The war against PLT–New IPTV provider YouView to supply PLT units manufactured by devolo with their equipment

My recent check of the Ban PLT website (banner at the top of the page) has revealed that a new IPTV provider, YouView, will be supplying 85Mbps devolo PLT units with their equipment.  This is pretty much identical to what BT did with their BT Vision service, they supplied a pair of Commtrend PLT devices with their equipment.  These, and the devolo units supplied with YouView’s set-top box are, just like any PLT device on the market, none-compliant.  This leaves you with two choices.  One would be to boycott YouView until the company knows that PLT is not fit for purpose, or two would be to use the YouView service with an ethernet cable instead.  I believe that to boycott YouView is the lesser of two evils, rather than fund a company that is willing to help wipe out the radio spectrum.

The major partners of YouView include BT, TalkTalk, The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 Television, Channel 5, and transmitter operator Arqiva, note in particular the latter, Arqiva maintain the transmitters that provide radio and television services in the UK yet have the double-standard of partnering with a company that is helping to promote destroying radio spectrum.  The PLT devices don’t just render longwave broadcasts, medium wave broadcasts, shortwave broadcasts, CB, and Amateur radio useless, some models have the potential to wipe out VHF broadcast band 88-108MHz, of which Arqiva maintains some transmitters for, and Band III where DAB is allocated, again some transmitters for this band are maintained by Arqiva.  The potential still exists however to wipe out the Bands IV and V, which is television and possibly 4G LTE mobile telephony (which is set to cause issues in itself).

So, if you are thinking about getting YouView, please reconsider this until they stop supplying PLT devices with their hardware.

 

73 de 26CT730

Back off the CB airwaves

I am back off the CB airwaves, this is because the antenna fell off the window at some stage, I have decided that due to the difficulty in siting it without assistance and the possibility that the antenna will fall off the window again, to remove the matching box as well.

I can still be found on the Free Radio Network and my gateway is still on air.

I will soon push ahead to get a new antenna system built for the CB.

73 de 26CT730

The war against PLT–A further idiotic recommendation of these nasty devices

I was doing my regular read up of the Ban PLT website and it’s associated Facebook group, when I stumbled across this, the article is a 3-page article about “souping up” your network, and recommending PLT devices as a third, and best option to do this “despite the inevitable outrage from radio hams”.  The author of that article is very misinformed, he assumes that only Amateur radio operators are the one affected by PLT, this is not the case because these devices cover a wide range of spectrum, parts of which include broadcast band, airband, safety-of-life systems, and CB radio.

Let’s look at it another way, someone in the neighbourhood is using those PLT devices, and the emergency services are unable to contact their control center, and don’t think that digital transmissions are immune from interference, they aren’t.  Or what if your neighbourhood is within a few miles of an airfield or airport, the control tower would not be able to contact the pilots both over short and long distances, this would result in you being tracked down by the Civil Aviation Authority for causing disruption to the activities of air traffic control, you are also putting lives in danger, which could include loved ones going on holiday for a while.

So it’s not just amateur radio operators (to give them their full and correct title), or 11-meter band operators, using these devices will wipe out a lot of spectrum and could put lives in danger.

I urge you to unplug and dispose of these devices NOW!

I also urge you to click the Ban Power Line Technology banner at the top of this page.

As for the author of the article I linked to, he should be thoroughly ashamed to be a purveyor of lies

 

73 de 26CT730

A new month and another Bank Holiday weekend to come

And a bank holiday means more DXing, on Sunday I will be headed to the racecourse with my PMR446 radios, and on Monday afternoon after I get back from the annual parade I’ll be doing some DXing on the CB, however I am still using the on-glass antenna on CB at this time and unless the skip is really good don’t stand much of a chance, but I shall give it a go regardless, and see how many contacts I can log thaf day, and of course on Sunday on PMR446, for which I will be checking the conditions for.

A Bank Holiday such as this one, as it is not only the annual Richmond Meet, it is also the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, meaning the likelyhood of the PMR446 Free Radio Network gateway will be hard to access, and may have to be put into “Not available”, the “Not Available mode prevents the gateway from receiving however it still transmits, this will not have any kind of affect on the stream though, as transmissions are still received by the radios, just not passed through to the gateway.

I shall update again very soon

 

73 de 26CT730

Richmond Free Radio Network PMR446 gateway Live stream now online

I am pleased to announce that the PMR446 gateway's live stream is now online (updated 29/05/12 to lower bitrate stream)

A radio was modified to provide the feed for the stream, this was one of my Binatone EK1000 radios, it's antenna was removed, and the antenna housing cut off with a hacksaw blade to accommodate direct connection to the antenna, the centre of the coax cable connected to the hole made vacant by removal of the extremely small and inefficient coil antenna, and the braid of the coax cable to a ground pad next to the antenna hole.  The speaker leads were disconnected and connection to the computer is provided by the cable from a broken pair of headphones, to wire these up I had to break out the sandpaper and remove the coloured enamel from the wires to allow them to be soldered to the speaker terminals.

The antenna is a home made dipole, the making of which appeared to kill my glue gun but fortunately it was cheap, this is held up on the window with blu-tack, the idea of it is to help receive what the gateway does, so if for example I am out and about with a radio, the stream radio and the gateway should pick it up at the same time

Below are photos of the equipment

Binatone EK1000 with coaxial cable, and audio cable going to Creative SoundBlaster Live! 24bit USB

The home made dipole antenna mounted to the window

The stream is available at http://richmond446frngateway.listen2myradio.com/ and  is in operation near enough 24/7, you can also listen live on the move with your mobile phone, if you have an Android phone or tablet just install Winamp, tap on the "SHOUTcast" button, then tap on the "Enter Station Manually" link, then enter "http://217.147.86.116:9932" (this works for Winamp for the PC also), as the stream is not listed in the SHOUTcast directory, it doesn't appear possible to listen via the SHOUTcast app for iOS, but I am working on this one.

Everything that is heard is what is heard by radio users of the gateway in Richmond.  This is what you will hear on your own PMR446 (or Chinese UHF handheld or modified 70cm Amateur radio should you use those on PMR446) when you are in range.

Enjoy

73 de 26CT730

German stations on mid-block

If you have a CB radio, tune in to the mid block (26.965-27.405), as  there are many German stations coming through quite clearly today, I am having a listen myself but I do believe that I may struggle to get back to any of them, owing to the inefficiency of my current antenna, but with the band open like this it is a sign that we could be in for a brilliant summer of radio

I shall be back soon with more

 

73 de 26CT730

Radio comms website now online

I am pleased to announce that my radio communications website is now online, it contains a little bit of information on CB, freebanding, PMR446 and the unofficial UHF CB allocation, and a little bit of information on my shack, plus links to my ShackCam and this blog

For more information, visit http://radiocomms.paul-mcgee.co.cc today

 

73 de 26CT730