Musashi wrote:
"Right now, using the parts that are currently available it might take about
$10 or so to build a device like this. But $1 or $2 (maybe less) is probably
achievable with some development effort. Of course, it would need to be
studied carefully to say for sure."
 I thought these comments would be of interest to this list.  It seems to me
like this might be something worth pursuing.  And I was just thinking that
his company might be willing to pick this up as a project if there is an
incentive to do so.  Any thoughts?"
The development of an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) implied
for the lower cost requires over $1 million to develop, after the basic
research like Jerry B. is doing to determine what it should do.  Then the
price is a function of complexity and quantity per year.  I do not believe
that the market is there today to get to that point.

Jerry J Bromenshenk wrote:

"And I haven't found a really cheap satellite or land-based communications
system that won't add significant dollars per month."

Back to the almighty dollar - What are you offering them?  How are they
going to increase their revenue from you.  You can't pay their average
service rates and be feasible, but, if you look at their load level, their
equipment sits there at night doing nothing except eating power in case a
message occurs.  Uses of wireless networks are still evolving.  Get in there
and manipulate the gene pool. Look for a deal where you only access at
night.  My paradigm is that the base office computer pages each yard in turn
starting at midnight, or your area's dead time, and gathers the report to be
on the manager's desk at 5 am.  Start of nectar flows would be tracked and
planned for while emergencies could be identified and bumped in priority.

Even here on Long Island, the Locust bloom stretches over a 2 to 4 week
start time from the city out.  I've often thought that trailers of bees
moved to follow the peak flow could make 4 times more of this desired honey.
Now I sell all of my production at over $4 per pound from a self serve stand
on my front porch, so a network of monitor hives might be useful for me, if
I could increase production and still maintain price.

Proof of the start time of a pesticide kill to correlate with an application
for a reimbursement of losses may be the most economical use of such
monitoring because you can then force the violator to cover the costs of
evidence!

 Raymond J. Lackey                           Sweet Pines Apiary
email office: [log in to unmask]