[wsfii-discuss] Re: [wsfii-coord] WODIV Workshop April

Thu Dec 28 08:21:09 UTC 2006

Yes, this is better here at the discuss list.

I am sitting at my computer now doing my mail,
listening to my iPod shuffle over an FM radio, using a
Veronica 50mW kit I put together. The 'random'
playlist setting delivers an incredibly 'radio'
experience (where someone else selects the order of
songs). 

Aside from adjusting the input level from the iPod
wheel, to match the sensitivity of the Veronica,
everything else is straightforward. Kloschi told me in
Dha'sa it is a terrific idea to use a USB mixer when
the playlist is being done live on a computer, because
the input channel selection is handled smoothly with
hand-operated controls. Such devices are not available
in India, though of course we can get both
professional and consumer analogue and digital mixers
here. 

Incidentally, I don't really need to have my music
transmitted via a radio, but I did want to make sure
that everything was working well for (shameless plug)
the Banganga Festival in Mumbai, Jan 6/7, 2007. 

Please do let me know if any of you can make it: the
concert takes place with 100 receivers distributed
around a beautiful stone-stepped spring water pool. I
think we have a few folk after Dha'sa still in Goa, so
if you can come up to Mumbai, it would be great to
show you how a huge concert (audience size 4,000)
works on such rudimentary technology.

Vickram
--- Sascha Meinrath <sascha at aya.yale.edu> wrote:

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> Hi Joy,
> 
> Joy Tang wrote:
> > 		Hi, Sascha and all,
> > 
> > Could you please draw a diagram of how
> microtransmitter - ipod - wifi network - wimax
> network could possibly linked together? 
> 
> I'm not sure what you're looking for exactly, but
> ipods are simply digital data
> - -- a microtransmitter like the one I built
> transfers that data into FM radio
> space.  WiFi and WiMax could easily transport this
> data to, for example, a
> distributed FM radio space.  It would require a bit
> of coordination (to ensure
> that the FM transmitters were not overlapping)
> otherwise you'd just have a mess;
> but one could easily set up a distributed FM radio
> system that is both
> completely legal (because each individual node is
> micropower) and blankets an
> entire city/geographical region.
> 
> Something like:
> 
> Ipod/Audio Devide --> Encoder --> WiFi/WiMax Node
> --> the Distributed Network of
> Wireless Nodes --> Decoders/Microtransmitters --> FM
> radios.
> 
> It might be easier than this if specialized
> equipment is available.
> 
> > How could we get a unit posted on the flickr? We
> would like to build a unit to test from rural Jukwa
> village to Cape Coast and aslo to Winneba, Ghana. I
> am not sure about the distance between the sites
> yet. 
> 
> I would recommend contacting folks at Prometheus
> Radio -- they're the gurus of
> all things FM radio.  If you want to continue the
> discussion, we should probably
> bring it over to the wsfii-discuss list since this
> isn't so much about
> coordination issues.  Either way, I hope these leads
> are helpful.
> 
> In solidarity,
> 
> - --Sascha
> 
> > Thanks, 
> > Joy
> > 
> > ----------------------------------------
> > 
> > 				From: Sascha Meinrath <sascha at aya.yale.edu>
> > Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2006 2:48 PM
> > To: wsfii-coord at lists.okfn.org
> > Subject: Re: [wsfii-coord] WODIV Workshop April 
> > 
> > A fantastic resource for all things radio is the
> Prometheus Radio Project (see:
> > www.prometheusradio.org).  Here's a picture of the
> microtransmitter I built:
> > http://flickr.com/photos/32694370@N00/197249298 --
> covers about a 500-1000 meter
> > radius -- but Prometheus folks know just about
> everything there is to know about
> > setting up various radio stations.
> > 
> > --Sascha
> > 
> >> Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 17:20:35 -0500
> >> From: Ian Howard 
> >> Subject: Re: [wsfii-coord] WODIV Workshop April
> >> To: Vickram Crishna 
> >> Cc: Anas TAWILEH ,	Frederic Renet
> >> 	, wsfii-coord at lists.okfn.org
> >>
> >> I don't see my emails coming thought the list...
> are they being blocked?
> >>
> >> A note on radio + ip, per Vickram's email. The
> Geekcorps Mali crew
> >> worked on this very thing for two years. I
> recommend a perusal of
> >> http://mali.geekcorps.org for anyone interested
> in the topic. My one
> >> colleague, Fred, Cc'd on this email designed a
> lower power FM
> >> transmitter, that worked with the lower power PC
> and low-bandwidth
> >> internet system for radio stations in Mali. There
> appears to be a
> >> growing interest in this topic. The economics
> still need to be worked
> >> out, i.e. most radio stations run very tight
> budgets, so Internet access
> >> for them is a real challenge, the original
> assumption that a cyber could
> >> pay was found for the most part to be false -- it
> was a liability for
> >> most radio stations.
> >>
> >> I know that Anas has also been working on this
> subject.
> >>
> >> NB: This idea, to have a relay can also be done,
> as it is done by most
> >> community radios here by having a small analogue
> transmitter using a
> >> Yaggi style antenna that points back to the radio
> mast which has a
> >> receiver. I presume that some stations here use
> 900MHz as the channel, I
> >> believe, but presumably other frequencies could
> be used too.  
> >>
> >> Ian
> > 
> 
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