[RichD]

Wireless is everywhere now, miniaturized to an astounding degree.

Recently, I saw a report on a button size gardening
gadget - stick it in the soil, it reports on moisture.
Bluetooth earphones, etc.

Who's designing these things? In my experience, RF
designers are a rare breed, and with the digital market
vastly larger, they're even rarer.

I'll guess, the IC have been perfected to the no-brainer
level. But still, you need need amps, filters, antenna, plus
issues of noise and layout, yes/no? That stuff isn't obsoleted.

I don't work in this area, but I'm curious, so can anyone
elaborate on what's going on, from a system viewpoint?
What are the chip functions, options, price, trade-offs?
In which situations would you reject them, to roll your own?

Is it simple on/off keying, or more sophisticated? Currently,
in communications theory, sensor networks are a hot topic,
where thousands of sensors are competing for bandwidth,
but for mundane consumer apps, I doubt those issues arise.

I'm looking to pick the brains of any gurus here -


--
Rich