DARPA’s iXo Artificial Intelligence Control Grid sensors soon hooked up to all GPS mapped residences

Those are Surface Mount components, and that's a very small bead of solder that does provide some heat sinking, but is probably more effective at holding the thing tight to the PCB than in dissipating heat caused by high frequency signal transmission.

I will add, however, that proper circuits could potentially be configured to use the houses AC electrical system to function as an antennae. Cell phones inherently contain antennae, and connect to cell towers or even satellites. But most cell phone tracking is done by cell tower triangulation, in my understanding.

If a cable box has a metal casing, you would need to have some sort of external means to broadcast a signal. (i.e. my car GPS navigation unit doesnt have an antennae. So you are looking in the right place.

As a result of dismantling roughly 70 big screen tv's, to harvest their 'Fresnel Lenses':
[link to ignoranceisfutile.wordpress.com]
I have a huge mound of the PCB assemblies. In opening the analogue transceiver panels I dont see the sort of transistor you pointed out. I also opened a roughly 3 or 4 year old Motorola box (serious pain in the arse)... The innards look vastly different.

The problem is, digital converter input circuitry will be vastly different than analog. Honestly, I would expect to see a digital interface to look more lie your image, compared to the analog ones I just looked at. Your U1 could simply be an amplifier for the output signal (if that coaxial connector next to it is in fact the output plug). But I'm no cable box expert, so I cant think of what such a transistor would legitimtely do if that is actually the input, assuming that component goes to that coax since its closest to it.

.........