[WXBH-Discuss] Stream down but broadcast up!

[John Hicks]

Rick Roderick wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I have tried to get the WXBH stream to function several times, and
> apparently, it is down.  As a consequence, there is no over-the-air
> broadcast.
>   

Rick,

Streaming is temporarily down, but we still should be broadcasting a 
signal. Here's why and how:

Most of this week I've been trying to track down the "hiccuping" 
problem, where the audio is choppy because our upload is interrupted 
every ten to twenty minutes.

The good news is I tracked the problem down to our router at the Brick 
House. When I hook the studio computer up directly to the modem, the 
problem goes away.

The bad news is that in doing this I screwed up the configuration of the 
sound cards. I haven't been able to get the line-in input to work on the 
card that generates the feed to the streaming.

(I am using the "alsamixer" program to control the three sound cards. 
The cards were an onboard Intel card and two Sound Blaster Live cards. 
Last night I switched out one of the Sound Blasters for a Turtle Beach 
card we had on hand in the BH computer room, but then I had the same 
problem with it.)

I have been googling this morning and will go back and try again today, 
but as a fallback will also take an extra sound card with me.

Once we get streaming up again and verify that the hiccuping problem is 
solved, I will return the stream bandwidth from its current 64k back to 
128k. (The difference between a hiccupping 64k stream and a steady 128k 
stream should be like night and day.

Until streaming is restored, I have programmed the computer at FCHS to 
play Radio Free Nashville and to give our station ID at the top of each 
hour. This is far less than ideal, but it keeps us on the air.
> Also, what is the schedule with WFHS?  It seems different than I remember
> it.  
>   
We only just started the time-sharing on Monday. (And I spent much of 
Monday and Tuesday working with Sam Cilone at FCHS to get the audio 
switch installed and programmed to change at the proper times.)

WFHS hours are:

Monday, Wednesday and Thursday:  6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday and Friday:  6:00 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Which means we have:

All day Saturday and Sunday
All night from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.
Afternoons from 4:00 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays

This makes for an interesting scheduling task. (And an online discussion 
of how best to approach it is appropriate.)

As you can see, my week has been swallowed up by these two tasks 
(installing the switch, fixing the hiccups and now reconfiguring the 
sound cards). I now have an urgent family matter staring me in the face 
and must devote the next several days to it (out in Spencer County), so 
would like to skip any radio meeting this weekend. I will probably be 
away from the Internet beginning tonight until Tuesday afternoon, but 
anyone is welcome to call me (213-0428) to discuss any of this.

-- 
John Hicks

When replying to me personally, please use "johnhicks" instead of "johnlist" in the email address.