[HCRA] Fw: [YCCC] Live Audio in CQ WW

[Daniel J. Sullivan]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randy Thompson" <k5zd at charter.net>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>; <yccc at yccc.org>
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 3:56 PM
Subject: [YCCC] Live Audio in CQ WW


> When Dave, KM3T, was over getting familiar with the station prior to a
> single op effort in CQ WW Phone, we got to talking about his air traffic
> control audio streaming site and how cool it would be to do something
> similar for ham radio.  We couldn't think of anyone else who had streamed
a
> contest live on the Internet.
>
> Dave sent me some software and within 30 mins or so, I had the headphone
> audio playing out through the servers he uses for www.liveatc.com.
>
> An announcement here on the contest reflector resulted in the following
note
> that appeared in the ARRL Letter (thanks to N1RL):
>
> * K5ZD to provide chance to eavesdrop firsthand on contest operation: In
> what appears to be a contesting first, streaming audio
> <http://www.k5zd.com/live> from the Western Massachusetts contest station
of
> Randy Thompson, K5ZD, will be available on the Internet during the CQ
World
> Wide Phone Contest. Dave Pascoe, KM3T, a contest veteran, will be at the
> helm of K5ZD for a serious single-operator, all-band effort. "This will be
a
> full blown SO2R [single-operator, two radio] effort, and the stream will
be
> in stereo, so you hear exactly what he is hearing," Thompson said. He
> advises listeners to look for audio streaming to start a few hours before
> the contest. E-mail comments to K5ZD <k5zd at contesting.com>.
>
> Dave and I were interested to see what kind of interest there would be in
> such a thing.  The results exceeded our expectations.  I received a number
> of complimentary emails during the contest from people who were listening.
> One guy said he was using it to help mentor some beginning contesters,
> another said he was stuck at work and it let him enjoy the contest, and
> another said he was listening while eating breakfast.  In all there were
> about 40 emails with comments.  A number of emails after the contest asked
> if we made a file and if it was going to be available (see below).
>
> On a personal note, the audio streaming gave me a wonderful opportunity to
> share ham radio contesting with my 15 year old son.  He has listened to me
> yelling into the microphone his whole life, but we have never had the
chance
> to share what is going on inside the headphones.  Was fun to listen, tell
> him what country each callsign represented, and then do play-by-play as
> various things happened.  For example, at one point I could see Dave was
> going to get squeezed off a frequency.  Was fun to point out to Andrew the
> signals above and below, who they were, and how they were both moving in
> (and how the rate was impacted).
>
> Looking at the web logs after the contest, it appears there were between
20
> and 40 people listening most of the hours of the contest.  The high water
> mark was 59. There were nearly 2000 visitors to the site on Saturday of
the
> contest!
>
> Yes, we did archive the audio from the contest.  You can listen to the
> contest in 30 minute increments and view the log for each segment at
> http://www.k5zd.com/live/wwph05/audio_wwph05.html. There is also a link
> where you can download the entire contest as one file.  Dave has been
> listening to the contest through his Apple iPod!  You may want to find
your
> QSO in the recording and see how you sounded here in New England.
>
> One local contester has already used some of the audio files as part of
the
> contest presentation to his local club.
>
> If you hear an interesting segment, let me know the times (in GMT) and I
> will try to pull it out into a "Greatest Hits" list so that it will be
> easier to find examples of particular operating events.
>
> CQ WW CW
>
> We plan to do it again for CQ WW CW!  I will be operating single op all
band
> with SO2R in a reasonably serious effort. Visit www.k5zd.com/live during
the
> contest and click on the "Listen to Live Audio Now" link to share the
> experience.
>
> Note: During the phone contest several people complained of slow start up
or
> connection problems when using Microsoft Windows Media Player.  RealPlayer
> works great and starts very fast.
>
> Look forward to your comments.  And see you in CQ WW CW.
>
> Randy, K5ZD
> Dave, KM3T
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Yankee Clipper Contest Club  http://www.yccc.org
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>
>