Pib

Keep in mind that while a repeater will extend the range it has the down side in that it will cut the bandwidth/speed in half since it's spending half its time talking to the antenna/another router and the other half talking to your computer.  Ex: say your Wifi modem/router transmits a 20Mb internet connection (or that antenna you refer to)...your computer will get a 20Mb connection assuming the received signal is strong enough; but add in a repeater to relay that Wifi signal/boost the signal strength and you will get 10Mb max....signal strength may now be much stronger but you your max speed will be 10Mb.  So, you may have doubled your signal strength but lost half your bandwidth/speed in doing so.

If you are still getting good bandwidth/speed and no/few disconnects due to the lower signal strength it may be better to leave it alone.

Quote

A socialist- type answer: let's tax it or give it to the less fortunate.   It just don't pay anymore to be rich.

That's good to know.  I joined in Jan 12 when I applied/got their now foreign transaction fee Visa debit card as a backup to another no foeign transaction fee credit card.   At that time I setup two inbound/pull money transfer links to two other bank accounts since it didn't allow "outbound" transfers at that time.

I just logged onto my PenFed account and played with the Funds Transfer module and could tell it would now allow me to setup funds transfer links which would allow transfer "to" other banks...and it would show those two links can be used for in or out transfers versus the previous "in" only.

Unfortunately for me since I'm still considered a new member until I get six months under my belt come July 12 it said I was still limited to $50 transfer in or out...no $5000/day yet.   But hey, before I was limited to $50 "in" only (standard for new members at the time...now it appears it will be $50 in and out for six months)...at least now I can also transfer $50 "out"...once I get six months membership under my belt and earn my PenFed merit badge the in and out limit per day will be $5000.  

I told PenFed months back in some email back and forth asking about their new member $50/day external transfer policy that $50 is just too low.  Heck, if you wanted to pay any PenFed credit card bill over $50 (say it was a $500 bill) by transferring money from your PenFed Savings account to the PenFed credit card but you first had to pull money from another bank account to plus up your PenFed Savings account you could only pull-in $50 per day...it would take you 10 transfers over 10 days to pull-in $500.   But why waste time doing that when I could instead log onto my other bank account and "push" $500 to my PenFed account in one transfer.   The current $50/day transfer limit for new member with less than 6 months membership is just toooooooo low...almost ridiculously low IMHO....in setting up new bank accounts I've never experienced such a low daily transfer amount for new members.   Oh well, July is almost here and their no foreign transaction fee Visa debit card is just a backup/will only get used a few times per year just to confirm it still works and to show usage.

chooka, on Yesterday, 18:11 , said:

There are a few places but I don't think many are sold due to their high price....a high price caused by the high import/luxury tax placed on them by the Thai govt.  So, fake ones are sold instead.

I scanned the research project quickly...some interesting info.  Based on the limited scope of this particular research/survey the reliability data shows a 96 to 99% reliability rate based on RCDs that have been in use for a while, but it does not appear to provide reliability data on brand new RCDs which failed out of the box/returned under warranty...and we all know X-percentage do fail from the get-go for any product we buy. This failure in the early stage of a product's life is commonly referred to as infant mortality and it's even addressed in the report.  And the report said only 1.7% of the RCD tested were less than a year old.   So, there appears be little to no reliability data on RCDs that are brand new or within their usually warranty period of 1 year....that infant mortality barkpark.  

When it comes to new RCDs returned to the store for a replacement/refund within days/weeks of purchase it would be interesting to know what that infant mortality failure rate is, but that would require RCDs to get returned all the way to the manufacturer and the manufacturer collecting real world failure data.....or the manufacturer to provide manufacturing quality assurance sampling results.  But that kind of manufacturer data would probably be considered close-hold/proprietary in nature.   I don't know of any manufacturers of any product that posts results on what percentage of their products failed out of the box/within the warranty period.  

I think the partial quote below from the report does a good job of summing up the report's success in getting failure data from most manufacturers (but apparently it did get a few to record/provide some data for a 90 day period) :

Quote

When it comes to returning a brand new item (regardless of what it was)  to the store for a replacement/refund because that new item didn't work properly, I think we have all done that numerous times over our lives.   I'm still knocking on wood...the replacement RCBO I got is still working fine (i.e., passes the Test button check and no nuisance trips compared to the one I took back which was tripping every few hours to days).

Another area of the report identified something I've seen in other similar reports, that RCD regular testing maintains reliability (i.e., pushing the Test button).  Beyond the fact the Test button helps to confirm the RCD is still working, maybe this testing "exercise" of the RCD so to say helps to keep the mechanical portion of the RCD free to move/in better condition/helps clear any contaminants.  

I have no doubt that RCDs on the whole are very reliable, but I'm never surprised anymore (but maybe a little mad) when I have to take a brand new item (any product) back for a replacement/refund because it didn't work properly out of the box.  Oh well, stuff happens.  Cheers.