Hey Guys it's Bruce from DOGRADIO. I know there
is a cool guy named Bruce who has been on here
lately (in other words he is not me and I am not him.)
So to eliminate confusion I am going to spell my name
a different way - it will be Brooce. This actually goes
back to when I was in my twenties and was actually a
cartoonist and even sold some of my artwork. The thing is
- I signed my name with 2 Os instead of a U. So it was
Brooce then. I can use that now. It's still Dogradio anyway -
even though my Part 15 stations have had many names over
the years.
I am still a part 15 dude even though (for reasons outside the
scope of this note) most of my real good equipment is in
storage.
I am legally blind (as are some of the other good people that
frequent this site) and have a lot of trouble reading Part 15.Us.
It often doesn't matter how large the type-face is. For goofy
reasons that only my one operating eye and and brain "know" -
it is much easier for me to read white type on a black backround
instead the usual black type on a white backround.
I am looking for a program that flips video negative. I think you
guys know what I mean. This computer doesn't seem to have one.
It might be moot soon because this junker machine might get
replaced, But for the meantime - I'll put the question out there
anyway. Does anybody know about this?
Although I haven't been on here I still read the board as best I
can - it's been a lot of fun reading it.
I have listened to the KDX stream as well as Bob's WCFI-LP and
Alan's WDXD-LP. All very very good work.
Anyway - any comments on this "negative video" software would
be appreciated. If there are no comments that is cool too.
With very best wishes, and I hope there aren't many typos -
Brooce, and the Part 15 experiments:
Dogradio 1690 day/1700 night
Dogradio 1590
Dogradio Carrier Current 1020 kHz
The Solar Powered 90.9 transmitter and
the Solar Powered FM BCB receiver - just
the sun - - no batteries at all
NOSW 13.560 MHz - yes and the
"Big Talker" still works last time I checked...
DOG RADIO STUDIO 2
Nano 90.9
SLUG 88.3
GNAT 107.5
"WIFE RADIO" 750 kHz
WBVR 1600
WBVR 2100 kHz (in the year 1969 - we
thought it was on 1600 but it was REALLY
on 2100) figure that out
"Wife Radio" 750 kHz.
I had a Panaxis AM-100. A fabulous
AM transmitter. I did a lot of experments
with it between 1988 and 1990 on 750 kHz.
For those who knew the AM-100 - it only operated
on 600, 750, 1000, 1200 and 1500 kHz. It had a 6 MHz "clock" that got divided by 4, 5, 6, 8?, and 10? Yeah, something like that.
There were (for some reason) a lot of people that used it on
1000 kHz. I guess that some of these 1000 kHz operations
must have been just during daylight hours - at least in the
NorthEast U.S. WCFL's (Chicago, 1000 kHz, 50 kW, omni)
flamethrower signal would blow anything away at night for
1000 miles around Chicago, I guess. So yeah - a gigantic area.
There was even a story about a pirate on 1000 kHz that did
classical music. Does anybody remember that one? I don't know
if his exciter was a Panaxis on 1000 kHz or not - but he was
eventually caught and shut down. Um, oh yeah - WCFL is no more -
they have a different callsign on 1000 and still have that rock crushing
signal as far as I know. I can't pull the new callsign out of my brain,
right now, unfortunately. So all of my experiments with my Panaxis
were done on 750 kHz. I made an impedance matching network during
our stay in an apartment in 1989 and had some good luck with that.
WSB in Atlanta, on 750 kHz (another flamethrower on the AM BCB at
night) didn't bother me too much up here in Connecticut - at least not
in the house.
WIFE Radio was a joke about an unintentional transmission on 750 that
left our house and went further than I thought. My wife and I used the
Panaxis as an audio link on 750 kHz. It went to 2 headset radios - one
for my wife and one for me. Our infant son - Matthew - didn't sleep
much. We were exhausted. So this was how we could watch TV (and hear TV audio) and not
wake him up. He made LOTS of noise when he cried then. In October
he will be 23. He is graduating from the Berklee school of music in a
couple of weeks. Now he makes a real lot of noise. Actually that's a very bad
joke. He is a wonderful and talented musician that can cross from genre
to genre with no trouble at all. I think he will do fine and I am very proud of him.
So back to our TV com-link on 750 kHz. Well, I hooked all kinds of wires
to the Panaxis just to get signals to go around the house. I also hooked
the RF output to a radiator pipe. That got the signal going around the
house really well. DON'T DO WHAT I DID. I could be dangerous with
some transmitters. And also - the signal was going out of the house
and down the street. Not legal. Fortunately for us - our little transmission was being squashed by WSB as soon as it left our yard.
(Because we did this mainly at night.)
The only reason I know it went far is because one day I left the carrier
on and a friend heard it on his car radio around 800 feet away. Nobody
cared. But it's not really "cricket" of course. I turned WIFE RADIO
off immediately. But the nickname WIFE RADIO never went away.
My wife had watched most of the TV. It was really her com link.
By the way, she was able to take care
of a little baby with a lot less sleep than I could. I fell asleep standing
up once. It was in a spare bedroom that was storage for junk that
we were not using. Then I fell over (still sleeping) onto a pile of stuff
and never woke up. My wife and others who were assisting us saw
my feet and legs sticking out of a pile of junk in that room. Baby Matthew was awake and screaming his head off. They held him up
to my ear and I never woke up. Boy, was I in trouble.
So that's WIFE Radio. An unintentional experiment - but still
an experiment nevertheless.
I love that Panaxis transmitter. It got lent out somewhere
years ago. I havent seen it but it will probably surface.
I wanted to put a different oscillator crystal into it and get
it onto 1460 kHz (good during the day) - so the transmitter
would be set for 1500 but the crystal would be a little lower
than 6 Mhz to get the divided signal down to 1460. I did the
math and figured it out - but I never got around to it. I talked
to the guy on the phone who made those transmitters (including
the FM Part 15 mono "brother" I can't remember the model name
but there are still a few of those floating around) - he said changing
the osc crystal would be OK - but going higher than 6 MHz (instead
of lower - as I wanted to try) might not work. What a nice guy.
He eventually stopped knitting Part 15 kits and retired. His thing
to do after retiring was and still is gardening. And I can see that.
I wish him well. He sold a lot of great kits. Now he can watch
his gardens grow,
Brooooooooce, The Dog Radio Group
P.S. I'm not transitting now, but I am
listening to streaming radio, and DXing
the AM broadcast band a lot of the time.
I hope this makes sense and that there aren't
many typos.
OH YEAH HELLO CARL thanks for the
question
Still on the air from Chicago on the AM band.
So that's WGN (World's Greatest Newspaper)
on 720, WBBM on 780, and WLS (World's Largest Store
on 890. WCFL on 1000 is now WMVP (how did I forget
that.)
I used to hear WJJD, 1160 kHz, 50 kW day, back when I
was young around sunset - before it shut down to protect
KSL in Salt Lake City. As many of us know - our friend
Alan of WDXD-LP was and still is a great fan of WJJD -
back then a country music giant and Alan has a special
connection to the history and memorabilia of WJJD, I believe.
There are other stories about Chicago AM stations - some
really cool ones. I get WGN on 720 here in Connecticut
without any trouble. They have great overnight local
talk programming - at least the last time I checked -
not too long ago. I do have to null out the IBOC noise
from WOR 710 in NY, NY - but that's really no problem.
I have also heard WVON on 1690 - Chicago - 10 kW day -
1 kW night - omni. Up in the X band.
There are a few others.
One funny one to mention - even though
it's not in Chicago - it's around that area
of the country - is WNWI - 1080 - Gary,
Indiana -250 watts, day only. (it's upgraded
now- this was a long time ago) - I heard it
signing on during the pattern switch of Hartford's
WTIC AM 1080 50 kW - 3 miles from me. This was
in the early 1970s. WTICs carrier went down for
7 seconds and there it was - clear as a bell with the
sign on.
Oh man - I am so so so so far off the thread. I didn't
mean to do this.
The original question was about software for the
visually impared. KRUD. I'm not going to
erase everything - but I won't do it again.
Very very best wishes
Brooce, The Dog Radio Group
Brooce,
This is a kludge but it might help you. If you position the cursor at the upper left of the text and hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse downward it should highlight the text as if you were going to do a copy or cut. On my machine this turns the background dark and the letters light.
Hope this works for you.
Neil
Brooce -- good to have you back.
Just a tip, and perhaps PC computers have something like this as well -- in an Apple mac computer in the system preferences there is a group of settings for those visually or hearing impaired. Onc choice is for "white on black" as opposed to the usual "black on white". Also (and this has nothing to do with you I imagine) there is also a setting to convert all audio output to mono --both channels of stereo sound come out each channel -- e.g. you get a mixed mono output from lef and right. Handy for those of us driving a mono transmitter -- I get to handy mono outputs, one direct to the transmitter, one to the mixing board.
Must be something like that in a PC I would think.
Tim in Bovey
I appreciate the ideas very much.
Even if I don't post notes on the website,
I am out here.
Very Best Wishes
Brooce
Feels right to have you back in the threads, Brooce!
Now we can REALLY talk radio!
Tell Floatilla and the whole crew
at KDX that I say HI!
You can bet your 12AX7 that I'll be
listening to the KDX stream again soon!
Brooce