New year's eve
WBCQ's shortwave signal has faded away for the time being, and the pirate bands are clear, so we're channel surfing web feeds. This is twice in the past week we've had a Crack The Sky conceptual continuity moment.
Scott's playing some very interesting music tonight on wbcq.com's internet stream. This is definitely not WBCQ's console feed, unless Brother X has taken over the station and is spinning non-stop progressive music. I just heard "Safety In Numbers" by Crack The Sky, and now something called "Once upon the sea of blissful" by a band called Shpongle. Then, another weird Shpongle song, and some unattributed vintage dance music that makes us think we're getting ready to hear Dieter say "Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance!"
Then, we heard "Skindiver" by Crack The Sky. Now, I know the album this comes from has never been released on CD. I ripped this off of vinyl a while back, and I've shared some CDs and tunes with Scott, so I think I know where this particular tune might have come from. I can even hear the pops during the fade out. Thanks, buddy. Hearing our favorite band on the 'net made our evening.
You're in the pirate zone with Captain Morgan
Tuesday December 31, 2002, 0234 UTC, 6950 KHz AM. A couple of Paul Simon songs, "Slip out the back Jack", followed by "Slip Slidin' Away". Brief op talking, then Elton John's "Someone saved my life tonight". Twilight Zone theme. Back to Paul Simon, "Mother and Child Reunion". "You're in the pirate zone with Captain Morgan, that's right." at 0250, and more music: a song I couldn't identify, and then Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" and "If you'll be my bodyguard". Station id, "travelling 86 thousand miles a second". Twilight Zone theme. The opening riff from BTO's "Takin' Care of Business", then cut into Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party" at 0302, then back into Takin Care of Business a couple of minutes later. Off air at 0308.
SIO 323, persistent het from nearby utilities and really foul conditions hurting reception here. However, the new antenna position has really helped pull out the weak signals the past couple of nights. Utility het disappeared around 0300.
Computer of the month, December 2002
There's something about a blue LCD that just screams "cool" to us computer types. The computer of the month for December is our first server with a blue LCD.
As you can see from our rack, we've been investing lately in the Dell PowerEdge line of rack mount servers. The newest of these is the top system, a Dell PowerEdge 1650. This beastie is packed with:
- a 1.13 GHz Pentium III CPU with 512K cache
- 512 MB of 133M DIMMs
- Redundant power supplies
- Three 10,000 RPM 73 GB SCSI hard disk drives
- Onboard SCSI RAID 5
- Dual 10/100/1000 onboard ethernet
Here's a closeup of the front of this machine, with it's grille removed. The blue LED is the power indicator, and also can be set to blink to identify the system in a rack. The blue LED will change color and blink amber if an error condition is detected. The main keyboard, mouse and monitor connections are on the rear of the unit, but there are convenient keyboard and monitor connectors on the front as well in case the system ever needs to be troubleshooted with your favorite crash cart.
The big button on the front panel to the right of all the various LEDs is the top cover release latch. It is normally locked down with a screw on top, but I wanted to show the inside of this machine, so the screw's been removed.
Here is the system with the top cover removed. On the left you can see the redundant power supply module.
Now, a view from the top. As you can see this machine is dual processor capable. We're only using it for a file server so one CPU is enough. We're only using two of the four DIMM memory slots. The dual onboard ethernet adapters are shown to the left. There's also a management port in the back of the unit. You can see the connectors to cables going to a keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) switch at the lower left. The rackmount kit has a cool cable management arm that allows you to pull the system completely out of the rack for maintenance yet leave all the back-attached cables nice and mounted to the individual rack assembly.
Notice all the little fans in this machine. There's one for each hard disk drive bay and a fourth at the top of this photo. The systems are designed to push the air completely horizontally so it's possible to fully load a rack with systems like this if you have good airflow and temperature control.
This machine is very fast. It replaced a five year old monstrously large Hewlett-Packard NetServer. The new PowerEdge has a processor fifty times faster than the HP, more RAM, and twice the disk space, and three discs instead of eight.
We've been using pizza box servers like the PowerEdge 1650, 1550, and 2550 series ever since they were released. With the exception of the very first unit we bought (a first generation 1550 that has had some hardware "issues"), these machines have been rock solid dependable and stable. The price is certainly right when compared to similarly equipped systems from, say, Compaq. This system came in between four and five thousand dollars, a far cry from the thirty grand we paid for it's predecessor only five years ago.
A management interface for Tobor
Today we continued working on Tobor, a big heavy CD Server we saved from destruction a month ago. We're making Tobor easy to remotely manage, by installing a software package called Webmin, a web-based interface for managing Unix systems.
Webmin is a stable and well-developed product, and we were able to get it installed and running quickly. Tobor's OpenBSD 3.2 installation contains all that we need to run Webmin withour requiring any OS mods or additional software. The biggest requirement for Webmin is Perl, which is included as part of the default OpenBSD installation. Webmin itself is happy with OpenBSD.
I decided to install the Webmin software under /etc. The directory the software ended up in is /etc/webmin-1.050.
There are a few configuration entries you make when installing Webmin. In most cases we chose default values. Here are the specific choices we made for Tobor:
- Config file directory: /etc/webmin
- Log file directory: /var/webmin
- Path to Perl: /usr/bin/perl
- Web server port: 31337
- Login name: admin
- Start Webmin at boot time: yes
The installation script then creates the Webmin configuration entries, and adds a command to start Webmin to the startup script /etc/rc.local. The script performs a few more installation tasks and starts the "mini web server" that serves up Webmin's web interface on port 31337.
The next step is to fire up a web browser and check to see if all is happy. As you can see here, it looks like we were successful. After entering a valid user name and password, we're presented with the main Webmin page.
Since Tobor is a CD server, one of the main system admin tasks will be managing the stack of CD-ROMs that Tobor will be serving up. So, we click on the System icon on the main Webmin page and are presented with the System page. What we want to examine further is Disk and Network File Systems, which are shown on this page. Recall that we earlier built a script that attempts to mount all CD-ROMs attached to Tobor, whether or not they have CD-ROMs in each drive or not. As you can see, all CD-ROMs are mounted except for /dev/cd6a, which is having a problem and needs to be replaced.
All file systems in the Unix operating system are logically "mounted" off of a root mount point called "/". When we installed OpenBSD on Tobor we created a directory called /cd and a subdirectory for each CD-ROM underneath it, starting with /cd/cd00, /cd/cd01, and so on. Then, using Samba, the Windows file system emulator for Unix systems, we created a Windows share called "cd" so that a single shared drive on a Windows server or workstation can access all the data on all the CDs mounted on Tobor.
The directories we created for each CD-ROM are used as "mount points" for logically attaching the root directory of each CD-ROM, using the mount command. Recall that our startup script, upon finding a CD-ROM in the drive corresponding to the device /dev/cd0a will attemt to mount that CD-ROM's file system using the command
As you can see from this Webmin details page, all of these details are displayed in graphical form.
Now, the process of mounting and dismounting CD-ROMs can be completely managed through the Webmin interface. An example of mounting a CD-ROM in device /dev/cd19a under mount point /cd/cd19 is shown in this Webmin page.
That's all there is to it.
A couple of notes on today's activity:
- The page fault crash we experienced earlier returned today after the Webmin installation had completed. It looks as if we got ahold of a bad RAM chip or two, but fortunately I had a couple of spares sitting around which (hopefully) will prevent future page faults.
- The mount point creation page has the option to "save and mount at boot". This corresponds to the "permanent" column in Webmin's file system status page. We can set all CD-ROM mounts as permanent and we won't need to startup script we developed earlier.
- While I was at it, I configured Webmin to handle management of the Samba module.
I'll be doing a final hardware prep and burn-in party for Tobor over the New Year's holiday and hopefully he'll be ready for shipment by the end of the week.
KIPM marathon continues
Sunday, December 29, 2002, 0513 UTC, 6925 KHz USB, KIPM: Continuing the holiday marathon, we're hearing some more wonderfully electic and weird programming from Alan Maxwell and KIPM. Alan Maxwell says hello at 0519 amidst some scary organ musik. Outer Limits theme and contact info starting at 0520. "end transmission" at 0526. SIO 333 early, then much better after 0600, holding steady at 444.
Alan's back on at 0528 with another program: "He who shrank". Station ID, contact info, and Outer Limits theme starting at 0624. Without interruption, another program started. A very strange and yet compelling broadcast. Station ID at 0703, followed by Outer Limits theme again. "End of transmission" at 0709, and back on with another show at 0711.
The noise level on the pirate band is very much reduced tonight, as I've re-oriented my antenna into an "end fed dipole" that doesn't pick up the high voltage lines down the road. It seems, however, that some computer noise from my cable modem is spewing over into the HF receiver. Oh well, I can refrain from downloading MP3s from Usenet while KIPM is on.
Here is a bit of KIPM's earlier broadcast. The ninety minute off-air recording of the KIPM marathon that followed has come close to filling up my hard disk. It's way too big to upload! Please contact me if you'd like a copy.
Timtron plays Crack the Sky
This is a true Conceptual Continuity moment. It is very rare when my musical tastes and my hobby intersect so perfectly. I just finished posting pictures we took at Crack The Sky's recent performance at the Thunder Dome in Baltimore on November 23.
And, on the Radio Timtron Worldwide show this afteroon, Timtron played Crack The Sky's "Ice" (0158 UTC on Sunday, December 29, 2002), on 7415 KHz shortwave worldwide via WBCQ.
Timtron's weekly radio show is by far our favorite. There's always something cool to listen to. If we ever chose to make our own radio show, it would be very close to Tim's both in spirit and in content. He is the best.
KIPM: illuminati prima materia
Saturday December 28, 2002, 0320 UTC, 6950 KHz LSB. KIPM: Muzak-like version of Pink Floyd's "Hey You" from The Wall, and back into unique spoken word program. Contact info, then a version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" with a female vocalist. More spoken word, and another version of "Hey You" with a female vocalist. "Here's where the farm boys and city dwellers are made equal", the coming of war. A cover version of "Eclipse" from the "Dark Side of the Moon" at 0355. Contact info again, and greetings from Alan Maxwell. Outer Limits theme, station ID, and off at 0359.
It's good to hear KIPM again. Strong signal, SIO 444 with occasional fading, degrading to 333 by the end of the show.
"Correspondence with KIPM is encouraged. For a full color QSL send reception reports to PO Box 69, Elkorn NE, 68022."
WWRB: we waste radio bandwidth
Thursday, December 26, 2002, 0500 UTC (midnight ET), 5050 KHz, SIO 444: WWRB broadcasting fifty thousand watts of dead air with a commercial at the top of the hour, then more dead air.
WWRB is a fucking laugh. The holier-than-thou so-called "world wide religious broadcaster" with "Government-approved" transmitters spewing non-stop bullshit programming is running open carrier on 5050 as we write this.
What a puffed-up bunch of scam artists these snake-oil salesmen are. They advertise the finest facilities available in getting your "sermon" online, then waste untold amounts of energy on open carriers. They're now running a strong clear signal of NOTHING on the shortwave bands.
How much of the cost of running dead air on 5050 is passed along to their clients?
It seems that they should cut the bullshit and open up their airwaves to broadcasters who would make use of the advertised capabilities of their multiple HF transmitters, instead of pandering to the "religious" movement that's left them with an open carrier on Christmas night.
Better yet, they should dismantle their dead-air transmitter and antenna farm and ship the whole lot to Allan Weiner, who would take advantage of the technology and open it up to the public.
From WWRB's web site:
"In order to keep our broadcast rates incredibly low, Radio Station WWRB does NOT extend credit. All broadcasts are to be paid for in advance, with no exceptions. Stations extending credit make clients (you) sign contracts, obtain their (your) social security number and / or church tax identification number, allow clients to run up huge debts, and then turn the delinquent client over to credit collection agencies, often forcing the client into bankruptcy or forever making payments (with interest!) to the station like a credit card. Accounts that cannot be collected from are losses which are recovered by charging higher airtime rates to other clients (You!)"
This is total bullshit. Or worse, it's a scam.
There are literally hundreds of programmers who would benefit from getting their message out across a powerful HF transmitter like the one in Manchester, Tennessee, that WWRB is spewing out tonight with no content. It is disgraceful that WWRB chooses to spew an open carrier out to the world with no programming. It's even more disgraceful that they have such a powerful tool for a worldwide voice that's wasting power and bandwidth with an open carrier and no programming. So much for their so-called redundant backup engineering staff.
Recent reports state that they're testing a fourth transmitter, presumably so they can send more dead content into the ionosphere.
They've got a pretty good transmitter and antenna, but they have no content. How long can they exist spewing open carrier on 5050 to the world?
A Christmas memory
Two years ago tonight, we were woken up from a nice slumber with our freaking fireplace on fire. Twenty five thousand dollars worth of damage later, and the worst freaking Christmas on record, we emerged from the stinky mess into a six month house renovation featuring the worst of scumbag insurance adjusters, wood butchers, and contractors whose idea of getting a job done was to wait for seven weeks before showing up to screw up mounting a lousy piece of drywall. We ended up doing the majority of the renovation ourselves, thanks to Jane's brother Mark, the ultimate restoration expert. From this experience we learned to hang the Radio Free Mount Airy flag high and proclaim No more wood butchers!
To commemorate this event, we present Christmas On Acid, which I heard for the first time on a pirate shortwave broadcast on December 24, 2000. Those days we could use Napster to search for cool music, and I indeed found this tune on Napster around mid-day on December 25, 2000. Little did we know that 12 hours later the song would prophetically come alive with gingerbread men dancing around the tree, on fire.
Christmas greetings from He Man Radio
Wednesday December 25, 2002, 2225 UTC, 6954.95u, SIO 343. He-Man Radio: Wishing a Merry Christmas to everyone who's name is in the latest ACE newsletter; a personal rendition of "Jingle Bells"; "..and so ends another manly Christmas broadcast.."; White Christmas. Horrible QRM til 2227, then clear 'til sign off at 2233.
We have a snippet of He-Man's broadcast here for your amusement.
Touch my monkey
The latest broadcast of WDCD on WBCQ featured a number of snipped together audio wonderments comprising a brilliant commentary on American religious propaganda from the last generation. Among the clips they presented were a couple of unbelievable-but-true tunes sung by a pair of young girls. The first, I've heard before, sometime long ago, is called "The Monkey Song", and it is a statement about Darwin's theory of evolution. The second tune is called "The Ecumenical Movement," intended as a statement of dissent against those who would advocate a world wide embracement of a common religion.
Whenever I hear such delightfully bizarre audio, I immediately google it and try and find a source. Thanks to April Winchell's wonderfully bizarre and entertaining multimedia page, I can share with you a fantastic find from an authentic record released by none other than Jerry Falwell, containing The Monkey Song and the Ecumenical Movement, along with Rev. Falwell's incomparable accompanying dialog.
Yes, it is true. One of the two girls singing on this record is the same Crystal Bernard who is an actress, most notably in the TV series "Wings." And she's (re)starting a musical career, it seems.
Shortwave Kook Watch Update
Here is some updated info on a couple of shortwave kooks we're monitoring.
Pastor John Lewis is doing a half hour rant weeknights on 5745 (WHRI) at 0130 UTC (8:30PM ET). He's been confirmed on Monday, Tuesday and Friday evenings; the other nights another fellow far right preacher's filling in the "Black Brigade." 5745's signal at this time is usually strong but noisy. However this show is also available via WHR's clean 9K RealAudio web stream. Pastor John is currently on the road, traversing the heart of America in a bus with a huge distasteful anti-abortion picture on the side. Tonight he's snowed in somewhere in the midwest. Too bad he's only on for a half hour; it takes him that long to get warmed up for a real rant.
We've verified Jeremiah 33:3's bizarre conspiracy theory rants weekdays at 1800 UTC (1 PM ET) on 17495 (WBCQ). He's also on at 0200 UTC Tuesday through Saturday (9 PM ET Monday through Friday) on 5050 (WWRB). Both broadcasts are strong and clear here in Maryland. You need to listen to this guy at least once. I hear that Michael's running an off-air feed from Pittsburgh of 17495 in the daytime hours, but I haven't verified this.
If time permits over the holiday, I'll bring some annotated audio snippets from our favorite kooks this way real soon.
A sign..
Over the weekend we visited Lynch, Maryland for the first of two Christmas celebrations with our family. At my parents place, way out in the back yards in the orchard, our old friend Sylvester the cat is buried. During an early morning walk, Jane stopped by and talked to Sylvester for a while, and asked him to give her a sign saying he was okay.
Later that morning my mom told Jane she heard a cat meowing in the back yard. Jane got her sign; Sylvester's doing okay.
Happy holidays to all!
But what does it mean?
Here is the Error Screen of the Month, which showed up in the application event log of a newly installed Windows 2000 Advanced Server that unfortunately hangs it's GUI upon boot. You've got to hand it to whoever came up with this:
What is the significance of the negative two billion error code to the process of creating the recovery policy blob? What is the recovery policy blob? Should I be alarmed that my machine is infected with a blob?
Jeremiah 33:3 - bizarre shortwave kook alert
Monday 12/16/2, 1800 UTC, 17495: Just when I'd thought I'd heard it all, along comes another kook spewing all kinds of nonsense to the world via the wonderous shortwave bands. After a tip-off in rec.radio.shortwave and issue 2192 of Glenn Hauser's outstanding DX Listening Digest, I had to check out what one listener calls "kook shortwave at it's very best".
I remembered today to carry my portable to work with me, as the target kook's show is broadcast weekdays from 1800 to 1900 UTC (1 to 2 PM ET) on WBCQ's third transmitter at 17495 KHz. The show's called "Jeremiah 33:3".
In an office building packed full of computer equipment, flourescent lights, and hundreds of other noise sources befitting my workplace's seventies-ugly style architecture and construction, shortwave reception is hit-or-miss, and almost always miss. However today 17495 came in surprisingly clean and strong, as long as the receiver was sitting right next to a window. I planned lunch for 1 PM to be ready for some prime entertainment.
First I thought I was out of luck. The right-winger on 17495 at 12:50 PM was telling listeners to get ready for another hour's worth of programming after a short break. Then, as WBCQ is prone to do, his program was cut unceremoniously in mid-sentence to a station ID, and then, on came our kook.
I was not to be disappointed. The show started and ended with a strange song shreiked by a female, most probably tone deaf, who has absolutely no musical talent. The speaker got right into it immediately. He seems to be obsessed with several themes, all intertwined with bizarre prophecies of doom. According to this guy, George Bush and David Rockefeller are part of a massive Masonic conspiracy to implement a New World Order foreshadowing Lucifer's return, the emergence of David Rockefeller the Anti-Christ, and the resulting Apocalypse. He's heavily into the numerology thing, where the letters in certain names can be counted up, added to or subtracted from 911, resulting in "Ronald Wilson Reagan", reduced quaintly to 666...oh, woe is us! The Number of the Beast!
He also claimed that the Masons control Israel. Now that's something I did not know. This is also the first time I've ever heard someone preaching like a minister from a pulpit say multiple times, "Brothers and sisters, what in the hell is going on?"
The tip-off was right on. This is something everyone needs to hear, even if it's only once. This guy is totally whacked.
Besides the entertainment value, it was well worth it to have my coworker Mikey come in to my office, and with bugged out eyes, wonder what in the hell I was listening to, and also wondering if I'd popped my cork by listening to a preacher on the radio. He suggested I might listen to Rush Limbaugh instead. No way. Rush annoys me greatly. Jeremiah 33:3 is very entertaining.
Allan Weiner, WBCQ's station mangager, said on his show last Friday evening that Michael Ketter will eventually be putting up another internet stream for WBCQ's two secondary transmitters. Today we have a web feed of 7415's signal off-air from Michael's receiver in Pittsburgh, as well as Doc Becker's console feed via wbcq.com. A new second stream will give us a web feed of 17495 and 9335 as well, so everyone can catch the bizarre world of kook shortwave from their desks at work.
Boom goes the Cap Centre
Here are some pictures of the implosion of the Capital Centre from the print edition of today's Washington Post. These shots didn't make it to today's article describing the event.
Goodbye, Capital Centre
The Washington Post is reporting today that the Capital Centre was destroyed today in a ceremonial explosion.
Looking up at my collection of ticket stubs framed on the wall, I'm reminded of the time I spent at the Capital Centre. I had floor seats for Yes on February 12, 1984, on their 90125 tour. Their stage setup included a big flying-saucer disc shaped like the drawing on the album cover. I remember the cool humidity seeping from the plywood covering the hockey rink's ice.
I saw ZZ Top there on May 27, 1986, way up in the nosebleeds in section 204. I saw the revived Lynyrd Skynyrd there twice, in 1987 and 1988, as their fading tribute band was winding down before being revived again and again in later years.
I remember seeing Iron Maiden at the Cap Centre on a cold evening in January, 1985. Maiden's pyrotechnics and music were top notch.
I saw the Grateful Dead twice at the Cap Centre. For some reason I don't remember very much from the show on September 12, 1987. However on September 5, 1988, I happened to be visiting Town Hall in College Park when I was given a pair of tickets to the Dead show in the Budweiser sky box. That was surreal, watching the throng of Deadheads in a suite twenty feet above the crowd. I have several recordings of Dead shows at the Cap Centre, including one I had a chance to go to but declined -- September 27, 1981. I now regret passing up this show to study for a Chemistry exam.
Robert Plant did a Honeydrippers set when I saw him there on July 30, 1985.
The last show I saw at the Capital Centre was Fleetwood Mac, on Sunday, November 30, 1997. The outrageous $75 ticket was probably the most I've ever paid for a concert, but since Jane really, really likes Fleetwood Mac, it was $150 well spent. By then, they'd renamed the Cap Centre "US Air Arena," as was the trendy thing to do in the 1990s.
By the time I write this, the arena with the sloping top that looked like a Pringles potato chip will be history, to be replaced by a mall. That's just what Prince George's County needs. If it were up to me I'd return the Cap Centre parcel to parkland, like it was thirty years ago.
Paranoid conspiracy theory kook shortwave
Sunday 12/15/2, 0100 UTC, 5070: "Power Of Prophecy" with Texe Marrs on WWCR. What caught my ear was this guy's ranting about DARPA's Information Awareness Office, whose ridiculously buzzword-driven mission statement we profiled here in our own rant last month.
This guy is a loony. He claims that the IAO and their "Total Information Awareness" program is evidence of a massive Government conspiracy to extend Nazi-like Big Brother complete and total surveillance over all civilian activities.
Did you know that the IAO is headed by Admiral John Poindexter, the convicted felon who lied to Congress abut his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair during the Reagan years? Mr. Marrs also thinks this points to a massive Government conspiracy.
His credibility is further reduced by extensively quoting the dubious Moonie newspaper The Washington Times.
The evidence Mr. Marrs presents of this conspiracy include proof that the IAO's logo includes a pyramid with the all seeing eye logo, therefore "they're watching the whole world". The eye on the logo is looking down directly on the United States. The Latin inscription on the logo translates to "knowledge is power". The CIA operates overseas, according to a dubious source presented by one of Mr. Marrs' conspiracy theory kooks, using the secretive motto "secret knowledge equals power". Do you notice the similarity?
Mr. Marrs would also like you to buy all kinds of junk. He presented a long and somewhat incoherent commecial selling videos and books and other crap exposing "the inner doings of the illuminati", the homeland security organization (which has existed for many years now), "Project Lucid", "who really were the snipers - Muhammad and Malvo?", ad nauseum. To further entice listeners to buy this junk he presents a lot of self-poofery from other sources.
Here is another of Mr. Marrs' typical rants: They're going to be putting a video camera in your bedroom, so in case you plan terroristic activites in bed, they will know about it and come and take you away to an internment camp.
Mr. Marrs wraps this whole farce into the Lord Jesus Christ, thereby attempting to legitimitize his kookery by appealing to paranoid religious people. It's bad enough he's broadcasting on a radio station that has the nerve to call itself "world wide christian radio".
Give me a fucking break.
Chain saws and random wire antennas
The ice storm we experienced here earlier this week trashed my long wire antenna, so the first thing to do this weekend was to restring the antenna. I had great luck with the setup destroyed by falling limbs during the storm, and the only lingering problem with this antenna has been that it picks up a lot of A/C noise I traced to a noisy flourescent light ballast or two in the basement. It's only a minor annoyance to turn off some lights to get rid of the noise, but I thought I could do better since I had to restring the antenna anyway.
There are a couple of great antenna backgrounders at the Boston Area DXers page and they've helped me a lot. Basically, the problem gets down to proper grounding and shielding. For my new antenna I ran coax from in the house to the antenna connection on the outside of the foundation where the little antenna wire hole is. I'd run coax up to the second floor where the antenna's long element takes off, but Jane and I both have this thing about unnecessary coax running on the outside of the house.
This worked great. The only remaining fifty foot section of antenna that wasn't snapped by falling pine and mulberry tree limbs, combined with the coax feed line, gave satisfactory reception throughout the band with very little noise.
Then I decided to string another fifty to sixty feet of wire past tree number one back to a huge tree in the woods behind my back yard. Reception is great for strong stations, but A/C noise is back in the region between 4MHz and 8MHz. This noise doesn't seem to be dependent on the flourescents or anything inside.
The new antenna is oriented differently than the old one. If I remember my long wire hacking from last summer, I had noise problems with this patricular config as well. I have no idea why; there are no A/C sources, lights or anything near by. The only noise source is large overhead power lines thast are a half mile away. Perhaps the longer wire (>100 feet) exhibits directional tendencies that are picking up the noise from the overhead power lines?
I will have to re-orient the wire and see if the noise problems go away. The noise really messes with DXing the tropical and pirate bands!
But while the sunlight was still with us, I had to warm up the chain saw and cut up the results of the ice storm that ended up in my yard. This is turning into a pattern, as it's the second or third time this year I've had to cut up a bunch of wood that's fallen out of our old trees and is unfit for fireplaces or wood stoves (huge half-rotten mulberry branches and pine). At least we have an outdoor fireplace on loan for the winter, so here in a couple of months this junk wood will make for a nice controlled bonfire.
Pastor John Lewis is back
We used to be regularly entertained by the rantings and ravings of Pastor John Lewis on WGTG. Lewis' "Black Brigade" show ran on weekday evenings for some time, then he disappeared from the airwaves.
Pastor John is a so-called independent Baptist preacher whose firey and energetic rantings are directed at the US Government, homosexuals, immigrants, Yankees, city slickers, yuppies, etc., basically anyone who's not a good ol' boy like him.
Pastor John's outspoken radio presence and his involvement with the God Hates Fags people attracted the attention of James Latham from Radio For Peace International and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Latham at one time had Pastor John at the top of his list of most hate-filled broadcasters, an honor that's also been bestowed on other shortwave nuts like Hal Turner.
Just by chance, we discovered that Pastor John, aka Brother John, and his "Black Brigade" radio show, is back, courtesy of World Harvest Radio. WHR's schedule chart shows the Black Brigade show from 0100 to 0200 UTC Tuesday through Sunday (8 to 9 PM ET Monday through Saturday) on 7315, and from 0130 to 0200 UTC Tuesday through Saturday (830 to 9 PM ET Monday through Friday) on 5745. We have confirmed only the 5745 broadcasts. He's not on every night, but in his place are other good ol' boy ministers, including a redneck from Louisiana called Allen Russell who spent the whole half hour last night ranting about "ol Santie Claus the Devil Claus".
Pastor John is almost always highly entertaining. For your amusement, here is a snippet from a recent Pastor John rant on WHRI.
And from his days on WGTG, here's what Pastor John has to say about Homeland Security. As he likes to say, "If you don't like it, lump it!"
Ice storms suck
It's been four years or so since we saw an ice storm as nasty as what hit us here yesterday. The power's been out at home since 20 minutes after 1 PM on Wednesday, and this morning it looked to me like the entire town of Mount Airy was dark, including all the shopping centers and traffic lights. And to make matters worse, falling branches took down about two thirds of my shortwave antenna and have created a huge mess in our back yard.
On the other hand, it isn't that incredibly cold here and we can get by on carry out food for a bit longer. And as long as there are Triple-A batteries, there is radio. And the sun's out today and all that nasty ice is turning into more much-needed food for all of the the plants and trees around here that have seen several very dry months.
Shortwave propagation for dummies
Doc Becker recently shared with me a sample of the bozos who complain to WBCQ about bad reception, as if it were WBCQ's fault.
The sun farts once in a while, and it's not the shortwave broadcaster's fault when the signal fades into chaos. Those who think that someone's jamming WBCQ, or that the WBCQ operators are reducing power during certain controversial programs, or that their favorite program's being blocked by the Voice of America, are sorely misguided.
If your reception seems odd, check out one of the many internet sites that display solar conditions in near real time, such as the excellent site run by the Australian Space Weather Agency. They even have a North American map -- if it displays red or yellow where you live, it's not WBCQ's fault.
There's another site that has a couple of icons you can add to your very own home page that give you a clear display of the solar conditions that directly impact shortwave reception.
Those poor schmucks that hassle Tom at WBCQ's Maine transmitter site should learn to research their hobby, before harassing the people doing their best to keep free speech alive.
A breath of hope on the radio
I have to admit, I don't listen to FM radio at all anymore, unless I'm in my vehicle. But, like most of my peers, I'm in traffic on the way to and driving away from work every weekday -- at least seven and a half hours a week. I try to keep calm from the ever persistent road rage tendencies by listening to music. There's nothing like a crufty Dead show from 1969 in rush hour traffic.
But sometimes I don't have a disc to spin, so I try and spin the dial to see what's on.
Kirk, Mark and Lopez are okay in the morning. I've been listening to Lopez doing news on the morning ride for at least twenty five years. Larry the Cable Guy's call-ins are almost always hilarious.
But these guys don't play any music, and worse, they're so popular with the "young adult male" demographic that they play, like, six or seven minutes of the most annoying commercials ever heard, in blocks two or three times an hour. I've heard that stupid Microsoft certification training commercial so many times, that even now the people making the commercial are saying "you've heard this commercial a thousand times, but..."
And as interesting as KML often is, they unfortunately have really stupid and annoying sidetracks into topics like wrestling and nascar, with commentary from classic people-who-need-to-get-a-life.
As the father Owl said in the classic cartoon I Love to Singa, "Enough is too much!"
So, what do we have left to listen to? I have de-programmed all Clear Channel-owned stations off my car radio (like DC-101 in Washington and B-104 in Baltimore), not just because Clear Channel has, in many ways, contributed to the destruction of American commercial radio, but because the Clear Channel-owned stations play a continously sterile playlist of highly programmed shit you've heard a thousand times before, and/or shit they'd like to cram down your throat because the record company that owns the music has paid them a lot of money to do so.
What's left to listen to?
The Greaseman is back; even though he's only on AM, his home-studio-produced show via WGOP is strong and steady on my commute to work, and he never fails to entertain.
Then I heard that Towson University's FM station was dropping their new-age jazz format for "adult album alternative".
I couldn't make WTMD's transition, because I was in-transit to Orlando and Melbourne to learn about some cool secure wireless networking technology. But on my first commute back to work after the snow day last week, I tuned to FM 89.7.
Wow.
I have a new favorite on my dial, even though their signal's right on the border here in Montgomery County. WTMD is doing an all-music format, liberally mixed with local music. Way cool. They're public radio, and not feeding from the slop mindlessly programmed by the commercial radio clones.
HFS is a far away memory, now -- there's not a personality on that station that's not an annoying boob. I zapped 99.1 for 89.7 on my car radio in a heartbeat, and I will send WTMD a couple of bux for the holidays. In fact, I will send them some bux every time they ask for contributions from now on, as long as they continue the format they're playing today -- the format they're basing their future on -- the format that I optimistically hope knocks the Clear Channels off the air. WTMD's rebirth is truly a breath of fresh air and hope for the FM band.
Weekly World Edmo now online
The first three issues and new fourth issue of Weekly World Edmo, a periodical devoted to Edmond Wollmann, Usenet Kook, are now archived here for your amusement.
Updated December 14, 2002 11:30PM with the fifth issue. Dan Kettler confesses, Hidden fantasies of Flagship1 of the Paranormal, and Ed Wollmann goes insane.
WHYP Christmas Show on 6900
Sunday 12/1/2, 1605 UTC, 6900 LSB: WHYP Holiday show. I caught this one after a tip from Alex Draper on the Ace Loggings. Starting at 1605, a James Brownyard version of "Do you hear what I hear"; a slightly skippy version of "Jingle Bell Rock"; DX Survivor commercial; "Johnny the Amish-bearded DXer"; holiday greetings from WBIG; The KIPM Christmas song dedicated to Alan Maxwell; Alexander Ashe Hemmoroidal Cream commercial -- relief for DXers; The Cristmas Polka; Rockin' around Zellers Ten-Tec; Maharishi Charms cereal; Wolfish got run over by George Zeller; QSL requests to WHYP6925 at yahoo dot com or POB 28413 Providence RI 02908; in honor of the Christmas Jammer, some customized WHYP jamming noises with "I'm at Burger King" and "It's okay for a guy to play with another guy's weiner" added for humor; Ballad of the Green Berets; call out to Alex and cosmikdebris(!); Steve Anderson Yahweh's Helmet snippet; and off at 1640.
Great signal here -- 545/444 with occasional long fades. They're oddly using lower sideband and the Steve Anderson memorial frequency.
If you missed this show, we have an audio archive for you here.
Update (December 4, 2002 6:30pm): The FRN Vines appear to have burped and mysteriously lost the thread relating to this broadcast.
Crack the Sky at Thunder Dome
It's that time of the year. For four years straight, we've made the pilgrimage to Crack The Sky's annual Saturday-after-Thanksgiving show. This time it was at the Thunder Dome, the same venue we caught the band at their last show back in the summer. And as usual, the band did not disappoint. We made it to our regular location, left of center stage in front of Rick Witkowski's monitor, and settled down for a great show.
The first opening band was an odd local band called Sustained in Jade. The second opening band was Voicebox, who also opened for CTS at their last Thunder Dome show.
The Crack the Sky set list was as follows: Sleep, White Music, From the Greenhouse, Zoom, All American Boy, Skin Deep, Rangers at Mignight, I don't have a tie, A Sea Epic, Go, Ice, Coconuts, USA, Hold On, Surf City, Day Tripper, Strawberry Fields Forever, You can't do that, I feel fine, Back in the USSR, The End, Hot Razors, and Walrus/Flashlight. The last few tunes we transcribed from the setlist on the stage -- we had to cut out a bit early this time and missed the end, bummer! I hope I got the tune list right (someone correct me if I'm wrong).
Zoom has morphed; there are new pieces to the song, some more guitar and improvisation, that we hadn't ever heard before. Danny Palumbo introduced the band. Carey played Bassman's guitar through the first few tunes. Paul helped out with acoustic at the start of the show. No backup singers this time -- the boys had to do their own backup, and they did fine. Brenda was passing around for signature the coolest scrapbooks I've ever seen, to be given to Bassman's family -- that was very touching, well done. Thunder Dome was packed. I hated to have to cut out early. Good to see the crowd there, and those of you who missed it, see you next time!
Update (December 4, 2002, 5:30pm):
Here are some photos from the show, via bghd's post on the bulletin board.
Here are more photos from the show at the opening band's site.
Check out Brenda's very cool pictures from the show on the CTS Archives site.