Thoughts from the owner of Livecbradio.com + Updates concerning the Web Site & Projects
LIVECBRADIO.com REBORN - NEW LIVE FEEDS! June 19 2010 - Update: The New Live 2 Meter Radio Feed is now on. This project was put on the back burner because of the failures of the last scanner purchased. I jut picked up a new 200 channel scanner that looks to be doign the job nicely. LIVE STORM CHASERS - LIVE SKYWARN WEATHER RADIO
MORE LIVE FEEDS COING SOON - Thinking about a channel 11 cb radio feed. Maybe Live Nebraska State Pen, Live Downtown Jail as well as The Funny Farm. I have also had requests for School Bus Live Audio. I'll see what I can do. I may just do the extra channel cb feed and the prisons on seperate feeds, and then have a scanner just for a general mix of things. Like School Bus Drivers, Dog Catchers, UNL Police, Security, State Capital Security etc.
COMING SOON! - Now Go Check out the Live Storm Watch Scanner LIVE.
Computer Network Router Interference to HF Amateur Radio Part II - I've learned a bit more about what causes these little buggers cause interference to HF. It seems to be in many cases, the "Wall Wart" power pack. Most generally it's the 6-9 volt variety with the short 3-4 feet cord, instead of the more bulky plugs with a longer cord. After connecting the router to a regulated variable supply to power it, the interference was gone.
It was a matter of finding a better quality ac adapter of the same voltage.
1, Check voltage and polarity of offending power adapter. Find another power adapter of the same voltage (tested) with the same polarity as the one you are replacing. Meaning, the positive and negative leads match up on the replacement cord. Use a volt meter to check polarity.
I thought I was done with problems like these until I picked up a new router. I am not saying the power pack on the power cord is always going to be the offender. It was in my case. WIth more bulky better quality wall warts on both my lan ethernet router, as well as my wireless router, I am interference free on all bands HF.
March 15, 2010 - "Southern Fried Grits" - Rest in Peace - One of my heroes in the world of Amateur Radio has passed. Danny, KC6SFG - "Kentucky Chicken Six, Southern Fried Grits". Sometimes "San Francisco Gambler". Most active on 20 meter daytime. Also a cber from the old school turned ham.
I am a shortwave listener. I don't talk on cb or ham radio. I listen to my favorite frequencies on 20 meters during the day, as well as my favorite 80 meter frequencies at night. Since most of my work is done at my desk, listening to these people has been part of my routine for years. I just found out KC6SFG has passed, it has me crushed.
Southern Fried Grits was a funny man. A real character. The type of person that still makes you laugh on your most blue mondays. He had this silly laugh and way of putting things that brightened up everyone's day. I remember one time he started laughing while talking on his radio. He laughed for five minutes straight with his microphone keyed up. Most of his peers are very stern and professional ham operators, but, he was never looked down upon by his close peers for doing such. His antics were a breath of fresh air in a stuffy environment, welcomed by the most civilized people. His jokes, laughter and way of putting things entertained many people. Even though his happy conduct attracted some negative attention, I never once heard the man use name calling to fend off the attacks. This guy was true true gentleman that could take it all, without dishing it back beyond gentlemen's agreements.
KC6SFG may have not been the W2ONV of ham radio, BUT, he will be missed just as much as any other iconic figure that has become a silent key. He made people smile and laugh that never smile or laugh. He was not just a funny man. He had a unique way of breaking down concepts in a simple manner, that touched your heart in a big way.
A Chilling End to an Iconic Figure in my Life: About a week ago SFG was having a argumentative discussion with another ham radio operator. The other ham was accusing SFG of not taking the hobby serious enough. During the spat, the other ham was saying people should not fight because they would "take the hate to the grave". Southern Fried Grits did not take it to the grave. He let it slide and kept making people smile up to the last minute he was gone. Now that he is gone, a calm has come over the frequency he operated on. I bet the person that put him down wishes he was back. There is nobody left there to make us smile like old Danny did. I have been a faithful daily SWL of this group for years. Nobody is left to make us all smile like our beloved Southern Fried Grits.
We Love you KC6SFG! You will be missed so much. We are sad that you are gone. Nobody can come along and replace what you gave us. Our days will be less happy now that you are gone. Rest in Peace Danny, KC6SFG.
Computer Interference to Radio Receivers Dec 22 , 2009
Livecbradio.com uses a 4 Port Ethernet Router to supply internet to the four computers that run the entire operation. Two "Server" & Two Workstations. Yesterday the router stopped working. No worries, it's run like a champ 24/7 for over a year. It was only $15. Off I went to the computer store to buy a "Zonet 4 port ethernet router". $25. BIG Mistake. The moment I plugged it in I hear the noise level jump to S9 on the HF receiver. Turns out, this router throws a S9 dirty noise level from the 20-160m amateur radio bands. This is tragic.
The cheap 4 port router I was using before was a cheap "AirNet AER014" Model broadband router. I have found this model is discontinued, although AirNet has a replacement model.
UPDATE: A Linksys "Etherfast" Router has cured the problem. It causes no or very little noise to my General Coverage HF Receiver.
I am starting a list of known Computer Ethernet Routers that have been proven to Interfere with HF Radio reception.
1: Zonet Cable/DSL Broadband 4 Port Router
2: Some LinkSys
Routers (Likely Wireless)
NOTE: We are talking Ethernet Routers here, NOT Wireless Routers. Pretty serious I think. I have a new router, but, now I can't hear anything on HF Ham Radio. It will be 72 hours at least before I can get an AirNet router that is friendly to HF radio reception. Just when you think you are done with all the RFI / EMI interference issues, they creep back in to your hobbies. : )
Silent Key May 12 , 2009
I received the letter below by email. Please pay your respects accordingly.
To all:
Today, during radio communication with Lou (547), Windsor, Ontario, Canada and yesterday, with Tom (549) it was learned that Larry, 8452 Locally and Radio Canada 240 Internationally, has passed away a few months ago, from unknown causes.
I wish to express my sincere heart felt feelings. Larry was a Good Man and knew a lot about radios and antennas. He even manufactured his own version of the Very Popular Gizmotchy Antenna. He was very Popular on the Radio. (27.3850 Mhz, LSB) He was a very Good DX-er!
He will be missed
73's God Bless!
225/Greg
Livecbradio.com HF Antenna Improvements April 7 , 2009
I am proud to say the livecbradio.com HF Ham Radio Antenna has taken a giant leap in reception. As I have said in the past, if you don't like the way an antenna works, move it. The antenna is a 75 long foot dipole fed by 450ohm ladder line. It's a commercial antenna called the Spi-ro AS-2. Look it up. I have it hung as a horizontal sloper. The feed point is up about 40 feet with each end sloping in opposite directions down to a 20 foot level.
One of the biggest disadvantages i thought this antenna had was reception of California. While carrying groceries in I asked my XYL, "where is California?". She then pointed towards the west and said "Northern, Central or Southern?". We went inside, busted out the map and compared our location vs, California and then the direction the wires are pointing. We then concluded that we needed to move one wire as far to one direction in the back yard possible.
A clever home brew antenna wire hanging method : Get a small plastic clothes hanger. Cut a chunk out of it so it will act as a partially open hook. Now tie your rope insulator to one of the ends of the plastic hook. Now tape the plastic hook to the end of a pole so it will come free with a slight yank. Put the pole in the air up to the perfect tree branch, hook the hanger on the branch so it closes around the branch. It's kind of like the key chain hoop principle. When it's hooked and supported by the branch, give the pole a yank and break that tape loose. The tape of course loose enough so it comes off without pulling down the antenna. If it does come down, it will be back up un 1 minute with another piece of tape. The 40mph winds the other day did not drag it down so I am fairly confident.
Yes, reception to California improved a bit. Reception to everywhere improved. Moving the feed line likely helped. I witnessed the first ever 40 over signals to come in on this radio on 80 meters. On 20 meter Amateur Radio I was receiving an Italian station at 9. When I get some more rope I will be doing the same to the other leg of the antenna.
The New Live 2 Meter Radio Scanner March 31 , 2009
I tell you what man. Them danged old AC power police scanners man, they go buzz buzz buzz all up on that audio line man.
AC Items that plug in the wall and computers do not mix. I picked up a cheap deal on an old radio shack scanner to handle the new live storm chasers feed. This scanner plugs directly to the wall. No wall wart power pack, just a straight AC line to the wall. Old school. I plug it in the test computer. BZZZZ! OK we have a serious AC hum. OK you want to play these games, I put attenuation and isolation on the audio line. After some of my best soldering ever the scanner then had internal isolation. I go to plug it in again, hum is still there. Darn. Thinking the whole project was foiled I decided on one last ditch effort. I grabbed a simple alligator clips jumper and put one end on the internal ground of the scanner and one to the back side of the test computer. Blamo, the nasty hum goes away. Well, 99% of it anyway. It's still a little dirty. I should have known better than to get an AC unit, but, I only needed a scanner with not so many channels.
Let your ear be the judge, it's online. There are women on there talking on two meters.
Speaking of new stuff. As a point of demonstration I have something on the front page about coming soon. I've been toying with some new ideas for more live radios. One of them is "Live Prison Guard radio". I have full signal on the Nebraska State Prison. I have never heard anything interesting on there, but, someone emailed me and claimed they want to hear it. Quite some time back I also had someone request to hear school bus radios. So, the most logical thing to do would be to make a miscellaneous live stuff feed. A scanner monitoring The Prison, The Jail, School Busses, Taxi, Security and more. These are usually frequencies that get used all day, but, the action is few and far between. Scanning all of these agencies at once may prove to be interesting to some.
MORE MORE MORE! WE NEED MORE!
Criteria:
People have to want to hear it.
It has to be legal.
NEW LIVE 2 METER RADIO / STORM CHASERS AUDIO! March 24 , 2009
Within a Week livecbradio.com's NEW 2 Meter Ham Radio Streaming Audio will be online. Yes, this is where many "Storm Chasers" operate. Brave Volunteers go out and observe (chase) severe weather and report back via Amateur Radio. It's not uncommon to hear actual fear in the voices of the operators as they literally put themselves in a certain amount of danger. Hearing their vehicles bombarded by heavy hail while they are keying up their microphones, brings some of this excitement to you. LIVE!
I went to ebay and bought a scanner that will do the job. I have already made the page for this. It will all go live the moment the scanner arrives. The antenna will be ground level for a while. I'll likely throw together a wire dipole for a simple antenna. This should not be a problem as ground level here is 50 feet higher than many areas of the city.
A short glimpse at the nerve center of livecbradio.com. Unlike most people, most of my computers face end side forward. Here we have the two main computers running the show side by side. This is the unmanned desk in my shack without a chair. This is where all that audio is fed to the internet. This is a poor man's multimedia and web server. Mind you this little setup handles some pretty heavy industry of internet traffic. Nearly 30,000 web pages are loaded a month from this contraption. Over 10,000 people each month world wide connect to these boxes. On average, there are usually 25 plus people at a time listening to the various receivers.
A couple times a week I back up all information on these machines in case they blow up. Livecbradio.com has been running 100% duty cycle for the last 4+ years with very little down time.
Notice the black box next to the first machine. That is the CRF Electronics Designed, Livecbradio.com built PTT Interface Unit. There is a PCB Board in there. one end plugs in to the keyboard serial connection on the computer. There are terminals on this box that come off the relay inside. When someone on livecbradio presses PTT in the talk program that sends two volts down the line to the box. That 2V is converted to 5V which is enough to run a relay. It all happens in less than a second. This box has to be plugged in via a walwart for livecbradio to run.
There are currently 6 sound cards in service. Soon to be 7 or 8. The Video for the Ham Radio page is handled off camera via my personal workstation.
Notice the Police Scanner clipped directly to the back of the computer. The radio on top of the first machine handles the Aircraft page. I have been very lucky to not have computer noise disturb the various radios.
There are over 20 electrical devices that need to be plugged in constantly for the operation to run.
Learn Something New Every Day (Cobra vs. Uniden) March 19 , 2009
Here is a quote from some Ham Operator that was correcting someone as confused as I was about Cobra and Uniden CB Radios.
" Cobra is an American owned electronics marketing company (NASDAQ symbol COBR).
Cobra subcontracts their product ideas out to be developed by Electronic
development / manufacturing companies! Uniden is a Japanese electronic marketing company and is one of Cobras competitors! "
Imagine that. All them years many of us thought Cobra and Uniden were DIRECTLY the same thing. At least I did.
Livecbradio Slow but Steady Evolution March 13 , 2009
Good news. I was able to get a hold of a couple more much needed computers. First I ran out of PCI slots for sound cards. Then it was more memory. Now it's too many usb devices on single machine causing video to crash. This was then fixed by placing the video on another workstation. Finally, I am close to building the wall of computers I need to handle livecbradio.com's current and future needs. Livecbradio needs at least 4 machines plus my workstation, my wife's workstation and my 3 year old kid's work station.
I have a vision. One machine solely for web server. Another machine to handle the police scanner, aircraft scanner and future ? scanner. Another machine for the HF and Channel 6 audio and a final machine solely for the livecbradio. On top of that, livecbradio.com should strive to separate the livecbradio talk program from the web page audio as they both use the same cb radio (cobra 148). When its all said and done I think it will be more like 5 computers.
To give you an idea of the hardware workload, a P4 2000 with a gig of ram gets pretty slow with 4 radios and video running on it. I need at least 3 of these or a couple P4 and a few P3. Not counting what will be needed for more future projects. I have a beautiful view of the sky and landscape on top of my roof. Being on a huge hill, being on my roof allows a view for miles above all the trees. I would like to set up one of those security cameras that is internet web page adjustable. (movement and focus). If that could some how be reverse engineered to fit a wide angle tele-lense, it would make a great online observatory that people on the web could control. This view of the sky is often crowded with aircraft.
I never stop working to make livecbradio.com better and more interactive. It's a slow evolution, but, it's continuous. Stay Tuned.
Live Video ON THE AIR March 11 , 2009
Live Video of the display of the Ham Radio is back on. I'm now streaming the video from my workstation via a USB extension cord. Problem solved. As i suspected, the other electronics no longer crash the camera.
In my experience the S Meter was virtually in sync with the receive audio. Now with the video streaming on another machine, the S-Meter Seems to be 1300 milliseconds ahead of the receive audio. I will be testing this out of sync time from a few different connections. If they are nearly the same results, I may be able to trim the video closer in sync with the audio by adjusting the buffer on the encoder. Even with a 1.5 second mismatch I feel it's still a worthy appliance.
Now, back to improving the Ham Radio Antenna. The antenna is very weak on reception compared to the other receivers online.
Foiled Again - Live Video Radios back on Back Burner March 9 , 2009
The "Live Video" Project went off without a hitch. That is until someone keyed up the livecbradio station. The plan was to put a camera on the livecbradio ham radio. This was for the "Live Ham Radio" page. Listeners could watch the liquid crystal display of the radio in real time as they listed. This was pretty cool. The S-Meter of the Ham Radio was in sync with the audio allowing real time signal meter action. This also obviously made everyone aware of what frequency the ham radio was on. It was awesome. That is until I found that stray RF on the computer was crashing the camera. This has something to do with livecbradio's cb radio also being plugged in to the pc via serial connection. The radios are all isolated, but, rf is making it's way on the serial line and not through the audio lines.
Bummer. The whole "cameras on the radios" idea is off until I isolate the problem by putting each radio on it's own separate computer. At the very least one more computer solely for the ham radio side of livecbradio.com.
I can not stress enough how great this was. It was amazing to watch the radio's S meter perfectly in sync with the audio over the web. The camera was of course focused directly on the display portion of the Icom Ham Radio. The video of the display directly above the audio player on the web page.
I'm not done yet. I already have another PC on standby to get this job done. This will be a good thing. This will also free up some space on the main machine for perhaps another radio when the Icom get it's own computer.
Stay Tuned. My work is never finished. The not so distant goal being live video of the cb radio as well as the ham radio.
Livecbradio.com Goes Live Video FEB 23 , 2009
Livecbradio.com is going video. What is the next best thing to web software controlled radio receivers? A live web cam sitting in front of the radio.
Everyone wants to know what frequency or channel the radios are on. This solves that problem and adds a bit of realism to the listening experience.
1: Experimental Screen shot Video on the "Live CB Radio" page. There is now full time live video on the live cb radio page's media player. What you are viewing is a live view of the livecbradio talk program as seen on the livecbradio server. This will show you everyone connected to the livecbradio. The people in the livecbradio talk program are using the same radio that is also on the "Live CB Radio" web page. (cobra 148).
This will also provide web users and those on the talk program the answer to the all important question, "What channel are we on?". When the radio is under control, the channel will automatically be updated to the list of names on the livecbradio talk program. (voiperized).
2: COMING SOON! Live Video of the "Live Ham Radio" Receiver. Like the live cb radio page setup, the ham radio page will also have a video window above the media player. In this window will be live video of the face of the radio. Likely the camera will be positioned so the main focus is the entire lighted liquid crystal display. This will reveal the frequency, mode and signal meter. The signal meter would be a rough estimate at best due to the delay of streaming video.
So far the video on the live cb radio page seems to be holding stable. Hopefully the ham radio cam will run as smooth. Like everything on livecbradio.com, it has to run 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
Bandwidth: All livecbradio.com's internet capability comes from a computer sitting here in my family home. The internet connection running all of this is a basic cable connection. Livecbradio.com is finally running out of bandwidth. Sometimes there are over 50 people on the web site listening to radios or connected to the livecbradio talk program. This is slowing things down big time. The computer running this show looks like something from Robot Chicken. Four sound cards, wires coming out of it everywhere and enough heat to stay warm in the winter. I am surprised it has not caught on fire. It's becoming pretty obvious that if I do not upgrade the equipment and connection this whole place is going to grind to a stop.
I ordered another gig of RAM when I ordered the camera for the ham radio. Hopefully that will help with the occasional low response times on the pages. I also had to downgrade the quality of audio on the encoders to cope with the rising number of streaming audio listeners on the web site.
The Solution? I fear I may have to get another cable connection and another modem. The last time I checked there are no higher tiers on Road Runner Cable. Now road runner is smoking fast, but, 40+ people listening to the radios at a time is seriously taxing it. What about a business tier on DSL? I had trouble with this in the past. At the time it was horribly unreliable. A second cable connection would sort this problem as long as it doubles the current bandwidth. Sceenshot video does not take a lot of bandwidth, but, if visitor trends continue that second connection will be mandatory.
Hardware: I see a vision of 3 computers handling all of this. 2 machines running all the audio and video and a separate lone machine for the web server. I find myself in a situation where 4 computers in my home is not enough.
Why not farm out for media hosting? I would still have to use my bandwidth sending the streaming audio to someone else so they can send it out the same way. Pointless. It's like mailing a letter to someone and paying them to mail that same letter somewhere else.
More Problems: I just discovered a small problem yesterday. The livecbradio media server is out of PCI slots. This new 2-3 computer system will have to be implemented before the "Live Superbowl 27.025" page can go completely live. Currently the superbowl page is sharing the radio with the "Live CB Radio" Page, The superbowl page went live, but is hanging off the back burner because long distance radio reception is scarce at the moment. When these conditions happen, I do my best to tune the shared radio to channel 6 a fair amount of time. Another computer is now mandatory to get the channel 6 receiver up and running full time.
The Future: It would be nice to double the amount of live receivers on this site. There are other services that could be put online. The Prison, The Funny Farm, Taxi Service, FRS Radio, etc. Which reminds me, I had an email once asking if we could listen to school buses. I found that a bit strange, but, the capability is there. Perhaps a live scanner feed solely for miscellaneous things like that all in one.
At any rate, it's all coming sometime in the future. With another cable connection, we could bring back the outdoor Parabolic "Ghost Hunter", "Nature Monitor" microphone. This time with a SKY CAM. i.e. outdoor web cam with live parabolic microphone.
Police Scanners that Receive CB Radio JAN 30 , 2009
Most "police scanners" do NOT receive CB Radio. It helps to know which models will. Here are a couple examples below of scanners that receive cb radio transmissions. Even certain handheld police scanners will receive cb radio. OK, I know what you are thinking. "The antenna will be too short to receive cb radio signals clearly. Wrong. Police scanners have come a long way. They have a nice hot receive that easily picks up signals at good level. The video below is a demonstration of this.
POLICE SCANNERS THAT WILL RECEIVE CB RADIO
ANTENNA vs. POWER LINES | SAFETY DEC 11 , 2008
You're dead. If it's falling towards them let it go and get the heck away. The Power Lines running to your house are 220. Pretty dangerous. You know those big power lines that run down busy streets and alleys with the thicker poles? Those are 7000 Volts or more. You will be dead before the antenna even hits the wire. Fiberglas antennas will not keep you alive. The electricity in those lines can arc out many many feet to a wet piece of wood and kill you. People have been injured or even killed from voltage coming down a wet phone pole to the car after they crashed in to it. At those voltages just about anything can be made to conduct electricity. Plan a strategy when putting up an antenna. Plot worst case scenario before the job starts. Number one don't put antennas where they can fall anywhere within 30 feet or more from any electrical wire. Wind is not good.
Be a humble expert. If you don't know what is going on, call the electric company. They have people that will be glad to come out and direct you to your safest options. For Free. Likely they will be impressed with your thoughts about safety. I did just this and the person that came out was glad to help.
Remember, you will be dead before the antenna hits the wire. Electricity could arc out 10? 20? feet from the wire, snap your antenna and vaporize you in a second. PooF!
What if it does fall? Call the power company have have them come get it off. DO NOT go grab a long piece of wood thinking you are going to push it off. At high voltages even a humid piece of wood will conduct electriciy. Dry dirt can be a conductor.
And finally, the same goes for shooting, throwing, tossing and casting long wire antennas up in trees. What if the wind takes it in the air and it goes up towards a wire? ZAP! Dead before the wires even make contact. Voltage is looking for a ground and will do just about anything to get there, including jumping many feet..
I can't stress this enough. Electricity from these high voltage lines can arc 5 feet? or more to your antenna. You will be dead before it gets anywhere near the wire. Mess with any of this stuff without thinking and planning and you will end up looking like a fried, non living version of Sponge Bob. This is good information for others as most people don't realize just about anything will conduct electricity with enough voltage. Most people do not realize electricity will arc out many feet from a high voltage wire. There is not a fuse to protect you. You become the fuse and you will burn out like one.
As a disclaimer, it's obvious I am not an electrician or engineer. My information comes from people that do this for a living and what they had to say. The safest bet is to consider all wires as dangerous as the extreme high voltage wires.
Is this a joke? NO!
Web Interactive - A concept bigger than livecbradio Nov. 16 , 2008
More amazing than livecbradio itself is mechanically interactive things online. They are rare. At livecbradio you can use a cb radio station from the web. A while back there was an online train set. You have online camera systems where you control camera options like movement and zoom. These all being things you can control over the web. "Web Controlled". Back in the Windows 98 days there was a receiver online. I believe it was called "the listening post". You could listen to the shortwave receiver online and change the frequency by entering it in to a little search style bar. Now we have web controlled radios galore.
What the internet is lacking is more physically controlled items like "the online train set" I mentioned above. Example: People click and hold a button down on a page making the train go around the track. I am always pondering new ideas like this. The ultimate web controlled device. Remember as a kid using "AFX TRACK". Those little slot cars. How amazing it would be to have online web controlled slot car racing. That would take some fast real time video.
I keep pondering the talking tree idea. If you know how livecbradio works, you know the same thing could be done with a tree. Put a hidden speaker, microphone and camera in the tree. Connect it all to a paltalk chat room. When people walk by the tree someone in the chat room watching them says "hey, I am the talking tree, can you hear me". Next thing you know you have someone talking to a tree while an entire chat room of people are watching. The speaker volume in the tree would be just above a whisper as to not disturb the peace. Anyone in the chat room not pretending to talk like a lonely tree to the victim's walking by would be banned. It surely would not be set up as a way to hurl insults. it would be a family safe candid camera type of thing. I need to quit repeating this idea, but, it would be fantastic to implement such a thing in a populated area.
Another idea would be to fly a model airplane online. Someone on web page presses button and this makes power to a toy airplane that fly's indoors in a circle.
Another brilliant online device already implemented is the online pet feeder. They would put their pets online via web cam and microphone. They would also give people the option to feed the animal. Click a little button and it releases a little food pellet you watch the animal eat. Fish Tanks too. Online feeder.
It was all just a matter of serial port switching, relays and some clever reverse engineering. You could control a car from the web with the right stuff. Imagine this. A web controlled remote control car. Maybe not.
People are control freaks. The question is, what can we put online people can control? Not just a radio or some toy. Something big. OK I got it. A web controlled engine. Start button, kill switch and throttle. During business hours we'll let people online start and rev the tiny engine hoping to blow it up while watching it on camera and hearing it by microphone. OK maybe not.
UFO Camera: Web Controlled Security cam on roof pointed straight up and movement and focus adjustable. Maybe not. People might get bored watching for UFO. Then again, such a thing would make an interesting nature camera (with sound). One could watch the weather, listen to birds, hunt ufo at night and listen for ghosts all on the same unit.
Web controlled TV? Not Legal. We Controlled FM radio? Not Legal. Traffic cams or spy cams? Played out. I am out of ideas, for now. I try to at least ponder this once in a while to perhaps come up something people will like. Something mechanical.
Wait I got it. A web controlled remote control car where the camera is onboard the car. Maybe not, the latency on the web camera would likely be something like 3-7 seconds. Kind of hard to drive with a 3 second delay. Now if the car turned on a string and went around in a circle, that may work, but, people driving the thing might get dizzy. The airplane on a string idea might be better suited for that.
In the least I hope to inspire others to work to make online interactive things. Not just radios, but, New Ideas, gadgets and things like that. People press a button online, this puts voltage to a small amp, the amp powers the relay, the relay opens or closes and there you have it. The power to control just about anything. Put primitive timer on whatever is running to shut off at desired time. Example: They press button. Relay trips power to online model airplane that fly's in a circle on a string axis. Airplane fly's around in a circle for 30 seconds until someone hits the button again. LOL OR, Put the airplane on a vox activated relay. When people talk in the chat room talk, the airplane taxis in a circle till it fly's. No battery changing needed as the string is actually the power wire going to a wal wart. This idea sounds kind of lame till you think how great it would be implemented on a flat roof outdoors. A web controlled model airplane, that flys in a circle outdoors many stories up would be quite impressive. It would be like, flying in a circle on camera over the computer. Even more impressive would be getting it to fly as slow as possible.
A wireless camera on a kite would be pretty awesome.
Those taxi and bus web cams are pretty kool.
Finally, do you know what the best all time web interactive thing I have seen is? That Internet Trucker Chat Room that used to be online. I don't know if it's still going. This guy had decent high speed satellite internet with his high resolution camera, laptop and microphone. His camera pointed out the windshield and his microphone on, it was just like you were in the truck. They had a little chat room with video in the center. People would text him in the chat box and the trucker would often respond with voice over the room's audio. His video was near free to air TV quality. Real Time. Now that was web interactive!
Does this give you any creative ideas for the "Web Interactive" ?
Motorcycle Cb Radios Nov. 15 , 2008
My Other hobby? Motorcycles. My ride? The green machine pictured below. It's a Kawasaki ZX750. This is where I got the idea for the Motorcycle CB Radio page. There are often cb radios on there for Honda Goldwing GlL300 GL1500, Harley Davidson and JMCB. My friend rides a Black Falcon Muzzy Hayabusa. It won best bike at the show. I can pretty much ride it whenever I want. Both of these bikes will do tasty wheelies by just twisting the handle grip. I am a fairly aggressive rider, but I fancy myself as more of a all purpose type of rider. I have been known to ride in all weather conditions. Including snow. When most sportbike riders start racing home because it starts to sprinkle rain, this is just when I am heading out for my ride.
I am a past RZ350 owner which fuels my thirst for peppy smaller bikes like the ZX-7. The bike has a raging top end due to 4 well tuned flatside racing carbs.
Am I thinking about putting a cb radio on my Motorcycle? Probably not. A more clever device would be a police scanner or a blackberry phone listening to livecbradio.com's live police scanner. If I had a touring bike I would consider it greatly. Especially if i was on the new Kawasaki Concours.
Cb Radios, Police Scanners and IPHONES Nov. 1 , 2008
Toy begat toys. That is twice now I have received emails from people claiming to use their cell phones to listen to the Live Police Scanner. it's like they are taking livecbradio.com to the next level. As the owner I must say, I don't even listen to any of the live feeds. My thrill is rigging something up someone might enjoy. I must admit having livecbradio's live police scanner on your IPhone would be a tasty gadget. You could tell other IPHONE owners, "Hey, do you have the super secret police scanner option, no, well too bad". Seriously though, it sounds pretty handy. I can't help but to feel these people have nearly outdone the source by doing this. It's like, well, having a police scanner built in to your cell phone.
DO "LOW PASS" FILTERS REALY WORK? SOLVING TVI RFI October 26, 2008
Simple answer, Yes. Quite often cbers that have has trouble with RFI/TVI give up before reaching a positive conclusion. Most generally this is due to direct interference to the item. Commonly there are two ways you can get in to your neighbors electronics. Through the antenna, or directly effecting the electronics inside the device. A low pass filter in line between the cb radio's antenna and the cb radio itself, is often a cure for interference caused by "radio reception" by the device. Meaning the effected device is receiving the signal. The low pass filter simply suppresses the higher frequency feedthrough getting into the effected devices. In simple terms, cb radio is on 27MHZ. A low pass filter aids in gating out signals from your transmitter over 30-50Mhhz. Quite often a cber will try a low pass filter finding it does not work for them. Many times this is the case because they did not purchase a ruggedly built high quality low pass filter. The cheap models advertised for cb only are basically junk. Remember, "High Pass" Filters you install on their phone never work. I have seen dozens installed and have never witnesses a reduction in interference.
The second most popular form of interference to these devices is what I like to call, "Direct interference". Meaning, the device is receiving the interference directly to it's electronic components. Quite often a low pass filter will not cure these issues. This is often the fault of the device picking up these cb radio signals. That is, Assuming the cb setup is of legal caliber.
Here are a few tricks to deal with direct interference
1: Replace the device. Buy your neighbor a new phone or whatever device is being effected. Offer them an incentive. Make every kind gesture you can to remedy the situation rather than waste a bunch of time for a $25 dollar phone or answering machine.
2: Hi-Fi Televisions, DVD Players, Multimedia Television Stereos Etc. Start simple. Sometimes plugging the device in to a different wall outlet will fix the problem. Try replacing their extension cord to one of shorter length. Still getting in to their multimedia TV center? Let them show your their system. Check out what they have for RCA and speaker wire cables. Replace them with higher quality shielded cables. it's worth the money if it solves the problem.
3: Things you can do at your station to help prevent interference? Install a quality low pass filter and ground the case of the low pass filter. Run a wire less that 102 inches long from the case of the low pass filter to a ground rod. If you can't get the ground wire shorter that 102 inches from the filter to the rod forget about it. It may radiate and cause more problems if your ground line is over a quarter wavelength.
Raise your antenna. this often helps. Buy the RG-8 or thicker coax. it helps, plus it works better. Receive will be improved on your cb with higher quality coax.
And finally, buy a new radio. Maybe your cb set works fine to the ear but is misaligned and throwing spurious emissions. Spending a hundred and fifty bucks for something like a new Cobra 29 Blue tooth would get you a new radio and likely cure your neighbors problem. it's always worth spending a little money to solve the problem.
Time is money. Spending days or weeks trying to diagnose intereference problems is often a waste of time when some simple electronics can be upgraded. This after a low pass filter has been tried. I have tried them, they do work. That is, the Amateur Radio Low Pass Filters. Here I will endorse two low pass filters i know are of good quality and work well. "BENCHER" & "DRAKE". They are quite similar or the same. I heard a rumor that Bencher bought Drake, but I can't confirm that. LOW PASS FILTERS
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