Wednesday June 30, 2021 2:48 PM CDT -- Artisan Radio Sends Word --
Artisan
Radio will be returning to the airwaves and the internet soon. We've
just gone through an unprecedented heat wave over 100o for days here in the Pacific northwest. - Artisan Radio
The Blog has been awaiting your return and has held your No. 1 spot on the DEMAND RADIO page.
Wednesday June 30, 2021 9:49 AM CDT -- About the Postal Service --
Benjamin
Franklin's invention, the U.S. Postal Service, remains in tatters
following Trump's destructive appointment of Louis DeJoy to destroy it
from within for the objective of privatizing it to benefit their
rich pals. Our new Prezzy Figurehead, Joe, hasn't done anything
about the problem, and household bills are arriving
late containing the caveat
that mail slowdown might result in late payments, pushing us to use
online payment methods in lieu of mail. Meanwhile, the Vice
Presidential Figurehead still hasn't been to Europe.
Tuesday June 29, 2021 6:40 PM CDT -- New Zealand On a Watt --
New
Zealand allows legal radio broadcasting with 1 Watt of power on a
select portion of the FM band and Rag-FM at Ragland, New Zealand, run by
Johny Cole dominates at 107.7 MHz.
Tuesday June 29, 2021 10:29 AM CDT -- Everything Rehashed --
Why
didn't we get cicadas here on the campus of Home School College and
what does it matter? I also wonder why, despite spending much time in
the vegetative splendor of our forests and gardens I've only attracted
one tic? Maybe they don't like me? While we're on the subject I want to
give a shout out to the spiders that keep our radio studios bug free. I
visit them regularly and there they are backed into their
little web-sheds they build for themselves, waiting days or
weeks for hapless multi-leggers to get all sticky-stuck in the
cobbyweb.
The collapse of buildings should strike terror into
the hearts of those working or residing in large edifices, but like
airplane crashes, the statistical number of falling skyreachers is on
the low side. My first FM job was up on the 21st floor of a solid
building with a 500' radio tower on the roof. During a lengthy
tape I'd climb the stairs to an observation deck about 30-feet up the
tower and watched night barges scooting on the Mississippi. FM job
number 2 was in the 7th-floor penthouse of a cheaply built hotel, but
before it could collapse it was torn down. FM job number 3 or 4 was on
the 16th floor of a 19-storey building which remains standing today as
something of a historic landmark. KDX-FM doesn't count as a job, but
the Internet Building is about the size of a toll booth and at risk of
blowing away during one of these storms.
I'm wondering how
safe it is sitting this close to the new Smart Meter so pleasantly
pushed by the electric company without the slightest billing reduction.
The KDX work station is jammed right up against this outer wall
directly alongside that busy telemetry hub and may even have blown my
RF-Explorer Spectrum Analyzer, which I held near the new meter to view
microwave intensity. Now all the Analyzer does is flash off and on at
1-second intervals. There's no time to worry about the broken Analyzer
while I'm busy wondering if soy oil is killing us. I have reasons for
being dubious about it because of the sardines (an as yet untold story) and see it too listed as
a peanut butter ingredient. You don't seem that interested.
Tuesday June 29, 2021 7:27 AM CDT -- MainStream Media in the U.S. Ignoring Important News The U.S. case against Jullian Assange has fallen apart. Don't look for details on major news outlets.
Monday June 28, 2021 6:09 PM CDT -- I Think I Know -- It
may be important that the acronym UFO has been replaced by the new
acronym UAP. The change may actually contain clues as to what's being
witnessed by those who see unusual events up in the above-o-sphere. The word
'unidentified' is the sole description common to both acronyms. But the
new word 'aerial' places these observations 'in the air' while not
claiming they are 'flying'. And the word 'object', which connotes a
physically solid structure, is replaced by the word 'phenomenon', which
allows the possibility that what is seen is not physical. Play with
those thoughts and maybe you'll figure out what might be taking place.
Monday June 28, 2021 8:41 AM CDT -- A Thought -- According
to news reports the crime rate in the U.S. has risen sharply in
recent time and with little verification the cause is informally blamed
on discontent brought on by the COVID situation. But I suspect
something else might explain the increase in crime. I wonder if it
might relate to a general work stoppage or slowdown by police in the
face of recent charges and convictions holding them accountable
for brutal treatment of citizens. In a certain sense
it stands to reason given the added fact that some suspects in police encounters
are actually dangerous and requiring of forceful handling, making
police work a risky occupation no matter how the job is carried out.
Over 100 police personnel have quit the Minneapolis Police Department
in the wake of the Derek Chauvin case, giving credence to my outlook.
It's a thought.
Sunday June 27, 2021 7:52 PM CDT -- Invasion at 900 MHz -- Cards
in the mail started arriving with jovial messages from the electric
company about the upcoming installation of Smart Meters which would
bring success and happiness by their advanced improvements and
features. But the messages, printed together with smiling faces hired
by the promotion department to convey feelings of well being, were
illusively vague and our attempt to glean exactly what benefits we as
household occupants would experience left us puzzled. The reality of
the matter is what the brochures and fliers did not say.
Sunday June 27, 2021 1:04 PM CDT -- Ducking In and Out of Existence -- There's
a lot of yard neatening waiting to be done, but as the
landscaper holding monopoly on all of our campus work, every day is a
matter of determining a reason to postpone doing anything. High heat
and pending storms are very useful in this regard. Philosophy helps too
as we know that today is merely an illusion which will stop existing in
less than 24-hours. Why would anybody work on a day that doesn't exist?
One cannot escape entirely, but we can limit the number of real
workdays by reducing our presence in any one of them.
Sunday June 27, 2021 12:51 NOON -- Look at the Proof --
The best proof that there's intelligent life in outer space is the fact that it hasn't come here.
- Sir Arthur C. Clarke, writer, inventor, futurist
Sunday June 27, 2021 12:32 NOON -- Radio Ministry and Cruets -- Officials
of the Church of All Worlds (CAW) have no idea that I am planning a
glorious future for the NeoPagan religion, and one of these days I'll
make contact to let them know that they have a seminary and now a
radio station. I'm even thinking about a media ministry reaching out
from the Blare OnAir radio program, on the hunt for some of those
Christian radio licenses that glut the airwaves. We'll need a well
chosen altar wine, plenty of research already having been done in
previous years pointing toward semi-sweet red, but first we must know
if CAW has altars. Churches employ quite a large inventory of
specialized furniture ranging from altars to pews to lecturns and
pulpits to organ lofts, and it befalls us to determine the physical
layout of a Pagan church. As perhaps the only two actual earth
ministries of our time we must be sure Reverend Billy and his
Extinction Talk work at the Church of StopShopping are allied together
with CAW in a common bond to save the planet.
Sunday June 27, 2021 11:25 AM CDT -- Founding of a Virtual Seminary -- No
sooner having elected myself a member of the Church of All Worlds (CAW)
I already plan to found a virtual seminary, even prior to knowing what
it is I now believe. Scholarship starts with a review of Paganism,
since the CAW is NeoPaganistic, and this brings to mind what the
Catholic school had to say during the years while I was involuntarilly
sent to a school run by nuns in square bonnets. I was told that Pagans
were like a skin disease and would eventually be wiped out by the
spread of Christianity. Henceforth a form of body language was used as
a pejorative shorthand in which any mention of the word 'pagan' was
accompanied by a facial grimace. Later life made the grimace permanent
as part of the natural disfigurement of old age. As young students the
religious instruction was not put to the test of critical thought,
something omitted from Christian instruction so as to shackle the mind
and throw away the key. Trusting students accepted any nonsense told
them by costume wearing faculty not only draped in redundant titles,
i.e., sister, mother, father, but important enough to own their
own gradeschool buildings.There's no reason we of CAW can't have
buildings, but might do best by avoiding architects from Surfside,
Florida.
Sunday
June 27, 2021 8:57 AM CDT -- Religious Growth --
As I see it, we belong to religious organizations
for the same reason we mow grass and wash the car. We want the
neighbors to know that we are regular people so that they will look
elsewhere for someone to suspect of being snobbish or trashy. I myself
have risked being too open about my snobbishness and perhaps ought to
better conceal my atheism, which more than anything can
lead to banishment from society. Having a religion is like health
insurance, it provides a layer of protection from the superstitiously
nosy. Religion comes in many brands, and leaving one usually means
joining another. For someone like me who is easily bored by bad music
choosing a religion is a fussy exercise, but everyone knows that God
works in mysterious ways which is very permissive and serves to explain
why yesterday, while reading about the author Robert Heinlein, I was
introduced to the Church of All Worlds, and I not only found an instant
home, but already plan to rise in church hierarchy once I know the
titles and honorifics employed by this organization. I might even
conduct a fund drive.
Friday June 25, 2021 9:51 PM CDT -- Why People Like Us Work in Radio --
The
only good show on commercial radio in the U.S. is the Walter M.
Sterling Show on Sunday nights on the kind of better stations that can
be heard coming in by skywave. In this small snippet from June 20 he
explains what we always knew internally about ourselves as radio people
but never expressed out loud.
Friday June 25, 2021 9:04 PM CDT -- Podcasts Are Radio in Outer Space --
You
won't find them on the terrestrial dial but billions of them occupy a
night sky of the mind where would-be stars strive to be heard by
earthly downloaders. There are more podcasts floating around than there
are potential listeners.
"We need to check you to make sure you're not the
enemy we're protecting you from."
- John McAfee about the Department of Homeland
Security
Friday June 25, 2021 9:10 AM CDT -- Storm Time --
3:35
AM CDT a very efficient storm announced itself with a nearby BAM!
followed by an onrush of pouring rain and within minutes retreated into
peaceful quiet. KDX signed on for "Fault Lines" from RT America, but by
8 AM a nightlike darkness brought another approaching storm sending KDX
into hunkerdown safety mode, disconnected for 2-hours of continual
distant thunder that failed to arrive at close range, putting us
finally back in operation by 10 AM. Forecasts predict over a week of on
off storms as June reaches its last already next Wednesday.
Thursday June 24, 2021 12:54 NOON CDT -- Flashes & Bangs
A
trail of thunderstorms is traveling from the southwest toward the
northeast with our Homeshool College Campus mere miles southeast of the
whole prideless parade. We are sitting here watching the
Thursday June 24, 2021 8:12 AM CDT -- An Experimental Exercise --
Correspondent
Boomer suggested an Arduino device for hosting our website and radio
servers, and we're ready to conference on the concept and sketch a plan
for giving it a trial. First question, should we be talking about
Arduino or Raspberry Pi, two brands of more or less the same thing?
Second, will these small-scale computer boards respond to Windows
based software such as Abyss Web Server, Icecast Streaming Server and
the suite of softwares driven by Zara automation ware? If not, is there
a whole other way of digital life? We are perfect summer school
students because our minds are so empty.
Thursday June 24, 2021 6:27 AM CDT -- Non-Suicidal --
'If
I suicide myself, I didn't': old McAfee Tweet
Wednesday June 23, 2021 4:20 PM CDT -- John McAfee Died in Spanish
Prison --
According
to Huffington Post John McAfee was found dead in a prison cell this
afternoon. It's only been 'this afternoon' for a short time, yet the
Wikipedia page on McAfee is already updated to include the death.
'Suicide' is reported as the probable cause.
No
matter how much time there is, it's always temporary.
- Carl Blare, on duty
Wednesday June 23, 2021 2:31 PM CDT -- Beefy Breefs --
Been
tinkering with the digital audio quality of the chain of applications
generating radio program audio for broadcasting and streaming and have
achieved an overall improvement by carefully analyzing Hans Von
Zutphen,s wonderful Stereo Tools Processor and determining that all the
presets available were optimized for musical tastes, so we customized
it
for voice-emphasis and stand proud of new KDX High Fidelity!
Made
tonight's travel arrangements to include the RR route of Mexico's
popular El Chepe passenger train from Chihuahua to San Rafael, a ride
through scenic Copper Canyon, then back to the States with Amtrak from
Emeryville, California, to Reno, Nevada. KDX on the rails starting
about 6:30 PM Eastern.
The security department learned that
author Cory Doctorow is this week's guest for the annual Philosophy
Talk 'Summer Reading List' edition, explaining why his name became
attached to the 'Strange Email' of the other day. 'Our government'
isn't much of a reader so it's anyone's guess what their analysis will
conclude. Probably the main thing is the kind of 'make work'
that keeps them employed.
Wednesday June 23, 2021 5:02 AM CDT -- Radio Trains --
Word went out that KDX was featuring all night
train travel & Brooce came aboard to enjoy his own sleeper
compartment.
The
train was great!! I found it to be very relaxing and it helped me go to
sleep. It ran for hours and hours! It was very easy to connect to the
KDX stream. - Brooooooce
KDX
will be on the rails again tonight, then for the remainder of the week,
Thursday into the weekend, we will be signing off after dark for
possibility of nightime thunderstorms.
Tuesday June 22, 2021 8:53 AM CDT -- A Plague Opera --
Tuesday June 22, 2021 6:39 AM CDT -- Morning Briefs --
The
first pleasantly cool overnight of the summer here in KDX Land was
spent on a 12-hour audio trainride through the Swiss Alps, arriving at
6 this morning for "Fault Lines" with Shane Stranahan and Jamarl
Thomas. Where will we go tonight?
Further analysis of "Strange
Email (Mon. 6/21)" gives detail to our probability suspectations noting
that the missive of interest is related to weekly correspondence from
the "Philosophy Talk" radio program produced at Stanford University,
our curiously irregular mail item displaying notification sent to Cory
Doctorow and incidentally listing every radio station affiliated with
the program. Mr. Doctorow is not a radio station but would quite
reasonably be attached to a philosophy enterprise and "your government"
would understandably glue its nose to such exchange because to them
"philosophy" is a potential "public safety" menace in need of "future
analysis". Even philosophers don't know what philosophy is.
Cory
Doctorow is a Known Intellectual Doctorow
believes that copyright laws should be liberalised to allow for free
sharing of all digital media. He has also advocated filesharing.
He argues that copyright holders should have a monopoly on selling
their own digital media and that copyright laws should
not be operative unless someone attempts to sell a product that is
under someone else's copyright. Doctorow is
an opponent of digital rights management
and claims that it limits the free sharing of digital media
and frequently causes problems for legitimate users (including
registration problems that lock users out of their own purchases
and prevent them from being able to move their media to other devices).
Monday June 21, 2021 3:47 PM CDT -- Tiny Fawn Saved from Big Lake by
Goldendoodle
This
program stream is now part of the KDX Demand Radio page.
Monday June 21, 2021 2:18 PM CDT -- Strange Email --
The
Inbox today brought an irregular Email indirectly related to one of the
radio programs scheduled by KDX, and what stood out the most was this
message in all caps:
THIS
EMAIL HAS BEEN INTERCEPTED BY YOUR GOVERNMENT
AND WILL BE RETAINED FOR FUTURE ANALYSIS.
"My"
government? I would hope that any government of mine would do a better
job of identifying itself. I have not asked for nor been asked by any
government nor component of government to permit viewing or analyzing
of emails sent to or from my account. I am embarrassed that "my"
government, as it claims to be, would waste working hours rifling
through my messages and have no confidence that its analysis of any
written information would further 'public safety'.
Monday June 21, 2021 9:26 AM CDT -- Carl Ducks Into the Cafe's
& Nightclubs of Film Noir --
Common
to almost all film noir black and white movies of the 40s were the
dives, the social hangouts, where crimes were planned, affairs
arranged, and sexy singers sparked jealous rivalries. Carl decides to
link Blare OnAir with a few of these in a bid to enhance his own social
life.
Monday June 21, 2021 7:12 AM CDT -- SUMMER
SOLSTICE 2 --
Two
solsti? No, it's the same one that started at 11:32 PM EDT last night
and continues through today. Technically, then, and as a matter of
math, today is the longest day of the year, meaning, longest daylight,
shortest night. But that's not the only thing we have to report. Last
night the KDX operational area was targeted by violent weather which
took down trees, powerlines, and caused flooding. By good fortune our
radio campus here at the Internet Building went unscathed and so far
we're still trying to calculate where the worst weather actually
occurred. Today could bring more fierce weather and we may need to sign
off to seek a place of shelter.
Sunday June 20, 2021 4:18 PM CDT -- Summer Radio Travel --
KDX
listeners will be riding train sound exporting ears to Europe, Taiwan
and often the United States as a relief from talk programming, which
will be cut back until it's cool enough to pay attention to it. We'll
never actually reach any destinations, but the travel experience will
be calming in itself because these train sounds are fully air
conditioned and passage is paid courtesy of The Blare Blog. Perhaps we
can meet up at Spreepark.
Sunday June 20, 2021
10:00 AM CDT -- Fitting In --
Everyone
wants to be accepted by neighbors, coworkers, fellow soldiers and
classmates. And most of us know what's required to be a member in good
standing of everyday society, but expectations change over time and
it's important to stay up to date on what's in and what's out. For
example blacks, gays, Jews and the handicapped were once open season
for ridicule and criticism, but in the modern day great care is best
taken to praise and respect them and any avoidance of intermingling
must be done on the down low. Naturally we still want someone to look
down on and hold in contempt, and the safest candidates include the
homeless, atheists, the petless and sports haters. And although it
might be less
conspicuous, it remains suitable to be self deprecating, but only for
men.
Sunday June 20, 2021 6:44 AM CDT -- The Fugitive Earth
Instead
of eagerly searching for so-called 'alien life' elsewhere in the
universe, we humans should learn from ourselves as we distrust each
other, annihilate one another based on religion and nationality, and
indifferently snuff other life on earth. That galactic life we seek
might be like us and should be avoided.
Sunday June 20, 2021 -- THE
SUMMER SOLSTICE --
Saturday June 19, 2021 2:07 PM CDT -- FCC Considering Wireless Mic Rule
Upgrades
Saturday June 19, 2021 8:46 AM CDT -- Sun Drunk
Looks
like we ended up with at least two holidays both named Juneteenth. All
the media voices are saying today is Juneteenth, while all day
yesterday we heard that Friday was Juneteenth because it fell
on Saturday. Some people actually think that slavery ended
yesterday, but
that's not literally the case, as we still have the 13th Amendment
which proclaims the end of slavery EXCEPT that persons convicted of
crime may be put to slave labor. What makes it fair is that the 13th
Amendment applies to all criminals regardless of race. Also mentioned
on public radio is that several corporations employ child slave labor
in other countries, Africa being one example. Well, Africa isn't a
country, but I'm not officially on duty right now and don't have all
the facts available. Anyway, KDX endorses child labor but not child
slave labor. We believe that parents, a form of slave in that they are
held legally responsible for their children, should be offered the
opportunity to enter contracts making their children available for well
supervised job assignments as a means of bolstering family income and
preventing feral children from playing the knockout game on senior
citizens and car jacking.
Friday June 18, 2021 4:36 PM CDT -- Dreams Can Affect Attitudes About
People
There
is a disembodied woman's voice on local public radio that
sounds
very stuck up, self-officious and smug. Her enunciation is so perfectly
spoken that one hears blatant conceit. Never having seen this person I
can only imagine what she looks like, but that didn't stop my dream
from giving her a squat plumpish body clothed in a pants suit with
straw colored hair cropped short and curly much like that of a forklift
operator. I recognized her by her voice, mixing into the dream from the
bedside radio, and I spoke to her saying something like, "I know who
you are from your voice. You're the lady who gives all the underwriting
announcements." She completely ignored me and didn't even look to see
who I was. Her entourage of NPR all-female co-workers ignored me as
well, and I awoke with a new grudge not only toward her pompous voice
but all the viraginous women on public radio.
Friday June 18, 2021 4:31 PM CDT -- Windows 11 for Jeentoonth
Friday June 18, 2021 4:13 PM CDT -- Heat Management
Radio streaming from KDX closed early today because listening to the
radio loses its appeal at 99o
F. We learned that some areas are experiencing power outages but our
electric utility reports our system is 100% operational with
no
expectation of problems through the weekend. To relieve pressure
on web servers the kdx.com website will close early this
evening,
as per
our usual policy.
Friday June 18, 2021 4:12 PM CDT -- Questionable Timing --
Perhaps Pride Month isn't the best place to schedule Father's Day.
Friday June 18, 2021 10:16 AM CDT --
I
don't know what I could say that would help. If I did, I'd say it.
- C. Blare, on holiday
Friday June 18, 2021 9:24 AM CDT -- Playing COVID By Ear
The
Blare Blog has said little about the pandemic because we have not
determined a 100% complete and reliable source of information on the
coronavirus crisis and do not want to venture into guesswork, a lot of
which seems to be feeding public confusion and disorganization on the
subject. We have been impressed over the weeks by Adam Curry and John
C. Dvorak's 'No Agenda' shows as heard on KDX with their detailed and
thorough breakdowns of sketchy wording in many news reports, possibly
revealing a weakness in the ability of journalists to translate
scientific data into precise language. We would like to see better
compilation of vaccine side-effects and explanation of why many health
care workers are averse to vaccinating. The free-loaders serving in
political office continue to muddy the water by persistently
politicizing the pandemic, contributing to a circus of fools squabbling
over masks and aiming vigilante attacks on Asian people, most of whom
are not Chinese, because facts don't play a role in right-wing
patriotics. In fact too much official government time is spent
pushing the notion that China is to blame. We could spend that time
actually managing the emergency, but there I go with guesswork.
Friday June 18, 2021 7:18 AM CDT -- This Weekend is Getting Crowded
Before
climate crisis plunged the long days of summer into a heatwave so
fierce that the George Foreman Grill is no longer necessary to cook
picnic food, we already looked foreward to the longest day of the year
on the June 20th summer solstice, the best thing about which is that
days thereafter get shorter by a minute per day perchance to become
cooler. That much would be enough for the ordinary hot head but some
commercial marketing promoter made sunday also father's day, a day of
shame for many men who don't want to know. As if that weren't ackward
enough, the geriatric president and his giggly VP slapped a new holiday
onto the overburdened weekend called "Juneteenth" so that off duty
mailmen and all of us who wonder if it's a paid holiday will feel
obligated to grill despite the heat and in the delirium many will find
themselves fathers once we come out of our coma. Already postal
workers,
who get Friday off because Juneteenth is a Saturday, are wondering if
they have to go back to work on Saturday. There is no answer because no
one's taking calls.
Friday June 18, 2021 7:12 AM CDT --
If
a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, nobody gets
crushed.
- Carl Blare, Juneteenth 2021
Friday June 18, 2021 12:58 MIDNIGHT CDT -- Lawns are the Law
Thursday June 17, 2021 3:03 PM CDT -- Juneteenth is About to Become Real
June
being one of the few months without its own holiday Juneteenth will be
a welcome fixture, never mind the fact that it commemorates the day
Texas was finally informed about the Emancipation Proclamation of
September 22, 1862. At one day before the start of summer during a
historic heatwave let's stay with the June 19th choice because mailmen
deserve every possible break after the horrible year they've had under
Postmaster DeJoy. In fact on this very afternoon as I blog at you VP
Kamala Harris is speaking at a White House Ceremony in which President
Biden is signing the new holiday into law. Oh, and the radio just
mentioned that when federal holidays fall on Saturday they are honored
on the prior Friday, that being tomorrow already! Oh, and while we're
on the subject, August still lacks a holiday.
Thursday June 17, 2021 2:43 PM CDT -- Vladimir Putin Self
Confident in His Intelligence
The
G7 Summit has brought us a glimpse of the Russian President revealing
his high level of intellectual intelligence, a trait which explains why
so many Americans hold an unflattering view of him. In the U.S. it's
considered impolite to risk embarrassing one's neighbor by flaunting a
higher minded IQ and we learn as children to act at least as stupid as
our fellow citizens, even stupider as a way of kindling a small smack
of authority in our peers, allowing them to look down on us. Naturally
Putin offends the American self-image by making no apologies about
being a smart man.
Thursday June 17, 2021 9:13 AM CDT -- Shifts and Lags
In the space of 1-and-a-half-hours the indoor/outdoor temperature
differential shifted from -6o to +1o.
The indoor reading holds at 79o while outdoors
it's up to 80o. All very scientific.
Thursday June 17, 2021 8:07 AM CDT -- A Moment's Thought
As
creatures who can only pay attention to one thing at a time, part of
what we think about in a typical day depends on our own plans, such as
our morning here at Worldround Radio where we begin by stirring instant
coffee into a glass mug and starting the radio station.
As
the day proceeds our attention is grabbed by events and
observations
around us, like now as we're headed into several days of record
breaking heat we find time to think about staying comfortable, which
can be achieved in the early hours by disrobing, but only indoors, as
exposure in public outdoor space demands a certain level of decorum.
And for that matter a workplace populated by coworkers also
requires a dress code, and the cooling technology needs to be adjusted
based on fabric science.
At 7:30 this morning we compared our indoor temperature of 79o
to the outdoor reading of 73o, estimating that
the 6o differential is a consequence of residual
heat stored in the bricks and attic space from yesterday's 90o
high. Improvements could be made to exhaust this spurious heat, but we
only think about it during actual heatwaves which are not a convenient
time to undertake large architectural projects.
During the
depths of winter we'll be having a parallel moment imagining ways to
preserve heat and insulate against cold, starting by wearing
all
the clothes we can stuff ourselves into.
If we could store
summer heat until winter and winter cold until summer our time would be
cleared to think about whatever we'd be thinking about now if it
weren't so hot.
Wednesday June 16, 2021 8:14 PM CDT -- From Way Up
--
RADIOWORLD
Wednesday June 16, 2021 5:15 PM CDT -- Doomsday Clock
--
The History of Part 15 Has More Than 15 Parts - by Richard Powers --
William
Storm Halstead was an interesting character, in the
1920s he established one of the first college stations, also the
first to play chess with other countries via shortwave. A few years
later he impulsively had cobbled together a lightweight low power
transmitter for some park rangers he knew, which spearheaded the
development of nationwide use of radio in forestry - an interesting
sidenote is that same transmitter which Halstead had built later
accompanied Admiral Byrd on his trip to the north pole (or was it
south?). In 1935 Halstead made national news after developing a
"robot policeman" which was a directional short range transmitter
that sent signals to a receiver installed in approaching vehicles
that would trigger red and green indicators on the dash which
corresponded with upcoming traffic lights..
Meanwhile,
on an unrelated matter, the Philco company invented
and began manufacturing the first wireless remote control for home
radios to change stations, control volume and turn on and off the
receiver.. This concerned the FCC because technicly it was
transmitting and that would mean that every consumer who purchased
the device would be required to have a license to use it.. so in
1936 the FCC remedied the situation by creating Part 15.
Back
then the entirety of Part 15 consisted of four simple
paragraphs which essentially said anyone can transmit on any
frequency without a license providing that the signal didn't
transmit farther than about 150 feet..
Well
Halstead took a look at that rule and did an ingenious
thing, he expanded that 150 foot limit to several miles without
breaking the rule! - Apparently that is when Part 15 AM
broadcasting began. The rules made no specifications about antenna
lengths or anything, so instead of using an arial he made a
specially designed cable that was miles long!
Certainly
such was not the FCCs intention when making the
rule, so you would think they would have said "Now wait a minute,
you can't go attaching long wires to the transmitter to extend
range!" It would seem they would have reacted by amending the
rules, but no, they embraced it. So why did the react so
differently when the first manufactured part 15 transmitters used
by National Parks and Highway Departments came into existence
thirty years later? They didn't break the existing rules either,
but this time the FCC amended the rule in an attempt to put a stop
to it.... Ironically, even after the rule was amended a compliant
part 15 free-radiate AM transmitter can still legally achieve in
excess of a mile and a half!
Part
15 AM has a fascinating and equally convoluted and very
consistent history behind it. It's difficult to speculate where
it's heading in our ever increasing digital world.
I
was also pondering about something you said a few months ago
in response to discussion about that radio receiver schematic which
harnesses the power in the radio waves of a transmitting station as a
means to power the receiver itself.. You responded that utilizing
such a receiver would equate to a theft of power and thus be
illegal... I realize you were speaking in jest, but it got me
thinking... If nobody tunes into your station then the power you're
putting out is not being consumed, on the other hand if everybody
tunes into your station does that mean the station would have to up
their power to compensate? If that be the case, wouldn't that mean
with part 15 AM the more listeners you have the shorter your
range?..
Wow, Rich! Maybe that is why sometimes the signal doesn't go as far as
at other times! Listeners are stealing all the power!
Wednesday June 16, 2021 3:20 PM CDT -- More About Windows 11
Wednesday June 16, 2021 11:23 AM CDT -- Substitution
At
11:06:13 AM CDT the radio program automation switched to nothing. The
Thom Hartmann Program stream was not up and running, so we stood on our
head and juggled dinner plates until we figured out that we could
substitute 'Security Now' with Steve Gibson from TWiT-TV. At least
we'll get an update on what the deal is with Windows 10 expiring. We
guess that the extreme heatwave in Oregon and other western states have
knocked out electricity and already know that Hartmann's Oregon home
studio does not have backup power and already has been knocked out
several times. Who! Wait! Things are changing! As we were preparing the
substitution Thom suddenly showed up. Somebody should do an
investigation to find out what the hell.
Wednesday June 16, 2021 10:54 AM CDT
If
it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.
- Rita Mae Brown, writer, screenwriter
NEXT|TV SmartBrief
Wednesday June 16, 2021 6:57 AM CDT -- Big Top News Network
CARL:
Our good friend and personal barber Buster Boatrocker has
launched a news network from his barber shop in South St. Louis,
Missouri. The Blare Blog is proud to carry the first Big Top News
Report, here's Buster!
BUSTER: Fake President Biden, still
pretending that Donald J. Trump is not the real president, has taken
Air Force One to Geneva Wisconsin for the G7 Summit, which will launch
mobile internet into the future. Our reporter from Geneva is Bob
Fwordly, self-named chairman of all hobby radio on earth. Are
you there Bob?
BOB:
I'm at the Geneva airport but so far there's no sign of Air
Force
One. In fact this is a small airport and I don't see how a jumbo jet
like Air force One could fit on this tiny runway. Maybe it's a Democrat
mistake like we get a lot of.
BUSTER: O.K., so tell us what G7 is all about.
BOB: Um, G7 is the future beyond 5G, the cellphone system
obsolete even before it's available.
CARL:
Uh, gentlemen, I hate to interrupt your first Big Top
Newscast,
but Biden is in Geneva Switzerland, not Geneva
Wisconsin..................... Hello?.................. Hello?
Tuesday June 15, 2021 2:42 PM CDT -- Looking Back
Recollections
of the past form the stories we tell about ourselves, and I happened to
recall a day sitting in the bosses office hoping to obtain slightly
more compensation for the daily air shift, only he had bigger ideas,
telling me, "I can make you the personality of the city!" The idea was
an immediate dud for two reasons: being the city celebrity held no
appeal for me, besides which an actual personality from another station
deservedly held the title and even marshalled an annual parade under
his name. By chance that regional star was a listener of mine who
enjoyed classical music as he was driven to work and often called to
ask me the name of peices he enjoyed. And that's why I'm not
personality of the city.
Tuesday June 14, 2021 7:10 AM CDT -- Working With Air
As
sole listener and owner of a personal radio station there is an
unavoidable executive responsibility in deciding what programs qualify
to be scheduled on KDX. Since I have only to satisfy myself, the
objective is to obtain the most pleasing program for every part of the
day spent listening. There is a faint similarity to being a "boss"
intent on "hiring" the choicest personalities the marketplace has to
offer. Our prime morning slot has for some time carried Radio Sputnik's
'Fault Lines' whose original hosts, Lee Stranahan and Garland Nixon,
split up perhaps over some disagreement, giving the program to Lee's
son Shawn and new co-host Jamal Thomas. At first I wasn't completely
satisfied by the change and admit looking around for alternate choices,
my primary complaint being what I called Jamal's 'rush mush' speaking
style in which he speaks rapidly and runs words together being not
always easy to understand. Unable to find a different live 5-day per
week 3-hour program 'Fault Lines' remained in place and I began
realizing that despite his way of talking Jamal is the more intelligent
of the two, while Shane is clear-voiced, also well informed, and very
gracious toward guests that form an important component of the show.
Over several months I have spent mental energy visualizing Jamal being
coached by a speech specialist but have otherwise been content, until
this week when Jamal took a week for travel to cover the G7 with
President Biden and other world leaders in Geneva, temporarily replaced
by a fellow named Austin Pelley who immediately offended me by
expressing a pro-Catholic mindset, which I equate with anti-intellect
and critical thought deficit. Two oxymorons are standing by for use in
this morning's blog essay: 'religious thinking' and 'Catholic
education'. Catholic educations are chunky, containing just enough
actual knowledge for superficial appearance, pasted together by
doctrinaire dogma such as Pelley's reference to Thomas Aquinas in a
fallacious 'appeal to antiquity'. The early philosophers talked about
God because they had to. If they'd dared to debate the matter burning
at the stake awaited. It was much later that religion was separated
from philosophy, but the church continues to employ early philosophy as
part of their testament to God's existence. Meanwhile, back at the
station, things turned for the better when
Jamal linked in from Geneva and commanded total authority by
establishing that religion and God are not the same thing and
neither one is actually known but are merely constructs. 'Pride month'
for us means we are proud of our rush mush from KDX.
Monday June 14, 2021 2:53 PM CDT -- Dirty Windows
The
glass must have been smeared when we thought we saw Windows 11 prepared
for official introduction June 24th, 10-days from today. This
next
article seems less definite about what the Microsoft grubbers are
planning to do to us, all we know is that we'll pay for the privilege
of being inconvenienced by what should be one reliable operating system
for life.
Monday June 14, 2021 2:25 PM CDT -- Weather Or Not
Near the end of last week one day reached 95o,
hottest day of the year up to that point, and this afternoon we're
edging toward 97o.
For at least the next week we'll be bouncing between 80s and 90s by day
and 60s and 70s at night with continuing dryness now reaching scorchy
conditions. Until today we've been depending on a personal cooling fan
aimed at the KDX operator's position by day and the nightman's sleeping
pad overnight, Carl Blare on duty. Only moments ago we decided to give
the air conditioner a try, a very small window unit that's been
reliable over the years and already its cooling influence can be felt.
Broadcasting and blogging in comfort.
Monday June 14, 2021 5:54 AM CDT -- Switzerland Radio History
Time
was when shortwave listeners in the U.S.A. were able to find SBC, the
Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, among many other international
broadcasters on shortwave radios.
2004: Swiss Radio
International announced it would cease all radio broadcasts at the end
of October, and will thereafter concentrate exclusively on its internet
platform, www.swissinfo.org.
Saturday June 12, 2021 8:36 AM CDT -- The Blare Blog Being the Source
of New News
Signals Booming in -
Having trouble with the
MP3 file link, 'A History of the Art of
Radio by the Firesign Theatre', it won't open.
Speaking
as the repair crew it was determined that two recent MP3 links were
'out-of-service', including a Blare OnAir link on May 29th. After
carefully tracing both links we were at first unable to repair them but
could not detect a reason for the malfunction. Given the extreme
95-degree heat we declared a work stoppage and returned to the problem
Saturday morning with a belligerent attitude, believing that fate was
messing with us. For no logical reason the links started working after
we had been driven mad by frustration.
How about that, Windows
11 is due to be out, I hadn't heard about
that yet! I've barely scratched the surface of Windows 10. In other
years this big news would have gotten a lot of publicity and lines
would have been wrapped around the block. This is a big deal, the
operating systems that people will be using for the next
decade.
- Boom
We
of the inner Blog agree that Microsoft has been stealthy about this
next iteration of their needlessly-changing operating system, probably
on account of shame. Have your money ready.
Friday June 11, 2021 5:34 PM CDT -- Ungendered Color Bars --
The
so-called "rainbow flag" signals unquestioning acceptance of any
possible preferential gender variant, sharing the word "diversity" with
champions of mixed race and blended cultures, but we read in the news
that a HOA (Home Owners Association) somewhere disallowed the display
of a rainbow flag. The determined "pride" household solved their
situation by
lighting their home in rainbowed floodlights
and the HOA is holding a special meeting late into the night to deal
with the audacity. The whole argument reminded us of the color bars we
used to adjust our NTSC vectorscope back during our video days. In
those days we never made any association between the colors and the
matter of gender, except that one of us sought a vasectomy to be on the
safe side.
Friday June 11, 2021 8:39 AM CDT -- Little in the
Way of Adventures But Some Experience
Over
the years Carl Blare has succeeded if avoidance of accomplishment was
the objective, and he took his two or three ideas from the examples of
others. He remembers that Bob and Ray, a couple of DJ's who didn't play
disks, advertised a "Combination Bar-B-Q Pit TV Antenna" and
this
spawned an interest in combination products and services. Carl was
involved with a startup called "Harvey's Pets and Records" which was
shut down because his parents home wasn't zoned commercial. Daunted,
yet prepared to give it one more try, Carl today envisions his own "Dog
Training Academy and Radio Station", inspired as he is with the
potential for human intelligence to discover new applications for dog
intelligence, and the in-house capacity to run ads over the air to
promote the dog business.
Friday June 11, 2021 8:37 AM CDT -- You're On the Airlee
Thursday June 10, 2021 2:28 PM CDT -- Suds & Kombucha
We
link to this good natured podcast because of its impeccable audio
quality, better than most other podcasts, a proof and example that
podcasts of sonic excellence can be achieved with the right knowledge
of microphones, mixing, studio acoustics, and secret engineering
recipes.
Wednesday June 9, 2021 12:15 NOON -- Pay Or Be Shunned --
Well, there's a third possible outcome not alluded in our title, and
we'll tack it on at the end of what we say.
Radio
streamers and podcasters who utilize licensed music automatically owe
substantial money to the royalty board and a large number of streamers
suffer the expense because they consider music worth the cost, but wise
podcasters bypass this expense by using license-free music, since most
podcasts only use music as trimming
between voice-parts
consisting of in/out themes and bridges. The shunning comes in the
royalty authorities never revealing there's an entire realm of
royalty-free options and that non-music spoken word programmers stand
free of all suspicion and bear no obligation. What
we're telling you is already more than royalty
announcements reveal, as they speak as if no such thing as a
royalty-free program-method exists and foster the implication
that fee
obligation universally applies to one and all with failure to pay being
grounds for costly legal action that will have you living under a
viaduct without the tent they've taken.
Which brings us to the third possible outcome: using commercial
licensed music without paying can and possibly will have you
dragged away in the jaws of the beast.
Wednesday June 9, 2021 8:47 AM CDT -- Impede the Antenna --
In the June 5th entry about the new Hurricane AM Transmitter Boomer
brought attention to the RF output impedance:
It's unclear what kind
of output it has, 50 ohm, or high impedance. No (antenna) tuner is
mentioned,
seeming like it's 50 ohm fixed impedance, but then it has a ten
foot wire antenna. It leaves questions, because you can connect a
10 foot wire to a 50 ohm output and it can still get out around the
house.
We'll
talk now about why this is an important factor in determining the value
of this transmitter. Boomer mentioned the two possibilities which go
unspecified according to available literature so-far published
regarding this device: 50-ohms or high impedance. The reason 50-ohms
comes foremost to mind is the universal standard putting the RF (Radio
Frequency) output impedance of radio transmitters at 50-ohms, but Part
15 restrictions impose a non-standard condition which cannot thusly be
fulfilled: 50-ohms must be matched by feeding into a properly tuned
antenna of at least one-quarter wavelength of the operating frequency,
not a possibility with an antenna of only 3-meters in length. To
approach something of a match with such an undersized antenna a
transmitter should best provide a high-impedance output into an antenna
matching coil feeding the 3-meter runt antenna, resulting in the
maximum achievable range from such a transmitter. Failure to list such
a vital bit of information makes the Hurricane a skeptic's gamble.
Wednesday June 9, 2021 7:27 AM CDT -- Good Committee --
Several
image processing complications befell the Blog and were nicely resolved
with help from long time participant Boomer, who showed us how to
tailor the size of giant image files and manage the new WebP
format.
Glad we could combine to
work that out, and
we both know more now. This is the way the radio forums should
work.
Good
point, Boomer. The low power Part 15 forums of the present day are
essentially dormant and function very much like bad committees for
having driven off qualified membership which once provided useful input
leaving us now with a handful of under informed stragglers unable to
obtain helpful information. This reminds me of creation which is
typically attributed to one god but in my view is more like the work of
a bad committee that didn't get along with each other, didn't show up
for meetings, and provided bad input, resulting in a universe crammed
with inconsistencies, conflicts, contradictions and failure.
You
might wonder why, if I know what's wrong with forums and other
creations, don't I simply found a successful part 15 forum and save the
day (?) No sir. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole,
besides
which my 10-foot pole is busy acting as an antenna under 15.219. You do
it. You start a functioning forum. Put me on your committee.
Wednesday June 9, 2021 6:33 AM CDT -- Our National Anthem --
Day
was when American radio and TV stations began each broadcast day with
the playing of the National Anthem: "The Star Spangled Banner". In
those days stations signed off overnight and began and ended each day's
schedule by announcing a detailed litany of the station's operating
frequency, effective radiated power, city of license and corporate
ownership. The announcements were required by FCC rule but the Anthem
was only a matter of custom. When 24-hour schedules became the norm
most stations discontinued the Anthem, except that a handful of them
mark an early hour of the morning by re-opening a new broadcast day
with either the Anthem itself or a patriotic substitute such as "God
Bless America" by Irving Berlin, which is not a federally recognized
song because "God" violates the secular status of the Constitution, a
detail which many citizens fail to comprehend. At KDX we refrain from
labeling our station as a nationalistic enterprise because we are not
affiliated with the federal government except to the extent we are
authorized to operate under Part 15 of the FCC rules. But of course
common civil liberties make the issue of anthems and flags a plain
matter of choice, like displaying a flag on the front porch, neither
required nor emblematic of a federal building, so there are no public
restroom facilities available to the public nor tour schedules at flag
waving homes.
Tuesday June 8, 2021 3:43 PM CDT -- 5G On the Rise
For those of us interested in the advance of radio frequency usage in
our human environment:
Tuesday June 8, 2021 12:14 NOON CDT -- Evolution Stalled --
According
to Thom Hartmann, as heard on KDX Worldround Radio, Marjorie Taylor
Greene has declared that she doesn't believe in evolution. Ironically,
Carl Blare would add, she stands as proof that evolution isn't
happening in her case.
Tuesday June 8, 2021 5:53 AM CDT -- Working from Home --
The
pandemic ushered in a new age of 'remote working and schooling', made
possible by the coincidence that the internet is conveniently conducive
to achieving socially distanced interconnectedness, without which the
word 'remote' would take on a more isolated sense. The old model was
based on 'separate locations' for the various main activities of life:
'home' was defined by where a person slept. Anybody who 'slept around'
wasn't home much of the time and a secondary definition applied based
on one's mailing address. 'Going to work' meant 'drive time', a period
of transportation between home and work for which, unfairly in my
opinion, most travelers weren't paid for the lost time spent moving
between home and work. Arrival at work was measured by 'being on time'
and staying until 'closing time'. As futurists, we at KDX have been
working from home and other locations for decades and it wasn't always
legitimate. Some towns had 'zone police' who kept an eye on homes to
make sure no one was secretly running a business in a residential
location, nor sleeping in a business facility. How zoning has conformed
to pandemic circumstances is no doubt a matter of unsettled law. Even
'work' has a further definition of being 'activity for which one is
compensated'. An unseen team of complete strangers keep eyes on our
compensations and so long as we forward a percentage of it to them, we
are left unthreatened. Self driving cars will open the possibility of
power napping during travel time and we foresee the day when work
places provide sleeping accommodations so that employees don't lose
valuable time-energy driving around. I am writing this essay from home
as part of my work, the only thing lacking is compensation, unless you
credit this as 'fun', but I wonder about that.
Sunday June 6, 2021 9:02 AM CDT -- Local Broadcasting --
As
we know, part 15 low power radio is the most completely local form of
broadcasting known to man, short of having the station move into your
house and have access to the food. So, you'd think that the NAB
(National Association of Broadcasters) would love part 15, but they
hate us and we know it. Oddly, the NAB has a whole website dedicated to
boosting the merits of local broadcasting for their member stations.
Saturday June 5, 2021 8:05 PM CDT -- Turned Down --
The
prestigious KDX morning shift was offered to Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Saturday June 5, 2021 8:54 AM CDT -- Hurricane Blowing Air --
Boomer responds --
Interesting new
transmitter that you found, the Hurricane! It seems
like what we're looking for in the in the Part-15 business,
something easy to use and with more up-to-date digital features,
like the Bluetooth connection. I'd have to think this is in
response to the virus and the need for radio for parking lots.
I like the OLED display
and programmable features. Tha Dood pointed
out that with the wireless connection, that could lower hum
transmission, in that there's no audio lead to pick up the RF
signal and feed it back into the system. Esteemed member The Legacy
might like the Bluetooth. I recall that he set up some kind of
complicated system with Bluetooth to I think a Kenwood car stereo,
to a pole in the garden that had the transmitter, and used that as
a wireless STL.
Negatives for me in a
deluxe transmitter are the plastic case; I'd
prefer metal for shielding and ground. It's also unclear what kind
of output it has, 50 ohm, or high impedance. No (antenna) tuner is
mentioned,
seeming like it's 50 ohm fixed impedance, but then it has a ten
foot wire antenna. It leaves questions, because you can connect a
10 foot wire to a 50 ohm output and it can still get out around the
house. Here's their website:
Wednesday June 2, 2021 5:30 PM CDT -- What's So Difficult About a Mono
Amplifier?
KDX
needs a few monaural audio amplifiers ranging in power from 20 to 30
Watts, but this once common item seems no longer to exist in the world
of speaker amplifiers. We've scrolled though heaps of amplifiers that
are mostly too powerful, are 2-channel, 4-channel, and very pricey, but
they are not what we're looking for. If you know something, say
something.
Wednesday June 2, 2021 5:24 PM CDT -- The Gratitude Show
A
special show of gratitude goes to correspondent Boomer who alerted us
that access to The Blare Blog and the kdxradio.com Website has been
blocked since almost one week ago because a temporary shutdown
accidentally got set to a Parking Page saying we'd be back Friday
morning May 21 but an attendant didn't attend to the task of ..... oh,
this explanation is too complicated.... the good news is that the
mistake has been swept under the rug and I get to keep my job.
Wednesday June 2, 2021 2:41 PM CDT -- Whatever Happened to Those Sued
for Downloading Digital Music?
Tuesday June 1, 2021 11:55 AM CDT -- The Blare Blog Reflects
The
change of month opens a new page as we approach the top of the year
scheduled for the longest daylight of June 21st, and we wonder 'what
are we doing and why are we doing it(?)'. Not too
complicated,
until we try to describe it, at which time thoughts become more
entangled and less definite. Take a deep breath.
The Blare
Blog is the textual messaging output of kdxradio.com, a website
representing low power global radio station International KDX
Worldround Radio, but speaking also to and for the whole class of small
radio stations operating under F.C.C. rules Part 15 in the U.S. and
comparable rules in other countries, and the related class of
independent streaming internet webcasters such as KDX-OGG, subject to
numerous rules and conditions. But that's not all.
Rules and
regulations are only the basis in establishing a radio voice, then
comes the realm of technology involving transmitters, antennas, web
servers and radio receivers, the tools of the trade.
Program
content is what it's really all about, and plans for on air
presentation require someone in a head office making decisions
and
arrangements about what gets heard and why. The marketplace of
programming ranges from journalism through small talk, religion,
sports, music and
drama, forming the 'product' issued to an anticipated listening
audience.
Yes, one must consider the radio audience as the
foremost consumer of whatever brand issues forth but personal distance
is necessary because life is short and there's no time to court each
fan as a close personal friend, yet they must be made to feel welcome.
There's a call coming in on the other line.
What
we're saying
is that this Blog speaks to as much of it as we might while holding
certain reservations. Let's give an example of one self-imposed
limitation: today we were notified of a new AM transmitter now
available; the 'Tornado', from the makers of an earlier model called
'Spitfire'. The 'Tornado' has many advanced features at an attractive
price, but here comes the 'but'... But it is pre-assembled and lacks
FCC certification. There's a rule against selling pre-made transmitters
unless they're certified. So why don't I just say that as part of the
Blog? Well, if I did, if I mentioned this deal, it would appear that
The Blare Blog was promoting rule breaking. It's true that I don't
approve of this particular rule and think that the end-user should be
respected to
utilize a fairly priced pre-built transmitter according to the same
rules that apply to self-built transmitters, requiring no
certification but simply trusting homebound builders to obey signal
strength rules. We're talking about Blog policy now;
we're generally not prepared to take against extant federal
rules
nor aid and abet
complete strangers in doing so. Furthermore we, The Blog, cannot in
good
faith mention or endorse one brand of transmitter without reviewing,
testing and offering comparisons with every available
transmitter,
which is beyond our reach.
In
summary, The Blare Blog speaks to most aspects of low power radio while
occasionally hesitating to consider potential ramifications.
Tuesday June 1, 2021 11:50 AM CDT -- F.C.C. Requests Budget Increase --
The
article details how much of an increase is asked, description of plans
for applying the added funds, and ambitions as to what the F.C.C. hopes
to
achieve.
--
RADIOWORLD
