Easy Listening Radio: Radio That is Easy to Listen To! (anencoreperformance)

In this week's (encoreperformance) edition of the Random Access Thought for the week ending November 8th, the subject is Easy Listening Radio or perhaps more to the point: Radio that is easy to listen to. This admittedly off-Broadway performance attempts a linkage (albeit quite tenuous) between listening to broadcast AM and FM radios, shortwave receivers, and police scanners and yet being able to rest comfortably and even doze off at the same time.

This week's Random Access Thought was recorded in various rooms deep within the N2FNH Hacienda using my remarkably inexpensive forty-nine dollar Radio Shack analog cassette tape recorder. The associated Random Access Promo features Cigman Krasnov, his sister Marilyn and my Number One and Only Son Zachary. By the way, one of my extemporaneous rants took place in my bathroom. However, on playback, that typical bathroom background reverb was not clearly evident so I added bathroom echo during the editing session.

So download this week's This Week in Amateur Radio Ham Service and the TWIARi Broadcast version, or even better connect to http://www.twiar.org/n2fnh/RATParts Look for file number RAT080521_EZLR.cab, right click and "Save Target As" to your hardddrive. Use your WinZIP or IZArc to extract the select RAF audio WAV file inside!

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Not only is this Random Access Thought an encore performance, but this post is an encore performance too! (exceptforthephotoeffect)

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P.S: MNOAOS Zach voiced the slug line ("...that's the subject of the next...") in the associated RAT Easy Listening promo and really got into being a beautiful music announcer. Since he knew his father had voiced for a number of beautiful music stations in the 1970's including the Schulke client WEZG in Syracuse, he was a natural for the assignment!

RFC 1097 - Telnet Subliminal-Message Option!

What follows is the first in a series of "Requests For Comment" that the TELNET NEWS/LAND LINE LID THIS WEEK has unearthed at various information repositories. RFCs are documents composed and written detailing certain standards or operational protocols for use within the Internet community.Some of these otherwise dry commentaries may actually make for some unusual if not interesting reading.

RFC 1097 (rfc1097) - Telnet subliminal-message option
RFC 1097 (RFC1097)

Internet RFC/STD/FYI/BCP Archives
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Alternate Formats: rfc1097.txt rfc1097.txt.pdf
Comment on RFC 1097
RFC 1097 - Telnet subliminal-message option
Network Working Group B. Miller
Request for Comments: 1097 CMU-NetDev
1 April 1989
TELNET SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE Option

Status of this Memo
This RFC specifies a standard for the Internet community. Hosts on
the Internet that display subliminal messages within the Telnet
protocol are expected to adopt and implement this standard.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

1. Command name and code.
SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE 257

2. Command meanings.

IAC WILL SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE
The sender of this command REQUESTS permission to, or confirms
that it will, display subliminal messages.
IAC WONT SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE
The sender of this command REFUSES to display subliminal messages.
IAC DO SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE
The sender of this command REQUESTS that the receiver, or grants
the receiver permission to, display subliminal messages.
IAC DONT SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE
The sender of this command DEMANDS that the receiver not

display subliminal messages.
IAC SB SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE <16-bit> <16-bit> IA SE
The sender specifies a message to be subliminally displayed by the
remote host. If the client has agreed (via the standard WILL WONT
DO DONT mechanism) to display subliminal messages, it must accept
this subnegotiation and attempt to display the message string on
the users console for the specified duration and continue to do so
at fixed intervals until another SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE subnegotiation
is received. The position and rendering of the message of
implementation dependent.

The first 16-bit value specifies the duration of the message in
milliseconds. It is sent MSB first. The second 16-bit value
specifies the frequency with which the message is displayed. It
represents the number of seconds between displays and is also sent
MSB first. The final parameter is the message itself.

The syntax for this subnegotiation is:
IAC SB SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE
DURATION[1] DURATION[0]
FREQUENCY[1] FREQUENCY[0]
MESSAGE_STRING
IAC SE
As required by the Telnet protocol, any occurrence of 255 in the
subnegotiation must be doubled to distinguish it from the IAC
character (which has a value of 255).

3. Default.
WONT SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE
DONT SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE
i.e., subliminal messages will not be displayed.

4. Motivation for the option
Frequently the use of "Message of the day" banners and newsletters is
insufficient to convince stubborn users to upgrade to the latest
version of telnet. Some users will use the same outdated version for
years. I ran across this problem trying to convince people to use
the REMOTE-FLOW-CONTROL Telnet option. These users need to be gently
"persuaded".

5. Description and implementation notes.
The quality of the client implementation will depend on it's ability
to display and erase text strings in a small amount of time. The
current implementation at CMU takes into account terminal line speed,
advanced video capabilities, and screen phosphor persistence when
calculating how long to wait before erasing a message.
While it is permitted for the client to display the message text
"in-line", best results at obtained by printing the message at the
top or side of console screen where it will just catch the corner of
the user's visual field.

A version is currently under development at CMU to display the
message using Morse-code over the keyboard caps-lock LED.

6. Examples
In the following example all numbers are in decimal notation.

1. Server suggests and client agrees to use SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE.
(Server sends) IAC DO SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE
(Client sends) IAC WILL SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE
(Server sends) IAC SB SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE 0 5 0 20 "Use VMS" IAC SE
[The server is "suggesting" that the user employ a stable
operating system, not an unreasonable request...]
The client should immediately begin displaying the message and
should continue to do so at regular intervals.

2. Server preempts previous subliminal message.
(Server sends) IAC SB SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE 0 5 0 20 "Go home" IAC SE
The client should now no longer display the previous message and
should immediately begin displaying the new one.

3. Server has messed with user enough for one day.
(Server sends) IAC SB SUBLIMINAL-MESSAGE 0 0 0 0 "" IAC SE
The client must cease display of any subliminal messages.

7. Acknowledgements.
We do things just a little sneakier here at CMU.

Comment on RFC 1097
Previous: RFC 1096 - Telnet X display location option Next: RFC 1098
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

Does This Still Work?

A few months back, the TELNET NEWS/LAND LINE LID THIS WEEK (July 19, 2003), offered a RANDOM ACCESS FILE detailing several commercially available desktop news tickers that you can use to stay up-to-date. What follows is some HTML source language that may be of interest. This is the THIS WEEK IN AMATEUR RADIO NEWS TICKER. Edit out this language, give it a file name like TICKER.HTM, put it in a convenient folder and put a shortcut icon on your desktop. Then when you are online, you can click on the document which will bring up IE Explorer. The file will then subsequently make a call out to the home server for the current headlines. What is unique about this ticker is that the news provided is AMATEUR RADIO news and even though it brings up an instance of IE, you can squash the interface with your mouse so that it's about the same size as the ticker. The author of this ticker is Greg - K4HSM and permission to distribute was given by George - W2XBS.

.............................. snip here ...................................

So Many QRZs! But Not All the Same!

A few evenings back, while performing some sort of mundane domestic chore, I was tuned in to a fellow ham, Glenn WB2FOB, talking to a few of his pals through the local 147.27 repeater in nearby Troy. He was in the slo-mo mobile mode, taking a walking tour of his neighborhood, expounding on the virtues of a brisk nightly jaunt for the betterment of his health. During the course of the QSO, Glenn made reference to his personal website, advising "Just Google WB2FOB's home page". So I stopped what I was doing and did just that. While Glenn's website was not readily apparent within the first page of those Google listings, I found myself distracted by another listing which displayed an address as http://wb2fob.qrz.ru/ On the click, I was ferried to http://home.qrz.ru/ and, on an otherwise virtually blank page, except for a few Russian language ads, a minimum of (WB2FOB Cooper, Glenn m), (Albany) and (USA) was displayed.

I then typed in http://qrz.ru/ which produced a home page looking not too dissimilar from our own stateside QRZ callbook, complete with amateur radio related advertisements and other visual detritus. Detritus is a five dollar word, used only by science fiction writers and crossword puzzle authors.

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While I did not know if the Russian callbook was in any way officially associated with the stateside QRZ, I thought I would follow the global QRZ thread a little further. So I typed in another address - http://qrz.co.uk/ .

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This produced a dull and uninspiring white and green scene with only a query box with the query: "What are you looking for?" So I plugged in WB2FOB and the distant unseen database retrieved one or two pages of listings related to Glenn's Internet documented amateur radio activities. So, this too was a callbook of sorts. But with N2FNH, there were no ham listings offered. In place, unrelated details having to do with shopping and travel appeared. I did not make the grade with this otherwise ambiguous callbook.

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Then it was on to France and http://qrz.fr/. Not conversant in the language, I could only surmise that this was a personal blog, displaying images of an ICOM R20 wideband receiver and some associated text material for French consumption.
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Staying within the bounds of the European cloud, a quick jump to Greece and http://qrz.gr/. Here, another one of those with an equally barren display, a home slate for SV1UT.

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And for Spain? Well, some ads with an advisory that "This domain may be for sale".

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Finally, I typed in http://qrz.jp/. Like the British QRZ, vague at best, My Maxthon and Firefox browsers cannot interpret Japanese and neither can I. A lot of little boxes where words would be, plus a few ads, one with sketches of some sort of electronic-looking black box, actually scribbled in white. Could be a cable box tuner. Could be a wireless router. Who could tell?

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There may be other callbooks using QRZ out there, but based on what I have found thus far, it may not be worth any additional discretionary time to locate more. Fortunately, none of these resulted in porn that, like their movie stars, may just carry a social disease.

What's this?

Today, I went to My Favorites in my browser and clicked on Google. What came back was one of these, a 405 Method Not Allowed. I was not sure if it referred to method acting or a method of operation or even a method of modern love. So I Googled "405 Method Not Allowed" and got an address that explains this error in overwhelming detail:

http://www.checkupdown.com/status/E405.html

There are endless others but this was first on the list and will do nicely!

Boxes!

There's Something for Everybody in Amateur Radio!

There's something for everyone in amateur radio! Usually when you hear this cliche periodically recanted in some magazine or newsletter article with focus on the fledgling ham seeking direction or the old buzzard who may need an injection of creative thought to revitalize interest in the hobby, you may anticipate the tried and true commentaries on The Magic Band and six meters or The Cutting Edge, say 10 GHz and up. Stuff like that.

But it does appear that there are other offshoot causeways to follow when it comes to creative expression within amateur radio. Those of us here at This Week in Amateur Radio perform this service making use of the audio domain to detail the news within the universe of ham radio. But what follows is a link to a website where the literary classics cross wires with our original digital medium. And while the onetime CW requirement is no longer an issue to securing a license, for those who may wish to keep in tune with the mode, can click on this address for a most unique and one of a kind practice session.

http://www.retards.org/radio/shakespeares_sonnets_cw/

The Post Man Always Rings Twice!

Here, in no particular order, are a few recent e-mail requests for an Official This Week in Amateur Radio QSL Card. The more traditional pathway of writing a reception report and mailing it to: This Week in Amateur Radio Post Office Box 30, Sand Lake, New York 12153 has given way in recent years to an e-mail request sent to n2fnh@capital.net. So, whether you receive the program over your local VHF or UHF repeater, copy the show over WBCQ or download the latest weekly Internet Podcast, you can get your own TWIAR QSL Card by taking pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. either way works!

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Bill,
Please send me a TWIAR QSL card. I listen to TWIAR via the iTunes podcast and enjoy it immensely.
Thanks in advance and keep up the good work.
David Walden Sr., AK4DW
4929 Wise Springs Road
Knoxville, TN 37918
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Thanks for the write up on this subject. My brother is trying to get me into this stuff. I hope it does not die to soon.
Keep up the good work
John Flint KC9MVQ
9216N 100E
Lucerne, IN 46950

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