On the Web : September 2007

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.

Google Earth

If the summer months have kept you away from the computer, you may not be aware that Google Earth has been revised. What is Google Earth? It is a fascinating eye-in-the-sky look at plant Earth in amazing detail and the new 4.2 edition, released earlier this month, adds views and explorations of other objects in our solar system.

The jump off is at earth.google.com and be sure to look at the "Product Tour" page for additional details. Google Earth is a free download, but if you use it extensively, consider spending $20 (per year) for Google Plus. Access via a restricted server improves response time. In my opinion, the improved performance and some additional features are worth the small fee.

Google mentions a number of Web sites, but I have put together a more extensive compilation at our Bookmarks site. Have a read at mysite.verizon.net/trscons/bm_google.html and tell me about the Google and Google Earth-related sites you've found.

Additionally, I found a GPS Visualizer site at gpsvisualizer.com that includes a worldwide inventory of shortwave transmitters. I misplaced the source of the data file, but I'll forward it to anyone requesting via e-mail. I had some fun tracing down the sites of WWCR and WWRB, two stations I used to do Web work for. And I found a shortwave transmitter archive site at shortwavesites.googlepages.com that is worth investigating; there are more sites out there to be found that can be used as Google Earth overlays.

One tip: backup all your Google Earth places by collapsing all your markers into one line by clicking on the little arrow, then e-mail the single "My Places" marker to one of your e-mail accounts. If you change a computer or hard drive, then it is an easy matter to drag the all-in-one file into a new Google Earth installation.

Quickies

In the June 2007 column I wrote about Old Time Radio shows and WNAR in particular. The Web domain of the station has changed. Dropping the .org domain, WNAR is now accessible only through wnar-am.com, but all the wonderful shows are still available. When I am not around, I use a timer to automatically record our favorite shows, and then transfer the recording to a memory card for the telephone or a memory stick to plug into any other computer that's handy.

The sale price of the 4 GB Sandisk memory stick continues at the Radio Shack stores this month. It's a deal at just US $30.

Short edition

An unexpected admission to the hospital before the Labor Day weekend, surgery on Wednesday, and a slow recovery before going to back to work on the 11th disrupted our life in September 2007. The medicine was wicked and writing a column was not high on the list of things to do. But we're feeling better now...

In closing, many thanks to Ted, W2TAG, for putting our mobile installation back on the air on the 12th. A power connector broke. Ted made the repair look easy in a few minutes compared to my RSD-shaking hands and botching the job for about an hour.

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Revised 12 September 2007

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