Every FM Radio Station Rendering

Mockup7-web

Rendering of a piece to (hopefully) be made soon: 93 handmade radios, playing every possible FM station. The piece changes completely when installed in a new city.

SDR/HackRF One: Mac Setup and Basics

HackRFOne-web

The HackRF One is a very nice software-defined radio (SDR). Though a good bit more expensive than other SDR hardware, it is very well made and Michael Ossmann of Great Scott Gadgets has put together an extensive set of free video tutorials. Of course, those only help if you have everything set up correctly to begin with.

It appears that most SDR work is done through Linux, which makes sense: SDR is classic hardware/software hacking. But for a Mac user, I found it somewhat difficult to get started. This short tutorial will hopefully help kickstart that process for you!

Continue reading “SDR/HackRF One: Mac Setup and Basics”

Racal MA-4204 Time Division Voice Scrambler

RacalMA-4204TimeDivisionVoiceScrambler

Another device using random acoustic noise for cryptographic purposes. This device from the early 1970s randomly rearranges the audio signal every half-second; a corresponding unit puts the audio back in the correct order on the other end. While not very secure (the three 8-position switches only provide 512 possible combinations), this device’s operation and style have a nice mix of of functionality and poetics.

Via Cryptography Museum.

Every Possible Radio Callsign

KAAA, KAAB, KAAC, KAAD, KAAE, KAAF, KAAG, KAAH, KAAI, KAAJ, KAAK, KAAL, KAAM, KAAN, KAAO, KAAP, KAAQ, KAAR, KAAS, KAAT, KAAU, KAAV, KAAW, KAAX, KAAY, KAAZ, KABA, KABB, KABC, KABD, KABE, KABF, KABG, KABH, KABI, KABJ, KABK, KABL, KABM, KABN, KABO, KABP, KABQ, KABR, KABS, KABT, KABU, KABV, KABW, KABX, KABY, KABZ, KACA, KACB, KACC, KACD, KACE, KACF, KACG, KACH, KACI, KACJ, KACK, KACL, KACM, KACN, KACO, KACP, KACQ, KACR, KACS, KACT, KACU, KACV, KACW, KACX, KACY, KACZ, KADA, KADB, KADC, KADD, KADE, KADF, KADG, KADH, KADI, KADJ, KADK, KADL, KADM, KADN, KADO, KADP, KADQ, KADR, KADS, KADT, KADU, KADV, KADW, KADX, KADY, KADZ, KAEA, KAEB, KAEC, KAED, KAEE, KAEF, KAEG, KAEH, KAEI, KAEJ, KAEK...

Thinking about which callsign to unnoficially assign ourselves for the microbroadcasting project at Drift Station, I thought “how many possible combinations of the four-letter callsign can there be?”  The answer is 17,576 for both east (prefix of W) and west (prefix of K) of the Mississippi; the list was generated using TextMechanic.com’s great tools.

[ download the entire list as a .csv file here or as a text file (can be viewed in your browser) ]