Splatter on 7191 kHz

This morning, during the RV Service Net on 7191 kHz a strong (S9+20) station on 7195 kHz generated some audible splatter on the net audio as heard at my location. Below are two different displays I captured from my Flex-3000, showing the energy that was received below 7192 and above 7195.

Click above to enlarge.

 The above image is the panascope display with the 5 kHz receiver bandwidth setting. I added a green horizontal line for reference to the noise floor on vacant frequencies below 7189. I set the receiver to display the peak received signal at each frequency sample.

Click above to enlarge.

This image is a capture of the waterfall display. The elapsed time from top to bottom is 30 seconds, for the window size (not full screen) that I was using. Splatter from the 7195 station is clearly visible above 7195 and below 7192.

Range circles from WA5MLF

This map shows circles of distance from my location, in increments of 100 miles.

Click on map for expanded view.

Windows 10 installing without permission

Click to enlarge

I found many references to this issue, reported by folks who are fighting the same upgrade demon.  The screen shot here shows the history of failed upgrades on one of the Windows 7 office computers that I support. This behavior has sometimes bogged down the computer's performance, hampering the user's productivity.






Below are a few of the links with answers that seem to have the following elements in common:

• Uninstall updates KB3035583, KB2990214, and KB2952664
• If KB3035583 comes back, uninstall it again, then in the updates available for download and install, right-click on it and select Hide update.If that does not work, see the 3rd link below.
• Turn off automatic updates to prevent these from installing again. There is an "Optional" update 'Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro' which IS automatically selected. You'll need to manually select future critical / important updates for installation.

Stop Windows 10 upgrade


Windows 10 upgrading without permission


Removing the get Windows 10 icon


Uninstalling a Windows update


Windows 10 may already be on your PC even if you don’t want it

Recursive VoIP Phone Patch

This morning W4BXI was testing his VoIP phone patch arrangements using a Google Hangout. As the radio propagation gradually faded on 3740 kHz to my location, due to rising sun, he added me to the patch on my cell phone. Later he added W4UOA via his cell phone. Carl wondered if there was a way for us to test the use of a separate Google Hangout between the two of us and bridge it to the Hangout that John originally established. By calling his cell phone from the second Hangout, Carl was then able to bridge the two voice calls on his phone and enable us to talk and listen via our PCs while patched to the W4BXI station.
The sketch here shows the arrangement, with separate colors and line styles to distinguish the components. (Click on it for a full size view.) This "lash-up" worked very well for us! It is not intended for routine use, of course.

Naturally, the first choice for patching with a Google Hangout is to connect the person via his or her Google ID on the Hangout, for best audio quality (and video). A connection to a cell phone or landline phone is the second choice.

Update:  A new web app for Hangouts is now available.
Just point your browser to: https://hangouts.google.com

Windows 10 Issues & Tips

Now that Windows 10 is officially available, various privacy issues are being discussed, along with numerous tips for upgrading from Windows 7 & 8. Here are some selected articles that may be of interest to those who are upgrading to Windows 10 or purchasing new computers with it pre-installed:

• Should You Upgrade?  (from the Houston Chronicle Tech Blog)
• Review  (from TechRepublic)
• Privacy and Data Sharing  (from TechRepublic)
• Using Your Bandwidth  (from the Houston Chronicle Tech Blog)
• Windows 10 Tips  (multiple articles from Paul Thurrott)
• Privacy Tradeoffs (see pages 3-6 of these show notes)

Update 8/21/2015:  Also see:

• Complete Guide to Windows 10 
• Understand and Configure Privacy Settings

VirtualBox and Windows 10

A recent posting on Google+ reported the availability of VirtualBox 5.0.  This page describes how to install it on three related "flavors" of Linux, so I decided to take it for a spin to see how it handles a preview version of Windows 10. Below is a screen shot that shows Windows 10 running on the virtual machine on my Ubuntu 14.04 Linux desktop.

Click above for larger view.

I was testing the performance with the live video stream of this week's Security Now netcast and opened the Windows 10 "menu" for display on the left side of the window. The Linux desktop has the same elements that I described in my earlier post that made use of the Kernel-based Virtual Machine.

For the VirtualBox virtual machine I allocated more CPU, memory and disk space than before, and the video performance seemed to improve accordingly. This virtual machine was also able to produce the audio generated by Windows 10. My previous work with the Kernel-based Virtual Machine did not produce audio, but there is probably a setting I needed to change to make it work.

The two virtual machines that I used require about the same level of effort to configure.

TWIT.TV Shows

Below is a list of the TWIT.TV shows that I like to see or hear on a regular basis. I don't get to all of them every week. Most often I download the audio or video recording and play it using VLC. This makes it easy to jump ahead or rewind or pause and resume. It can also speed up the playback.

I also use the TWIT Pro Android app on my phone to access the shows, either live or downloaded, when I am moving around (e.g. doing yard work). TWIT apps are available for iOS and Windows Phone, also.

This complete list of shows has links to the latest episode of each, where you can stream or download and save the recordings.

The shows I consume or browse, in approximate decreasing order of frequency or priority, are:

• Security Now
• Ham Nation (video recommended)
• Windows Weekly
• This Week in Enterprise Tech (video recommended)
• Tech News Today
• Know How (video recommended)
• This Week In Tech

The topic summary for a given episode helps me to choose an episode for viewing or listening. In some cases the show notes / links provide enough content.  

I've browsed a few other shows sporadically.