On the Web : October 2004

If you enjoy reading 'On the Web', your ham radio club can publish this column on an exchange basis with SJRA. Contact Ted, , for the exchange details.		Our contributions to the South Jersey Radio Association club bulletin "Harmonics" includes lengthy Web addresses. As the URL's can be difficult or a nuisance to type into your Web browser, the postings here should make it easier to get to the Web sites SJRA members are interested in. Look for the posting at w2xq.com at the time "Harmonics" is scheduled for delivery in the south Jersey area. Questions, suggestions or contributions are always welcome.
		Solar X-rays  Geomagnetic Field  N 3 K L

What PC should I buy?

Dell? CompUSA? Staples? Something else? Ask the question on the club repeater and a whole bunch of people just listening come out from hiding to offer opinions. Is there ever a solution? I haven't heard one, but the topic surely generates a lively discussion. In the last month I think I heard at least 4 such discussions, but no one except El Presidente picks up on comments on the Apple Mac.

But not to worry, I still on occasion fire up a Win98 box. A Ziff-Davis e-mail crossed the electron barrier in mid-September and I think it makes for interesting reading. It surely will extend the "what PC should I buy?" conversation. Lance Ulanoff writes "Beware of Misleading Newspaper Circulars."

"It's a bit ironic — the head producer of our PCMag.com site lambasting newspaper circular ads. But that's just what Lance Ulanoff is up to this week, as he puts those Sunday supplements to the test. Just how good are the prices that show up snuggled betwixt Snoopy and Dilbert? Not so hot. His analysis shows why you're better shopping online, and using those circulars to wrap fish or smack flies."

Newspaper Ads Just Don't Cut It:
eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-302-1-1-860399-12917-1

Spam, Microsoft and a Poor Attitude

Some people listening on 145.29 or other local repeaters have heard my poor-attitude comments on the subject of Bill Gates, Microsoft, and spam e-mail. When Microsoft's earnings exceed the GNP of most countries on this planet, I have wondered aloud about the seemingly unwillingness of the company to fix its software. As this column was about to be shipped off to the publisher, I found that hope springs eternal. From a Ziff-Davis newsletter of October 5:

"Microsoft Will Enter Spyware Biz"

"Gates has never had a virus, but spyware has infested his home. That's why the big software company plans on investing hundreds of millions of dollars to eradicate malware. Oh, and the big guy says sp*m's more than halfway solved. For that and more, check out our story. Plus, we've got details on the new embedded Windows targeted at retail!"

"Microsoft to Tackle Spyware:"
http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-317-1-1-860399-13451-1

"Embedded Windows for Retail:"
http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-317-1-1-860399-13454-1

Audio on the Web

With the hurricanes stomping around the Caribbean before turning to the US, radio listening has taken on a different flavor.

Open up an MP3 player and enter http://war.str3am.com:7550/listen.pls for Power 106 in Kingston, Jamaica. Good audio, good music and there were extensive Ivan-related open, closed and damage announcements day and evening. The evening “Dear Pastor” show is a hoot.

Unfortunately the other stations we found in Jamaica seem all to be on subscription service.

ZBVI-780 in the British Virgin Islands is easier to hear with a Windows Media Player (WMP) tuned to http://zbvi.avstream.com/zbvi than with a loop antenna set to null WBBM in Chicago.

"Wait a minute..." you say. "I am on a dial-up line. Can I hear these stations?" The short answer is, in most cases, "yes." Many stations stream audio at rates of 20 or 36 kbps. The 56k modem nominally connects at 42 to 48 kbps. Obviously a higher-speed connection is better, but a dial-up connection is not the event killer it once was.

Antiqua & Barbuda has a relatively new FM station too, although I’ve not heard audio yet. I think it is a matter of timing. Try Crusader Radio 107.5 FM by entering mms://10.108.21.1/crusaderradio into your WMP player.

Staying in Antiqua, snap on the telly to mms://abs-m3.act2000.net/abstv and watch the 15-minute live newscast at 9 p.m. Atlantic. I watched news of the hurricanes and saw details not reported stateside. At 9:30 most weeknights, after a run of commercials and announcements, there were feature-length American movies.

Radio Anquilla 95.5 FM has a variety of different programming between day and night, and it includes BBC Caribbean news. Lots of announcements and music, but the music is not what I would call music of the Caribbean. The WMP audio quality is great at http://main.str3am.com/radioaxa.

ZNS, Bahamas, also makes it easy to keep up with local news, including hurricane news. The AM 1540 outlet is repeated on http://www.znsbahamas.com/stream/1540.m3u using an mp3 player of your choice. The TV output at http://stream.sun-isp.com/zns.sdp requires QuickTime; the audio and video quality is very good. A newscast runs at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Bouncing over to Barbados, the Voice of Barbados on 92.9 FM airs via http://stream.caribsurf.com/star1 in a WMP player, and BBS (Barbados Broadcasting System) on 90.7 FM via http://barbadosadvocate.com/bbs.ram does not have a Web page that I can find. BBS is only mentioned on the site’s home page. The Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation is home to 3 stations; only Radio 900 AM is on the Web at http://www.live365.com/play/307076.

In Trinidad, keep an eye and ear on Talk Radio i95.5 FM http://i955fm.com/; the audio link seems to be out of service near the end of September. Ditto for Power102FM http://power102fm.com/.

These new Caribbean stops on the Web should prove interesting as the hurricane season ends. What have you found? Write or e-mail me.

Reality Checks

In the past few months I have touched on topics including Internet Relay Chat (Jun), press services (Jul), instant messeging (Aug), and RSS/XML newsreaders (Sep). For those who tackled some of these subjects, I would like very much to hear about your success or troubles in getting started with them. Have any of these items make life at the computer keyboard more interesting, or easier, or was it a waste of time and energy? If you missed any of our columns, look up the past Harmonics issues at http://sjra.org/ or the "On The Web" columns at http://w2xq.com/. "On the Web" first appeared in Harmonics in November 2003.

Club Bulletin Exchange

Ted, W2TAG, is interested in doing a club bulletin exchange that would include "On The Web." If you have a friend in a ham radio club elsewhere in the USA, Canada or the world involved in a local radio club, please consider asking that person to read the this column on w2xq.com. Club bulletin exchange details with SJRA can be made by contacting directly. Thanks!

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