[GreenKeys] Halloween

Mon Dec 5 12:30:57 EST 2022

Whoops, sorry, another oversight on my part. Looks like this test message doesn't have any CRLF like it should, so probably best you don't run it. See, when the broadcasts are coming through the orchestration software I built, they're automatically formatted to the proper width and have CRLF added to the end of each line. I generated this message manually in fldigi, which I forgot has the auto CRLF feature disabled due to the otchestration software handling that, so you'll end up getting an extra long line in there. Just more stupidity, apologies.

Anyway, I got some good feedback that the signal seems good but quiet, so I will fiddle with the volume some more to increase it and get everything as similar to the true blue ITTY signal standard as possible, hopefully negating any need to make adjustments when going between the streams.

-
Jordan Spencer Cunningham
teletype.net | GreenKeys Search Engine: teletype.net/gksearch
SMS via teletype: 385-308-4898 | Email via teletype: tty at nerdology.org

On Sun, Dec 4, 2022, at 10:01 PM, Jordan Spencer Cunningham wrote:
> Here is the long awaited conclusion to the Halloween broadcast nightmare (and a request for those of you who tried to copy the broadcast that night):
> 
> I did some analysis and testing and solved the issue a day or two later. I'm just getting around to publishing my findings here.
> 
> It seems that somehow the amplifier on the program I use to send the audio stream to Icecast (creatively called butt, or Broadcast Using This Tool) was turned up so that the audio was overamplified to the point of being clipped and distorted. It wasn't enough for fldigi's rx function to have *too *much trouble with it, but I did notice a few spots I hadn't before where fldigi had errors on receiving after all. It seems that the clipping and distortion were enough to cause even more problems on real TUs.
> 
> I simply lowered the amplification until the waterfall looked more normal, it no longer sounded distorted, and it didn't show as being clipped according to butt's monitor. It sounds and looks like it did last Christmas and previous broadcasts instead of the overamplified, clipped Halloween broadcast. I hadn't touched that setting since 2019-- at least not on purpose-- so it is a bit of a mystery how that got jacked up. It's something I'll be sure to double check going forward.
> 
> *My humble request is that a few of you who tried to copy at Halloween but couldn't-- if you could please pipe the attached test audio through your hardware TUs and confirm or deny if you're copying better now, I'd be most grateful.* I expect you should be able to copy without issue, but behooves me to be certain before the Santa Tracker later this month.
> 
> Thanks to everyone for your helpful input,
> 
> -
> Jordan Spencer Cunningham
> teletype.net | GreenKeys Search Engine: teletype.net/gksearch
> SMS via teletype: 385-308-4898 | Email via teletype: tty at nerdology.org
> 
> On Wed, Nov 2, 2022, at 8:26 AM, W2HX wrote:
>> I would be surprised if a bit of fuzziness would cause a TU to have so much trouble. I would check the audio frequencies with a frequency counter or audio spectrum analyzer (and the shift between them). Many scopes nowadays have that kind of functionality. 8kbps should be more than enough. HF we rarely get more than 3kHz (typical sideband BW etc). I have forgotten the formula to equate bandwidth with signaling rate, but I believe 8kbps is plenty
>>  
>> 
>> *From:* greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net <greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net> *On Behalf Of *Jordan Spencer Cunningham
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, November 1, 2022 3:30 PM
>> *To:* GreenKeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
>> *Subject:* Re: [GreenKeys] Halloween
>> 
>> 
>>  
>> Thanks Mike for your observations, much appreciated. So it's not just you, Tom!
>>  
>> I've taken some time to compare the raw recording I have from yesterday with the last Santa Tracker broadcast as well as what's currently running on ITTY, and I do detect a difference in the way they sound. Yesterday's sounds a bit rougher, a bit fuzzier. The last Santa Tracker broadcast sounds much cleaner. It must be fuzzy/sawtoothed enough to cause issues with real hardware.
>>  
>> I already double-checked the stream settings' bitrate and sample rate, and they're the same between now and last Christmas. ITTY has an even lower bitrate of 8kbps.
>>  
>> I'll need to do some further investigation as to what's going on-- maybe something's up with the computer that generates the tones' sound card, or maybe fldigi's getting persnickety, or the software I use to pipe it to the right place-- but I will get this cleaned up in time for the Santa Tracking broadcast one way or another.
>>  
>> And once I get it cleaned up, I'll see about posting a clean recording of the stories so all can enjoy. Tom had a great one, and mine I thought were kinda fun, too, (though admittedly the pix I made was rushed and not as good as I wanted), so it's a shame yesterday seems to have been a complete bust. I'm really disappointed in how crappy it turned out to be-- sorry, everyone.
>>  
>> -
>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham
>> teletype.net | GreenKeys Search Engine: teletype.net/gksearch
>> SMS via teletype: 385-308-4898 | Email via teletype: tty at nerdology.org
>>  
>> On Tue, Nov 1, 2022, at 1:10 PM, Mike Douglas wrote:
>>> Hi Jordan,
>>>  
>>> First of all, thanks for all the time and effort to produce a broadcast that gives a reason to power up our machines. I know how much time and effort goes into projects like this and your work is very appreciated!
>>>  
>>> I too had copy results similar to what Tom showed. I tweaked motor speed (governed motor) and the rangefinder just to be sure, but no improvement.
>>>  
>>> Mike
>>> On Tuesday, November 1, 2022, 12:34:38 PM CST, Jordan Spencer Cunningham <js at teletype.net> wrote:
>>>  
>>>  
>>> *Tom and my other GreenKeys friends,*
>>>  
>>> I'm very interested to find out whether others copied poorly last night on the second run. I can't figure why that would be because the stream configurations are the same as for the last Santa Tracker, which nobody complained about. In fact, through all the learning curve, suggestions, complaints, and requests since starting these broadcasts in 2019, I've never seen complaints of bad copy until now. So if anyone else has seen this issue but is keeping quiet, please let me know. I copied the second run via fldigi and piped to heavy metal without issue, but that doesn't mean real hardware TUs won't see a difference.
>>>  
>>> I should have noticed the tones problem early on during the first run. I do apologize and am properly, publicly embarrassed for the oversight. Without going into an unearned sob story, I used to have a lot more time on my hands to dedicate to this hobby I love. fldigi annoyingly resets the tone frequencies on each launch, and I remembered to set them properly on all broadcasts until yesterday.
>>>  
>>> I may revisit migrating from fldigi to minimodem, too, which would eliminate this problem, though with the lack of time, that's not happening anytime soon. Back in 2019, minimodem was being pretty finicky, which is why I settled on fldigi despite my dislike for how heavy it is for this application. At minimum I'm putting together a broadcast initiation checklist so I don't have to rely on this ever-fuzzying brain.
>>>  
>>> *Regarding "popping on and off":*
>>>  
>>> By "popping on and off", do you mean the tones turning off for a few minutes after each message? Or some more serious issue in the middle of each message?
>>>  
>>> My streams have always been similar to the Autostart ITTY stream, i.e. stopping tones in between each message, because until yesterday, all broadcasts purposefully had messages 5, 10, 15 minutes apart, and I try to walk in the footsteps of the giants who came before me. At the last minute I thought about making this one a single, contiguous stream with no pause since the messages were meant to be one right after another anyway, but I decided against it not wishing to accidentally mess something else up.
>>>  
>>> A while ago someone indicated his preference for keeping a carrier tone-- mark or diddle-- in between messages that are minutes or more apart, but I spoke with some other GK folks and ultimately decided not to, plus ITTY Autostart doesn't do that, and I try to follow in their footsteps.
>>>  
>>> However, if this is the problem you're referring to, perhaps I can revisit that and consider leaving a diddle running in between messages in the future, especially if it enables more people to tune in since there are apparently TUs that can't handle it cutting in and out. Doing this would actually make some things easier as I improve the automation for the broadcast. I'm glad to take others' input as well on this subject. I'll have to review the conversations I had a few years back to see why I stayed with the ITTY Autostart standard.
>>>  
>>> From what you're saying, Tom, it sounds like your TU actually got damaged during the broadcast?! I wasn't even aware that was possible, so if my broadcast really did that, I'm sincerely sorry, not that that brings back your TU.
>>>  
>>> *To wrap things up:*
>>>  
>>> If there's a problem with the signal, I absolutely do want to fix it. Let's work it out. If there's a problem with not leaving the mark tone in between messages, I'm already on board with revisiting that idea for sure.
>>>  
>>> A recording from yesterday's second run will be posted after I process it, but if there was a problem with the original signal, you'll most likely have the same issue with the recording.
>>>  
>>> 73, if I'm still allowed to use that phrase,
>>>  
>>> -
>>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham
>>> teletype.net | GreenKeys Search Engine: teletype.net/gksearch
>>> SMS via teletype: 385-308-4898 | Email via teletype: tty at nerdology.org
>>>  
>>> On Tue, Nov 1, 2022, at 9:48 AM, Tom Hunter wrote:
>>>> Did anyone get good copy on the Halloween broadcast? I did not! (Photo attached)
>>>> To make matters worse, even after he straightened out his tones,  he kept popping on and off and (since my Heathkit HD 3030 manual warns against letting it sit in steady mark) I had to keep turing the HW 3030 on and off. Something in it finally blew and it locked up at 100 mils, even though the lights were flashing correctly. So the below is all I got from him. That will be the last time I try to copy him - or write another story for him.Now I have to put the HW 3030 on the bench and try to fix it.
>>>>  
>>>> About a month ago I offered to add a Halloween stream to my stream-set for him. It could have been streaming all day in a loop. I have never heard anyone complain about bad copy on my streams. But I never heard back from him.
>>>>  
>>>> By the way - to Daniel Jones or any one else with an HW 3030 or a TU-470. They are not meant to run on today's powerline voltages. I have burned out power transformers in two Heathkits. I bought a bucking transformer on eBay that knocks my 122 volts down to 118. The remaining Heathkit and my Flesher run cooler now. Of course a bucking transformer is easy enough to build. But at my age I am getting lazy. I even dread putting this Heathkit on the bench. But it is too important to me.
>>>>  
>>>> Tom N3CRK
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>>>>  
>>>> >>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search Tool: https://teletype.net/gksearch
>>>> >>> 2002-to-present greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
>>>> >>> 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
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>>>>  
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>>>>  
>>>> *Attachments:*
>>>>  * Halloween.jpg
>>>  
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>>>  
>>> >>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search Tool: https://teletype.net/gksearch
>>> >>> 2002-to-present greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
>>> >>> 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
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>>>  
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>>  
> 
> ______________________________________________________________
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> 
> >>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search Tool: https://teletype.net/gksearch
> >>> 2002-to-present greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
> >>> 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
> >>> Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool: http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to js at teletype.net
> 
> *Attachments:*
>  * amp-fix-test.mp3
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