Category: Amateur Radio
September 14, 2005
MegaSound VRCD300-USB Update -- Again
A couple of updates, this time. First, because my commute is only about 35-40 minutes long I have been normally only burning Audio CDs (to the Ultra Speed CD-RWs, so it's a fast burn). This means I can burn directly from iTunes and the unit can read the disks fine.
But wait, you ask, why don't you burn an MP3 CD from iTunes? Wouldn't that be even faster? Well, yes, for the burn part it would be faster. And I did try that -- a couple of times. Unfortunately, the VRCD300-USB doesn't seem to want to read MP3 disks burned by iTunes 5.0. I don't know what it could be doing wrong. The unit reads the same content fine when it's burned with other software.
On another update, I want to take back some of what I said about the radio reception until the solar flare issues completely go away. This article at Discovery Channel explains that the last week has had one of the worst solar flare events in a couple of decades.
A rowdy sunspot cluster hurled a record-breaking flare into space on Wednesday, blacking out all high- and low-frequency radio communications on both American continents, causing power surges, blinding satellites and lighting up aurorae, and more trouble is likely on the way, say experts.
Given my tests were during this period, I don't want to knock the radio for the wrong reasons. I'll pick this up again in a couple of weeks. This is one of those things I would know if I kept on my amateur radio news. *sigh*
Shane Conder's Whateveritis of Nothing: More Info on the MegaSound VRCD300-USB
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(1)September 7, 2005
A Perspective from Within: Katrina from a Ham
I recently have listened to a couple of episodes of Trailcast, a relatively new podcast about hiking (thanks to Laurie for pointing out the podcast). Bob has had some great people on for interviews. As it turns out, he lives amidst the disaster area from Katrina. Also interesting is that he is a ham. In a reponse to a recent post by Laurie, he sent this, which I found to be very interesting (edited slightly):
[snip] [...] I have been working as a volunteer HAM radio operator for the local chapter of the Red Cross. I have been doing this since Katrina made landfall, and have not had access to the Internet. I feel touched by the emails asking about my situation, and offering their sympathies. The media seems to be offering a relatively accurate description of what is happening in the disaster area-- looting, violence and utter pandemonium. However, the volunteer efforts by the citizens of Baton Rouge have inspired me and made me feel proud to live in this town. [snip] I have been bouncing back and fourth between shelters making sure they are staffed with local HAM radio operators and making sure they have the equipment and resources they need to keep communications open. Believe it or not, HAM radio communications are still being used as a reliable (if not primary) communication channel between most shelters, the Red Cross local chapter and the National Chapter command center. Land line and wireless service is being restored. This is NOT a statement in anyway about the quality of repair efforts, which have been miraculous, IMHO-- This is just a description of life at my end of the radio. I will have more information and am thinking about making a Podcast about what I have been observing since Katrina made landfall. Trailcast will be back in swing soon.
I've been lightly following the communications events of Katrina within the amateur radio world. A lot of emergency communication has been taking place there. The media appears to be completely deaf to it, though. On NPR the other day, they had someone on talking about it and the only real mention was that even the officials could not communicate because their own towers were down. Well, the military is better at communications than that. So are hams. Many hams I know are or can easily be self sufficient for electricity and other needs for communications. Certainly there are not enough amateurs to provide full communications services -- especially since many, if not all, have their own hurricane recovery issues to worry about. However, in various forums and newsgroups there are stories about hams heading down that way to help with the communication -- sometimes even being on the fringe can be helpful because it can provide valuable repeating service and other such things.
In any case, between this and the lack of media coverage of any sort of amateur radio related activities (which nearly always go on during an emergency) I had to post something about it. Maybe someone will now know that which the media is not reporting. (And yeah, I'm also fairly positive there are plenty of other volunteer activities by groups and especially individuals that are not noticed or reported on.)
March 5, 2004
Powerline Broadband vs Amateur Radio
Ham radio cool to Internet via power lines - (United Press International)
This is just bad. I've read some about this in the ARRL journal and certainly there is the potential for big problems. Power lines are often not shielded and thus stuff at other frequency will just float away on massive antennas. It doesn't take much to raise the noise floor for a lot of communication to beyond the point of usefulness...
I'll have to read more about this now that it's actually launched somewhere...
