I have figured out a way to employ the outstanding Volume Logic plug-in for WinAmp to boost the weak sauce audio that digital trunked systems emit.
I have installed the upgrade on the Key West feed just now.
I will install it on the Broward County feeds shortly.
2010-10-13
2010-09-17
Key West Poker Run
Poker? I don't even know her!
So this weekend is the Poker Run during which a bunch of party animals ride their motorcycles down U.S. 1 to Key West while picking up poker chips along the way. I don't know what they do with the chips once they get there, but it's a big deal.
I heard the Key West police switch to tatical channel 2 for a detail and it has to be for the Poker Run. To capture any traffic and new talkgroups I have locked out everything else, so no marine nor aircraft traffic for the weekend.
It should be interesting listening. Enjoy!
So this weekend is the Poker Run during which a bunch of party animals ride their motorcycles down U.S. 1 to Key West while picking up poker chips along the way. I don't know what they do with the chips once they get there, but it's a big deal.
I heard the Key West police switch to tatical channel 2 for a detail and it has to be for the Poker Run. To capture any traffic and new talkgroups I have locked out everything else, so no marine nor aircraft traffic for the weekend.
It should be interesting listening. Enjoy!
2010-09-15
Key West DSL better
The Key West feed has been switched to a reliable DSL link from the Comcast cable modem link.
It turns out that Comcast has made no provisions for backup power in Key West, so when the electricity goes out, which it does often, Comcast subscribers lose their Internet connection. It didn't matter that we had a big bruiser UPS battery backup supply running the local equipment because the other end of the link was down when the power went out.
Those days are over. We now have the ability to stay online upwards of several hours. And that's precisely the time when the Key West feed should get pretty interesting.
It turns out that Comcast has made no provisions for backup power in Key West, so when the electricity goes out, which it does often, Comcast subscribers lose their Internet connection. It didn't matter that we had a big bruiser UPS battery backup supply running the local equipment because the other end of the link was down when the power went out.
Those days are over. We now have the ability to stay online upwards of several hours. And that's precisely the time when the Key West feed should get pretty interesting.
2010-09-02
Broward feeds stabilized
I have rewired the spaghetti that carries my DSL through my house and went from a marginal 6.0dB signal/noise receive ratio up to 23.0dB s/n as reported by my Westell 6100 DSL modem. The reported data rate is back up to what I am paying for and web pages now load better than dial-up speed. Happy days are here again.
This also means that Bote's Mixer Board and Bote's Wild Feed should be as reliable as they were before the DSL changes took their toll.
One of these days I have to re-install the original machine so that the Mixer Board streamer quits crashing. For now if it crashes I have to intervene manually to restart it. Ya get what ya pay for.
This also means that Bote's Mixer Board and Bote's Wild Feed should be as reliable as they were before the DSL changes took their toll.
One of these days I have to re-install the original machine so that the Mixer Board streamer quits crashing. For now if it crashes I have to intervene manually to restart it. Ya get what ya pay for.
2010-08-29
Storms causing DSL outages
Broward County and south Florida have been getting storms all day long that should continue all night long from the looks of the RADAR.
The DSL has been going down about every 2 to 3 minutes which makes the streaming scanner feeds pretty much useless. By the time they reconnect and resume streaming, the damned DSL goes out again.
Nothing I can do about it until Monday when Shuddern Bell/BellSouth/AT&T wanders back into the office. Sorry about that, chief.
UPDATE 2010.08.30 17:43 - I have placed an order with AT&T DSL to downgrade my DSL service from DSL Ultra 1.5Mbps to DSL Lite 768kbps, but nothing will be done until tomorrow. The thing is out of sync more than it's on right now, so I have just turned off the streaming computer, no sense getting everybody's hopes up. I'll post here when it looks like things have cleared up. If this incessant stream of rain storms quits, that might give some temporary relief as well. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, you might hear some interesting reports from the U.S. Coast Guard on the Key West feed, so don't forget that.
The DSL has been going down about every 2 to 3 minutes which makes the streaming scanner feeds pretty much useless. By the time they reconnect and resume streaming, the damned DSL goes out again.
Nothing I can do about it until Monday when Shuddern Bell/BellSouth/AT&T wanders back into the office. Sorry about that, chief.
UPDATE 2010.08.30 17:43 - I have placed an order with AT&T DSL to downgrade my DSL service from DSL Ultra 1.5Mbps to DSL Lite 768kbps, but nothing will be done until tomorrow. The thing is out of sync more than it's on right now, so I have just turned off the streaming computer, no sense getting everybody's hopes up. I'll post here when it looks like things have cleared up. If this incessant stream of rain storms quits, that might give some temporary relief as well. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, you might hear some interesting reports from the U.S. Coast Guard on the Key West feed, so don't forget that.
Key West mystery transmissions FOUND!
For a while I have been hearing hourly voice identifications from the N9LCK repeater in Key West, yet I had the amateur radio group disabled. There might have been a few other stray transmissions that made their way over the Southernmost Feed.
It turns out that the BCD996T scanner got into Uniden's Close Call mode and that repeater was so strong that it triggered Close Call and came through, but without any channel tag information. I used the remote control feature of Freescan to watch it happen in real time and then turned off Close Call.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, already in progress.
It turns out that the BCD996T scanner got into Uniden's Close Call mode and that repeater was so strong that it triggered Close Call and came through, but without any channel tag information. I used the remote control feature of Freescan to watch it happen in real time and then turned off Close Call.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, already in progress.
2010-08-25
Key West power outage
A big thunderboomy rumbled through the lower Keys late last night and early this morning, knocking out electricity to the feed site.
Even though my own uninterruptible power supply kept the scanner, stream computer, and cable modem running nicely for the hour or so that electricity was out, the p.o.s. Comcast cable Internet service went out almost immediately. A call to Comcast confirmed that they have no backup power for their cable infrastructure in Key West, so when the power goes out, the customers are s.o.l.
Despite Comcast's superior downlink speed an order has been placed with Shuddern Bell/BellSouth/AT&T for a DSL line. At least they make an effort to provide service during a power outage, even if it doesn't last quite as long as stated publicly. Power outages are frequent in Key West so it behooves everybody on the island to plan accordingly.
p.s. I locked out the aircraft guard channel that was stuck on a weak carrier. I opened up the aircraft group yesterday, so we shall see how long it lasts. If it becomes too much trouble I'll just lock it out again.
Even though my own uninterruptible power supply kept the scanner, stream computer, and cable modem running nicely for the hour or so that electricity was out, the p.o.s. Comcast cable Internet service went out almost immediately. A call to Comcast confirmed that they have no backup power for their cable infrastructure in Key West, so when the power goes out, the customers are s.o.l.
Despite Comcast's superior downlink speed an order has been placed with Shuddern Bell/BellSouth/AT&T for a DSL line. At least they make an effort to provide service during a power outage, even if it doesn't last quite as long as stated publicly. Power outages are frequent in Key West so it behooves everybody on the island to plan accordingly.
p.s. I locked out the aircraft guard channel that was stuck on a weak carrier. I opened up the aircraft group yesterday, so we shall see how long it lasts. If it becomes too much trouble I'll just lock it out again.
2010-08-15
Back online
I don't know why, but the feed computer for Bote's Mixer Board and Bote's Wild Feed locked up hard. I was camping this weekend and could not access it remotely, but then I couldn't do anything with it locally either. I had to pull the plug and reset it the old fashioned way.
I gotta get this big UPS outfitted with big batteries and solve all this mess.
Back to normal ops for now, until the next storm rolls through.
I gotta get this big UPS outfitted with big batteries and solve all this mess.
Back to normal ops for now, until the next storm rolls through.
2010-08-08
Bad storms approaching
Severe thunderstorms approach southeast Florida as I type this. They were bad yesterday and knocked out electricity which caused the Broward feeds to go down. Because the uninterruptible power supplies here can't run everything (I discovered yesterday) if it looks like power is about to go out the feeds will go offline.
You will probably hear radio traffic that reveals how bad the storms are on the feeds themselves.
Otherwise, things should be almost normal, except that I can only hear Deerfield on the Wild Feed scanner until I get an external antenna up.
You will probably hear radio traffic that reveals how bad the storms are on the feeds themselves.
Otherwise, things should be almost normal, except that I can only hear Deerfield on the Wild Feed scanner until I get an external antenna up.
2010-08-01
Service interruption for Broward feeds
The Mixer Board and Wild Feeds will be off and on over the coming few days, so please bear with me. I am changing everything around here and outages are simply unavoidable.
If you only get music when you tune in, try back a few hours later because...you never know what you'll hear.
If you only get music when you tune in, try back a few hours later because...you never know what you'll hear.
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