Dreaming of Radio Signals

 I suspect some of us at one time or another have fantasized about having a way to actually see where and what direction our tiny transmission signals travel..

 I've even had a dream one night that I could see the signals fluttering about. It assisted me greatly in installing my transmitters in the precise spots and positions, and I almost had the signal optimized perfectly for the area I was aiming to cover before I woke up...

And then recently, in the real world, for a moment, just a moment.. I thought maybe that dream was go to be a reality when I saw this thing..

It's a fairly new $3 app, currently only available for Ipads or Iphones, but coming to Android soon.
It's called "Architecture of Radio", and what you do is point your tablet in whatever direction - and you'll be able to see how the radio waves are being emitted in that area..

Only you cant.

It combines a vast collection of existing databases with GPS positioning to create a visual representation of what the signals might look like in the area you point your ipad.

So, it ain't for real. Nevertheless, it's still a pretty neat creation!
It's cool.

But wait... upon further reading I notice it doesn't even bother to use actual radio stations data at all! It does utilize databases of literally millions of cell towers, wi-fi routers, and satellites to create the visual representations it presents.. but no actual radio stations??

WTF???
The app is called "Architecture of Radio" huh?

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/app-visualizes-radio-waves-cell-towers-satellites-around-you-n469781?cid=par-time-tech_20151126

It's more useful to dream.

Zara Radio for Dummies

Some one new just getting into the Part 15 hobby mentioned on one of the forums that he's going to start by using Winamp for automation.... So I decided to attempt to provide a basic tutorial to show him that Zara Radio is a much better option.. So here goes nothin..
Zara Radio is really very simple to learn and use, and it consist of several useful and professional features which can be utilized to improve the operation and quality of your radio station.
Zara Radio (v1.6.2) can be run on any version of Windows from XP to 7. (not sure about 8)
Forget about just using a Winamp Playlist, your cutting yourself and your listening audience short.

• Supportd wav, mp3, ogg and wma.
• Complete Event System
• 90 Instant Jingles
• Automatic Gain Control
•  Password Protection Capable
• It logs every broadcasted file
• Crossfade between tracks
• Time, Temperature and Humidity
• End of song detector
• DTMF tone detector
• Five players (1 main + 4 aux)
• It's FREE!
• And much more...

Here's a quick, simple,  and visual Zara Radio tutorial ...

1. - Download and set up Zara Radio
Download ZaraRadio v1.6.2 Free Edition from http://www.zarastudio.es/download.php. While you're there you might as well download the manual too as it covers many more capabilities which you may wish to explore later, as they are not even addressed in this down and dirty tutorial,  But for now, the following will quickly, and easily get your broadcast underway. .
Install the program and run.... The follow the guidelines as shown to set it up..

Just set everything up as shown in the following images to help you quickly get the feel  and configure the options and some basic features..

Now click the small clock over Events window (as shown circled above) Then click "New" button.
Follow instructions shown below...

Click OK

To have ZaraRadio announce the temperature and humidity, then click "New" again and follow the same procedure.

If you would like to have a newscast or other stream automatically play at specific times, the procedure is very similar..

 In the above example the news will play for five minutes every day at 5:30PM..
Select "Internet Stream"
Type in or paste in the stream address
(I use http://www.voanews.com/mp3/voa/english/nnow/NNOW_HEADLINES.mp3
For more information see this post)
Set "Start Time" at 5:30PM
Select "Immeadiate"
Select "Once a day"
Select "All" days of the week
Click "Ok"

                               ...........................

YOUR ALMOST DONE!...
 You need voice files and a weather retrieval program. Here are the free downloads:

3. - Download Voices for Time, Temperature, and Humidity Announcements
Zara Radio can automatically broadcast the current time, temperature, and humidity for you. You just tell it how often and/or when.
The following Time, Temperature, and Humidity voices are free. These are professionally produced files..
Time: Time- Demented Elf Productions.zip  --Download and unzip these files to: C:\Program Files\ZaraSoft\ZaraRadio\Time\
Temperature: Temperature- Demented Elf Productions.zip --Download and unzip these files to:  C:\Program Files\ZaraSoft\ZaraRadio\Temperature\
Humidity: Humidity- Demented Elf Productions.zip   --Download and unzip these files to: C:\Program Files\ZaraSoft\ZaraRadio\Humidity\

UPDATE!: The above voice files links have gone defunct! Fortunately here's an updated link to download the identical weather voice files http://www.highcountrylights.com/remository/Audio-Files/


4. - Download and configure Weather Watcher
For your radio station automatically retrieve and announce current temperature and humidity for your location, then you must have Weather Watcher software installed.
All versions of Weather Watcher prior to version 6.1 are free, however, the free versions can only access WeatherBug.com weather stations, which may or may not cover your specific location. Whereas the paid version also includes WeatherUnderground.com data, thus further expanding your choice of specific weather stations
Download Weather Watcher v6.0.6 (free version)
UPDATE 12/25/2014: v6.06 no longer parses the data to Zara, But version 5's still do.. 
You can download the free earlier version 5.6.6 at  
http://mram.50webs.com/index_files/page4.htm or at http://windows.softwareweb.com/weather-watcher-5.6.6-9E9HE.html
Or the newest paid version ..
Download Weather Watcher Live (paid version $19 a year)

Upon installing Weather Watcher it will ask if you wish to configure options.. if it doesn't then just click on the options tab, then set up appropriately as shown in the following examples... (these screenshots are from the free version)

General Tab:

Stations Tab:

 

Auto Update Tab:

 

Export Tab:

If you just set up everything as shown in all the above, then everything should perform correctly for both Zara and weather watcher.
There are some other options you might want to look at from zararadios "Tools"/"Options".. I just got tired and didn't feel like explaining that right now, but you'll be fine with out it for now.
I'll probably re-write this later, in better detail, but the above info should get you going!  
You Later...


Also check put some methods of expanding ZaraRadio's capabilities with the use of scripts:
https://github.com/qrplife/zara-helpers


And another method which is a bit more complicated..
http://part15lab.blogspot.com/2016/02/brilliant-and-unique-use-of-zararadio.html

Howard Stern talks about radio

Here's an cool clip of Howard Stern talking about his career in radio and about when he first got started... It's excerpted from one of his radio shows. Don't know the date of broadcast, I came across it somewhere and edited out this 6 minute portion because I found it interesting.

Warning; He does drop the F word 2 or 3 times, but other than that the discussion is pretty tame

Play the 6 minute clip:
or Download mp3

Phrack Philes: Radio Hacking - The Basics of Radio

I managed to fall into the peculiar website of phrack.org while googling "AM radio basics", and came across an article which I've read before, but then got curious about the website it's hosted on.. I wasn't quite sure what kind of website it was..

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@.```@ +# ,;+#@#@# #;;;;;;;;;;;;;;';;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;+''@;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;@@ @@::. # ,'@'. @ @;;';;;;;;;;;;;;';;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;#''+@;;;;;;;;;;;;#@` ` # ,#'. @ @;;;#;;;;;;;;;;@;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;#'''''#@#';;;;;@@ :#: :' +;;;;;#;;;;;;;;';;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;'+''''''''''''+, ;+`` +: ;;;;;;+#;;;;;;';;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;@@''''''''''''@ `+ : '' @;;;;;;;#@;;;;#;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;+@@;@@+''''''''#: # ` ;#. `;;;;;;;;;#@@;;;;;;;;;;;;;;+@@@#';;;#@@@@+''#@+ @ @ `;@: ,;;;;;;;;;;;@@@@@@@@@@@@@#';;;;;;;;;@;#@@#; .; ,::,` +;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;'@ ., ';;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;## @ ,'@', '; @;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;@+ ;` `:'@+:. @ #+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;+@: :'+##+':,` #` ;@+;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;#@@. `## '@@#';;;;;;;;'+@@@#` ;.. :#@@@@@@@#: ;.;  The basics of Radio 0 - Introduction 0.1 - Technical Terms 1 - Radio Basics 1.1 - Radio Waves 1.2 - Carrier 1.3 - (RF) Frequency Bands 1.4 - Wavelength 1.5 - Transmission 1.6 - Receiving 2 - AM Radio 2.1 - What is AM Radio? 2.2 - Modulation 2.3 - Demodulation 2.4 - Circuits 2.4.1 - Receivers 2.4.2 - Transmitters 3 - FM Radio 3.1 - What is FM radio? 3.2 - Modulation 3.3 - Demodulation 3.4 - Circuits 4 - Misc 4.1 - Pirate Radio 4.2 - Wireless Telephone Tapping 4.3 - Jamming 5 - Conclusion 6 - Bibliography

They have no "about" page, in which to determine some form of overview of basically what the site is about, nor state any objective or definition. So I went way back to their originating Volume One, Issue One, released on November 17, 1985 to find out.. "Welcome to the Phrack Inc. Philes. Basically, we are a group of phile writers who have combined our philes and are distributing them in a group..." Interesting.. But what's a phile? They didn't say, so I looked it up.. Combining form suffix: -phile denoting fondness for a specified thing. A combining form meaning “lover of,” “enthusiast for” that specified by the initial element: Anglophile; bibliophile; demophile. It originates from the Greek word "philos", meaning "loving" Ok.. that's pretty cool. My part15ophile today is really no more than a link to a particular "phile" about RADIO found lingering amongst Phracks vast midst of other topics scattered on the ocean of their website,.. Released:   July 17, 2004 Entitled:     Radio Hacking Subtitled:   The Basics of Radio By:            shaun2k2 This article is divided up into four parts. The first part describes the basic theory of radio, and examples to illustrate some of the common day uses of it. In parts two and three, AM and FM radio details are outlined showing various different circuits to illustrate how these principles can be applied to real-life, functioning circuits. Section four is a misc. section, presenting some miscellaneous interesting points.   There's a few excerpts below. Read full article here:   phrack.org/issues/62/11.html

Excerpts:

Radio waves, otherwise referred to as 'radio signals', are simply electromagnetic waves.  Radio waves are transmitted by devices called 'radio transmitters' or 'transmitters' for short.  Despite our wide and many uses for radio waves as a whole, we actually known very little about 'radio'.
We do know, however, that radio waves are a form of energy, which act exactly like they have been  propagated as any other type of wave we know of. For example, an audio wave.
Radio waves are made up of three things; an electric field, a direction, and a magnetic field.
Despite our underlying ignorance of radio and its properties, we can predict and use its properties to our  advantage to undergo a wide variety of different tasks -- and will probably do so for a long time to come...
                                   ~~~
AM Radio refers to any form of technology which makes use of Amplitude Modulation to modulate the 'carrier' with information... ..AM is one of the simplest forms of modulation, and with this, comes its disadvantages...
                                   ~~~
AM Modulation involves nothing more than shifting the power of a radio wave's carrier by tiny amounts, in sympathy with a modulating signal...
Amplitude, as you probably already knew, is just another word for 'power'...
..After AM modulating the carrier, the signal has usually twice the 'bandwidth' of the original modulating signal.
                                   ~~~
Pirate Radio stations are simply just radio stations ran by individuals who are not licensed amateur radio enthusiasts...
..Some 'pirate radio' stations keep within the FCC terms, by transmitting at low-power.
These types of stations are often referred to as 'free radio', or 'micropower stations'.
..The US allows transmission of radio signals at *microscopic* power, making the limitations almost useless for unlicensed radio enthusiasts, thus causing them to resort to pirate radio.
                                   ~~~
To avoid being busted, it is probably a good idea to stay within the legal power limits.  Otherwise, a Direction Finding device used by the authorities could easily track down the exact location of the transmitter. 
                                   ~~~
Read full article  here:  http://phrack.org/issues/62/11.html

Police suspicous of part 15 listener sitting in parked car

This newspaper clipping was recently posted by a member of the Radio World staff on their website:

Eagle-eyed Dan Slentz sent us this clip from an unknown newspaper that he found on a Facebook page. “Just plain old-fashioned good radio I guess,” he remarks.

What initially came to my mind is maybe the guy had stopped there for the sake of reception of local area part 15 broadcast.. I got curious..

A search of the address on google news determined that the above newspaper clip originated from a police blotter in the Minneapolis Star Tribune http://www.startribune.com/local/west/258181521.html

The online version didn't supply any further information other than what is stated in the clip above, but as a part 15'er, I opt to create an urban legend...

Of course it's total bullshit.