I have just uploaded the latest version of the slides for the Apollo Overview / Getting Started presentation I have been giving. Here are the links to different formats:
Remember, Apollo is still pre-release and thus all information in the slides is subject to change. The information is accurate as of January 2007.
You can find more infomation on Apollo here.
Well, I have been pretty frustrated for the past week or so, as I have realized that there is just too much RF and electrical interference in my house. It is making shortwave listening difficult. Some of the interference is from my house (electrical system is really noisy), and some is from the neighbors.
As I posted earlier, I put up a long wire antenna, and this drastically improved my signal strength. However, it lead to two problems. First, the increased antenna power is overloading my receiver, and I am receiving AM stations all through the shortwave bands. Second, the antenna I currently have up comes directly into the house, and thus picks up all of the RF noise from the house. I put up a test antenna that comes into the house via a shielded cable, but reception was very bad with a lot of noise (I am guessing I did something wrong).
Just a quick fyi, but now that we have moved the ActionScript 3 Open source libraries over to Google Code, we finally have a bug base so anyone can submit issues.
So, if you run into a bug with any of the libraries, or have a feature request, please take a minute or two to log a bug and let us know about it.
Also, if you run into an issue, make sure to check the bug bases to see if someone else has reported on it, and whether it has been fixed in source, or there is a workaround.
We have just finished moving all of the open source ActionScript 3 Libraries over to Google code. Not only does this provide a much better infrastructure for the libraries (providing source control, mailing list, bug base, etc…), but more importantly, it finally makes it easy for us to allow other developers to contribute to the projects.
Here are the links to the new project pages:
Note, the original Labs page still exists, although it now points to the individual projects on Google code. The old subversion repository on labs still exists, but is no longer being updated for these projects. We are keeping it around to provide revision history for the projects.
I have had really good reception tonight, and scanning around I came across a Radio Marti broadcast being jammed by Cuba (I am assuming it is Cuban). First, the details:
Radio Marti :0738 UTC - 0745 UTC, 6030 Khz. SIO 312. Male and Female have a conversation in Spanish. Jamming being broadcast over program (sounds like running water / brook).
Checking Passport to World Band Radio, it confirms Radio Marti at that time and frequency, and that the broadcast is jammed.
As I mentioned the other day, I have been receiving what I believe to be a grayline propagation broadcast of Radio Free Asia (RFA) programming to the Uyghur region of China from Tajikistan every evening around dusk. However, I had not been able to positively ID it, as the programming was just music.
Well, I spent quite a bit of time researching this to try to confirm the original. I download Uyghur music to see if it sounded similar to the music programming I was getting (it did), I searched for and listened to the RFA Uyghur broadcasts to see if they matched (they didn’t), and I contacted Radio Free Asia to ask them about their Uyghur programming.
Well, I finally got around to putting up a new antenna. I had been using about a 40 foot wire that ran out my window and up the hill along the group. I had been picking up a lot of interference, and not really able to pull in that many stations.
Well, today, I ran about 60 feet of wire, but elevated it from a pole on the hill to the side of my house. Pretty simple, but the difference in reception tonight has been amazing. I have been getting tons of stations, but the best two of the night were:
I checked out voiceofkorea.org tonight (the website for the Voice of Korea shortwave broadcast from North Korea), and found the following on their website:
COUP D’ETAT
CONSCIENCE AGAINST REASONS OF STATE
VOICE OF KOREA IS TEMPORALLY NOT IN OPERATION
Further information will be given on Tuesday 02/01/07
info@voiceofkorea.org 0044.(0)79.0880.8552 Jean-Baptiste Kim
Anyone know what is going on?
Updated January 1, 2007 : The website has been updated with a repudiation of the North Korean regime:
Shortwave reception has been very poor lately, mostly due to a broken streetlight that is causing massive interference with my receiver, so I have really only been able to listen to major stations, and haven’t been able to try to find any far off stations or other stuff. However, last night when I was doing a scan of the frequencies, I came across a very strong numbers station broadcast. This is my first numbers station since I have gotten back into Shortwave.
