The Blare Blog
Center
of the Bla Bla Galaxy
That Being Said
February 2022
Monday February 28, 2022 8:46 PM CST -- Thousands of Rare Phonograph Discs --
Monday February 28, 2022 12:17 NOON CST -- Listen to Ukraine from Florida on Patrolman 9 --
Radio from Ukraine can be heard on shortwave station WMRI in Okeechobee, Florida. Check their schedule and use a radio like the Patrolman 9 found on E-bay by correspondent Brooooce.
I got 3 vintage radios from E-Bay and I love
them. In my very very early days of playing with radios, from
about age 12 to about age 17, I had multiband portables.
Mostly from Radio Shack but I also had a couple of multiband
radios from a department store in Hartford CT, which was called
Korvettes (the department store not the radios).
When I got my first vacuum tube communications
receiver I realized how limited the multiband portables were in
comparison. But I still used them and they were still
fun.
NOW (to me anyway) the multiband portables (as well
as other radios) can be WORKS OF ART.
I love the front dial on the Radio Shack Patrolman
9. I just think it is so cool.
I will send you some more pictures of the Patrolman
9 (which I think came out from about 1975 to 1978 (the radio not the pictures)) and some of the
other "new old" radios that came from E-Bay to my humble
abode.
So OK I am going to end this for the moment.
But there will be more.
Very Best Wishes - Brooooce
In response to Brooooce, I remember Korvettes.
We had them here too in the Mid-Mississippi River Valley. I purchased
something there. Possibly my Sony Mini-B&W TV set with 8"
screen. Or maybe it was a pillow.
Monday February 28, 2022 11:25 AM CST --
Science provides understanding of a universal experience
and art provides a universal understanding of a personal experience.
- Mae Jennison, engineer, physician, astronaut
Monday February 28, 2022 11:12 AM CST -- Part 15 Stations & Forums Not Ready to Serve Listeners --
The
low power radio stations and related online forums continue to present
favorite music from late childhood with no thought of informing
audience of impending world war and potential nuclear annihilation. The
quest for greater range at milliwatt power for AM and nanowatt power
for FM continues so as to spread non-service to the greatest possible
inches and feet before it's too late.
Monday February 28, 2022 11:09 AM CST -- YouTube Suspends Ads from RT and Russian State Media Channels --
Monday February 28, 2022 11:04 AM CST -- FCC Takes Steps to Protect Against Russian Cyber Attacks --
Monday February 28, 2022 10:45 AM CST --
Monday February 28, 2022 10:01 AM CST --
Monday February 28, 2022 6:39 AM CST -- RT America Off the KDX Schedule --
We
have posted often about RT America, based in Washington DC, and its
many programs heard on KDX Worldround Radio which include those by
William Shatner, Jesse Ventura, Holland Cooke, Chris Hedges, John
Kiriaku and for years the Late Larry King's interviews, prominent U.S.
media personalities who've all praised the 'open microphone' policy of
the network to allow uncensored content with no requirement to deliver
Russian controlled messages. Something different is true for the
English language RT America newscasts which originate in Moscow and
have carried some amount of sarcasm and jibes aimed at America, and
most recently rather childish criticisms of Ukrainian reactions to
being attacked. Only one RT news broadcast made it through since the
invasion began, as now we encounter a screen from "DDoS Guard" when
attempting to view the RT website with words that say "Suspicious
traffic is coming from your network". A check at Wikipedia
shows that "DDoS Guard" was started by two now former Ukrainians
presently operating mainly out of Russia while incorporated in Scotland
and Belize who founded a company that provides DDoS protection and
other web related services. Therefore circumstances have intervened and
are interfering with our access to RT programs. Some programmers in the
world are intentionally banning the RT network whereas we at KDX would
be curious to know how the American RT hosts are dealing with their
situation of being affiliated with a notorious agent of war, as RT can
now be described. We'll have followup reports about this.
Monday February 28, 2022 6:37 AM CST -- Coming Soon --
Radio World news magazine is starting a new radio oriented podcast series.
Sunday February 27, 2022 12:43 NOON CST -- PUTIN ORDERS NUCLEAR DETERRENT FORCES ON ALERT --
Saturday February 26, 2022 2:12 PM CST -- In Solidarity --
Saturday February 26, 2022 8:57 AM CST -- Polarization --
Giving
the finger is normally done in the up-pointing position. It's called
vertical polarization. A diverse method of finger giving is done by
side-pointing in the style of a gangsta from the hood. Horizontal
polarity. Our Wi-Fi microwave devices are ordinarily pictured with
little 4" stub antennas pointing straight up. They radiate in a 360o
pattern known as omni-directional. Here at KDX Worldround Radio the TP
Wireless 2.4 GHz Transmitter/Receivers beaming our programming through
two rooms from control desk to AM FM transmitters have been operating
vertically with the signal cutting through room-space also shared by
heavy human traffic as we walk from room-to-room frequently blocking
the signal thus causing audio stutter. A solution would be to raise
the devices up above head-level, but there's presently nothing up there
to securely hold the equipment and we don't want it crashing to the
floor. So we gave horizontal a try, which aims the signal toward the
target with nulls on either side to avoid wasting signal-energy toward
neighboring buildings. The result is much better than expected, giving
solid audio unhampered by walking traffic as we manage coffee and snack
activities.
Friday February 25, 2022 11:31 AM CST -- RT America Back Online --
Friday February 25, 2022 11:28 AM CST -- More Nature Sounds --
Look for the blog entry by that name dated 2/24
Friday February 25, 2022 9:33 AM CST -- World Shook Up --
This
morning the RT America website is offline. To our knowledge the website
is generated from the Washington DC Headquarters of Russia Today, the
International Russian Television Network, with programming in English.
On ordinary mornings the audiotrack of the half-hour RT America News is
carried on KDX Worldround Radio, except the program is unavailable
today. In its place we are temporarilly carrying NHK News from Japan
and CGTN News from China.
Thursday February 24, 2022 11:26 PM CST -- How to Fix the Internet --
A podcast presented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Thursday February 24, 2022 6:02 AM CST -- Bird Radio --
The Artisan Blog has posted a link to free bird sounds.
2's day 2/22/22 1:54 PM CST -- Delay Sought in Shutdown of 3G --
2's day 2/22/22 12:05 NOON CST -- Black History Month is the Back of the Bus --
We
recall from Black history that free'd Black slaves in America were only
allowed in the back seats of public buses, until that policy was
overcome by the brave civil disobediance of Rosa Parks in 1955. Now in
February of 2022 we are celebrating Black History Month, but Black
history exists 365-days every year.
2's day 2/22/22 11:01 AM CST -- Follow Up Response to Boomer --
The
CCleaner Update does not have its own browser, but stealthily installed
the browser of a different vender, AVG, known for its Anti Virus.
Functioning of CCleaner does not require the AVG Browser, but is only a
trojan delivery provider.
2's day 2/22/22 10:51 AM CST -- General Description of 5G and Its Risks --
2's day 2/22/22 9:56 AM CST -- Audition Scripts --
Employment
for the job of 'air talent' on radio often calls for an audition tape
to demonstrate the speaking skills of applicants. Here at KDX we are in
the process of drafting a special audition script to be read as part of
the audition. At the moment we are gathering select words commonly
subject to abuse by people we hear on other networks and stations.
Here's the list as of this time:
Nuclear
Ask
Pundits
Especially
Everyday
we hear these words mispronounced as 'nucuelar', 'ax', 'pundints' and 'exspeshly'.
KDX, always striving for a standard of excellence.
2's day 2/22/22, 2022 9:52 AM CST -- Dim Duties --
With
mild symptoms of CoronaVirus the Queen is limiting to light duties at
Windsor Castle. This means she will be wearing the tiny crown instead
of the big one.
2's day 2/22/22 6:03 AM CST -- CCleanser, safe for Formica surfaces --
Another
warm one at least part of the day, to be followed by a wintery
mix. It's raining as we start the station this morning, war being
edged toward... good for wealthy weapons investors. Screw the homeless,
buy bombs. And we hear from colleague and associate Boomer who writes:
It hasn't scratched until now. I have tried CCleaner, a decade ago,
when a computer was loading the desktop slowly. I didn't know it
had evolved to adding a browser. Fact checking, I found this
article from 2019:
https://www.randydreammaker.com/2019/08/ccleaner-installs-web-browser-wtf.html
It seems spooky to add a browser without being transparent about
it. It's also possible they're being paid to do so, or trying to
expand their footprint on your system with more features you'll
come to depend on. It also could have a library of code in it that
makes CCleaner work better. If Piriform Ltd doesn't clear up this
issue, how can we know?
I also wonder how it would break Zara's operation, was it that Zara
couldn't connect to the streams you were looking to broadcast? What
about local files, could it play those?
I think it's a good idea for transmitter manufacturer media teams
to attempt to sell to online broadcasters and streamers. Some
stations have talked about doing just that and having a transmitter
as an extra outlet was nice, but I'd think most stations or DJs on
line don't even know about Part-15 possibilities. Maybe an
informational brochure could be sent the websites of online
broadcasters to let them know about the options out there.
- Boomer
In
response, we are not sure exactly what combination of events caused
Zara to fail, which it did by refusing to start. Once we restored Zara
to normal operation we re-installed the upgrades, disposing of the AVG
Safe Browser, and things are fine as we look forward to a day of
snacks, radio, and war watch.
Monday February 21, 2022 10:42 AM CST -- On Holiday --
Today
is a federal holiday in the United States known as 'President's Day',
when we take a day away from our president to rest
from humiliation and embarrassment. It's also a chance for
substantial savings on cars and mattresses.
KDX is streaming
and broadcasting but came close to being downed by computer trouble in
which our essential automation software (Zara) refused to run, setting
us on a frantic scramble to recover. Looking at recent changes to the
operating system we saw that the browser Firefox and utility program
CCleaner had recently updated and a disturbing change was made by
Piriform Ltd, the source of CCleaner, in the form of an
unauthorized installation of Google Chrome Browser. They have tried
this trick before, but at least provided a choice-box for accepting or
denying the move. This time Chrome was snuck in without notice.
Fortunately Zara was brought back to life by reverting to an earlier
point in time.
Holidays always present a programming challenge
as several of our regular hosts enjoy a day off, leaving us to fill the
day with substitutes. Today we'll sample a 90-minute-second show called 'Bird Notes' and bring a performance of Rodion Schedrin's Symphony Number 1.
Sunday February 20, 2022 8:19 AM CST -- Aquatic Sounds --
Saturday February 19, 2022 11:57 AM CST -- Birds on Radio --
Saturday February 19, 2022 11:21 AM CST -- Debt to Society --
Our
KDX Consulting Attorney has asked for blog time to address certain
matters of law. Ladies and gentleman, we give you Stag Pinstripe of
the law firm Pinstripe, Stripmine & Shaft:
ESQUIRE PINSTRIPE: Let
me say thanks to Mister Blare of the Blare Blog for this opportunity.
We've all seen Prince Andrew of the British Royal
Family ridiculed, humiliated and accused over an extended period
of time for alleged behavior dating back to an association with Jeffrey
Epstein. It is worth noting that this ongoing public scourging of the
Prince in itself constitutes a long lasting and unending punitive
treatment that has tarnished his standing and that of British royalty
in general. And we hear of a $7-Million Dollar settlement being made
with an accuser founded solely on an unsubstantiated claim. As a
barrister I would maintain that the Prince's suffering
and distress under the cloud of presumed guilt should be credited to
his indebtedness, as it were, and discount offered for deduction from
his payment to the victim, perhaps to the extent of nullifying the
monetary penalty to an equilibral $0. Or better still, the entire
procedure of handling such cases moving forward should be settled
beforehand by reaching an awards agreement in advance of the offence so
as to discretely avoid ruinous publicity: pay now for crime later. To
make another example, imagine a potential murderer serving first his
20-year prison term, upon which he would be free to murder his intended
victim. It would therefore extend the life of murder victims by decades
and ultimately transfer the possible crime to the victim, who would
become a wanted felon for attempting to escape the fate for which the
voluntarily imprisoned perpetrator had paid fully his debt to society.
In these days when storylines for motion pictures and novels have gone
stale we'd have a whole new genre for the refreshment of entertainment
culture at the exact time when streaming is becoming the favored media
mechanism of our time. I rest my case.
Saturday February 19, 2022 5:57 AM CST -- What More Can We Do --
"We"
are the self-appointed low power radio stations providing 'something'
for strangers within X-number of feet from us. Most of "we" send music
which is more of a boomranging because we like the music and are
essentially sending it to ourselves. My station, KDX, is not primarily
a music station, we predominate in 'talk', and it matters to us what
gets talked about. The incoming discussions, conversations and
commentaries aim largely to inform me, my listener, about the more
important aspects of what other humans are doing out there in the
world, nominally bannered as "news". Given the repetitiveness and
redundancy of most of what gets reported, I often turn it off and dial
elsewhere for other amusements, but I do keep a list of subjects and
topics that I'd like to add to the KDX fare including more about
railroading and birds. As far as looking elsewhere is concerned we
often turn to the Firefox Browser Extension called Wide World Radio, a
streaming radio app that brings in several thousand 'other' stations,
mostly hit music, but a few novel programmers, and I notice that many
of them use made-up call letters resembling FCC call signs but which
are not licensed such as "The Dot" in St. Louis claiming also to be
KSKY and WCAW, playing smooth jazz. I took an interest in "The Dot"
because it's located somewhere in the neighborhood, given that KDX is
practically within sight of the city limits of St. Louis, Missouri,
8-miles from the absurd, useless and unnecessary 'Gateway Arch', a
Federal waste-of-money monument famous for attracting dullards to the
area who have no cultural taste and lack a self-entertainment gene. A
real, licensed KSKY exists in some distant town and no
radio-locater.com listing shows a WCAW. If the part 15 transmitter
manufacturers had sales teams they could add significantly to their
bottom lines by pitching to not only all the streaming stations but
also the thousands of podcasters who could greatly impress themselves
by having an on-the-dial presence. As far as trains and birds are
concerned we have already found a few programs pushing Amtrak and
perhaps today will search for a bird-centered show.
Friday February 18, 2022 9:26 PM CST --
Don't ask too many questions
and you won't get too many answers.
- B.Boatrocker - Proprietor, Snack & Barber Shop
Friday February 18, 2022 9:06 AM CST -- Back from the Looking Glass --
We
have a dresser-top 3-way mirror of the type used for applying makeup.
It is useful also for doing a hair trim every few months so as to pass
for a member of civilization. I happened to set a bottle of honey in
one corner between two of the mirror sections and was able to see four
bottles of honey and got the idea of combining this trick with a 3-D
printer to somehow multiply physical honey inventory given its inflated
price, but I could also see several of myselfs resulting and would hope
to avoid self-replication because each of us would expect honey in our
coffees and thus suffer diminishing gains. And something more came
to mind as I spent awhile considering the physics of mirroring: the
image seen inside the mirror is horizontally flipped on both the X and
Y axis's... or would the word be 'axeez(?)'... the me looking back
at original me has a left-hand opposite my right hand, and my west is
his east. But that's a deception, because those polar flips are only
true if described from my point-of-perception whereas his would make
mine backwords. But even more anti-comprehensible is the fact that the
Z axis remains true on either side of the glass, otherwise the other
guy would be upside down. Come to think of it dreams do the same
thing... they keep all experienced scenarios on a familiar ground-plane
where down is down, which is amazing considering the fact that dreamers
are horizontal at the time. What would happen if we dreamed a mirror?
Thursday February 17, 2022 9:29 AM CST -- MAC Address --
To match MAC Address to a given chipset
Wednesday February 16, 2022 9:46 AM CST --15-Seconds of Reality --
For
comparison we would wonder how these same scientists would describe the
brain's handling of sound. Knowing, as they've said, that our vision is
something of an illusion, what could be said about what we hear? Did I
really hear that? What have you heard?
Wednesday February 16, 2022 5:35 AM CST -- Dream Time 4 A.M. --
I
knew the church service would be dull so I brought plenty of things to
do, perhaps the most disruptive of which was Zenith reverberation
springs which I'd been meaning to test. Other attendees hadn't brought
any pastimes and so had nothing to do but snoop on each other and I
managed to become the center of snoop stage with my busy side-ventures.
Two gentlemen in particular expressed themselves by making faces toward
me and making an amazing array of contortions and distorted looks which I
watched with admiration for the ability to cast disapproval so
strongly yet silently. I was the first out the door followed soon by
the rest of the congregation on our way downtown. Being ahead of
everyone I was able to choose the clearest pathways between mounds
of icy slush covering the sidewalk, giving no room for anyone to move
past me. I walked farther into downtown than ever before and
actually came to the end of downtown which was a solid wall consisting
of smooth plaster with faded beige paint. About 100-feet before
downtown ended was an unmarked door into the best little-known buffet
in town with its nicest looking waitress stationed at the door to
attract businessmen for lunch and this included me since I was there on
business. Sitting at the table with strangers I heard a man and woman
conversing when one of them said something funny and I joined in by
saying "That's funny" but judging from their blank looks my intrusion
wasn't well received. On the way out I had trouble finding a place to
leave my tray so I picked a ledge anywhere while looking around for the
door girl who was in a serving line laughing with co-workers.
Tuesday February 15, 2022 10:14 AM CST -- Circus --
Written by Tom Waits
Monday February 14, 2022 3:26 PM CST -- STOPWATCH SERVICE
Monday February 14, 2022 3:15 PM CST -- Daylight Saving Time Coming Soon --
In less than a month it will be time to spring forward.
Monday February 14, 2022 1:08 PM CST -- FCC Antenna Rule Change Upheld --
Commercial
multi-purpose antennas located in residential neighborhoods now allowed
per an FCC rule change upheld in the D.C. court. Health
considerations of RF transmission in close proximity to living humans
left to other sections of the rules, this change benefiting the
massively lucrative 5G upgrades now under construction. This brings to
mind the creeping incursion of commercial business directly to the
front porch while zoning bans running individual businesses in the home
by residents. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Sunday February 13, 2022 8:44 PM CST -- Blinking and Pondering in a Cloudy Fog --
Been
sitting here all day staring at numbers seen inside the official KDX
internet router which displays MAC addresses and IP addresses for all
the components routed in and out. I don't have to tell you that MAC
abbreviates for Media Access Control, the fixed hardware address of a device being a
unique number intrinsic to that device, and the assigned IP
addresses either being 'static' or assigned by the DHCP Server. Right?
The thing is I can account for three out of the four MAC and IP
addresses living in the LAN. That forth one has me completely
flummoxed. Alright, count on your fingers: one is the computer itself,
the next is the router, the third is a VOIP Device occupying one of the
ethernet ports, but that fourth one is what? It isn't the USB Wi-Fi
Adapter which is not plugged in, but if it were has both types of
addresses. Surely it can't be the trackball (mouse) nor the keyboard.
Time for dinner.
Sunday February 13, 2022 7:18 PM CST -- All in a Day's Work Avoidance --
A
small stack of notes accidentally fluttered to the floor and I picked
them up. That was the work for today, the rest of which is being spent
playing, experimenting, tinkering, napping and snacking. The day's
entertainment came first from the morning schedule here on KDX,
followed soon by part of a free movie on Crackle, and now far off radio
programming from the Worldwide Radio Firefox Extension where one of my
chosen stations is WQXR New York. I've been distantly aware over the
years that WQXR is important to the cultural scene in the Big Apple,
and tonight out of curiousity I looked it up at Radio-Locator and find
it broadcasts with only 600 Watts but from nearly a 2,000 foot
elevation, I'm guessing on top of one of the sky scappers. Now strictly
FM, a check of Wikipedia shows it was, as my memory has it, once also a
historied AM station whose overall history is quite storyfull, having
started as an experimental TV station, later becoming the radio voice
of the New York Times. In fact WQXR-FM is playing right now as I blog,
a program titled 'Calm it Down' with some novel music very different
from anything heard elsewhere.
Saturday February 12, 2020 10:45 AM CST -- B.U.T.T. Update Observations --
The
most recent update to the Stream Encoder B.U.T.T. (Broadcast Using This
Tool) mentions among its new features the ability to show 'Song
Currently Playing' information in OPUS format, previously no title
information was generated by OPUS, which is why KDX streamed in
OGG Mode. However, after trying OPUS all morning we find that although
the B.U.T.T. Operation Window displays song titles as they are added or
updated, no 'Now Playing' information transfers to directory listings,
effectively rendering impotent the OPUS meta data generator. Therefore
KDX abandons OPUS pending any further fixes that might follow from
the B.U.T.T. authors, but rather than returning to OGG as a preferred
stream format, KDX is now webcasting as KDX-MP3 at 40 kbps/44.1 kHz, by
which bandwidth consumption is somewhat lowered.
Friday February 11, 2022 3:57 PM CST -- NEW EMERGENCY TOOLS; CLIMBING CLIMATE CATACLYSMS --
Just yesterday I was thinking that The Blog hasn't talked with Bill Baker in awhile. In comes this message!
Carl
Here are a few stories from The
Source newsletter that might interest
you:
Untrue:
"The only decent radio receivers are in cars.”
The Source reviews Midland's latest AM-FM-NWS receiver and
finds it worthy. Information Station Specialists to offer
discounts.
US
Weather Fatalities Double in 2021
More extreme events translate into more mitigation & response. But
not every state is warmer.
Nor’easter
Knocks Out Power and Cellular
Communities turn to tried and true when power and communications
are compromised. What works when the rest
doesn’t?
Let me
know your thoughts, when you have time. Your feedback is
always welcome.
Thanks.
Bill Baker
Information Station Specialists
theRADIOsource.com
Friday February 11, 2022 1:08 PM CST -- The Return of Artisan Radio is Nigh --
Noticing
that Artisan Radio Website was missing for a few days, we inquired and
learned that Artisan is coming back online very soon following
technical issues.
Friday February 11, 2022 8:01 AM CST -- Poorly Rated Dream followed by Silly Reality --
There
is nothing more restful after a long radio day than surrendering to the
horizontal pillow-top realm of dreams most of which are never recalled.
Then around 3 in the wee hours I'd been handed the commission of
providing a radio program by remote for which the former employer had
sent a tiny mixer, set of headphones, three vinyl record albums, one
turntable and a microphone. The only furniture I had on hand was a
large bed where everything got covered by piles of blankets and sheets
and I realized there was no clock nor audio contact with the station,
so I had no idea when to start my show. Having now lost the headphones
I fished around under the bedding until I was able to retrieve them,
brought them over my head onto the ears where I heard what seemed like
a dead carrier. I guessed that I was already late and began speaking on
mic while simultaneously removing a disc from its shuck, placing it on
the turntable and reading title information from the album jacket.
The music played through quickly and I again was speaking live
with nothing in my head but call letters and a few album notes as I
readied the second disc. This went on all the way to the point
where the third record was about to finish with no other program
material available, and I was sure we were sounding badly and the
station would be unhappy with my work. By luck I awakened and the time
was 3:30 although it took awhile to overcome the feeling that I
needed to come up with fill material for remaining air time, but
eventually realized I was off the hook being no longer asleep.
Despite
the very early hour I was in no hurry to re-enter what at that moment
would possibly be more frustrated dreaming so decided to prepare coffee
and watch YouTube tutorials about Windows 7 audio, which had caused a
perplexing evening a few hours earlier, and everything I watched was
spoken by speed readers or mumblers. An hour of this and I knew all too
well how both waking and dreaming were equally absurd states and
realized the only other choice would take its turn soon enough where
things might pick up in the fabled theme park nominally known as
'heaven', although that seems like it could get old very fast and the
claim that it will persist forever seems like an overly cynical threat.
The negative spell was broken by happening upon a historic
documentary about a local AM station's great hayday in the early 60's
when teeny-boppers became frantically over-excited by top 40 dee-jays,
many of whom were personal friends of mine at the time. The film was
well produced but had its own downside when it became clear that
virtually every personality showcased from those days was now deceased.
I had to wonder how they'd all feel about KDX if they were here to take
the tour.
Thursday February 10, 2022 9:51 AM CST -- Yes, the Car Has a Radio, But There's a Problem --
Thursday February 10, 2022 7:17 AM CST -- The Burning Temperature of Paper --
The
late and popular author Ray Bradbury wrote beautifully about possible
worlds and possible futures, including one in which fire departments
start fires instead of putting them out. The point of these fires is to
rid the world of books, a criminalized competitor of the bland
television culture of that dystopian time. Along with many other
Bradbury works 'Farenheit 451' has been twice produced in movie form
and here linked as a radio drama.
Wednesday February 9, 2022 10:42 AM CST -- Nothing In the Way of Unfounded Rumors --
Sitting
idly at the KDX News Desk, more of a TV tray really, this is Carl
Blare thinking about all the honking and fuss at the Freedom Convoys in
Canada, carried out by trucks and their drivers, or, drivers and their
trucks. You'd think there'd by other transportation vehicles pulled
into the convoy, such as, say, freight trains. You'd suppose that many
engineers and train conductors must also be hot under the collar about
vaccine mandates and crowd Canadian tracks with mile-long trains
blasting their horns and clanging bells, yet there are no unfounded
rumors to that effect. Or, that affect, as it were.
Wednesday February 9, 2022 10:19 AM CST -- There's More to Things Than We Knew About --
To
learn about the various radio transmitters and technologies we explore
as part of our daily work as operators of numerous low power radio
stations we have depended on whatever product web sites tell us
together with YouTube tutorial and package opening videos, while little
to our awareness there are various text-based product reviews found by
entering certain words in the browser search box. For example a product
name plus the word 'reviews' have brought up a wealth of such
heretofore unknown reports. Our first venture into this new territory
brought a scathing review of the Audioengine B-Fi 2.4 GHz
Device giving a very poor recommendation, and a second result
praising and speaking highly of the same device. It's getting to where
a person could spend whole days rummaging through what the internet has
to offer.
Wednesday February 9, 2022 7:05 AM CST -- Update the BUTT --
The highly popular B.U.T.T. (Broadcast Using This Tool) Stream Encoder has an update available.
Tuesday February 8, 2022 4:28 PM CST -- Firm Endorsement for Wi-Fi Audio Product --
Much
of this winter has been spent testing and evaluating our TP-Wireless
TP-WT02 Wi-Fi Audio Transmitter & Receiver equipment serving the
vital task of transporting our radio program audio from the computer
work desk out to the far side of a back room where the audio feeds our
AM and FM transmitters for reception inside and outside of the Internet
Building and its campus. The TP-Wireless was a backup system until our
previous Wi-Fi wireless device, no longer replaceable, went on the blink
possibly blown out by nearby lightning. At the outset of the current
testing we blogged about what we suspected to be jitter distortion in
the low frequency region of the audio spectrum perhaps produced by the
TP-Wireless DAC (Digital Audio Converter), learning in further tests
that the distortion seemed to be inter-modulation distortion generated
when two different audio frequencies were being reproduced together at
the same time. Stepping through our experience, we noted that when the
transmitted volume level was '28' the entire audio distorted, when set
to '27' the audio sounded excellent except for the
jitter/inter-modulation distortion just described, and a new test finds
that set to '26' the signal is completely free of all distortion,
certainly a welcome outcome. The modulation method of this all digital
transmitter is GFSK. Because of this happy result we plan to order a
second transmitter of the same kind to hold in reserve as the official
backup. Meanwhile we continue integration of another Wi-Fi audio
transmission system we've blogged about: the Audio Engine B-Fi, which
utilizes a USB Wi-Fi Adapter as its transmission source.
Tuesday February 8, 2022 11:33 AM CST -- Editorial Comment by Complete Stranger --
A
guy knocked on the door during the height of the recent snow storm and
asked to make an editorial commentary for the radio audience. Not
knowing any better, Flotilla let him in:
Hello listening people. I think I figured it out.
How come the extreme right wing Trump supporters
are as stupid as door stops?
I'll bet you it's because they misheard the word 'democracy' and think it's 'dumbocracy'.
- Editorial remarks by Dab Crusty, complete stranger
Tuesday February 8, 2022 9:40 AM CST -- Pleasure Button --
This
link is not being provided by The Blare Blog to titillate our readers.
Not at all. We have sincere and serious cautions to be discussed right
after the link:
Here's
what the article didn't reference. Past scientific experiments have
found that lab mice will continue to press a pleasure button until they
starve and shrivel to death. There is such a thing as too much fun.
Tuesday February 8, 2022 6:58 AM CST -- Tybee Island Under Threat --
Tybee
Island, Georgia, is the home of longtime friend and colleague Rich
Powers and End80 Radio, and has come under threat from rising sea
levels.
Tuesday February 8, 2022 5:07 AM CST -- Dreams Upon Awakening --
Piecing
together the spurious thoughts from years of experience-avoidance and
randomly wandering the web I've come up with an idea for improving man's
physical condition in these modern days where an abundance of
convenience makes us soft and flabby. For one thing I read somewhere
that our species of beast, we humans, originally evolved to set out
hunting even on cold winter mornings and suffer now for the handiness
of food supermarkets in known locations. So, imagine if supermarkets moved
around to undisclosed perhaps even hidden locations so we'd be tasked
with finding them by climbing through rough terrain and even once found
these supermarkets would contain fish ponds stocked with whatever we'd
happen to catch after sitting for hours with pole and hook and the meat
department would require our felling and butchering livestock right
in the store. It would keep us in great shape although interest in
sports television would certainly wane.
The morning is being
helped along by piddling banter and classical music from WQXR in New
York via the Worldwide Radio Firefox Extension. The idea of a classical
morning program is to sound well informed on music lore without
sounding too gay.
More productive is this story from John F.
Becky's excellent Bruckner website telling of how he came upon an
unusual organ version of a movement from Bruckner's First Symphony.
This site has been bringing monthly downloads of Bruckner performances
for years and is a treat to explore.
Sunday February 6, 2022 6:37 PM CST -- Checkup from the Neck Up --
Test Description: This is a short term memory test.
Test Question: What kind of a test is this?
Sunday February 6, 2022 10:10 AM CST -- Might Be Good Radio Series --
Friday February 4, 2022 9:42 AM CST -- It Depends What You Mean by 'Users' --
At
the grocery store a lady with a clipboard approached with a petition to
get recreational marijuana on the ballot and I quipped, "Ah, users!"
We've all known users. Even during the height of the drug war I knew
school teachers, attorneys, cops and a judge who were users. But that's
not what I thought about when setting up our radio station's router
configuration. The settings ask whether the DHCP Server should be
turned on. The answer would be 'no' in the case of devices with
assigned IP addresses and those include the router itself and any
computers attached to the router to which I personally give specific IP
addresses. But any further devices added to the router with no ascribed
IP address will depend on the DHCP to automatically assign them one.
One other setting is 'Number of Users'. I'm very logical and knew
immediately the router does not need to know how many smokers use the
keyboard, but a given computer might have several users in the sense of
'using the computer'. The router gives itself the default number of '50
users', and with critical thought sound asleep I figured the router was
as good a guesser as anyone. Then all hell ensued, as the DHCP changed
the IP address of the main computer, putting the Blog, website and
radio station offline and off the air. After four forensic days
critical thought sprung into wokefulness and we came to know that the
Cisco Kid router considered computers to be users, and had no thought
of keyboard operators or tokers. Another one-inch of smarts was
attained, website et al came back and I know how I'll vote when that
ballot comes up.
Friday February 4, 2022 8:23 AM CST -- KDX-TV on the Back Burner --
No
doubt TV could burn you back or burn your back, but we're talking about
putting an idea on the proverbial "back burner", as though on a stove.
We have a KDX-TV page, by the way, and a channel 14 micro-transmitter
which cannot be used because of FCC forbidance. Is that a word?
Forbidation? They poo poo part 15 TV. Anyway, we fancy perhaps
streaming a video channel showing trainsets moving on track layouts,
songbirds eating seed at a feeder, mowing grass with a Brill German
made manual mower, and a new idea - showing dancing spectrum graphs of
our Wi-Fi radio relay digital audio signal. It looks like a jello
mountain during an earthquake. We actually have an NTSC production
setup that hasn't been turned on since analog TV shut down and Dave
Letterman retired, so we'd probably want something more modern but
haven't kept up with video technology and I'm not sure what they call
it now nor the equipment needed to do it. We could probably put moving
pictures right here in The Blog like other websites do. Oh, and uh, a
dashboard cam driving through town. Another low power idea.
Friday February 4, 2022 7:48 AM CST -- Traffic On an Empty Road --
Last
night we set the radio to KHZ the Time Radio Station so we could know
what minute it was at any point during the night.
Tick_Tick_Tick_Tick_Tick_"The time is zero-hours zero-minutes,
Universal Time"_Tick_Tick_Tick.
It was past midnight when we began
noticing disturbances in the signal as if someone or some thing was
moving around in the 2.4 GHz signal path between our control desk and
transmitter wall, a 35-foot pathway passing through a doorway within
the Internet Building, home of KDX Worldround Radio, sister station
KHZ, and Carl Blare, hobbyist-entrepreneur and author of this Blog.
Except that, no physical person nor pet was known to be anywhere in the
building other than me myself, removed as I was in a different room.
The anomalies continued with BLUP_FISHT_BZZT_and the occasional PRSSSD,
but I was too comfy cozy to get up and check the spectrum analyzer to
see what Wi-Fi evidence might show. The best I could do was imagine
that some neighbor nearby was operating late night microwave equipment
that was bumping our 2477 GigaHerz link frequency. Or, maybe an overly
large bear was exploring the grounds on the outside of the west wall
causing reflections. Another idea would of course be ghostly entities
roaming the darker corners the way apparitions have always done. Sleep
took over and nothing more was noticed until morning when I decided to
say nothing but changed my mind.
Thursday February 3, 2022 8:45 PM CST -- The Benefits of Vitamin D3 --
Thursday February 3, 2022 6:31 PM CST -- Where We've Been --
This
website has been offline for a few days owing to a self-inflicted code
error that wasn't easy to find, but we had the free time to devote to
it while a heavy-duty winter storm loaded North America with snow and
ice. As of this hour our portion of the worst weather has ended with
two more days of frigid temperatures, than a weekend thaw. The day
before the storm we spent a 60o afternoon hacking bamboo
trees to prevent their loading with ice and snow and slumping onto the
electric wires which could have resulted in a power outage. One must
admire the survival intelligence of bamboo, which technically is
35-foot grass and not actually a tree. Because a weight buildup of icy
snow could cause them to crack, they relax all the way down to the
ground and sprawl over everything until the weight-load melts off upon
which they spring back to vertical.
Wednesday February 2, 2022 12:50 NOON CST -- Putting In an 8-Hour Day --
Tuesday February 1, 2022 4:38 PM CST -- Mega Bolts --
