When I was very young, I found that I loved electronic communications. Phones, radios, intercoms, anything. For a gift, I was given some old CH14 CB walkie talkies. Later a Base station that was basically a walkie talkie made into a table top radio. My friend and I would put long antennas on our radios so we talk to each other's houses (about a quarter of a mile). Later I had crystal controlled Scanners and CB Radios, before I was even old enough to get a valid CB license. At one point I found an FCC license form that didn't ask for age, so I submitted it. KBKL4072 was my call. I was so happy to have a paper that made me all official. My parents let me put up a huge "Star Duster" antenna on the roof, and nightly, my friends and I would talk. I learned the technology, the components, the wave ratios, and terminology in an effort to be come enthralled as a resource to the hobby, that I wanted to know and share. I've never stopped listening to police, fire, ham, and anything close and interesting. My High School had some ham radio equipment donated, and our electronics teacher was ham radio operator. Many of the students in our class ended up getting their Technicians Class license out of high school. I've stayed into technology my entire life and now communications span radio and the computer industry. My early exposure to technology allowed me into the technology professions early, and with momentum. I am still in the computer/telecom industry where I work with Linux servers, databases, windows, virtual machines, websites, and VoIP (Voice over IP) technology. With the GMRS Radio and Zello technology, I've been able to compare what I know, with the RoIP (Radio over IP) technology. The joining of technologies is great and I love to see when that happens. Over my radio lifetime, I have kept organized to the point of documentation. My local frequency lists from the 1980's is still out there on the Internet, floating around as old data. The publication called POLICE CALL, which was a nationwide directory of frequencies. Police Call validated my lists and published my information in several years of their yearly volumes. I thought that was an honor to have my name in their book. I've seen a lot of cool technologies of the years. I got my first computer in 1978, and I now have a 8 core, liquid cooled, monster computer with three monitors, and my own server in Amazons world. I love it all.
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What's going on now
July 12, 2019
GMRS Radio
I was able to get an 5/8 wave antenna ontop a three story building, putting it at 40 feet above the ground, in the middle of Salt Lake County.
The width of the Salt Lake Valley, between the mountains, is around 15 miles. By being in the center, my GMRS Base Station Radio is able to cover most of the Salt Lake valley. It's
also hidden well so my Condo HOA doesn't come after me for for having an antenna. When I took the Swamp Coooler off the roof and replaced it with central air, I had the installers
put my antennal on the airconditioner compressor and run LMR400 coax down to the inside of my place. I will post more information on this page as things change.
Janurary 2, 2019
Internet Radio
I run several Internet radio stations using Shoutcast. Below are two that run 24 hours a day.
There are several shoutcast server applications running on my Web Server. Some just play music, and some are for DJ's or singers in my virtual world. Since there has become some interest in the Radio Drama shows on our GMRS Channel, I decided to post information here so you can listen. The Radio Drama shows are on the The End of Time Radio. If you wish to know more, contact me.
PLANET 3L RADIO (Margy's Planet 3L - Live Stream)
THE END OF TIME RADIO (Margy's Second Life EOT - Live Stream)
Tune in Tuesday at 8pm (PDT) for our weekly Old Time Radio Drama Shows
October 24, 2018
My Piano Music
Someone asked about my music. I'm a pianist and have been playing since I was around 7 or 8 years old. I mostly play piano by ear. Recently I started taking piano lessons to extend my music abilities. Most of the music I have recorded, was played on my Yamaha Digital Grand Piano, then pulled into my computer where I edit it, and export the audio to MP3 files. By recording digitally, there are no microphone that can add additional noise or distortion. The digital piano sounds are sampled from a Yamaha nine-foot concert grand, so it sounds pretty good. Also, by using my computer, it enables me to fix minor mistakes in songs, so that I don't have re-record them many times to get it "perfect". Some of the computer tools that I use include Finale, Audacity, and some others. These applications allow me to mix my piano music with other other audio as well (see my song "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor). I'm still not good enough for public concerts or performances, but I'm working on it. I'm a content creator in an on-line virtual world, where I have an Avatar that does some live Christmas Piano Concerts each year. I broadcast those live events over an Internet radio station, that is fed into the virtual world. I limit myself to virtual world public performing for now, until I get good enough to do more events in "real life". I'm a technology freak, so it seems that everything I do, has some tech in it, including my acoustic piano (my baby).
Update: 2024 - My Grand Piano can play itself. I can also interface with my TV where a video plays of someone plaything the piano, and the the pianist in the video hits the keys, my piano plays
them.
I've purchased two Network Radios. See my My Equipment page that tells about the two devices. The first one is a handheld device called the F25. This one I will carry with me. I've obtained 4G cell service for it from
my phone carier. So far, it's working good. One thing I noticed, a BUTTON MAPPER for these android devices are the first thing you should get. The Push-to-talk button (long press) can only be assigned to one application. Mine was assigned to the camera and had to be disabled so Zello could use it.
The second network Radio is the Infrico TM-7 mobile radio. This one will run Wifi only for now and be used at home as a base station. I really like this one! If you want to know more, ask me. I've done a lot of research on many of these devices and now have some first-hand experience.
February 2024
More Website Work
Still working on this website. Some updates and changes have been made. More to come on all my sites.
March 2024
Virtual Reality World
I run a virtual reality/Metaverse server out of my home that is built on the Open Simulator Engline. It's called Planet 3L. Go to http//planet3l.com to see photos and
information. There are some photos so you can see what it looks like.
