The Key West feed got munged by Micro$oft Windows 10 updates doing whatever the hell they wanted despite the setting to allow ME to choose when to apply them.
If I could run this stuff under linux I would, but we're stuck with the vagaries of Windows for the time being. As soon as the updates finish applying service should be restored.
Hell of a way to run an operating system!
2019-12-13
2019-10-20
Key West Feed UnGlitched
I have replaced the Key West "Southernmost Feed" with a newer computer that is a little more capable and updated the audio processor on it. But there's only so much one can do with narrowband P25 audio.
Hopefully it will stay up for more than a few days this time.
Hopefully it will stay up for more than a few days this time.
2019-10-03
Power Glitches
The batteries in the U.P.S. (uninterruptible power supply) have gone bad and the frequent power glitches in Key West have left some of the equipment in an odd state. So until that is rectified the Key West feed is down.
This is a big enough deal that I don't see it getting repaired before some time next week.
This is a big enough deal that I don't see it getting repaired before some time next week.
2019-09-14
Fiber Optic Cut
The data carrier that provides upstream service to the server's I.S.P. has suffered a fiber optic cable cut that is affecting a broad swath of customers. This is why all the feeds are intermittently playing the "no uplink" music as bandwidth is congested on their backup link.
This is a major outage that will take some time to repair so we just have to live with it until it is back to normal.
This is a major outage that will take some time to repair so we just have to live with it until it is back to normal.
2019-07-24
Key West Feed Restored
Thanks to some timely help, Bote's Southernmost Feed is back up!
I guess it's time to replace the feed computer, but at least the immediate pressure to get it back online has been relieved. I will post updates here as needed.
Thanks to all who helped this time.
I guess it's time to replace the feed computer, but at least the immediate pressure to get it back online has been relieved. I will post updates here as needed.
Thanks to all who helped this time.
2019-07-23
Key West feed failure
About 17:45 today the Key West streaming scanner feed died. No idea why, no E.T.R. as I am swamped here in Broward County with important tasks to complete on a deadline.
2019-04-09
FEC Delray Beach Feed Online
I'm testing a new Florida East Coast Railway feed in south Delray Beach near F.E.C. control point "Villa Rica" and the milepost 319.1 defect detector.
That's about all it hears so this feed might not last long, but we shall see how useful it is.
All the details about all the feeds are on my web site since that's the only thing I can count on not to change behind my back, unlike Google+, Blogspot, Facebook, and all the rest of those evil data miners.
That's about all it hears so this feed might not last long, but we shall see how useful it is.
All the details about all the feeds are on my web site since that's the only thing I can count on not to change behind my back, unlike Google+, Blogspot, Facebook, and all the rest of those evil data miners.
2019-01-30
FEC Feed Grows Up
Software-Defined Radio is impressive! I'm testing it for a time on my F.E.C. Fort Lauderdale feed.
I recently started playing with SDR-Console to investigate whether it could make a reasonable alternative to Uniden scanners for my railroad feed(s) and am blown away at its capabilities.
SDR-Console (among other programs) can monitor multiple frequencies simultaneously, as long as they all lie within the chunk of spectrum being sampled. With the Florida East Coast Railway using 3 primary channels lying within 300KC of each other this is a piece of cake!
The cool part is that, unlike a scanner, the SDR doesn't sample a channel and then move on; it just hears everything at once without missing anything. So you can look at the spectrum display and see signals pop up on the road channel while a train is reading back a Form 82-T on the dispatcher talkback channel. It can be confusing, but it is neat, NEAT, NEAT!!
Another benefit of SDR is that you control the vertical, you control the horizontal; you can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. Because Uniden scanners have been proven not to have true narrowband i.f. filtering the SDR provides superior signal to noise ratio when the proper narrow bandwidth is selected. This improves intelligibility of weak signals on top of being just plain more sensitive than my Uniden 996XT scanner that I had been running.
I can also steer each received frequency to a different audio channel so the Road channel appears on the right while the Dispatcher talkback frequency is heard on the left channel. You won't miss a quick transmission while waiting for the scanner to toggle back and forth because SDR is always listening!
And unlike a commercial-grade radio from Mother Motorola, you're not stuck with the programming (via finicky PC programming), you can just change the frequency or any other parameter on the fly and be happy while still enjoying better than average radio performance.
Now I gotta figure out the best way to run this stuff economically out in the field. Stay tuned!
I recently started playing with SDR-Console to investigate whether it could make a reasonable alternative to Uniden scanners for my railroad feed(s) and am blown away at its capabilities.
SDR-Console (among other programs) can monitor multiple frequencies simultaneously, as long as they all lie within the chunk of spectrum being sampled. With the Florida East Coast Railway using 3 primary channels lying within 300KC of each other this is a piece of cake!
The cool part is that, unlike a scanner, the SDR doesn't sample a channel and then move on; it just hears everything at once without missing anything. So you can look at the spectrum display and see signals pop up on the road channel while a train is reading back a Form 82-T on the dispatcher talkback channel. It can be confusing, but it is neat, NEAT, NEAT!!
Another benefit of SDR is that you control the vertical, you control the horizontal; you can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. Because Uniden scanners have been proven not to have true narrowband i.f. filtering the SDR provides superior signal to noise ratio when the proper narrow bandwidth is selected. This improves intelligibility of weak signals on top of being just plain more sensitive than my Uniden 996XT scanner that I had been running.
I can also steer each received frequency to a different audio channel so the Road channel appears on the right while the Dispatcher talkback frequency is heard on the left channel. You won't miss a quick transmission while waiting for the scanner to toggle back and forth because SDR is always listening!
And unlike a commercial-grade radio from Mother Motorola, you're not stuck with the programming (via finicky PC programming), you can just change the frequency or any other parameter on the fly and be happy while still enjoying better than average radio performance.
Now I gotta figure out the best way to run this stuff economically out in the field. Stay tuned!
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