, rudimentary data (speed in kbps).
- Interference
- Many forms of broadcasting use specific channels with a small gap between them, and sometimes signals can bleed across into adjacent channels, interrupting them. Since interference is signal (or noise) in a band where it is unwanted, by definition a band reserved for interference is nonsensical.
- WKRP in Cincinnati
- A reference to the eponymous sitcom. The frequency was never stated on the original sitcom, but according to the spinoff series The New WKRP in Cincinnati, the frequency was 1530 kHz on the AM band. An actual station in Cincinnati now uses the call sign on three FM frequencies: 94.5, 97.7, and 106.7.
- Spaceship beeps
- Possibly data channels emitting a series of tones, as you could hear at the edge of the FM band, and which sound like R2D2/spaceship beeps (see Eurosignal, VOR, etc.). The first ever manmade satellite, the Soviet Union's Sputnik, contained only a battery-powered radio transmitter that transmitted quick, short beeps on two frequencies, 20.005 MHz and 40.002 MHz. These gave information about the satellite's position, atmospheric conditions, and the propagation of radio waves; however, there was much incorrect speculation about what data it was transmitting and what this meant about its capabilities.
- All other TV
- All other broadcast TV channels, probably analogous to the current UHF band (470 to 680 MHz in the US, corresponding to broadcast channels 14-36), but it could also include television services transmitted by satellite.
- Car dealership ads
- A fake block. In the United States, television commercials for local franchised car dealerships are generally humorous and have low production values. It would make little sense to have these confined to their own broadcasts, as their entire point is to exploit the attention of audiences of other programs (though shopping channels may provide a counterexample to this).
- Numbers stations
- Shortwave radio stations which broadcast strings of numbers that are presumed to contain coded messages. There are no specific frequencies allocated for this purpose (in fact most numbers stations are unlicensed and often clandestine) other than they usually appear somewhere on or around the shortwave bands.
- Weather balloons
- Presumably the frequency weather balloons use to communicate the data they gather about the weather.
- Amateur radio
- Non-commercial radio broadcasts, often used by enthusiast hobbyists to contact each other. In real life this consists of numerous specific bands across the radio spectrum, and it requires a license to use it in most countries. Another term for ham radio (see below).
- "Weather balloons"
- The scare quotes imply that these frequencies are used by some other services or organizations, which are falsely claiming to be 'weather balloons' in order to hide their true nature. Perhaps a reference to the 2023 Chinese balloon incident or the Roswell incident.
- Ham radio
- Another term for amateur radio (above). Since these are the same thing, it makes no sense to allocate one block to one name and one to another (unless there is a deep schism in the community, with adherents of each name being unwilling to talk to each other). In reality, there are numerous relatively narrow frequency bands across the spectrum allocated for this purpose (they only get two here). It is also possible that this is where particularly large hams, that are too big for the 'shouting' talk-radio band, broadcast; or perhaps it refers to radio stations focused on ham, the meat; or to air traffic control signals for flying pigs.
- Choosing Texas 24/7
- A fake block. Choosin' Texas is a popular country song by Ella Langley. When this comic was published, it was in its record-breaking 24th week at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, a chart that often reflects the music played repeatedly on American radio stations. 24/7 implies that an entire block has had to be allocated to stations that are literally playing nothing else because it's so popular. This may have been how it felt to many at the time. Occasionally a radio station will pull a stunt broadcast (often to promote a format change) during which they literally do play a single song 24/7 for a period of a few days in order to gain publicity, but as of the publication of this comic, it doesn't appear anyone has done it with Choosin' Texas.
- Boat captains say they need this for something and we don't ask what because they're scary
- The marine band in the US runs from 156.000 to 162.025. However, the block identified in the comic appears to be fake. It is also implausible that boat captains could obtain a band of frequencies without explaining its purpose to anyone at all. In practice, they use it to discuss things like why their large container ship is blocking a tenth of world trade, which they might understandably get worried or angry about. Boat captains in fiction are often portrayed as irascible and despotic, and would not take questioning of their demands well.
- The secret radio waves that make planes stay up
- Suggests that, rather than using radio signals for radar or the radio bands used for airplane transponders and navigation, planes somehow need the radio broadcast on these frequencies to physically fly. This might be a reference to Nikola Tesla's World Wireless System — a concept to transmit mains electric power over the air. Art associated with the World Wireless System depicted aircraft flying using power drawn from its transmitters, but the WWS proved impractical due to the massive transmission losses compared to wired electricity. Alternatively, it might refer to the requirement to disable devices capable of wireless transmissions during a flight, which has now been removed on some aircraft, to no obvious detriment to their operation.
- It's not uncommon for people not familiar with aerodynamics to comment on how they don't understand how something as heavy as an airplane could be held up simply by air, so this may be letting them in on the secret that it's actually radio waves that is holding airplanes up rather than air alone.
- Defunct satellite phone company
- A fake band. Presumably previously allocated to a company that tried to offer satellite phone services and went bankrupt (e.g. Iridium Communications) and, for some reason never reclaimed — perhaps because it remains an asset on the books of some successor company that is not exploiting it.
- Radioastronomy
- Presumably the bands radio telescopes use, or bands reserved for their use.
- Radioastrology
- Fake block. Presumably the counterpart of radioastronomy for astrologers, though it is not clear what use they would have for radio signals.
- All modern wireless infrastructure
- Due to the pre-existing large blocks, when technology like WiFi and Bluetooth was developed it was crammed into very small blocks that were left over, despite some MASSIVE but mostly wasted blocks. In the US, much of this infrastructure is now on frequencies that used to be part of the UHF television band, and even on some currently allocated television frequencies in areas where the channel is not occupied. The specific phrasing of "all modern x infrastructure" may be a reference to 2347: Dependency.
- Death rays
- Another fake block. It is unlikely that anyone developing death rays is going to be overly concerned with not causing interference to other radio users, and it's even more unlikely that specific parts of the spectrum would be allocated for the operation of death beams, but it appears this has been done anyway. An alternative interpretation is that this part of the spectrum are death rays, which would mean if any modern wireless infrastructure in the previous section got their frequency wrong they could be big problems.
- Lofi hip hop beats to relax/study to
- This is the title of a popular, long-running YouTube livestream of lofi hip-hop music run by the YouTube channel Lofi Girl. This particular genre may have been chosen because of the similarity between the words 'lofi' and 'Wifi'. Lofi is short for low fidelity, as opposed to high fidelity, heavily produced music.
- Security guard walkie talkies
- Presumably a band used for hand-held radio units frequently used by security guards. There is no band allocated solely for this purpose, so this is a fake block.
- Amateur military satellites
- Yet another fake block. While there are military satellites and amateur satellites, the two do not usually combine. Amateurs that managed to launch a satellite would most likely use a ham band frequency for their telemetry.
- Left open in case aliens try to call
- Yet another fake block. It's unclear how aliens would know to use this block, and why they wouldn't just use the radio astronomy/astrology block, although there are certain frequencies that are considered potentially more likely to be broadcast and listened to by aliens trying to deliberately communicate with other civilizations.
- One brand of garage door openers with a lot of political pull
- Hopefully a fake block allocated exclusively to garage door openers of a specific brand that bribed or otherwise influenced the FCC, the US agency that regulates the radio spectrum. The band is shown as being ludicrously wide for accommodating the extremely narrow bandwidth generally required by garage door openers, never mind just those of a single manufacturer. The FCC has in fact been accused of politicization.
Transcript[edit]
|
This is one of 36 incomplete transcripts: |
[A pillar displaying what the modern bands of radio are used for, moving from lowest to highest when going top to bottom]
[The list starts with Radio (shouting) and goes to one brand of garage door openers with a lot of political pull]
Discussion
Second 2600:4040:74E4:8D00:B5D3:9A8B:F4D4:5B5C 22:57, 5 October 2026 (UTC)
- First? Velocifyer (talk) 23:08, 5 October 2026 (UTC)
- th1rd p0st. in all seriousness though, NEW COMIC! 73.132.167.116 23:20, 5 October 2026 (UTC)
Ha, there's so much fun to be Explained here. And I'm going to see how you dealt with this when I get back here tomorrow. ;) 92.23.3.72 23:32, 5 October 2026 (UTC)
I think having both Amateur and Ham Radio is supposed to imply that the latter pertains to cured pork. But perhaps I'm reading too much into it. Trimeta (talk) 02:11, 6 October 2026 (UTC)
- Or perhaps it refers to people who buy transmitting equipment online and think licensing is for wimps. 38.23.156.178 20:30, 6 October 2026 (UTC)
- ^Probably this. 140.147.202.82 19:30, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
Spaceship beeps could be https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quindar_tones but most likely the weird series of tones you hear at the end of the FM band : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurosignal (I clearly remember listening to them in my childhood and thinking it might be spaceships) 212.133.41.97 (talk) 05:55, 6 October 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- I think they are definitely meant to be the Quindar tones, actually. But I don't feel like disabusing anyone of the various less obvious things that might be called "Spaceship beeps". 78.151.45.31 19:05, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
I am surprized and appalled that none of the entries in this comic make a reference to PM radio. 2A01:36D:104:654D:DDC8:D10A:CB35:5700 07:41, 6 October 2026 (UTC)
> In general, the farther down the **chart**, the more data a channel can carry, but the easier it is to block.
Actually, the chart is not labelled, so we don't know if higher frequencies (that can carry more data, but are easier to block) are down the chart or up the chart. --JakubNarebski (talk) 08:14, 6 October 2026 (UTC)
- There are enough more-or-less real bands on the chart to assume that the lower frequencies are at the top. 140.147.202.82 19:30, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
Aliens: The majority of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence projects target the cosmic “water hole” of radio signals, frequencies between 1.42 and 1.66 GHz. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_for_extraterrestrial_intelligence#5 2003:f5:c733:8600:59ff:5a2e:b4be:6f52 (talk) 10:01, 6 October 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- ^- This. "Left open in case aliens try to call" is not a fake block. There's indeed a block of frequencies surrounding hydrogen's primary frequency that's forbidden for use unless express permission, and for astronomical endeavours only, as an "alien hotline" channel. Makes you wonder if they forgot about the Doppler effect... 94.73.53.13 (talk) 10:50, 6 October 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Ah, just put something about that in, myself. Didn't read this first, so hope I did it to both of your satisfactions. 140.147.202.82 19:33, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
I would expect the "all other TV" would refer to the UHF channels. Which makes me think of a missing "Weird" Al reference. Or, would this be the digital TV over air? 70.123.147.110 13:16, 6 October 2026 (UTC)
- Over the air digital TV is, for the most part, using (some of) the same frequencies Weird Al's movie is talking about.140.147.202.82 19:30, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
Probably the lofi is an allusion/contrast to Wifi zone (all modern wireless infrastructure) nearby 45.171.102.10 (talk) 15:53, 6 October 2026 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
- Good call - will add that in. 86.22.132.121 16:13, 6 October 2026 (UTC)
"It's unclear how aliens would know to use this block" - well, obviously they would consult the chart - duh! 86.22.132.121 16:13, 6 October 2026 (UTC)
"The secret radio waves that make planes stay up" is almost certainly a reference to ADS-B which broadcasts position, direction, and speed (amongst other things), but could also be referencing some of the various radar used for aircraft tracking -- Void 67.22.167.231 19:36, 6 October 2026 (UTC)
- Still reads to me (and others) like a form of Wireless Power implementation. If you shut off 'mere' navigation signals then planes may have difficulty being directed to fly in specific ways (autopilots may fail-over, safely or otherwise; pilots may have to revert to visual flight rules or inertial instruments only) but shouldn't just fall out of the sky like the implication that the plane (presumably its engines; though could also apply to the entirety of the electrical fly-by-wire systems) is powered by this kind of 'secret' radio broadcast. 92.23.3.72 20:27, 6 October 2026 (UTC)
- I dunno guys ... I think you're overthinking this entire comic, this part in particular. I think you're forcing real-life analogs onto what are intended as pure joke bands. I think this particular one is an absurdist joke about radio waves literally holding the planes up.140.147.202.82 19:33, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
Big fan of how all modern infrastructure is right next to the death rays. MrCandela2 (talk) 23:16, 6 October 2026 (UTC)
- The current line in the explanation about this doesn't actually make any sense though - operating in the wrong band for your device doesn't turn it into a device of the type that band is allocated for. 86.22.132.121 08:29, 8 October 2026 (UTC)
I keep trying to figure out where I can shoe horn in that there's no channel 1 listed, because of Taxi radios. 2601:181:8200:4A60:C2AC:81C1:CBC4:4DC5 03:54, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
I think the explanations miss some of the humour based on the order of the blocks. Eg the Security Guard Walkie Talkies being in a higher energy band than death rays probably refers to all those movies where someone manages to take security guards out by transmitting a high energy blast through their ear pieces.
Similarly, there is a spoof in the fact that LoFi music has the highest frequency of all music bands which enables very high fidelity music is a joke about how so many of those “LoFi” music is actually recorded and streamed in a very high data rate. 178.197.208.120 05:03, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
Isn't a more humorous explanation for Radio (Shouting) quite literal shouting, ~0.2-4kHz? It's a "radio" because it's a broadcast and it's "shouting" because, well, *yodelayheehoo*! 2001:4898:E008:3:2184:3258:E466:1973 15:15, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
- You must not have heard any AM talk radio lately. :) But I think you are absolutely right. 140.147.202.82 20:00, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
It should, I think, be noted that, real bands or not, this comic is clearly USA-based. The radio frequency spectrum is divided up differently depending on where in the world you are.140.147.202.82 19:30, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
Surprisingly enough, there *are* bands that are "devoted" to interference – specifically, between high energy services (like cellular, mobile, or especially broadcasting) and low energy services (Earth science, radio astronomy, satellite downlinks) there are frequently guard bands – no man's lands where no intentional transmission is permitted. Then of course there are the ISM bands, the garbage heaps the spectrum 172.59.192.229 08:42, 8 October 2026 (UTC)
"...it is not clear what use they (radioastrologers) would have for radio signals."?!? Everything is vibrations, man. Rickycatto (talk) 12:32, 8 October 2026 (UTC)
"24/7 for a period of a few days" doesn't seem right. The 7 refers to all 7 days of the week. If you only do something for a few days (less than 7, I assume) you can't call it "24/7". Barmar (talk) 17:19, 8 October 2026 (UTC)
- This objection is very similar to why I don't like the use of
24/7/365in promoting a service! It really should be24/7/52.1775, of course... 78.151.45.31 21:22, 8 October 2026 (UTC)
Add comment