Personal area network

A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network used for data transmission among devices such as computers, telephones and personal digital assistants. PANs can be used for communication among the personal devices themselves (intrapersonal communication), or for connecting to a higher level network and the Internet (an uplink).

A wireless personal area network (WPAN) is a PAN carried over wireless network technologies such as:

The reach of a WPAN varies from a few centimeters to a few meters. A PAN may also be carried over wired computer buses such as USB and FireWire.

Wired PAN connection

The data cable is an example of the above PAN. This is also a Personal Area Network because that connection is for the users personal use. PAN is used for personal use only.

Wireless Personal Area Network

A wireless personal area network (WPAN) is a personal area network — a network for interconnecting devices centered on an individual person's workspace — in which the connections are wireless. Wireless PAN is based on the standard IEEE 802.15. The two kinds of wireless technologies used for WPAN are Bluetooth and Infrared Data Association.

WPAN

WPAN is a commercial television station in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, serving the Mobile, Alabama market on channel 53 (digital 40). The station was dark for much of 2013 and 2014.

History

Founded February 22, 1983, the station is owned by Franklin & Hoynacki Communications, LLC, but is being sold. The station's transmitter is located north of US 98 in Gulf Breeze, Florida.

Coverage

The station used to have a repeater, W50CF in Mobile, Alabama, which broadcast on analog channel 50. The translator is now home to a low-powered station run by Word of Life Community Church in Chickasaw, Alabama. When WFGX moved its signal from its location in Gulf Breeze, Florida to sister station's WEAR tower located off CR 64 near Robertsdale, Alabama, W50CF had to sign off so it would not interfere (since WFGX broadcasts digitally on channel 50.) W50CF has applied to the FCC to move to Channel 6.

DirecTV carried the station on the Mobile-Pensacola-Fort Walton local channel package up until 2009 when it was dropped, but resumed carrying the channel in April 2012. For most of 2013, the channel guide did not accurately reflect the actual programming airing on the station (infomercials would air in place of Cozi TV programming), and since the fall of 2013, the station has had a perpetual trouble slide on their DirecTV channel. The channel was removed once again in December 2013. At some point in late 2014, WPAN returned to the air as an affiliate of the Soul of the South Network.