Expect the unexpected with Bote's Boca Box.
The current home of the streaming computer might be in flux over coming weeks, so if it turns up missing then check back later--much later. It could be down for a day or down for a month, there's no telling right now.
But, if nothing happens, don't worry, be happy!
2009-04-13
2009-04-01
Spring Break mode over
It's about time to wrap up my exclusive coverage of Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale.
I have locked out FtL police district 2 once again since the bar district downtown is back to normal and the common thugs in the wild, wild west of Fort Lauderdale are more trouble to listen to than they are worth.
Also, I will be opening up Broward County fire North and South dispatch channels, allowing us to hear all the fire calls that are handled by Broward's E.C.C..
Note that there are many jurisdictions that handle their own dispatching in Broward County, such as Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Coral Springs, Margate, Deerfield Beach, and on and on. Apparently they operate in isolation which has bitten them in the butt before. Don't get sick or injured in Broward County.
Stay tuned for another big announcement coming tomorrow.
I have locked out FtL police district 2 once again since the bar district downtown is back to normal and the common thugs in the wild, wild west of Fort Lauderdale are more trouble to listen to than they are worth.
Also, I will be opening up Broward County fire North and South dispatch channels, allowing us to hear all the fire calls that are handled by Broward's E.C.C..
Note that there are many jurisdictions that handle their own dispatching in Broward County, such as Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Coral Springs, Margate, Deerfield Beach, and on and on. Apparently they operate in isolation which has bitten them in the butt before. Don't get sick or injured in Broward County.
Stay tuned for another big announcement coming tomorrow.
2009-03-14
Acoustic Research IR200 Feed Radio
My new Acoustic Research Infinite Radio 200 works well on my feeds. It's not perfect, but I can let it stream my scanner audio while I use my laptop or desktop for real computing without the two purposes clashing with each other.
Pros:
Cons:
RCA/Acoustic Research/Audiovox seem to be working on improving the operation of this tabletop Internet radio so I am confident that these and other complaints will be addressed.
So if you want a neat way to listen to my feeds and the thousands of other Internet radio stations, this is a pretty cool way to listen to them.
Pros:
- Stand-alone, no computer needed to listen to streams
- Saves 6 preset stations in buttons across the top
- Excellent audio quality
- Wired or WiFi connections
- Versatile: receives live streams, audio files stored on mp3tunes or USB thumb drives, music from Slacker, AM and FM radio
Cons:
- Displays channel tags as soon as the scanner sends them, but the audio is still delayed by about 2 minutes, so the tags make no sense
- Even the latest firmware is a little clunky
- Some menus are not as helpful as they might be
RCA/Acoustic Research/Audiovox seem to be working on improving the operation of this tabletop Internet radio so I am confident that these and other complaints will be addressed.
So if you want a neat way to listen to my feeds and the thousands of other Internet radio stations, this is a pretty cool way to listen to them.
2009-03-02
Mixer Board tags, talkgroups trimmed
I received my Acoustic Research Infinite Radio 200 today. Once I got it programmed, cycled the power to get it to do something useful, I found that it receives my streaming scanner feeds just fine. It has great audio, by the way.
It also shows the channel tags as the scanner receives them, rather than as they are played 60-120 seconds later out the radio's speaker. While there is nothing I can do about that, I can trim the length of the alpha tags so that they don't need scroll so much on the 18-character display screen.
Also, since this is Spring Break month here in Fort Lauderdale and the FtL cops have special details for Spring Breakers, I am locking out some of the chatty talkgroups that are not directly of interest. These include Broward Fire South and North dispatch talkgroups, which cover Davie, Hallandale, and other jurisdictions outside the area of focus for now. On the other hand, I have added Fort Lauderdale police district 2 which covers the popular downtown nightlife district along SW 2nd Street on either side of the FEC tracks. I will change things back next month after the dust settles.
It just keeps getting better and better, don't it?!
It also shows the channel tags as the scanner receives them, rather than as they are played 60-120 seconds later out the radio's speaker. While there is nothing I can do about that, I can trim the length of the alpha tags so that they don't need scroll so much on the 18-character display screen.
Also, since this is Spring Break month here in Fort Lauderdale and the FtL cops have special details for Spring Breakers, I am locking out some of the chatty talkgroups that are not directly of interest. These include Broward Fire South and North dispatch talkgroups, which cover Davie, Hallandale, and other jurisdictions outside the area of focus for now. On the other hand, I have added Fort Lauderdale police district 2 which covers the popular downtown nightlife district along SW 2nd Street on either side of the FEC tracks. I will change things back next month after the dust settles.
It just keeps getting better and better, don't it?!
2009-02-25
FtL Audio restored
Sorry about the loss of audio this past week. The culprit was your brilliant system administrator who was on travel and turned off most electronics in the radio shack, including the mixer that feeds audio to the streaming computer. Hence, no audio for one week.
It's all better now, so tune in on those Acoustic Research ARIR200 Internet Radios. They have just come back in stock at both Amazon.com and at J&R so check 'em out. I just ordered mine from Amazon.com this morning and even though I chose the free shipping it is already listed in the "shipped" category, so I might have it by this time next week!
It's all better now, so tune in on those Acoustic Research ARIR200 Internet Radios. They have just come back in stock at both Amazon.com and at J&R so check 'em out. I just ordered mine from Amazon.com this morning and even though I chose the free shipping it is already listed in the "shipped" category, so I might have it by this time next week!
2009-01-30
New life for the co-lo
It seems that my feeds will be staying put at the Dallas co-location facility after all.
Unfortunately, they had a major fiber router failure today which is the cause of the occasional interruptions in the stream. Oh well, you get what you pay for, folks.
I have no e.t.r. on the D.C. area feed, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna head up there when it's 20 degrees Fahrenheit with ice and snow all over the place. No sir! It'll get repaired when it gets repaired.
That is all.
Unfortunately, they had a major fiber router failure today which is the cause of the occasional interruptions in the stream. Oh well, you get what you pay for, folks.
I have no e.t.r. on the D.C. area feed, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna head up there when it's 20 degrees Fahrenheit with ice and snow all over the place. No sir! It'll get repaired when it gets repaired.
That is all.
2009-01-04
Dallas Shoutcast server going buh-bye
Now I have been informed that the Shoutcast server that you hit to listen to the various streams will be moving out of the Dallas co-location facility by the end of January. No home for it has been located yet.
This also means that there is no point in me going to great lengths to get the McLean Relay Station back online only to have everything go away a couple weeks later. This is a hobby, after all.
I have an idea and my buddy Lu has an idea, so if he ever gets back from traveling he can try out his idea. In the meantime, I need to investigate my idea to see how it goes.
If Lu's idea works, then your bookmarks should stay the same. Any other way will require a change to the address for the streams.
So when the colostreaming.com does not respond on any known port, you will know that dark day has come. I will update here as we make progress.
This also means that there is no point in me going to great lengths to get the McLean Relay Station back online only to have everything go away a couple weeks later. This is a hobby, after all.
I have an idea and my buddy Lu has an idea, so if he ever gets back from traveling he can try out his idea. In the meantime, I need to investigate my idea to see how it goes.
If Lu's idea works, then your bookmarks should stay the same. Any other way will require a change to the address for the streams.
So when the colostreaming.com does not respond on any known port, you will know that dark day has come. I will update here as we make progress.
2008-12-15
MRS down for the count
OK, that's it. I submit. D-Link and Linksys tie for worst piece of shit in consumer-grade networking junk.
Junk 2, Me 0.
After my brother-in-law spent wayyyyyy more time than should be required of an innocent bystander trying to get the HP laptop with D-Link WiFi card to associate with the p.o.s. Linksys WRT54G, we realized that the Linksys had decided to restore its factory defaults simply because it lost power.
Gee, that's nice! Thanks for that. I guess all those settings that I wasted time entering really weren't that important to save, after all. Enough time wasted coaxing this garbage to do what it is supposed to do.
So the McLean Relay Station, after a mere week online, will remain offline until I can grab the pile of junk that comprises it and haul it upstairs, plug it directly in to the offending Linksys, and give it a reliable hardwired Internet connection. 802.11 was simply not meant to be at that house. Then we shall see what else can break in my absence.
Depending on how things go, I will likely procure another router that is not a big piece of shit and replace the Linksys altogether. End of Linksys problems.
I doubt that it will be restored to service before the Presidential Inauguration. It is just a hobby for me, after all. And 1100 miles away.
Junk 2, Me 0.
After my brother-in-law spent wayyyyyy more time than should be required of an innocent bystander trying to get the HP laptop with D-Link WiFi card to associate with the p.o.s. Linksys WRT54G, we realized that the Linksys had decided to restore its factory defaults simply because it lost power.
Gee, that's nice! Thanks for that. I guess all those settings that I wasted time entering really weren't that important to save, after all. Enough time wasted coaxing this garbage to do what it is supposed to do.
So the McLean Relay Station, after a mere week online, will remain offline until I can grab the pile of junk that comprises it and haul it upstairs, plug it directly in to the offending Linksys, and give it a reliable hardwired Internet connection. 802.11 was simply not meant to be at that house. Then we shall see what else can break in my absence.
Depending on how things go, I will likely procure another router that is not a big piece of shit and replace the Linksys altogether. End of Linksys problems.
I doubt that it will be restored to service before the Presidential Inauguration. It is just a hobby for me, after all. And 1100 miles away.
2008-12-11
Bote's Mixer Board channel tags
Bote's Mixer Board in Fort Lauderdale now offers channel tags to serve you better.
The scanner is a BC 780 and undoubtedly it must report the control channel to Gordon's wonderful channel tagging utility known as Talkgroup Monitor. So you will see a lot of nonsense in between transmissions. But, at least you will see the source of what you are currently hearing. It is formatted to show the channel tag in the Title field of the data stream. WinAmp typically displays this before (to the left of) the name of the stream.
As mentioned previously, these channel tags are famously viewable in WinAmp (recommended), VLC, iTunes, and Windows Media Player. Give it a try.
The scanner is a BC 780 and undoubtedly it must report the control channel to Gordon's wonderful channel tagging utility known as Talkgroup Monitor. So you will see a lot of nonsense in between transmissions. But, at least you will see the source of what you are currently hearing. It is formatted to show the channel tag in the Title field of the data stream. WinAmp typically displays this before (to the left of) the name of the stream.
As mentioned previously, these channel tags are famously viewable in WinAmp (recommended), VLC, iTunes, and Windows Media Player. Give it a try.
2008-12-09
MRS: Murphy's Law strikes agan
Of course everything at the newly re-installed McLean Relay Station worked swimmingly while I was in town for over a week. Now that I am 1000 miles away back in sunny south Florida the UPS feeding the router and the server at the site decided to crap out, at least that's the problem based on initial reports.
Once repairs have been effected I will make the necessary tests and report back here that the feed is once again online.
***
UPDATE 17:49
So the APC UPS failed and has been removed from the system pending replacement.
The p.o.s. D-Link air card shoved into the laptop that rebooted just fine every single time I was there has decided that it now does not want to find the access point without a kick in the ass, and my father is ill-equipped to be putzing around with a laptop to get it back online.
So the damned thing stays offline until I can get somebody over there to make the laptop pretty-please find the access point, then it will automagically start streaming again.
And yet again I learn the lesson: don't use consumer-grade junk to do a professional job.
Once repairs have been effected I will make the necessary tests and report back here that the feed is once again online.
***
UPDATE 17:49
So the APC UPS failed and has been removed from the system pending replacement.
The p.o.s. D-Link air card shoved into the laptop that rebooted just fine every single time I was there has decided that it now does not want to find the access point without a kick in the ass, and my father is ill-equipped to be putzing around with a laptop to get it back online.
So the damned thing stays offline until I can get somebody over there to make the laptop pretty-please find the access point, then it will automagically start streaming again.
And yet again I learn the lesson: don't use consumer-grade junk to do a professional job.
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