Even if you aren’t interested in volunteering, there is something you can do.
There are about 750 stations that have so little information about them – no web page, no Facebook, no mention in a local newspaper, contact address is a PO box, station used to exist but vanished suddenly (owner died?)
These I push into the category Vewy Quiet Wadio Stations.
What would be helpful is to select your state and look at the list (sort by city might help) and turn on a real radio and tune to that frequency for stations in your city or very close by. Listen for the actual signal, which can only be done by someone physically near the radio station. Looking at Wikipedia cannot tell us that. Keep in mind that most AM stations cut power or go off completely when the sun sets. That’s normal.
Either way, post a message here with the callsign, what signal you heard and the type of programming. A lot of these will likely be Spanish or other languages. If you happen to know for a fact the station is turned off and why, that would be useful information. An example might be “they tore down the antenna in 2007 and sold the land to a developer who built a subdivision on the land”
For extra credit, choose “No Web Site” and head deep into the underbrush. Be aware you may run into zombies in the woods – web sites still alive from a prior owner. Be Vewy careful.
Duck!
I’d be happy to try and help with this. Presently, there is a “parse error” when I go to the wascally page.
Tested it here too. I get that error and an otherwise “Blanc” page. 😉
Mel is dead.
TWC is holding me hostage again. Their rule seems to be “nobody uses the Internet after midnight”, so just take the customer’s connection down without warning for as long as you want, as long as it is back up by 6 am
If I was still working remotely for that company in Chicago doing remote support, I would be in deep doodoo right now. AT&T just send a brochure for 3 Mb DSL for $19.95 a month. It’s looking tempting.
I have wireless from two sources but that doesn’t get my test box connected.
It’s fixed now… Filed under “don’t fix stuff that ain’t broken”
That $19.95 per month for 3 Mb DSL doesn’t sound too bad. There are two other options that I can think of.
First, is to remotely host the site at an ISP. One is actually free but probably full of ads. Others look pretty reasonable here http://whdb.com/plans/cheapest/linux-web-hosting
Second is to set up your cell phone as a hot spot and have the server and/or router switch to it when its primary internet connection is unavailable. Not sure how to do this at home, but major data centers have multiple ISPs and work this way (but not with cell phones 😉 )
The web site hasn’t been at my home for close to a year – it is in Texas. Back in Connecticut, I got so fed up with Adelphia that I dumped cable for AT&T DSL. This was in the FindAnISP days when money was involved. The only thing I gave up was YouTube videos. Eventually, the neighborhood was wired with uVerse.
This outage was a bit short of 2 hours. If I had TW VoIP phone service and dialed 911, I would have been S.O.L. – AT&T has its issues, but they take minimizing down time seriously.
I’m thinking about T-Mobile wireless. Since Google Fiber was announced the main streets have been clogged with AT&T trucks, presumably stringing uVerse fiber. I live at a major intersection in a densely populated neighborhood of professional people. TW must have lots of friends in the city government able to obstruct AT&T
Evidently, per this story from Wednesday, Sprint and T-Moble still offer unlimited data plans.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/27/8675159/sprint-unlimited-data-plans-not-forever-ceo-says
Last I looked, Ts&Cs of unlimited data did not allow you to create a WIFI hotspot for your other devices, but customer service told me they are flexible if you use it like that only for outages… and they would not really know how you used the data.
This is cool, yeah, I’m in. I will start listening to some of these nearby stations. I have a good ‘Philco’ car radio out in my shed, AM only. By gosh that thing can pick up WBT during the day here in Virginia.
will report back Sir.
Parrott
http://streamingradioguide.com/findme.php
might be even more interesting. It hopes you are using a GPS capable device, but if not will allow entry of a city/town name (the coordinates used will be for the post office).
I think I’ll embellish it a little – offering a “fuzzy” option that is within a mile or so rather than telling which room in your house you are in (like I care…)