I’ll be adding the links shortly, but I’ve got a new site roughed out… it’s along the lines of the previous post. I thought it may not have enough frequent posting to really be an eventful site, but it will have more info than I can devote here…. onlineradiotv.com. A good deal of what I want to put up initially is links to various broadcasters online feeds, especially those shortwave broadcasters with online content. However,
Category: Hobbies
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On the fence
I’ve got a lot of posts related to shortwave radio and radio broadcasts online (and tv broadcasts online.) Which got me to thinking how I wanted to organize the information. There’s a part of me that wants to just work it into the existing structure of this site, however…. I guess my organizational side says I’ve got enough that I’d like to do that I should probably not clutter up the “computer specific” site with those posts. (Much as I don’t clutter the computer site with my North Carolina Genealogy, or South Carolina Genealogy information/posts/etc.)
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Flightgear multi platform open source flight simulator revisited
Ok – I was thinking I might have been a bit too dismissive of flightgear. So, I took a second look (and a third and fourth.) In fact, I found a source rpm of the 0.99 version and rebuilt it for Mandriva 2006 and installed. And went in search of scenery for the local area. Now, to compare the two, X-Plane has more spit and polish and frankly the visuals (from the limited area I could see) are better. Flightgear is interesting from the standpoint that it’s open source (GPL) and can use a variety of flight models.
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X-Plane flight Simulator for Linux
I remember back when I was running Windows as my primary OS, one of my favorite diversions was Microsoft Flight Simulator (2000?) In fact, I clearly remember circumnavigating the globe in a Cessna in that program (landing at a small strip in Icelend, the old Hong Kong International airport and some airstrip in the Himalayas were the most challenging. In fact, for the altitude problems I didn’t think I’d make it past the himalayas…) Anyway, when I moved to linux it wouldn’t run under wine and there wasn’t much out there to compare that ran under linux.
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Shortwave Listening – Noise
We don’t live in a quiet world, cars, equipment, alarms, fans, tv’s radios, etc. etc. etc. We have a very noisy Radio Frequency world as well. All sorts of electronic devices can add to the cacophony that is natural RF noise. In my shortwave listening I’ve “crusaded” against RF noise in the house where at all possible and had pretty good results. I mentioned in an earlier post about a couple of “random wire” antennas I’d setup and the one wrapped around the house picked up quite a bit of noise.
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Shortwave Listening antenna
Ok – Now I’ve mentioned the Sony shortwave radio a couple times. It comes with a little (maybe 23 foot?) random wire antenna that really boosts reception over the internal “whip” antenna. In fact, I like using a wire antenna instead of the built in whip when possible. Let’s face it, the radio signals that you’re trying to pickup when listening to shortwave are MUCH longer than that whip antenna, in ideal you should have a bigger antenna.
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Getting into Shortwave Radio Listening
It’s not often that I get to talk about some of my hobbies on this site. The Genealogy sites are reserved for one of those hobbies, but time certainly takes it’s toll and frankly it’s hard to have much time for my hobbies these days. One of those that I’ve developed in the last few years is shortwave radio listening. I’ve mentioned a software program that can help you use nternet resources to find programming to tune in to (or figure out what you heard.) I’ve talked about my favorite radio (the Sony ICF-SW7600GR).
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Very good shortware radio Sony ICF-SW7600GR
For many years I’d been curious about shortwave radio. Finally maybe five years ago, I broke down and bought a cheap ($30) shortwave radio to see what I could hear. It was ok. Probably among the best AM reception I had out of a radio, but it had analog tuning and a small dial, the switch to switch between shortwave bands was kind of tough to get “just right” and it seemed like I never found the same thing twice.
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Electronics and Surplus stuff
For some time I’ve meant to do a post on some of my favorite places to find odd electronics components (and surplus stuff…) Something about electronics components is that there’s so much potential… anyway, I just placed an order with All Electronics for a handful of odds and ends. They’re probably the newest place on my “I’ve got to look at the catalog when it comes in” list. You’ll find pretty much nothing (or very little) in the way of finished consumer electronics….
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Risk using Google Maps shut down.
I’m afraid it was something I expected would happen, *(although you always hope a company will look on such imitation as a form of flattery and be cooperative/excited about the new application of an old game idea…), but the implementation of the strategy game Risk using Google Maps has been shut down by a cease and desist letter from lawyers retained by Hasbro.