Thanks to all those who have written with their cudos, problems and suggestions. Here is a sampling of what our users have said about the Amateur Radio Listening Post.
Suggestions, Problems and Solutions
Complements and thanks from our users
A great site! Thanks.
Terry NZ6E/4
Great job, I followed intructions in QST and it came right up..
Most impressive.
WA4ZKM
Wow this is really an innovative way of using the web! I am truly
impressed by this effort.
beckster
Very nice article. For years I've only dreamed of such a remote
receiver for HF. You have surely created a very useful system.
Dennis W8NW
I have just try your radio-internet interface, fantastic !!!
I'have just tuned ham & tv & other stuff,
many many compliments !!
Andrea Borgnino - IW1CXZ - Italy
Read the EXCELLENT article in QST this month and tried out the site.
Very neat! If this gets a couple of people interested in ham radio, all
the better....keep up the great work...
Gerry Jurrens N2GJ
Wow this is neat!! Nice to see this technology on the web!!
dave N5OTY
What a blast.....Listening Post is absolutely the best thing I have seen
in a while. As a ham and employee of a television station I see a lot
of new "technical toys" but this is really great. I frequently get on
the 147.06 machine.
Mark WB8ZLQ
Greetings from the Tropics. The LP works great -- just as advertised Feb. QST!
Audio better than my HT, that's for sure!
The LP is a treat for me; QTH is St. Thomas, USVI, and local repeaters
are deado. Also since I do not have UHF equipment, it gives me an ear
up there. I think you're doing a lot of Hams a favor.
Joe KP2BL & VP2VBL.
Your Listening Post page is great.. I travel allot and now I can keep
up with the Sun. night MARC net or local rag-chewing when I'm on
the road. I'm using a Mac PowerBook with Real Audio and the
quality is very good.. Thanks!
Gene Inman KB3CBZ
The page seems to be working great. Read the article in QST you folks are
to
be commended in pioneering a new aspect of Amateur Radio.
Larry Doddd K0QEC
I found a very interesting publication in the QST (Feb 1988).
... Thank you and others for implementing the nice idea.
Gedas KC8IUM, LY2BGP
Congratulations on a great job on the Internet Ham Receiver. It works well
for me using realaudio....Keep up the great work. This is progress!
Gus W3PTG
Good Show!! Saw the article in QST and tuned in. Congratulations.
Jerry KB8IW
I enjoyed "playing" with your system. Will return. Thanks for the
opportunity.
Kenn W9MR
Tks for the chance to play with a 7000 from the East coast, I got the
Dullas control tower OK . ....... I like it!!!
Lee Ward KO1W
I love your site. I have always been wondering is Scanning over the
internet was possible...
Marc Kramer
Great work! Saw your article in QST today. Amazing.
Jay KB5YZH
Just wanted to send a word of thanks for setting up the Listening Post. I'm
sure it took a great deal of time, money, etc. I grew up in Montgomery County
and it's great to be able to listen to area frequencies that I'm familiar
with. I'm currently living in Northwest Arkansas.
Mark K5DXR
Just thought I'd drop a line to let you how impressed I am with the
IC-7000/ internet setup. I had no trouble getting in with Realplayer on
the Java page.
Claude
This is a really cool site!
I lived in the Washington, DC area most of my life and just recently
sold my home in Germantown, MD to accept a job offer in San Jose, CA.
I really missed listening ...it brought back alot of memories this morning
when I was able to tune your ICOM...in my former district ...
Hope this site sticks around for a little while.
Bob
I was able to connect and listen to ATC and NWS. Thanks for your hard
work. I really enjoyed my experience!
Brian KF4IRC
Thanks! Your web site is great. I am a ham living in Manassas and I can't
receive some of the freqs. you have here. Keep up the good work
H.T. Shilling KF4KMD
I have just try your radio-internet interface, fantastic !!!
I'have just tuned ham & tv & other stuff,
many many compliments !!
Andrea Borgnino - IW1CXZ - Italy
hey! i got everything to work.. col site! new to hamming and internet so
this was a great mix.. thanks for the time to put in the site and taking the
time to answer questions... much appreciated!! 73
doug KC5ZKI
Just wanted to say "thanks" for all the effort you guys put into this
project. I read about this in QST and thought I would check it out;
it's super. Just wanted to leave you a note of thanks.
Lannes Johnson NJ5H
Good work. I read the article then came and loaded up realplay then
listened for a time. Simple as that. Very easy for a non-computer person
like me. Thanks for the chance to see/hear your work. Notice you are
already upgrading some things. Look forward to future visits. Have you on
my favorites list. FYI, audio very crisp and clear here, volume was level
and uniform, no glicks that I could hear.
Archie K4GA
I read the article in QST and gave it a try. Worked very well. Audio
quality
good and a pleasure to explore. keep up the good work.
John KG6XF
Is there a faq?
This document is the closest thing to a faq.
It would be cool to have a little up/down knob to step with.
If you have not tried the Java-enhanced page, give it a try. It has a step-up/step-down function.
One feature you may want to consdier would be a scan option for the ham repeater frequencies. Most of the time when I selected a repeater, it was not active. A scan option would allow the listener to automatically scan through the preset scan frequencies until an active repeater is found by the receiver.
Good idea! We will add this to our list of future features.
One problem is that everyone keeps changing frequencies. It would be nice to have a system where each user gets exclusive use for a preset time (e.g. 2 minutes)
We are considering this option. It seems to work well at some web cam sites.
I would like to know how many "inputs" there are into the Listening Post site. I was listening to 154.16, and then all of a sudden I was hearing 154.19. Does this mean anyone can change the frequency at any time even if one has the radio tuned into a specific frequency?
With the present setup, anyone can change the frequency at any time.
Is there a way (through a link) to check to see what frequency the receiver is tuned into prior to changing it?
Yes. If your browser supports Java, try http://nihac.info.nih.gov/listener/trackstats.html. This provides a continuous update of who is using the receiver. You can find this link on the main Listening Post Web page. Look for the antique radio image. If your browser does not support Java, you can still see who last used the radio by looking at http://nihac.info.nih.gov/listener/settings/tail.txt .
I enjoyed the story in QST about the Listening Post. However, the Speak Freely software doesn't seem to download. Are there other sites available?
Try downloading from the Listening Post Web site. This version may not always be up to date, but usually it is much easier for people in North America to download it from here http://nihac.info.nih.gov/listener/speakfreely/speakfree.html.
Will webtv work on your site?
Don't know. Should work with Real Audio.
Just messing around with the Listening Post. Am running Speak Freely from a 3 1/2" floppy and it works out on receive so far. Don't understand how offset is done. Is that my problem with transmitting?
Nope. Our problem. The Listening Post only does listening (so far).
I just wanted to know if the R7000 gets locked at some time in the evening. I am not able to work the receiver late at night, here in San Diego. I am able to hear it okay, but not able to connect to the server to change frequencies.
There was a problem with our web server crashing late at night. That problem seems to be fixed now.
Using Netscape 4.04 on a Sun/Sparc running Solaris 2.5, the LPcontrol applet did not display properly. The applet is rendered wider than the 600 pixels specified in javalistener.html, so the frequency list scroll bar does not appear.
There are two solutions. One is to change the font used by the Netscape on the Sun workstation. The other is to download javalistener.html to a local file, edit the APPLET tag to be 650 pixels wide, and add a CODEBASE parameter so it will still refer to the Listening Post server, then run it locally.
Seems no matter what ham radio or other frequency (in MHz) I type in, I get the same response, "SORRY, CANNOT TUNE TO THE REQUESTED FREQUENCY." Am I doing something wrong? For instance, I typed in freq's like 14.275, 21.425, and always get the above response. Also, I don't understand why your receiver doesn't support LSB on frequencies that default to LSB.
The Listening Post receiver covers 25 Mhz to 1.999 Ghz. It cannot receive HF frequencies. We would love to include HF if someone wants to donate a HF ICOM rig, a CI-V interface, and a Pentium computer.
Just ran across this site. Very Interesting. Connection with Real Audio works fine when the icon is clicked. Tried a connection with Speak Freely with no luck. How do I configure Speak Freely for use with this site?
For Speak Freely:
1) Make sure you have SF working properly. The web server is also a SF echo server
for testing.
2) Make sure you have RealPlayer turned off.
3) Make sure SF is running before you connect to the site
4) Use the Main Listening Post web page, not the RealAudio version, or use the Java page
with the SF option selected.
5) If other SF users are using the site at the same time, they will steal your SF
connection.
You need a second reciever - one for the aero band people and the other for amateur/utility listeners.
We acutally have a second R7000 here, but connecting it would require another Pentium computer and lots of work.
There is another web page that is connected to a HF radio, unfortunatly I lost my favorite places folder (due to a virus); I was wondering if you knew the URL of that site?
The URL is: http://www.chilton.com/scripts/radio/R8-receiver . It is an neat site. However, it does not do streaming audio. It records an audio clip off the air, then plays it back through the network.
The Java control applet does not seem to be working for me.
Here are a few things to check.
1) If you are using RealAudio, be certain to click on the round dot at the top of the
control panel marked "RealAudio". When you click there, it should launch
your RealPlayer.
2) You must DOUBLE-CLICK the frequency items in the list of frequencies. A single
click will not work.
3) Each time you do a manual frequency entry, you must choose a mode (i.e. AM, FMn, FMw,
USB) even if the mode you want is already slected. You cannot trust the mode unless
you actually click one of the options. ("Step up / step down" does not
require a mode selection each time.)
My Real Audio player is out of date, but I don't want to pay for the one offered at the www.real.com web site.
Go back to www.real.com . In the upper left corner is an icon to download the free version of RealPlayer 5.
If you have any comments or suggestions send e-mail to Andrew Mitz (WA3LTJ) at arm@helix.nih.gov.
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Last updated 27 February 1998