Monday November 30, 2020 11:10 AM CST -- FCC Chairman Takes the Door

Monday November 30, 2020 10:02 AM CST -- Unsocial Distance
KDX listener C. Randy Limphand thinks mask wearing is a ball, but admits disappointment that 'mandate' doesn't mean what he thought it did.

Monday November 30, 2020 9:34 AM CST -- Universal Radio
A leading source of new radios is up for question. The question is... are they going out of business? The reason I would say such a thing is because I think I heard or read mention of it within the past few days. Maybe I was listening to Glenn Hauser's 'World of Radio' while half asleep. We are now busy trying to pin down the fact of the matter. Meanwhile, we see nothing on the official website about imminent closure. If you see anything say anything.

Sunday November 29, 2020 8:28 AM CST -- Train Sounds on KDX
This morning we came across an amazingly large selection of free audio sound effects from numerous sources on the web. To avoid becoming overwhelmed we narrowed in on "horn sounds" from audiosoundclips.com, and even narrower by grabbing train horns in particular which are to be peppered into our program schedule. This website offers their sounds under a creative commons license and asks only for acknowledgment by way of mentions and links disclosing the origin of the sounds.

Saturday November 28, 2020 6:32 PM CST -- America's Frontline Doctors

Saturday November 28, 2020 5:54 PM CST -- Interference Fix
Richard Powers brings a needed clarification to the interference question:
Thank you Rich Powers for contributing precision to the discussion.

Saturday November 28, 2020 12:18 NOON CST -- The Great Reset
If you don't already know the expression "The Great Reset" then it's only a matter of time until you hear about it, in fact this may be that moment. The Great Reset is what the Pandemic is all about. Supposedly. You know, the same way 9-11 was part of 'The New World Order', President Senior Bush's and VP Dick Cheney's plan to take over the world modeled on the spoilings won from Nazi Germany's earlier 'New World Order' which got off to a start that still inspires deranged but insufficiently educated wannabe dictators like Donald Trump who still dreams of one big military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue with tanks and submarines. The Pandemic has been set loose to wipe out small-time entrepreneurs and drive the masses out of homes and apartments so that mega corporations can grab it all. Unless 'The Great Reset' is only a conspiracy theory based on the CIA's definition of the term, intended to debunk and discredit pubic suspicion of authority. As far as low power radio is concerned the most we can do is make our listeners aware of all these movements and schemes just in case something turns out to be true.

Saturday November 28, 2020 10:25 AM CST -- Radio Shack Back Under New Plan

Saturday November 28, 2020 9:58 AM CST -- Quality AM Antenna

Saturday November 28, 2020 8:48 AM CST -- Examples of Interference in Everyday Life
My personal pursuit of happiness was interfered with each time moderator Neil Neck-Kneeler deleted my posts at part15.org and again by Bob Fwordly, fake and phony self-declared chairman of a micro-radio clique, when he illegally removed me from the faux organization in violation of the same rules democratically agreed to by the small membership, upon which he interfered with everybody by erasing the rules-of-belonging and had the locks changed. No FCC rules were violated, showing that 'interference' is a universal event, much like weather. In fact stormy weather can interfere with radio but is not viewed as a rule violation but may be an "act of god" when insurance underwriters side-step coverage in certain claims.

Saturday November 28, 2020 8:44 AM CST -- More Than One Kind of Interference
In FCC Rules 15.2 we note reference to two types of interference not related to part 15 devices unless they are.

Saturday November 28, 2020 7:52 AM CST -- What is Meant by 'Interference'?
I've been thinking about Richard Power's fascinating submission from yesterday about the big F.C.C. waiver from 1976. The bottom line reached in the language is that after everything else has been considered, interference is the main thing at stake; above everything else, the F.C.C. wants to prevent interference. As station operators most of us leap to the conclusion that interference would consist of electro-magnetic blocking, jamming, scrambling, distorting, or otherwise preventing normal reception of licensed radio signals caused by our transmitter. We likely trust that if we clean things up so as to protect other broadcasting services from electrical disturbance we will have done our job and proven ourselves to be good citizens. But there might be someone out there who considers the very existence of your part 15 signal is interfering by the simple fact of existing! "That should be an empty channel" they might exclaim. "If I can hear an unlicensed station then it is interfering with my ears!" They are the neighbor across the street complaining about your lawn. They are the station up the dial that wants to chop down your weed of a radio station. The Part 15 rules contain a 'Definitions' section (15.3) but no definition of 'interference' is given. Perhaps it can be found elsewhere in the rules, but most of us are depending on our own simplistic under-informed idea of what interference is.

Friday November 27, 2020 1:30 PM CST -- How Does Sound Travel Through Space?

Friday November 27, 2020 11:40 AM CST -- A Modern Website of Radio History

Friday November 27, 2020 10:47 AM CST -- Spare Call Letter List

Friday November 27, 2020 8:32 AM CST -- A Post with Meat on the Bone
Boomer responsively speaking

I've felt the same way for some new members, forums claim to be friendly, and it can look that way while the regulars are talking. Someone will join and have new ideas, because they don't know about the limitations and get jumped on. Lines will be drawn. Diagrams will be drawn.

One good thing to do is arm yourself. Read guides about forum personality types, and know what your own might be. It might sound like boring Psych 101 stuff, but many guides are humorous and fun to read, especially if you've spent any time on forums before. The personality of the Administrator and moderators is another factor.

I've also looked for unused station call letters, only to find that all of my ideas were taken. For a while I was using slogans for branding, like Energy 66. I was using WOLF as a slogan and call letters for a good while in the early 1990s, which was nice, since it could be both WOLF and 'The Wolf', and I had a series of stations with that theme.

In junior high and high school I had built radio kits, first a Radio Shack AM, and USI FM mic kit that I wired a tape deck into. The AM was WKHZ, and FM WMHZ at 88.8. Your station could be The Hawk. We have a country station called The Hound north of me.

The shortwave transmitter might be nice for experimentation, and it's so small and simple. The Big Talker schematic could be built, but there's a little more to it, and I want the FET final with Class E. I plan to test methods of neutralizing the final RF stage, a different issue with Class E and FETs compared to Class C. With that simple stage and open board, parts can be changed and tested right there. The signal can be analyzed with the SDR (dis)Play too.

True, radio stations have always wanted to keep the production process behind the curtain, the work of recording bits and cutting tape kept out of the public eye and only the final result aired. It's good to see this in a new way. I'd think seeing too much of the production process could get boring for average listeners, but done right it could become interesting, like watching someone paint and seeing the picture take shape. - Boomer

Friday November 27, 2020 7:47 AM CST -- INTERESTING GROUND LEAD WAIVER
Submitted by Rich Powers


Thursday November 26, 2020 5:48 PM CST -- Somebody Needs to Thank Me for What I Do
Without ever being asked I spend part of my time trying to come up with company names and call letters for possible low power broadcast operations. Today's concept is "Iceberg Broadcasting Corporation" but the ideal call signs are taken by licensed stations I'm afraid, those being WTIP-FM 90.7 with 25 kW from Grand Marsais, Minnesota, and KTIP 1450 AM 1 kW Porterville, California. Despite not having the call signs you could have a slogan: "The Tip". Get it? The tip of the iceberg!

Thursday November 26, 2020 12:31 NOON CST -- The Best of What Small Radio Can Be
Discovering the no agenda stream has been and is continuing to be a welcome trip. Following the LIVE pre-show hosted rock n' roll show, the No Agenda hosts took over during their LIVE setup prior to officially opening the day's LIVE program. 2-minutes of dead air went out while they made a last trip downstairs for fresh coffee, then the program began. 3-hours later the end of No Agenda will be followed by continuous post show programs, all of it streaming together from cities all around the nation and world. John C. Dvorak is in San Francisco, Adam Curry in Austin Texas, other programs fed from Florida and various other locales. Hearing how entertaining it is to hear both the behind the scenes and the main-stage scenes all day on a Thanksgiving holiday makes me want to record my shows in the same way... the prep and editing being part of a live stream. Today I'll map out what it would take to accomplish from the technical stand point.

Thursday November 26, 2020 12:19 NOON CST -- A Mirror is a Negative Space with a Frame
Boomer the Reflective reports from within the mirror.

Hi Carldinal,

So right that mirrors are figuring in things right now, dreams as mirrors to our waking life, as the cardinal was fighting with his mirror life. It might be that the phantom cardinal has won, the real bird has been gone today. It could have been the neighbor's gardeners out there with 3 MAGA-powered leaf blowers, including one on wheels, and making a good bit of racket for a half hour, blowing leaves across the yard and over the hillside. It seems like after that I no longer saw the cardinal, but we shall see.

I've also have the same thing with the larger dining room window in the back, about once a year a bird will fly into it and get knocked out cold for a few minutes, wake up groggy and fly off. Thanks for the tip on the circles to be put on the glass, that reminds me of glass doors downtown that have black circle targets on them, seemingly so humans won't bump into them.

Glad that your Procaster is working well, a good all-in-one unit that's simple to tune and use. My idea of a super deluxe version would have a remote interface that could change frequencies and tune up the antenna from the studio, reading settings on a display, being that the units are meant to be mounted up high and might be hard to access.

I've been on the 6900 - 7000 khz range before, and it's a good time, especially if you want to do an even more obscure form of radio than even Part-15, that is it, maybe only long wave is even less known. The Legacy also believes that shortwave range should be freed up for experimental use as well, and knows what power level you should use.

There's a circuit I've been looking at that's really simple and cheap, essentially a $5 RF oscillator and final. The part that might be harder to find would be the crystal, something you could get on auction sites. The crystal may cost a few dollars, but it actually saves money on a frequency synthesizer board.

http://people.physics.anu.edu.au/~dxt103/QRP/

What I want to try is to take that circuit and add a modulator to the final, for an output power of about 350 milliwatts, and the circuit might fit on a 2 x 2 inch circuit board, 1/4 inch thick, and with a small and thin rechargeable battery, it could be a small paw-full of a unit.

I'm thinking of using a pulse width modulator chip for the audio, to make it more efficient than a linear modulator would be. I'm doing a lot of projects though, working with Tha Dood on plug and play carrier current also.

I like the Twilight Zone, the stories could be engaging, and scary, and teaching tools, certainly deeper than any soap opera, and I learned from the Zone as a younger pup. I'd find them on TV late at night when I couldn't sleep, it's a part of my experience. I can remember a number of them, but I think the most memorable is the one where the earth is spiraling closer to the sun every day, so it's getting hotter and hotter. Radio is used to good effect as part of narrating the story.

I must have seen that episode when I was pretty small, I don't know what age I was, but for years I only remembered that it was getting hotter, and the part where a thermometer exploded. I finally saw the episode again on TV.

Keep dreaming. - Boomer

Several things are said in your (e)mail that never got mentioned here on the Blog, but which we talked about in personal correspondence, such as the Procaster, operating in the shortwave spectrum 6900 to 7000 kHz and possibly the Twilight Zone, but I won't explain anything about it right now. You had to be there.

Thursday November 26, 2020 9:46 AM CST -- What's On Your Agenda?
Today's KDX agenda is going swell! Our quest for special holiday programming landed us on the 'No Agenda' stream and it's as perfect as perfect gets, at least for us here today. We happened in on a live hosted rock and roll program, the opening act for the upcoming Live edition of the Thursday No Agenda show. The two Blog readers who know us might ask, "Rock and roll on KDX? No way!" Well, I can tell you WAY! Why? Because it's hosted by a live real-time actual DJ who has been keeping the audience informed that No Agenda host Adam Curry was busily working around a crashed hard-drive but the show would air even if starting a little late. The world's seven-billion residents are missing out, and they have only themselves to blame.

Thursday November 26, 2020 8:31 AM CST -- Part 15 FCC Rules and the Fantasy Element
One chronic problem had by the Part 15 forums are the troll-like Bible literalists who lurk on those sites. In their defense, these absolutist commentors who reply to junior radio station operators, are often correct or arguably correct in preaching the Laws of Physics and FCC intent in the wording of regulations, but where the rule thumpers tend to come down too hard is their firm stance against a vital spirit of the radio hobby, that being the realm of fantasy. The joy crushing 'letter of the law' enforcement tone emoted by the starched shirts eventually discourages the fun had by describing newly found antenna secrets and hidden loop-holes in the rules and previously undiscovered transmitter settings. Here at KDX on this national holiday we will wonder if rare atmospheric pressure boundaries will open a sky channel allowing a farmer in another state to find our 1680 kiloHertz transmission on his barn radio in the haystack next to a propane heater. Even knowing that nothing of the kind is reasonable to expect, we never really know that it's not happening, and so the magic of the low power radio hobby is a living belief far more interesting than plain reality. I'm certainly not going into the forum court of dashed dreams to risk being ruled a science denying fool and in some cases being labeled a piracy suspect probably guilty of an antenna longer by many illegal inches than the Federal Government would allow if the 'truth' were known. What a buzz kill.

Thursday November 26, 2020 7:19 AM CST -- Wrestling Against the Tides of Society
Here at KDX we don't honor any holidays with special programming at least to the degree we have any say in the matter. To us the radio service needs to be present and available for the convenience of listeners and the most convenient listening times happen to coincide with weekends and holidays when listeners actually have spare time available for such pastimes as radio listening. But the rest of the radio world never stops to think because if they did think, they would realize that giving programs and their hosts time off leaves listeners stranded with infomercials and fishing shows at the very time when the better shows and talents would have an opportunity to be discovered and develop a following. What that means for KDX is that the scheduled programs we would chose to stay with while the world goes on holiday dry up in unavailability forcing us to scrape the web for a trace of alternative programs worth filling time with. At 'Democracy Now' Amy Goodman splits the difference by herself taking time off but putting canned archival programs in her place, generally the sermons of Rev. Martin Luther King. This is no help to secular KDX, so we look elsewhere. This morning we discovered the live stream from 'No Agenda' and at this very moment are re-streaming same with growing hope that we may have found radio gold. The bi-weekly program 'No Agenda' is hosted by Adam Curry, remembered for his MTV days, and well published John C. Dvorak, produced every Sunday and Thursday, trusting that the expression 'bi-weekly' means 'twice a week'. If it actually means 'every other week' we'll brush some White Out on the keys. Oh, and we have 'Free Talk Live' with Ian Freeman and Mark Edge, live seven nights a week no matter what... even on holidays. They understand. What do you have in your wallet?

Thursday November 26, 2020 7:14 AM CST -- Thanksgiving Day in the United States
Carl "Mister" Blare with his Annual Thanksgiving Day Address. I give you Carl Blare:
We've just heard Carl's Thanksgiving Address. Now the Blog returns to normalcy.

Monday November 23, 2020 5:38 PM CST -- Cup of Joe in the Morning

Monday November 23, 2020 5:14 PM CST -- Booting from a Vinyl Disk

Monday November 23, 2020 4:32 PM -- Artisan Radio has had it Up to Here
Politics and Part 15 Broadcasting -

I learned an interesting lesson today.

I was reading an opinion article supporting Trump in one of Canada's
right wing leaning newspapers.  The author tromped all over facts and
the truth while marginalizing Trump's misdeeds and I could stand it no
longer.  I put in a comment in the appropriate section at the end of the
article, and wow, what a response from the Trump supporters.

So what did I learn?

First and foremost, there's really no point in expecting a rational
response when you question people's personal beliefs (and Trump falls
into that category).  Never mind that the facts don't support those
beliefs.  Never mind that you're not even arguing in a sensible manner.

There are certainly a lot of ignorant, uneducated people who support the
cult of Trump.  I saw that today.  But there are also a lot of otherwise
intelligent people that put aside that intellect to argue for what they
want to believe, as opposed to reality.  And, of course, what they want
to believe is mixed in with their emotions, fears, desires and
prejudices.  It has nothing to do with intelligence.   I call it a lack
of something that should be the ultimate goal for each and every one of
us - wisdom.  You can be book smart, but not have a lick of wisdom.

It's no different in the Part 15 world.  The administrators of two of
the existing Forums seemingly defy logic and common sense to support
Trump.  The third certainly has leanings in that direction if one reads
his posts that deal with things other than radio.

My problem is that I don't really want to associate with anyone who is
willing to support Trump and his ilk.  For that support means that no
matter how reasonable these people might appear in other areas
(including technical discussions of Part 15, as an example), they have
the capability of putting aside morals and ethics and the truth for
their own purposes.  No thank you.  I wouldn't want to deal with them in
the real world.  Why would I deal with them on a Forum?

That's one of the reasons that I will never go back to these Forums.

For now, there's the Blare Blog, and hopefully soon, the Artisan Radio
Blog.  Trump supporters need not read them. - Artisan Radio

Monday November 23, 2020 4:30 PM CST -- How About WARM?
Again someone got there first. WARM-FM is licensed in York, Pennsylvania with 6.4 kW while part 15 broadcasters sniff around for unused call letters to name their small stations.

Sunday November 22, 2020 6:11 PM CST - Solipsism in Philosophy
The field of philosophy is represented mostly by that written about it by dedicated scholars many of whose names have become landmarks of the field. Inseparable from the foregoing are we followers and self-declared philosophers who dabble to some extent in thought and discussion about the various branches, my own favorites being 'pessimism' as put forward by Arthur Schopenhauer and 'absurdity' according to Albert Camus. Of the numerous flavors the one mentioned least in the standard literature is a thing called 'solipsism' which I will let Wikipedia describe:
My reason in opening solipsism for discussion is a recent eureka brainflash by which I plan to give solipsism its place in the pantheon of philosophies, where so far solipsism has seemed an awkward misfit almost befitting a 'new age' kind of nonsense like astrology or Buddhism. We'll get back to it.

Sunday November 22, 2020 6:02 PM CST -- KEEP Radio
For a short time I thought I'd come up with another set of radio station call letters for our ever enlarging group of stations, but a check with the FCC database informed us that KEEP-FM is a station licensed to Bandera, Texas, at 103.1 MHz with 3.5 kW.
Saturday November 21, 2020 2:26 PM CST -- A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Friday November 20, 2020 7:25 AM CST -- Best Guesses On Dream Intelligence

The dreamer awakes to a world that, during 'normal' times, tends to be 'familiar' for being constantly consistent with a minimum of jarring shifts and changes from the 'norm'. That being a fair description of 'usual experience' serves as a prominent comparison between sleep dreams and waking consciousness. Otherwise dreams contain the same components as waking life... people, dogs, 'regular' scenary and some biological considerations. Now I pause to reflect on the biology encountered in dreams... survival is a biological instinct evidenced by feelings of safety versus fear; and continuance (reproduction) is an ever-present concern indicated by erotics and keen awareness of the presence of gender opposites. Employment (jobs) is conspicuously a symbol of survival security and geographic spacial worries come across in vivid struggle to reach a destination given obstacles to available transportation. Let all that serve as a basic map of the typical dreamscape which in any event reflects the universe of being awake except for the dream's inconstancy in having radical jumps in time and place. Next, looking deeper into what dreams have to say, there is the less frequent "voice from the background" which triggers the same emotions aligned with higher mind... take for example the musical phrase I heard during a disturbing dream of being lost in a neighborhood of unknown streets... only about three musical notes that were so sad I awoke crying very deeply and later noticed a similar theme in Rachmaninoff's 4th Piano Concerto. Or a spoken phrase said by an off stage voice... like the one respondiong to the question of 'What's the point of being here'... the voice responding: "To observe." We also suspect that the 'figure in the background' of dreams has a magnificent sense of humor... like recently when I was walking with unidentified friends down an alley canyoned on both sides by brick-walled buildings until we came to a wide open plaza where people were walking about in the near and far distance and I was taken with the sense that this might be a lucid dream. I peered at the scene as intently as I could trying to ascertain and became convinced the scene was real, only to awake and realize I'd been tricked by the dream which revealed that it (the dream) was aware of my interest in lucid dreaming and demonstrated its (the dream's) capacity for taking the upper hand in impressing my judgement. I admit believing that dreams have an underlying intelligent consciousness that to certain degrees manipulates and influences us while we believe we are 'lone' creatures. While some might say we have 'guardian angels' another might conclude we have 'jail keepers'.

Friday November 20, 2020 6:03 AM CST -- Dreams on the RELM Network
Morning (e)Mail from The Boomer:

Hi Carl, I have vivid dreams like that regularly, usually remembering a dream's last act or two right before waking up. A dream could be about a situation that's playing out normally, but then something will become the focus to make me wake up. I've been shocked by touching a battery, or someone will keep poking me with a sharp object, and I wake to find that my arm is asleep, a nerve was being pinched in the same place as I was being shocked or poked in the dream.

I feel like dreams are another world I visit at night, because some continue from earlier dreams, like I might be in the same place again. A recurring dream is being in school long after I should have graduated, and I might visit classrooms and walk around the halls, then slowly start to wonder why I'm still there, I graduated years ago. It might even switch to being the end of the year at that point, and I'll make a stand that this will be my last year. As I become more firm in my stand that I won't be coming back, I wake up, thankful that it was only a dream.

Another I've had in this year of virus, is being in a room, for a party maybe, and the room starts to get very crowded and everyone is packed in, and I think, isn't this way too tight for protocol? It worries me, then I wake. I've had two of that type of dream.

I've had recurring dreams of my mother being back, usually in our house and she's just there, but quiet. Things seem normal, but then I start to wonder how this is real. Another like it is my Dog coming back after ten years, and it seems strange. I've had talking Dogs in dreams, but never the pups I've owned.


On intelligence, I don't think it's that people don't want to be intelligent, but one of the things that bothers them is people showing off their smarts in a superior way, making a status out of it. I had a friend who used to put it succinctly, 'They're just an over-educated s---head'

Last year I wrote about a robin that was attacking the back door glass, banging into it over and over. Now it's a cardinal doing the same thing in the morning. The door glass faces northeast, and creates a pretty strong mirror effect, so the cardinal can probably see himself clearly, especially in the first few hours after dawn, when the reflection is stronger. His appointment with that door is between about 6:30 to 8:30 am.

I've gone out to chase the cardinal away, but he comes back after ten minutes and starts 'chipping' sounds and flying at the glass again. He will attack for a few minutes and go away for 5 to 10 minutes I'd guess, sitting in a tree nearby, and then start in again. At least he doesn't hit as hard or constantly as the robin did. I 'fixed' the robin by removing a chair that was close to the door, where the robin could sit at a certain height and see the 'other bird' clearly. The robin still head banged, but not as much. The cardinal perches on a near bush, I see the bush move when the cardinal goes back into it.

If used on the blog, edit as you see fit. -- Boomer

Editor's Comeback - Yes, the sense of having 'been in this scene before' is another interesting aspect of some dreams... like 'deja vu' sometimes, or a more indistinct familiarity that eludes being described by an editor but is definitely a 'this again' experience. As to appearances by 'people from the past', whether dead or alive concurrent with the dream, there are always one or two of them residual or 'resident' in the unfolding scene... in two separate dreams very loved 'girlfriends' (women) made their walk-ons... but in both cases I dreamt that their apparitions were impostors... I didn't believe they were the real person, so to speak.

Canines romp around in some dreams... in a very eerie forest where I roamed unprotected, I came face to face with a wolf that was very fixated toward me and it faced me from a narrowing distance holding steady eye contact as it prowled slowly closer. In other cases dogs circulated unthreateningly and I was always curious why they were present.

I also have been put-off by the type of pompous asses who flaunt their 'intelligence' which is often nothing more than a degree from an institute of higher learning, but at base they are 'dicks' or 'gentrified ladies' made important by dangling price-tags as they 'look down the nose'.

As an avid birder I watch birds defend their terrain in the way you describe... and once played back a recording freshly made of a singing cardinal while I sat at an outdoor table. Upon hearing his own song the bird began an outburst of attack signals and was nearly panicked being unable to locate the singer. Since then I've banned the outdoor playing of bird recordings so as not to upset the balance of nature. 

Thursday November 19, 2020 5:49 AM CST -- Waking Up Can Be Such a Relief
Does it ever seem like dreams are composed by peculiar mischievous sprites whose purpose in near-existence is to frustrate the dreamer? The dream wasn't a problem yet in the middle of the night where I was carrying on like the bachelor I dreamed to be... up late on the town boozing, bantering with night lifers, flirting with wayward women, near the point where I'd need to crash and await a noon recovery. But the sprites had other plans as I was at once notified that I was hired by a television station as news reporter effective immediately and starting at 3:30 AM was already on assignment; 'here put on this tie'. I had no recollection of ever applying for such a job nor being approached about it. My first thought was to give two weeks notice but couldn't do so until office hours opened at 9.

Thursday November 19, 2020 5:42 AM CST -- We Pause for Station Identification
You are hearing about Cyber Station KDX-OGG, Streaming On the Internet since 2007, and Terrestrial Stations KDX AM & FM broadcasting In the Air with Intelligent, Informational and Interesting Programming under the guidance of Carl (Mister) Blare, Listener In Charge. Now back to the Blog.

Wednesday November 18, 2020 1:00 PM CST -- F.C.C. Not Required

Wednesday November 18, 2020 9:03 AM CDT -- The Voice As a Window to Health
In radio the voice is everything. Now it appears that the voice may be consulted by medical analysis to make determinations about health status.

Tuesday November 17, 2020 5:29 PM CST -- Buzz Burbank Will Be Signing Off
KDX listeners have for several years looked forward to the weekly News & Comment, Thursdays, with Buzz Burbank from the RELM Network, but he has announced plans to leave the news behind although Buzz will continue as side-kick on the Bob Cesca Show from the same Network as heard twice weekly on KDX. The very last Buzz Burbank News & Comment will air Thursday January 21, 2021, the day following the Inauguration of Joe Biden as President of the United States.
Tuesday November 17, 2020 12:41 NOON CST --

Monday November 16, 2020 3L29 PM CDT -- TheTrial Phase
Earlier I mentioned being midway through "The Stranger", the novel by Albert Camus, at the point where the main character was being grilled about the murder he'd chanced to commit. Now we're well into the trial, and the accused has one of several observations experienced during the proceedings. These are his thoughts:

Monday November 16, 2020 2:17 PM CST -- Make Goods To Be Scheduled
When a commercial announcement or scheduled program is somehow missed or mishandled during a broadcast schedule we in the radio profession re-schedule what we call "make goods" which compensate for the mistake, and that brings up the mistake. Recently this Blog said something about streaming overnight as a way of heating the building with hot computers and transmitters and so we did, except that the proper "port number" was not turned on by our operator and many hours of programming did not get sent from the KDX-OGG server, although it was heard locally on our AM & FM stations. Therefore we will be rescheduling the affected programs during the week, among them "Radio Books Schopenhauer Philosophy from Librivox.org","Stuph File with Peter Anthony Holder" and "Big Picture Science" from the SETI Institute. Watch for the Make Good Schedule.

Monday November 16, 2020 2:05 PM CST -- The Lies are True
Before handing it over to Guest Commentator Buster Boatrocker let me just say that maybe we're giving him too much time here on The Blare Blog, but there's no policy in place so it'll be this way for awhile. Now Here's Buster:

Disclosure: Buster Boatrocker is Carl's barber from South St. Louis, Missouri, and receives Blog space in exchange for hair cuts.

Monday November 16, 2020 2:03 PM CST -- A One-Woman News Room
This is an inspiring story and indicates that there's plenty of room for honest journalism.

Sunday November 15, 2020 12:55 AM MIDNIGHT CST -- Two World's Every Day

As darkness hours have increased and temperatures have become chilled we have split into two schedules giving us day life and night life sectioned by two deep sleeps. The day part starts around 6 AM and follows the vigorous news talk program schedule on KDX Worldround Radio which winds down as the porchlights come on, time for a horizontal descent into the depths of dream where endless sorting of events flickers with never a clear idea of an actual objective but always a determination to carry out whatever presents itself. However elaborate the dreams none the less vanish without memory as middle night stimulates consciousness by its vast silence at the ultra localized enclosure of night, walls, heater and lamp. Such a reduced world gives the pleasing illusion of time standing still opening an opportunity for clear thought and precise concentration. From the shadows I pulled a copy of "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, his first novel from 1946, and read halfway through to the part where the main character sort of wanders into shooting an Arab and is to face charges in court. Myself being in a near dreamstate I had the guilty sense that as a reader-witness I might be called on to testify or worse, be implicated somehow as an accomplice. There are enumerable things to tend with, one of them being the annual schedule increase of radio programming since we keep the internet servers on through the night for their added warmth blown from 350 Watt power supplies, and this expanded service inaugurated tonight in the form of a six hour reading of Volume 1 of "World As Will & Idea", the principle philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer provided from Librivox.org. A warming comfort is brought to these night shifts by a drink concoction of my own invention which I will share with you now: 3 ingredients... Hershey's Cocoa, Maple Syrup, hot water. Put together this drink induces the best sensation of contentedness.

Friday November 13, 2020 3:51 PM CST -- Not a Comfortable Thought

Friday November 13, 2020 1:47 PM CST -- We've All Been Wondering
It's been baffling how so many othewise regular citizens have remained staunchly loyal to Donald Trump given his documented and well publicized lies and misgovernance. The Thom Hartmann Show brings us the explanation delivered by Psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank, author of 'Trump On the Couch'.

Thursday November 12, 2020 11:00 AM CST -- Yesterday's Air
After many months of mouthlessness we got to wondering what was said on those old shows we used to do... those Blare OnAir shows. So out came a few and we've been listening in the morning. We heard us say: "Not all people at the radio station have talent yet they belong to talent unions. Unions don't have talent so why are they called 'talent unions'? Marriage is a union but members of marriage aren't required to join a union or have talent. There is no 'marriage union'." That's what we did on the old programs; we undefined everything. And we're reminded that every year we produce a "State of the Station" program wherein we report the highpoints of the past year and issue plans for the next year - maybe we'll get that out for Thanksgiving.

Thursday November 12, 2020 6:57 AM CST -- Comparisons Between 9-11 Attack and COVID19 Pandemic
An established radio program called 9-11 Wake-up Call produced by "Cheryl" is a fixture at WWUH - University of Hartford, and this episode draws comparison between military drills held before the 9-11 attack and bio-weapons drills in progress at the outset of the COVID 19 outbreak. The program also includes a science report from Ben Swann regarding the efficacy of wearing medical masks to reduce risk of viral infection.

Wednesday November 11, 2020 4:54 PM CST -- Election Theft Competition
Speaking about the recent Presidential Election in the U.S., here is guest commentator Buster Boatrocker:

Wedneday November 11, 2020 CST -- Thinking: For What It's Worth
So, I was thinking about how there was never enough time to accomplish everything connected with running a radio station. With all the technical matters, programming, bookkeeping, building maintenance, website management, public relations, food services, groundskeeping, archiving... not enough time to do it all. Reluctantly, I decided to abandon the whole thing... no more radio. KDX was stored away in boxes and the next thing to go was the Blog.

It wasn't easy to give it up but there was a great sense of relief. Plenty of time opened up and finally I was free to do many things there was never enough time for. In fact, there was so much time I actually began looking around for new pastimes to take up the slack. Why not unpack KDX and start a new radio station? That's what I did and now I'm out of time again.

Tuesday November 10, 2020 7:06 AM CST -- Time Zone of the Mind

Monday September 9, 2020 1:23 PM CST -- Waxing On Trump

Saturday November 7, 2020 8:51 PM CST -- What the Authoritarians Tell Us
Authoritarianism takes two kinds of personality. On top is the authoritarian himself who tells others what to do. His success depends on submissives who believe in his rule. Both types aim their disapproval on 'persons of liberty', we independents who think for ourselves. It was necessary to side-step away from the words 'libertarian' or 'liberal' because of the way they've been turned into pejoratives.

Saturday November 7, 2020 4:47 PM CST -- Orange Man Mopes

Saturday November 7, 2020 4:18 PM CST -- Pai Oh My!

Saturday November 7, 2020 5:13 AM CST -- The Confluence of Waking and Dreaming
About 4 AM I'd more than enough sleep because of early retirement resulting from the recent time change but bed was still cozy so I decided to listen to the radio from a reclining position. The local AM talker was re-airing one of their weekday shows with a former tv lady jabbering with a newly hired guy about anything trivial ranging from favorite movies to happenings in the election line. As they went on I drifted into a hypnagogic middle region in which I felt moved to drop in at the radio station and contribute something to the program. The parking lot was fenced by chainlink security but I was able to wrestle my way through the gate and sauntered into the studio plopping into a waiting chair now physically present where the two hosts sat at their table continuing to jibber jabber. Time went by while I waited to be recognized but they held firm to the conversation as if I wasn't there. Needing a piece of paper for reference the female host reached right across my lap with her foot and grabbed the paper between her toes. They went on and on. I waited, sitting politely. Then I started having thoughts about how they were being paid while I was attempting to be generous in contributing my time so I decided to call it short. "I've got to go but I'll come another time" I murmured as I was back out fiddling with the gate and noting that one patch of pavement in the parking lot was darker than the rest and looked like a higher grade of concrete. This fascinated me because I dabble in cements from time to time. When I came awake those two were still yammering on the TECSUN PL-310.

Friday November 6, 2020 9:40 AM CST -- To Say the Obvious

Friday November 6, 2020 5:13 AM CST -- Big Fade Down
It was perfect last night on NPR. The hosts of 'All Things Considered' halted their regular reporting and switched to the White House for an appearance by Donald J. Trump, President of the United States. The President, in a hoarse voice possibly ailing under lingering COVID infection, began a string of complaints about the 'supression' and 'fraud' going on in the vote counting across America. It was quickly obvious he had nothing more to say other than moaning about his 'victory' being 'stolen' by 'illegal vote rigging'. After less than a minute NPR faded out of the president's diatribe and the hosts began picking apart the unsubstantiated claims he'd made. It was so wonderful to be spared the remainder of Trump's nonsense.

Friday November 6, 2020 5:03 AM CST -- Rudimentary Radio Station

Thursday November 5, 2020 4:02 PM CST -- Neanderthals in Red Hats
With a a blaring fart-trail heard round the world and messing a peaceful day three Trumpcycles tooled through KDX streets. I faced them boldly and mouthed 'MORONS!', thinking that these crumb-bumbs are the ones who need to be shown a tree draped in nooses. But of course the U.S. Constitution protects the right of unthinking stupidity by allowing freedom of expression (the un-muffled engines) and freedom of belief (Christian Warriors). Shut up!

Thursday November 5, 2020 12 NOON CST -- Buster Boatrocker On Re-Voting


Thursday November 5, 2020 11:24 AM CST -- United Biscuit's Radio Station

Thursday November 5, 2020 8:21 AM CST -- As Far As the Low Power Radio Forums Are Concerned
Forums are time-consuming beasts requiring round-the-clock monitoring and moderation always attracting spam and trolls. The best possible forum would be administered by a fair and reasonable full timer as a main pastime. There's no way to put a forum on auto-pilot. However, one might contemplate taking over one of the existing radio forums and turning it into a world class flagship. The first place to look is part15.org which is owned along with other web services by a Canadian gentleman named Jon Paul Janze who is very sociable and approachable. He entrusts the current version of the site to the moderator and has tried without response to invite applications for other moderators. That uncovers another problem encountered in the low power radio field... there are no active leaders; no one willing or qualified to step up. The earlier attempt to build an 'Association of Low Power Broadcasters' met the fate that of four members none was inclined toward chairmanship... the hopeful exception being the Late Jim Henry who died before applying his brand of management. The remnants of the ALPB have been subjected to hostile takeover actually declared while Chairman Henry was still alive recovering from back surgery but helpless to defend his position. Democratic process was ignored as the marauder bypassed the rules of procedure and named himself chairman. His resulting forum is therefore stolen property. That leaves one more of the 'main 3' low power radio forums - a hobby fortress built around the ego of a character who would have the world believe his forum is 'the one and only', being his claim to lifetime achievement. No room for partners and probably out of reach for a buyer. Almost never acknowledged are a couple of smallish forums with no participation and one of these days maybe we'll give them a fleeting mention.

Thursday November 5, 2020 8:00 AM CST -- Visit to Radio Ranch
Chanced upon an old black and white motion picture from the probably 1940s titled 'Gene Autry's Radio Ranch' on one of the free streaming sites. I recall that Gene Autry was a popular singing cowboy with his own radio show and the film was a curious merger of radio and movie with an old-style microphone outdoors in front of Gene's ranch house on a sage-brush dessert. There was no sign of radio equipment or antennae and there were active outlaws out on the prairie riding their horses on mischievous missions. Amidst all the equestrian activity a batch of ranch hands joined Autry in song as the broadcast went on. That's actually what I do when burglars and other criminals trespass here at the Internet Building - I sing songs and thus far it has kept them at bay. In one scene a horse tripped, fell to its knees, and the rider took a plunge. Can horses do such tricks without injuring themselves? I became visibly disturbed and clicked out after only 10-minutes, but now I'm thinking about having a microphone-stand in front of the building but with COVID all my neighbors would need to stand off-mic.

Thursday November 5, 2020 6:18 AM CST -- Morning Bark

We should force the person who does the Low Power Blogspot to the forums! From what I saw, the information looks pretty solid, and they write a lot, which is what we need. Right now it's only Mark and a few others who reply to him.

I've noticed that the Forums have been even quieter than usual, not even the usual seed posts at P-15. I hope it means they're out voting! My polling place had no agitators while I was there, and the news said things were quiet at the area's polling places.

Glad to hear that B.U.T.T. encoder now can stream song titles in ogg format! I like ogg because it's free and open to use, not encumbered by patent rights as some other encoders are. Mp3 is also free, as its patents have run out. Ogg has the edge on audio quality, especially at lower bit rates. The newer opus format is even better than mp3 or ogg, especially at low and extra low bit rates. It has many refinements to cover that wide range, like adjusting itself differently, changing settings when either voice or music is played.

These are findings from my reading and testing, and can't cover everyone's use. You'd have to determine what's best for the audio quality you need, bandwidth you have, and the players and browser listeners are using. - Boomer

Thursday November 5, 2020 6:15 AM CST -- Smart Talk with Carl Blare

Wednesday November 4, 2020 2:37 PM CST -- Have You Wondered Why There's Been No Activity On the Part 15 Forums for Several Days?
It's because the moderators are thought to have been allegedly partcipating in 'Trump Trains' around minority polling places intimidating Latinos, persons of color and the LGBTQ. The label 'Trump Train' doesn't yet have a Wikipedia page, but as an offshoot of the Proud Boys just use that title and Wiki stands ready. Proud Boys is not affiliated with Gay Pride except following heavy beer consumption.

Wednesday November 4, 2020 11:00 AM CST -- Everything Low Power Radio
Started in 2008 by the Radio Guy a full service blog titled Low Power Radio-The Blog for the Recreational Broadcaster has it all.
For example:

Wednesday November 4, 2020 8:53 AM CST -- Trump's 4-Years of Awful in 2-Minutes

Wednesday November 4, 2020 5:52 AM CST -- As Seen from Canada
Artisan Radio observes: