More Theories From Bill W2XOY! Reactions To A Contemporary REACT!

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This last Sunday, a bunch of hams got together at the Empire State Plaza in downtown Albany for The Great Train Extravaganza! In attendance were Tony W2BEJ, Bill W2XOY, Zach KC2VWY and myself N2FNH. After the show, we convened at the Wolf Road Diner in Colonie for a little late afternoon lunch. Bill offered tales of his recent involvement with REACT, a national volunteer emergency services organization. Naturally, these stories were documented by yours truly and packaged as another ongoing edition of the RANDOM ACCESS THOUGHT. Here is the link to that presentation:

http://twaud.io/q5Hr
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http://www.twiar.org/
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http://twitter.com/TWIAR
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THE GODFATHER!

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So MNOAOS Zach and I got together this Monday evening with our very own Bill W2XOY. We made the scene at the classic old folks watering hole, the Cracker Barrel, located in nearby Defreestville on Route 4 in Rensselaer County, here in upstate New York. Bill wanted to get together with Zach to offer congratulations on passing the Technician Class amateur radio exam, sponsored by the East Greenbush Amateur Radio Association. Bill, in addition to being the author and the voice of the globally famous Ancient Amateur Archives, is also Zachary's Godfather. And so it came to pass that the Godfather made an offer Zach could not refuse, by presenting him with a ICOM V82 two meter handheld transceiver.
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Bill also offered the speculation that Zach's call may fall in the KC2VVx block, possibly a KC2VWx. And should it come to pass that my number one and only son cares not for his freshly inked call, he says he may opt for my father's old two land as a vanity callsign. Thus Zach is actually a third generation amateur radio operator. And there's more!
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Turns out, Zach's friend-who-is-a-girl Jessica, George Bowen's daughter, will also be third generation. Whether Jess goes for her Grandfather's callsign remains to be seen. Stay tuned for a callsign update, hopefully sometime this week!

TWO! TWO! TWO AUDIO EXTRAVAGANZOS!

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Before I even begin to blogulate, let me advise that I am savoring (gobbling) the extremely addicting Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookie (I bought five boxes) that some shameless street pusher in my business office...mmmm...mmmhrff...that's good!

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Anyway, make a point to download not one but two This Week in Amateur Radio Internationals this weekend. One for this week ending March the 7th, and one for the week ending on February the 28th. Nestled at the core of each program: a tasty Random Access Thought. Not just any Random Access Thought! But two of my favorite and most heavily post produced efforts! I really should have posted for the 28th sooner because one of my more truly eclectic Random Access Thoughts: "The History of Backward Recorded Sound" was up for an encore performance.

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This unique and certainly quite esoteric offering first took flight in April 2005 as an exclusive production solely for play over the shortwave giant WBCQ. But now that TWIAR Internet podcasts are a weekly must do, this presentation is more universally available.

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Because it was top of mind at the moment, I decided to put focus on the arcane alchemy of reverse recorded sound, first engineered for use in film animation and motion pictures from the 1940s and then continuing the saga (eh...) into the 1960s with the emergence of Musique Concrete and tape music where, thanks to the development of the first commercially available analog audio synthesizers such as the MOOG, notes and noises of all sorts could then summarily sped up, slowed down, played backwards and even sliced and diced to achieve some truly remarkable effects.

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From the tape music, we move into the twilight zone of back masking in music, beginning with the Beatles' audio masterpiece Number 9, where subliminal and maybe not so subliminal messages were parked in reverse gear just so us kids could spot our fingers on the vinyl and force the record backward against the groove and the needle to hear the words of...SATAN???? Then! An easy leap to the equally hellish commentary to be unearthed deep within the folds of reverse speech where the conscious mind says the nice politically correct words in forward time but speaks the not-so-nice, not-so-politically correct realities in time reverse.

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Lots of backward noises, forward sounds, reversed melodies and forward tonalities abound! The RAT as a separate element will soon be available for download at http://www.twiar.org/n2fnh/RATParts The WAV file to watch for will be RAT0504O2_BACK_BCQ_R1.CAB. In the associated promo, PROMO_RAT_BACK_BCQ_R1.CAB, a young nine-year old Zachary learns how to say his name backwards into to a microphone and then play the recording backwards so what he said forwards is now heard backwards, which was his name said backwards which now sounds like he said it forwards with a Swedish accent. Savvy?

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This photo taken with my Sony PSP displays a edit screen with two audio clips. Both are the sound of a cast iron bathtub being dropped. Both are ready to be played backwards.
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Whereas "The History of Backward Recorded Sound was a Sonic Extravaganzo in the extreme, "The Story of Reginald" allows my extensive post production technique to stroll down a more dimly lit, more tightly refined and far more subtle three o'clock in the morning avenue in sound.
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But Mister Continelli is at his best as a teller of tales, when he sits back, pipe in hand, with a thin wisp of tobacco fragrance rising above, to tell us True Believers one hell of a really cool bedtime radio story. "The Story of Reginald" is Bill's recollection of working as a security guard at a dog biscuit plant in 1970s Buffalo, New York. The tale intertwines radios, a CB walkie talkie bad guy, radios, social intrigue, radios and radios. Savvy?

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Adding environmental sound to Bill's reminiscences required subtlety. Background ambiances such as Buffalo's city traffic was aged, distant, muted and tinged with brown. Effects for radios were quite authentic though in some cases, were played in reverse to mask content since what might have been heard on track may also have been inconsistent with the story line. "The Story of Reginald" is a must save for your MP3 player personal library.

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You can download this week's This Week in Amateur at http://www.twiar.org/ or even better yet, connect to: http://www.twiar.org/n2fnh/RATParts and look for file number RAT071127_REGI.CAB. Right click on the title and "Save Target As" to your hardddrive. Use your WinZIP or IZArc to extract the select RAF audio WAV file inside!

Now is the Time for Amateur Radio's Best Bargains! W2XOY Serves Up Another Amateur Radio Tale!

This edition of the Random Access Thought continues the thread I started last week with Bill Continelli as guest host. Prior to the story of "W2XOY's Secret Elmer". Bill had dropped by and recorded a feature entitled:"Now is the Time for Amateur Radio's Best Bargains". We did this back in late February, 2005 with production wrapping up on March the 2nd.

The basic premise of the story is that Bill, planning ham radio purchases in 1974, is visited by himself from thirty one years in the future. Bill's elder self launches a discussion in typical certified public accountant's terms just how buying amateur gear in 2005 will actually be cheaper than it was in 1974. Needless to say, this Random Access Thought was extensively post produced with the added feature of some classic motion picture soundtrack music. Mr. Continelli serves up some fairly intense and quite passionate acting while paying homage to "Gone with the Wind".

By the way, if you listen carefully, you may hear jingling bells in the background. Ed the cat, a fifteen pound street feline with the personality of Scooby Doo and the smarts of a doorbell races feverishly from room to room while the microphonium was hot. Ed is one of those creatures who occasionally discovers his tail and chases it!

This installment, like "W2XOY's Secret Elmer" made use of a production scheme best described as Single Track Overlay. While I currently produce the Random Access Thought in multitrack, back then I used the primary voice track as a template. Primary effects and background ambiances were then overlaid or matted under the voice. Under some circumstances, this style of post production could actually be faster and more efficient.

My thanks to George W2XBS for requesting this episode and reminding me that I still had this classic gem concealed deep within the Random Access vaults! Please 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 RAT081008_BARG_BCQ_R1.cab or RAT08008_BARG_HAM_R1, right click and "Save Target As" to your hardddrive. Use your WinZIP or IZArc to extract the select RAF audio WAV file inside!

W2XOY'S Secret Elmer! The Subject? Yes!

This week's edition of the Random Access Thought takes on an air of high tech mystery and political intrigue as Bill Continelli W2XOY relates the story of "W2XOY's Secret Elmer". By today's broadcast standards, this is a truly vintage recording, first produced in December of 2005. It has become fairly standard that if Bill has a topic he desires to cover that falls beyond the realm of his popular Ancient Amateur Archives, he will, in effect, franchise time via the Random Access Thought as a guest host. While Bill's Ancient Amateur Archives are presented "dry", that is without any audio enhancement, hosting a RAT freely allows these stories to be fully developed with sounds and environmental backdrops that expand the theoy of "theater of the mind". This production was fun to do. I kept going back and adding more and more effects to fully document Bill's tale!

Mr. Continelli has performed in a number of other Random Access features, including "CQ MARS! CQ MARS!" and "The Story of Reggie". In addition, Bill has offered a number of custom recorded vocal effects which are now part of the ever-growing N2FNH Sound Effects Library.

This installment, like of many of my early Random Access programs relied on a method of production which might be described as Single Track Overlay. While I currently produce features which are developed though multi-track, in those days, I would use the primary voice track as a template. Primary effects and background ambiances were copied and directly overlaid or matted on to the voice track. Under certain circumstances, this style of post production could actually be faster and more efficient, but I moved to multiple track production when George W2XBS requested stereo versions of RAT, QSL and BLOG promos for TWIARi. Under a multi-track format, elements such as music can be selectly added for This Week in Amateur Radio International but be removed for the HAM Radio Full Service version. I still use Single Track Overlay in the development of certain sound effects combinations where I want two or more effects to be merged but not heard as separate elements. 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 RAT080930_BOND_BCQ_R1.cab OR RAT080930_BOND_HAM_R1.cab, right click and "Save Target As" to your hardddrive. Use your WinZIP or IZArc to extract the select RAF audio WAV file inside!

Back By Request! The Process is More Important than the Result!

For the week ending July 19th, The Random Access Thought offers an encore performance by request! I received the following e-mail from a pair of faithful This Week in Amateur Radio Listeners! For the week ending July 19th, This week's Random Access Thought is an encore performance by request! I received the following email from a pair of faithful This Week in Amateur Radio listeners:

We faithfully listen to the Full Version of TWIAR weekly using an MP3 download from your website played through Winamp into desktop speakers connected to our personal home computer using Windows XP operating system.

VE7BGJ Walter Hendrickson
VA7CHR Cheryl McDuff
Burnaby, B.C. CANADA

Sure hope to hear your "Purpose or Process?" article that Bill did again sometime.

The Process is More Important than the Result is a phrase I first heard coined by Bill Continelli - W2XOY - host of the Ancient Amateur Archives.
The full story comes your way in TWIAR Edition # 797 and TWIARi Edition # 182.