The TEF Gang

Radio, Print, and Online General Radio and Digital
102

Absolutely love the new Cool Blue & background Melbourne View of @melb_mateyy0 's Remote Melbourne TEF Server.

I have only one suggestion re 102.7 3RRR. The programming needs to be altered to pick up the logo of 3RRR since they changed their PS display from left justified to centre justified.

Would be great if some of the other Aussie remote TEF servers could emulate similar looks & logo functionality of the TEF server of @melb_mateyy0
A job really well done. :+1: :clap:

BTW the Perth TEF server has been down for a good while.

Still on the subject of radio receiver servers:-
What has happened to all the Aussie & Kiwi Airspy remotely accessible SDR receivers? Itā€™s like the enthusiasm in offering that service has been lost.
Was always great to have access to these during dx openings & checking stuff out. :man_shrugging:

4 Likes
103

I disconnected my AirSpy so that I could hook my FM antenna up to the TEF6686 server instead.

I just bought a second FM antenna - but lacking the budget for someone to put up another mast for the second antenna.

I also have a second Airspy for HF - but need to get it far away / high enough from the RF noise coming from my house - but havenā€™t done so for the same reasons as my second FM antenna.

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104

There may be a possibility to put an antenna in the roof space, unless foil sarking is used under the tiles or if roof is metallicā€¦ just thinking. :thinking:

1 Like
105

Iā€™ve tried that - thereā€™s so much RF noise coming from the house (like the Wi-Fi router) that you can only get the local stations.

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106

Yeah RF noise is a horrible problem to have (most of us have).
I had a lot of RF noise from my router too.
What I discovered is when I replaced ALL of my CAT 5 ethernet cables running to/from the router with fully shielded CAT6 cable, the interference disappeared or greatly reduced on the FM band. Thus obviously a lot of the RFI was being radiated from the WiFi/Router cables. Itā€™s something you might wish to investigate. Look for: ā€œS/FTPā€ nomenclature with later CAT versions of ethernet patch cables.
CAT 8 S/FTP is more widely available now & has higher specs & perhaps better shielding too compared to CAT6A S/FTP, but the later maybe sufficient without going to the expense of CAT8 patch cables?

3 Likes
107

Thanks. Itā€™s all configurable, you can change themes (I added a few of my own), and even hide the background image if you prefer a plain look.

Firstly, for anyone running a Webserver, I recommend always using the latest version. The link to plugins can be found when on the plugin admin page when logged in, and I have also created some plugins, found here: AmateurAudioDude Ā· GitHub

I find the popular station-logos plugin to be problematic with aussie servers, as the webpage often refuses to completely load, preventing the play button from working.

I have my own forked OCE version of the plugin that anyone is free to use. It does lack many station logos, but that will always be a work in progress, as is also the case with the original version (the original version actually doesnā€™t contain any OCE station logos, it grabs them from an external website, which often gets it wrong).

Audio is important. The Sydney stream is running very hot. The QLD stream audio level is good. If youā€™re using a TEF radio, be sure to use the latest firmware, and having the screen off while streaming eliminates that annoying constant squealing noise, and apparently also improves performance/speed of the tuning.

Personally I prefer the idea of spending $30 on a TEF6686 module + Arduino Nano clone. Running that with a RPi 3B consumes only 4 watts from the wall. It can also be used with a PC or laptop. GitHub contains all the software you need.

On the topic of Ethernet interference, as a test, in device manager, reduce the network card speed to 100 Mbps Full Duplex and see if that reduces the noise. Obviously itā€™s not ideal if you want to run it at 1Gbit, but it may or may not help reduce RF noise. It could be the case of a noise network card rather than the router.

4 Likes
108

Iā€™ve put my HF server back up for you: sdr://116.255.0.168:55556

But as mentioned - lots of RF noise though.

3 Likes
109

Iā€™ve had a chance to do some updates to my Sydney TEF server:

  • Updated the firmware to the latest version
  • Updated FM-DX-Webserver to 1.2.5
  • Tweaked the audio levels - let me know if itā€™s better now
  • Disconnected the battery and set the screen to turn off after 3 seconds, which seems to have removed the whining noise when cEQ isnā€™t on.
  • Added a photo of Sydney I took as the background.
  • Changed colour scheme to blue.
  • Installed Station Logo and Signal Meter plugins from melb_mateyy0ā€™s repository - thanks!
  • Installed/updated No Sleep Mobile, RDS-Logger and Scanner plugins.
  • Shortened the aerial cable a few days ago, which improved the SNR a bit.
  • Set the webserver to automatically restart every morning at 4am so if the TEF-6686 disconnects from the server, itā€™ll be working again by the next day even if Iā€™m not monitoring it.
  • Edit: Additional change ā€“ added in the station information and logos for all the stations without RDS or where the signal is too weak for the RDS to decode properly.
6 Likes
110

Awesome updates & improvements. Great job. Thank you so much. :clap: :sunglasses:
Looks like Circular Quay imagery.

You are welcome to use any of my modified station logos from you know where, to populate any missing logos that should appear with the RDS station name / PI code on your webserver.
I did a very quick scan & for whatever reason the logos for these stations below didnā€™t appear. :thinking:

2DAY FM, 107.7 Triple M CC, 92.1 2MFM, 94.5 FBi, 95.7 ABC Classic Illawara. Could have been more. Maybe a case of input/work by @melb_mateyy0 for that (file?) problemā€¦

I know some of the station logos from our list are a little low res or blurry. Iā€™ve been wondering if some of the new AI software out there could be put to use to improve the logos with cleaner lines? Would love to get access to free software to do that to save a lot of time intensive manual work to clean up logos.

3 Likes
111

No problem :).

Youā€™d be correct - taken during Vivid.

Iā€™ve added the missing logos now.

I note also that Radio Skid Row doesnā€™t show up with transmitter information in FM-DX-Webserver. I assume this is because itā€™s missing from the ACMA database as I recently mentioned in another thread.

3 Likes
112

Thatā€™s excellent. Out of interest which logos did you add? Iā€™m always wanting to add new logos, and try to keep it all ā€œin syncā€.

Also, if information isnā€™t shown, itā€™s either not in their database (which I think they grab from ACMA) or the more likely case, thereā€™s been a change in RDS, such as the PI code. Iā€™m not sure how often itā€™s updated on their end.

4 Likes
113

Can the TX info be added to the FM-DX-Webserver?

If whomever updates the information calls RSR to affirm their TX info, could be added?

1 Like
114

I think the webservers get their data from fmlist.org?

115

I added these ones:
2045_STAR1045.png
205A_ABC_Clas.png
206B_2VOX_FM.png
292E_2MFM.png
2945_FBiRadio.png
2949_Power_FM.png

I also duplicated ā€œ2041_2DayFM.pngā€ as ā€œ2041_2DAY-FM.pngā€ as the PS is currently ā€œ2DAY-FMā€.

2 Likes
116

Another update - Iā€™ve gone through and added in the station information and logos for all the stations without RDS or where the signal is too weak for the RDS to decode properly.

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117

One of the sources that I note @Rob2144 is now using on his webserver isnā€™t bringing up the logo for NOVA 106.9 Brisbane & no doubt thatā€™s due to the recent PI code change to 4069

Else great progress down under to the eastcoast state TEF webserverā€™s :slightly_smiling_face:

BTW Anyone know what time tomorrow August 1st Noosaā€™s Sea FM & Mix transmitter(s)/service officially commence?

2 Likes
118

The data for the transmitter ID is from the ACMA list parsed with the PI/PS data from the RDS List Google sheet. Itā€™s a manual update process which I havenā€™t done for a few weeks, sounds like Iā€™d better take another look :grinning:

Itā€™s just a CSV file that gets imported onto maps.fmdx.pl each week (containing Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia). Iā€™d like to make it more automated somehow but Iā€™ve never got round to doing it yet. Currently I donā€™t think thereā€™s a single unique field in the data that I could use to automatically tie things together.

4 Likes
119

Thanks. Iā€™ve updated the GitHub (Update #3) logos.zip, adding 74 logos, including the 6 of yours (should see 225 files in the main folder).

3 Likes
120

New version of FM-DX Webserver (v.1.2.6) is out for those running servers.

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121

fixed, I just renamed the logo file

2 Likes