[00:13.350 --> 00:16.330]  Help survivors of Hurricane Katrina rebuild their lives.
[00:16.430 --> 00:23.490]  The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement has created an online registry at Target.com based on the needs of Katrina survivors in New York City.
[00:23.730 --> 00:27.490]  Please log on to Target.com and click on the Clubwed Registry icon.
[00:27.690 --> 00:32.450]  In the space provided for first name, enter Katrina Fund, and for the last name, enter New York.
[00:32.590 --> 00:39.290]  All items purchased will be shipped to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement office in Brooklyn, New York, and then distributed to the selected families.
[00:39.290 --> 00:43.490]  Again, that is Katrina Fund, New York, at theclubwedregistryoftarget.com.
[00:43.570 --> 00:47.470]  For more information, call 718-254-8800.
[00:47.710 --> 00:50.470]  That's 718-254-8800.
[01:16.710 --> 01:26.470]  The Children's Press Line is a free non-profit youth journalism organization for kids 8 to 18 and whose mission is to give kids a voice and the power to use it.
[01:26.470 --> 01:33.350]  The Press Line is looking for kids who have leadership potential and want to get involved in something fun, smart, and important.
[01:33.710 --> 01:49.690]  On Sunday, January 29th at 2 p.m., there'll be a training session for new Press Line members at the Urban Assembly Media High School, located in the Martin Luther King Jr. School Building on Amsterdam Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets.
[01:49.690 --> 02:02.010]  You must RSVP by January 26th by calling 212-501-1118 or email cpl at cplmedia.org.
[02:07.360 --> 02:12.720]  And you're listening to radio station WBAI New York, where it's just about 7 o'clock.
[02:13.020 --> 02:15.340]  Time once again for Off the Hook.
[02:20.780 --> 02:25.170]  The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
[02:26.220 --> 02:30.670]  I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
[02:31.390 --> 02:36.060]  We couldn't get much worse, if they would.
[02:36.340 --> 02:38.980]  From Diddley Bump, but the best is paid for worst.
[02:39.620 --> 02:41.460]  I hope that's understood.
[02:41.660 --> 02:42.560]  From Diddley Bump!
[03:11.130 --> 03:12.410]  And a very good evening to hear everybody.
[03:12.470 --> 03:13.630]  The program is Off the Hook.
[03:15.270 --> 03:21.530]  Mario Goldstein here with you, broadcasting from the WBAI studios here on Wall Street.
[03:22.950 --> 03:25.650]  And joining us this week is Jim.
[03:25.850 --> 03:26.050]  Hello.
[03:26.650 --> 03:27.070]  Mike.
[03:27.470 --> 03:27.890]  Hi.
[03:30.410 --> 03:30.850]  Redbird.
[03:31.170 --> 03:31.570]  Good evening.
[03:31.890 --> 03:32.950]  And Arseny.
[03:33.190 --> 03:33.410]  Hi.
[03:33.630 --> 03:34.510]  And I don't think it's working.
[03:35.110 --> 03:36.090]  You don't think it's working?
[03:36.250 --> 03:37.930]  No, we're trying to actually...
[03:37.930 --> 03:39.010]  Wait, don't tell what we're trying to do.
[03:39.050 --> 03:43.330]  Well, I have to, because I have to announce our failures.
[03:43.330 --> 03:43.610]  Okay.
[03:43.630 --> 03:44.950]  It's more important than the successes.
[03:45.010 --> 03:46.690]  This is just one attempt so far.
[03:46.910 --> 03:49.290]  Yeah, it's really hard for me to tell, but I don't think...
[03:49.290 --> 03:51.150]  Actually, if I turn down the music...
[03:51.150 --> 03:51.950]  Say something, Jim.
[03:52.630 --> 03:53.230]  Something, Jim.
[03:53.470 --> 03:53.710]  Oh, yeah.
[03:53.770 --> 03:54.050]  You know what?
[03:54.050 --> 03:55.590]  You are more to the right than to the left.
[03:55.670 --> 03:57.070]  I'm going to just move you over some more.
[03:57.230 --> 04:00.510]  Well, the entire listening audience could have gathered that.
[04:00.550 --> 04:01.870]  Now, you're all the way to the right.
[04:02.810 --> 04:04.570]  Now, Arseny, why don't you say something?
[04:04.910 --> 04:05.230]  Something?
[04:05.610 --> 04:06.870]  Now, you're all the way to the right, too.
[04:07.150 --> 04:07.310]  Wait.
[04:07.430 --> 04:09.330]  You say something, and you say something at the same time.
[04:09.830 --> 04:10.150]  Something?
[04:10.370 --> 04:11.030]  Oh, no, it's working.
[04:11.130 --> 04:11.370]  Okay.
[04:13.330 --> 04:14.510]  I'm going to move you slightly to the right.
[04:15.130 --> 04:15.670]  No, no.
[04:15.710 --> 04:16.150]  He'll die.
[04:16.290 --> 04:17.650]  Well, that's where he's sitting.
[04:17.670 --> 04:18.010]  I'm sorry.
[04:18.050 --> 04:18.410]  I have to.
[04:19.090 --> 04:19.570]  Go ahead.
[04:19.650 --> 04:20.030]  Say something.
[04:20.550 --> 04:20.950]  All right.
[04:21.270 --> 04:22.330]  I think what's happening...
[04:22.330 --> 04:22.470]  Okay.
[04:23.110 --> 04:23.750]  My headphones.
[04:24.930 --> 04:26.890]  I got to move my...
[04:27.510 --> 04:28.550]  No, don't worry about that.
[04:28.650 --> 04:30.170]  Oh, what a shame we don't have visuals.
[04:30.290 --> 04:30.770]  There we go.
[04:32.170 --> 04:33.190]  Now, you're probably in the...
[04:33.190 --> 04:34.230]  I had my headphones on backwards.
[04:34.670 --> 04:34.890]  Yeah.
[04:35.110 --> 04:35.510]  Now, you're in the right.
[04:35.510 --> 04:35.950]  Now, you're in the right.
[04:35.950 --> 04:36.490]  Over your feet.
[04:36.690 --> 04:36.950]  All right.
[04:37.690 --> 04:38.750]  Arseny, you should be in the left.
[04:39.070 --> 04:39.330]  Yeah.
[04:39.450 --> 04:41.170]  Well, I'm only getting one channel in my headphones.
[04:41.470 --> 04:42.070]  It doesn't matter because...
[04:42.070 --> 04:42.810]  I mean, well, for me...
[04:42.810 --> 04:43.670]  Which channel are you hearing?
[04:43.770 --> 04:44.910]  Are you hearing yourself or are you hearing nothing?
[04:45.010 --> 04:45.830]  I'm hearing the right ear.
[04:47.050 --> 04:48.670]  Well, then you're hearing Jim and you're not hearing yourself.
[04:48.810 --> 04:50.410]  This isn't going to work if we don't hear ourselves.
[04:50.550 --> 04:51.230]  We could hear ourselves.
[04:51.450 --> 04:52.190]  We don't pay attention anyway.
[04:52.310 --> 04:52.430]  Yeah.
[04:52.990 --> 04:53.310]  Okay.
[04:53.410 --> 04:57.490]  So, Redbird, you're sort of left, not entirely left.
[04:58.170 --> 05:00.770]  And, Mike, you're sort of right and not entirely right.
[05:02.190 --> 05:03.950]  That's generally better than I do.
[05:04.170 --> 05:04.710]  So, you know...
[05:04.710 --> 05:05.770]  Well, we'll just see how annoying this is.
[05:05.850 --> 05:10.110]  And, of course, for those of you listening on the internet, it's not stereo, so you can't benefit from any of this.
[05:11.310 --> 05:21.250]  But if you get those DVDs of the high-quality version of Off the Hook when it comes out in about a year when we get to 2006... Actually, it's going to be the end of 2006 when this comes out.
[05:21.750 --> 05:23.950]  So if you're listening then, it's 2007.
[05:24.290 --> 05:25.050]  Hi, how are you doing?
[05:25.290 --> 05:29.710]  Isn't it cool that we can make our voices go from one channel to the other?
[05:29.870 --> 05:31.750]  It's not the only reason to buy the DVDs.
[05:32.110 --> 05:35.130]  Well, no, but for many people, it probably would be the major reason.
[05:35.910 --> 05:37.710]  Okay, but I have important news.
[05:37.850 --> 05:39.750]  And if this starts to annoy anybody, please just let us know.
[05:39.750 --> 05:45.790]  And of course, those of you listening over the radio here in New York, especially if you're driving in your car or something, it must be really, really cool to hear.
[05:45.930 --> 05:47.630]  I'm in both channels because I have to be.
[05:47.750 --> 05:51.650]  FCC law requires the host of the program to broadcast from both channels.
[05:51.850 --> 05:52.430]  Is that the law?
[05:52.450 --> 05:52.870]  Is that real?
[05:53.050 --> 05:53.270]  Yeah.
[05:55.070 --> 05:56.030]  No one believes you.
[05:56.130 --> 05:57.010]  Yeah, no one here believes you.
[05:57.010 --> 05:57.970]  Yeah, but you did ask.
[05:58.190 --> 05:58.770]  That's the thing.
[05:58.930 --> 06:01.090]  Well, we wanted to see if you could lie with a straight face.
[06:01.410 --> 06:01.970]  I can.
[06:02.090 --> 06:02.530]  You know that.
[06:03.370 --> 06:07.090]  But this is an important news story that just... Oh, I'm sorry.
[06:07.190 --> 06:08.550]  Bernie S., you're down there in Philadelphia.
[06:08.650 --> 06:09.410]  Totally forgot about you.
[06:09.850 --> 06:11.170]  When do we go quadraphonic?
[06:11.410 --> 06:11.950]  I don't know.
[06:12.050 --> 06:14.170]  And all the excitement, I totally forgot we also had a phone connection.
[06:15.230 --> 06:16.470]  Not Skype this week.
[06:16.630 --> 06:17.870]  I think you should spin the room.
[06:19.150 --> 06:20.650]  Believe me, the room's spinning already.
[06:21.170 --> 06:24.790]  But I have an important bit of news, which is something that I've been waiting for for quite some time.
[06:24.810 --> 06:26.630]  And it looks like it's finally going to happen.
[06:27.230 --> 06:31.150]  I just read this today from Broadcasting and Cable magazine.
[06:32.670 --> 06:39.810]  Discovery Communications will distribute international news network, BBC World, in the U.S., in the United States.
[06:40.270 --> 06:53.550]  Discovery is now going to be seeking cable and satellite carriage for the 24-hour international news channel, which already reaches 128 million homes in 200 countries, but not in the United States, except in my house, where I have a Canadian satellite dish.
[06:53.550 --> 07:03.370]  So that means, that means for the first time ever, Americans will have the opportunity to see BBC World 24 hours, not just in that half hour in the morning or the evening when your PBS station decides to carry it.
[07:03.530 --> 07:09.670]  It means you'll be able to see programs like Hard Talk and Fast Gear and Click Online and neat things like that 24 hours a day.
[07:10.050 --> 07:13.030]  Thing is, it has to be covered.
[07:13.230 --> 07:16.630]  It has to be carried by either satellite or cable companies.
[07:16.630 --> 07:22.210]  So that means that, I guess, it's up to listeners to contact those people and demand that they carry BBC World.
[07:22.710 --> 07:32.530]  I think that in New York, people should demand that it be carried on the WC, which is what I'm calling the station that's going to be left over from the CW.
[07:32.810 --> 07:33.850]  The CW, Crap World.
[07:33.950 --> 07:34.770]  That's what that stands for.
[07:34.870 --> 07:35.530]  Well, yes, indeed.
[07:36.030 --> 07:36.470]  Yeah.
[07:36.790 --> 07:46.250]  Jim is referring, of course, to the, I guess, discontinuation and merger of UPN and WB and forming one network called CW, which is the silliest name ever.
[07:47.010 --> 07:52.690]  And it also means that there's going to be a TV station without a network in New York City, which is going to be kind of funny.
[07:52.770 --> 07:52.890]  And in Philadelphia.
[07:53.150 --> 07:53.590]  And in Philadelphia.
[07:53.750 --> 07:54.910]  Which station is it down there?
[07:55.730 --> 07:57.130]  Channel 17, WPHL.
[07:57.230 --> 08:03.850]  I talked to them yesterday just minutes after they got out of a meeting and were stunned to learn this because I read about it in the Wall Street Journal that morning as well.
[08:03.950 --> 08:05.270]  You were all over the story, huh?
[08:05.350 --> 08:06.990]  They were just shell-shocked.
[08:07.170 --> 08:08.890]  Nobody knew what was going to happen.
[08:08.990 --> 08:10.890]  And I finally got one guy who knew what was going to happen.
[08:10.910 --> 08:14.330]  He said, well, we're not going to have a network affiliation here at WPHL.
[08:14.330 --> 08:17.970]  We're going to be such an independent station.
[08:17.970 --> 08:19.130]  He said, just like the good old days.
[08:19.230 --> 08:21.690]  They're like, well, I hope you put some locally produced programming on there.
[08:21.770 --> 08:22.610]  It's like, we're looking into it.
[08:22.690 --> 08:23.550]  So that should be fun.
[08:23.650 --> 08:24.270]  It's not going to happen.
[08:24.350 --> 08:24.970]  You know what's going to happen?
[08:25.510 --> 08:33.790]  They're going to just put on repeats of syndicated shows and maybe shop at home and a lot of sports and nonsense like that.
[08:33.790 --> 08:38.050]  In fact, Fox owns... for some reason, Fox owns the UPN affiliate here.
[08:38.330 --> 08:42.310]  And they're looking to put on just extra Fox programming on that channel, which is awfully weird.
[08:42.410 --> 08:47.510]  And of course, this new network, CW, is a joint venture of Warner Brothers, Time Warner, and CBS.
[08:47.890 --> 08:51.750]  I don't understand how the same companies get to own all the networks, but that's just how it works.
[08:52.030 --> 08:58.950]  But what happened here in New York last night, which is rather interesting, Channel 9, the UPN affiliate here, just all of a sudden took the bug away.
[08:58.950 --> 09:00.190]  There's no more UPN bug.
[09:00.630 --> 09:04.030]  They're angry because that station is kind of stranded.
[09:04.150 --> 09:05.750]  They'd have no network affiliation.
[09:05.850 --> 09:07.950]  So they just pulled the bug.
[09:08.630 --> 09:09.550]  It's not on the screen anymore.
[09:09.750 --> 09:11.030]  They might even pull the programs.
[09:11.430 --> 09:15.030]  I wonder if CW is going to do their station IDs in Morse code.
[09:16.430 --> 09:18.970]  Yeah, that's a ham radio reference there.
[09:19.390 --> 09:21.350]  All right, now that you brought that up, tell us what CW is.
[09:21.770 --> 09:22.370]  Continuous wave.
[09:22.550 --> 09:25.930]  It's generally what ham radio operators refer to Morse code as.
[09:26.470 --> 09:31.190]  I guess this is causing a real ripple of anticipation in the ham world.
[09:31.190 --> 09:31.290]  It was a bad joke.
[09:31.410 --> 09:36.650]  Well, no, but I'm sure everybody in the ham world has already made this joke by now and has probably heard it several times.
[09:36.730 --> 09:39.350]  So it's actually kind of a big news item for them.
[09:39.450 --> 09:39.910]  I'm sorry.
[09:40.450 --> 09:50.290]  On the odd chance that there are ham radio operators who are listening who haven't already made the joke, they're probably on the floor cackling away as we speak.
[09:50.290 --> 09:55.950]  I'd like to get back to this BBC World thing, though, because just a couple of important side notes to this.
[09:56.730 --> 10:01.210]  There's also a new global news network known as Al Jazeera International.
[10:01.470 --> 10:07.450]  Now, what that is is the long-awaited English version of Al Jazeera coming from Qatar.
[10:08.470 --> 10:11.990]  They're having a very difficult time getting carriage in the United States as well.
[10:12.130 --> 10:24.310]  So when you make that phone call to demand that BBC World be carried on your cable affiliate, cable system, or satellite system, also add to that that you want Al Jazeera International.
[10:24.550 --> 10:31.850]  And if you really feel like you're getting somewhere with these people, hold out for CNN International as well, which is carried here in New York on Time Warner, but very few other places.
[10:32.170 --> 10:33.290]  If Channel 9...
[10:33.290 --> 10:33.430]  Call Verizon.
[10:34.390 --> 10:35.190]  Call Verizon?
[10:35.290 --> 10:36.130]  Why would we want to call Verizon?
[10:38.710 --> 10:45.390]  In some markets, they're now running a cable TV service, Verizon, over their Fios fiber optic network.
[10:45.550 --> 10:47.190]  And they're trying to branch out into other...
[10:47.190 --> 10:48.270]  They're already in Massachusetts.
[10:48.630 --> 10:49.910]  They're trying to bring it in New Jersey.
[10:50.790 --> 10:53.290]  They're trying it in the Philadelphia suburbs now.
[10:53.470 --> 10:56.550]  So that's another cable provider you should call.
[10:56.630 --> 11:02.090]  If there are any listeners out there who are getting this, we'd like to know just what kind of lineup they have.
[11:02.350 --> 11:06.010]  I'm sort of glad you brought that up, Bernie, because I have a little news about Verizon.
[11:06.010 --> 11:21.830]  It seems that Verizon has sent letters to the mayor of Red Bank, New Jersey, urging him, if they were his constituents, to contact the state government and allow Verizon to provide cable.
[11:22.130 --> 11:38.290]  Because Verizon says it would take them 10 years in order to get thousands of local jurisdictions in New Jersey to allow them to be a cable carrier, whereas if the state did it in one fell swoop, it would take so much less time.
[11:38.570 --> 11:46.750]  And what's fascinating about this is Verizon sent letters in the names of non-existent people in Red Bank.
[11:46.870 --> 11:57.070]  It sent letters in the names of existing people in Red Bank who were shocked and dismayed to find out that all of a sudden they were endorsing...
[11:58.250 --> 12:00.510]  I'm trying to see how long you can keep a straight face when we're doing that.
[12:01.050 --> 12:02.910]  I noticed from the start.
[12:03.390 --> 12:06.110]  And our internet listeners have no idea what we're talking about.
[12:06.110 --> 12:07.030]  It might sound kind of cool, though.
[12:07.030 --> 12:09.990]  I was basically just moving Jim from left to right with increasing speed.
[12:11.210 --> 12:12.750]  And it sounds good to us.
[12:12.810 --> 12:14.210]  I don't know how it sounds to anybody else.
[12:14.210 --> 12:18.750]  Until it got kind of dizzying inside my own headphones, I just kept going.
[12:18.870 --> 12:23.530]  We're playing with technology from the 1960s here, because that's when they first started doing left to right business.
[12:23.530 --> 12:25.550]  Because we were too young in the 60s to do it then.
[12:26.050 --> 12:27.670]  And we weren't in the Beatles either.
[12:27.950 --> 12:28.530]  Yes, Bernie?
[12:29.030 --> 12:39.350]  This is what Verizon must be calling a grassroots lobbying, where the grassroots are actually reaching into the graves of the dead people's names that they're...
[12:39.350 --> 12:40.090]  Oh, not even dead.
[12:41.590 --> 12:44.170]  All right, they're just unaware that they wrote such a letter.
[12:44.430 --> 12:44.650]  Right.
[12:45.350 --> 12:46.590]  They're politically dead.
[12:47.870 --> 12:48.890]  Well, that's pretty interesting.
[12:49.030 --> 12:50.050]  But they do have a point.
[12:50.210 --> 12:59.390]  If they had to negotiate a franchise agreement with the many thousands of communities, it probably would be delayed a really long time.
[12:59.510 --> 13:08.530]  I'm not saying that's a bad thing or not, but a statewide franchise would make it a lot easier for them to enter the market and provide competition to the incumbent cable carriers.
[13:08.650 --> 13:09.790]  So it's a mixed bag.
[13:10.090 --> 13:17.110]  These local franchise agreements, though, have a lot of advantages because the municipalities can demand things.
[13:17.250 --> 13:19.550]  They can demand public access channels.
[13:19.790 --> 13:31.170]  And in places other than Philadelphia, they can actually use this money from the local franchise agreements to provide funds for the production of community television.
[13:31.170 --> 13:43.690]  And I'm sure that Verizon is in its planned statewide franchise is not going to include a penny for public access, which will then cause the incumbent cable carriers to say, say, oh, no, we can't compete.
[13:44.070 --> 13:46.630]  Please take this out of our franchise agreements.
[13:46.930 --> 13:50.230]  And if we're not careful, this could easily be the death of public access.
[13:51.910 --> 14:06.910]  In Massachusetts, where they have the franchise in Massachusetts, Verizon just agreed to provide, to carry the public peg channels, the so-called public, emergency, and government channels, free of charge.
[14:07.130 --> 14:17.590]  But I firmly believe that a statewide franchise should include peg channel carriage as well as some funding for public access channels.
[14:17.690 --> 14:20.890]  And the only way to handle it uniformly is on a statewide basis.
[14:20.890 --> 14:31.030]  So I think you should write your state legislators and say, if Verizon comes into our market to offer cable TV service, they've got to offer public access TV, just like cable carriers have to.
[14:31.290 --> 14:31.670]  All right.
[14:31.730 --> 14:38.270]  We're telling our listeners to do a lot of writing and calling, so I hope you have the pencils out, because you're going to be busy for the next few days.
[14:38.730 --> 14:39.950]  This is also interesting.
[14:41.290 --> 14:44.910]  This was on Mobile Pipeline.
[14:45.530 --> 14:55.550]  An administrator for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has announced the government is looking into more spectrum for WiMAX and similar wireless broadband technologies.
[14:55.810 --> 15:01.690]  Although providers will launch the technology in a variety of spectrum, they currently own from 2.5 to 5.8 gigahertz.
[15:02.130 --> 15:13.950]  The government feels more spectrum may be necessary, and they expect to auction off the 700 megahertz spectrum that will be cleared, guess when, when analog TV is shut down for additional wireless data.
[15:14.110 --> 15:17.690]  That will be taking place in early 2009.
[15:18.310 --> 15:19.070]  So they say.
[15:19.230 --> 15:19.950]  So they say.
[15:20.870 --> 15:23.490]  So what do you think of that allocation of spectrum, Bernie?
[15:24.130 --> 15:26.250]  That's a big chunk of RF spectrum.
[15:26.590 --> 15:37.970]  But, you know, it's all really going to come out of our pockets eventually, because this is a public resource, the airwaves, and the government is just going to sell that to a private interest, which is going to have to pay billions of dollars for it.
[15:38.010 --> 15:45.710]  And the only way to recruit that investment is for them to take it out of our pockets in the price of their services to use those public airwaves.
[15:45.790 --> 15:49.250]  So it's just another way of taxing the public, as far as I'm concerned.
[15:49.490 --> 16:00.010]  Well, I've always had a problem with them not reallocating the spectrum that they're going to be freeing up, particularly the spectrum immediately below the FM dial.
[16:00.510 --> 16:02.110]  That would be, I believe, channel 6.
[16:02.290 --> 16:04.890]  And also, is it all the way down to channel 2?
[16:05.450 --> 16:10.990]  Yes, channel 2 goes all the way down to 54 megahertz, which is just above the 6-meter amateur radio band.
[16:11.110 --> 16:22.610]  So what they could theoretically do is open up the FM spectrum all the way down to 54, have room for all sorts of news stations, which hopefully would not be simply run by the same people.
[16:23.350 --> 16:26.910]  They could make it so that that was part of the agreement.
[16:26.910 --> 16:35.250]  If you have a license, if you get a license for one of the new stations, you have to be non-commercial, or you have to be somebody who's new to broadcasting, or just something like that.
[16:35.610 --> 16:36.770]  But they're not doing that.
[16:37.070 --> 16:38.650]  It would be awesome if they did.
[16:38.850 --> 16:45.370]  Already now, you can play with your FM radio yourself, and you'll see that if you tune into, what is it, 88.7?
[16:46.070 --> 16:46.870]  87.7.
[16:46.970 --> 16:47.910]  87.7, I'm sorry.
[16:48.110 --> 16:52.210]  You'll get channel 6, if you have a channel 6 in your neighborhood.
[16:52.290 --> 16:53.210]  And Bernie, I believe you do.
[16:53.210 --> 17:02.090]  Yes, so you can actually listen to channel 6 WPVI TV here in Philadelphia on 87.7, if your radio tunes down that long.
[17:02.270 --> 17:08.330]  The problem is that the FM deviation of TV is narrower than FM broadcast, so it sounds really shallow-y.
[17:08.770 --> 17:10.110]  But you can understand it.
[17:10.290 --> 17:18.090]  What's interesting, too, is that there are a lot of FM radios in the market already that cover below 88 MHz all the way down to 76 MHz.
[17:18.150 --> 17:18.430]  Oh, really?
[17:18.430 --> 17:22.070]  The Japanese FM band goes from 76 to 108.
[17:22.350 --> 17:34.490]  So there's an extra 12 MHz of, like, thousands of FM channels could be below scores of them, could be below 88 MHz, the bottom of your FM dial.
[17:34.830 --> 17:40.970]  With radios, you could buy right on, you know, and Radio Row there in New York, and buy these radios.
[17:41.330 --> 17:44.330]  You know, a lot of the Japanese radios go down that far.
[17:44.490 --> 17:46.490]  Well, it would be pretty cool to do this, I think.
[17:46.490 --> 17:51.070]  Yeah, it would be terrific, and there's no reason not to, except for the NAB, who will lobby very strongly.
[17:51.310 --> 17:53.910]  National Association of Broadcasters will lobby against the competition.
[17:54.110 --> 17:55.670]  Because they don't want more radio stations.
[17:55.810 --> 17:56.090]  They don't want...
[17:56.090 --> 17:59.910]  No, they don't want anybody else listening to anything besides the...
[17:59.910 --> 18:03.390]  No, they don't want anybody listening to XM and Sirius, for that matter, but that's another story.
[18:03.450 --> 18:06.110]  Well, okay, something interesting, though, that's happening here in New York.
[18:06.110 --> 18:14.090]  We don't have a Channel 6, and 87.7 has long been used by pirates, and I don't see that as a bad thing at all, because there's no interference.
[18:14.250 --> 18:16.150]  You're not interfering with any other FM broadcaster.
[18:16.270 --> 18:17.430]  You're not interfering with any TV station.
[18:17.590 --> 18:25.370]  However, what has occurred, and this is rather ingenious, a low-power TV station has gone on the air on Channel 6.
[18:25.530 --> 18:27.470]  I think it's in Queens or Brooklyn.
[18:28.230 --> 18:35.350]  And they primarily, from what I can tell, I haven't been able to actually watch the channel, but I think they just air music videos or something along those lines.
[18:35.350 --> 18:42.750]  Now, what happens is the FM signal reaches much, much further than the TV signal.
[18:43.110 --> 18:51.630]  So they have, in effect, gotten themselves a high-power radio station at 87.7 that broadcasts all the way up to Westchester and all the way out to Suffolk County.
[18:51.650 --> 18:52.310]  How do you like that?
[18:52.570 --> 18:53.470]  That's a great idea.
[18:53.590 --> 18:57.070]  Somebody else already had that idea a few years ago, and the FCC kind of busted them on it.
[18:57.070 --> 19:03.610]  It was a licensed, a medium-power FM broadcast station.
[19:03.610 --> 19:06.630]  It was out in a rural market, somewhere out in the Midwest or the West.
[19:06.770 --> 19:07.470]  They did this.
[19:07.690 --> 19:18.310]  And so what they did is they had a license to broadcast on Channel 6, but the only video they were broadcasting was just like a test pattern, you know, with the Indian head and the color chart in the background with the call letters.
[19:18.430 --> 19:20.410]  So they didn't even attempt to do any programming on TV?
[19:20.770 --> 19:22.070]  No, it was just all audio.
[19:22.070 --> 19:24.050]  That's all they really wanted anybody to hear anyway.
[19:24.050 --> 19:27.190]  So, because it was too complicated doing all the video production.
[19:27.190 --> 19:29.530]  It was a rural station with, like, two people working there.
[19:29.910 --> 19:34.450]  And the FCC said, no, you can't just broadcast the same video pattern 24 seconds.
[19:34.850 --> 19:36.650]  You have to put something else on.
[19:37.310 --> 19:42.390]  I could sort of, you know, why not put on silent movies and just put sort of a new soundtrack to them?
[19:42.470 --> 19:43.030]  You could do that.
[19:43.270 --> 19:43.450]  Good idea.
[19:44.150 --> 19:45.810]  Or we can maybe supply them with programming.
[19:46.010 --> 19:55.170]  It'd be interesting, actually, along the lines of what Bernie mentioned before, to measure the deviation of the FM signal and see if this was actually their intent, which it obviously is.
[19:55.250 --> 19:57.510]  It is because they're playing music all the time.
[19:57.830 --> 19:59.470]  So I think it's pretty obvious it's their intent.
[19:59.630 --> 20:07.870]  On another note, with the new spectrum opening up, it'd be great if we can get these frequencies located for public use, which doesn't seem very possible.
[20:07.870 --> 20:18.170]  But there's all sorts of new digital broadcasting technology and stuff that could make much more efficient use of the spectrum than, you know, standard FM broadcast signals can.
[20:18.650 --> 20:25.450]  So it'd be interesting to see if possible, some of these new technologies can be used in a more local sense.
[20:25.830 --> 20:27.650]  You know, this news explains a lot.
[20:27.650 --> 20:33.450]  I've mentioned before how I can pick up Philadelphia television stations, of which Channel 6 was one of them.
[20:33.550 --> 20:36.870]  But recently, there was a lot of odd ethnic music.
[20:37.050 --> 20:37.890]  I couldn't place it.
[20:38.010 --> 20:41.130]  Indian, Serbo-Croatian, I had no idea what it was.
[20:41.630 --> 20:46.430]  And the visual signal is now just total gibberish, no matter what time of night.
[20:46.630 --> 20:49.270]  But this audio is loud as hell.
[20:49.790 --> 20:56.590]  Yeah, well, like I said, the signal, the audio signal extends much further than the video signal.
[20:56.730 --> 21:01.890]  So they do have a low power station in Queens or Brooklyn, but a rather high power FM signal.
[21:02.890 --> 21:03.910]  None of these big...
[21:03.910 --> 21:04.450]  I've got to say this.
[21:04.550 --> 21:05.410]  There aren't a lot of big...
[21:05.410 --> 21:06.730]  There aren't a lot of big...
[21:06.730 --> 21:14.550]  Aren't big telecommunications carriers clamoring for this spectrum that's below the FM broadcast band, either, from like 8.8 down to 76 or lower.
[21:14.830 --> 21:31.730]  The cell phone companies and the WiMAX companies, they all want stuff that's in the gigahertz and, you know, high hundreds of megahertz, you know, like 800, some 900,000 over, you know, 2 or 3 gigahertz or, you know, 2.5 to 5.8 gigahertz, like you just mentioned in that story.
[21:31.990 --> 21:38.270]  They want those frequencies because they're best lent towards wireless telephony, you know, people carrying around little handsets.
[21:38.550 --> 21:40.050]  So there's not a lot of...
[21:40.050 --> 21:42.430]  big corporate interest clamoring for these frequencies.
[21:42.690 --> 21:43.470]  So this is like...
[21:43.470 --> 21:56.190]  like Redbird just said, this is a perfect opportunity for a community radio to be on these frequencies below 88 megahertz, from like 76 to 88, I think would be ideal, since the radios are already out there.
[21:57.530 --> 21:58.050]  Let's...
[21:58.050 --> 22:06.650]  and again, Congress, if they get leaned on enough, John McCain can support it because he's already supported heavily this low-power FM thing against the NAB and got it pushed through.
[22:06.930 --> 22:17.630]  So write John McCain and your other legislators and say, hey, we want public, you know, community stations, non-commercial community stations from 76 to 100 to 88 megahertz.
[22:17.950 --> 22:21.050]  Well, hopefully it's not too late and should they contact the FCC as well?
[22:21.450 --> 22:22.350]  It wouldn't hurt.
[22:22.550 --> 22:38.650]  They do take comments and if they get enough comments in a particular subject, they release a special comment period just for a specific topic and then they provide that to Congress who then considers it through some committee and that's how low-power FM came to be.
[22:38.850 --> 22:55.870]  There were enough people clamoring that the FCC took comments on that specific topic and then they sort of sorted all them out to make sense of them and presented them to Congress who started out with the NAB and low-power FM stations came to be in rural and suburban markets.
[22:56.010 --> 22:59.730]  Not in city markets because the NAB just prevented that from happening.
[22:59.870 --> 23:01.190]  But at least it happened to some extent.
[23:02.150 --> 23:08.730]  Well, I guess we have to get people to clamor and it feels like we're handing out homework assignments to all the listeners but yes, it's worth it.
[23:08.770 --> 23:09.830]  It does make a difference.
[23:10.030 --> 23:23.090]  I was just going to say that a lot of these government agencies like the FCC, they take public comments and they so rarely get them or they get two and ones from Clear Channels, lawyers and the others from some nutcase.
[23:23.390 --> 23:24.470]  So if they get...
[23:24.470 --> 23:39.790]  It doesn't necessarily take a large number of interested citizens to affect FCC policy and this is something that the Prometheus Radio Project discovered with great success as Bernie just described in the low-power FM movement.
[23:39.910 --> 23:42.690]  And it's also true of elected officials.
[23:43.530 --> 23:50.070]  They really don't get that many letters that aren't simply copies of things that are sent out on the internet.
[23:50.070 --> 23:57.690]  If you write an actual letter, odds are somebody pretty high up in that office is going to read it and it might actually make a difference especially if it's put together fairly well.
[23:58.690 --> 24:02.850]  In my experience, it depends on the elected officials.
[24:03.050 --> 24:05.750]  Some are much better at reading and responding to mail than others.
[24:06.470 --> 24:09.310]  Yeah, the ones who know how to read apparently respond better.
[24:09.450 --> 24:12.650]  A lot of the people in the Congress, I don't know.
[24:13.590 --> 24:15.330]  Yeah, let's not get into that.
[24:15.470 --> 24:16.030]  It's too depressing.
[24:16.850 --> 24:20.110]  Speaking of the television issue, and then we'll move on to some more things.
[24:20.530 --> 24:22.150]  This is an interesting story.
[24:22.270 --> 24:28.750]  A faulty digital television receiver has sparked a helicopter rescue mission after sending out a rogue distress signal.
[24:28.890 --> 24:30.810]  This happened over in Scotland.
[24:31.070 --> 24:43.390]  The Freeview box, which normally allows television viewers access to dozens of digital TV and radio channels via a standard rooftop aerial, sent out a signal identical to that for emergency beacons at sea.
[24:43.390 --> 24:56.390]  The SOS beam from Portsmouth on England's south coast was picked up by a satellite and sent to the RAF's Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Center in Northeast Scotland on January 5th.
[24:56.790 --> 24:58.590]  English Coast Guards were then alerted.
[24:58.670 --> 25:00.170]  They sent a helicopter to investigate.
[25:00.450 --> 25:08.290]  The aircraft spent two fruitless hours flying over Portsmouth Harbor looking for stricken sailors until the signal was traced to dry land.
[25:09.210 --> 25:12.250]  It was a 121.5 transmission.
[25:12.250 --> 25:14.870]  That's the major emergency frequency, a mayday.
[25:16.450 --> 25:18.730]  And it's very unusual, they say.
[25:18.810 --> 25:19.630]  It's a complete freak.
[25:19.630 --> 25:25.650]  And the odds of a Digibox sending out a 121.5 signal must be astronomical.
[25:26.010 --> 25:28.050]  This is not the first time that this has happened, though.
[25:28.330 --> 25:32.190]  We covered a similar story some time ago on this very program.
[25:33.090 --> 25:33.370]  Mm-hmm.
[25:34.570 --> 25:38.110]  Okay, we're being told that we have long stretches of dead air.
[25:38.430 --> 25:43.830]  And I guess what that means is that the monitors in the station only have one channel.
[25:43.950 --> 25:45.150]  So we've learned something from this.
[25:45.290 --> 25:45.630]  We've learned...
[25:45.630 --> 25:46.930]  Yes, we are panning tonight.
[25:47.350 --> 25:50.150]  It's our panning show, and I'm sure we're going to get panned for it ourselves.
[25:50.450 --> 26:02.530]  But if you're listening to us and you have one speaker and you're only listening on one channel for whatever reason, which I don't think is a good idea, now we know how we can say things and have people on the radio station not hear what we're saying.
[26:03.770 --> 26:07.570]  You won't hear half the people, I guess.
[26:08.170 --> 26:10.610]  Okay, so if any of our listeners have a similar setup...
[26:10.610 --> 26:14.890]  I just hope our transmitter is actually transmitting both channels because here you never know.
[26:14.950 --> 26:15.910]  We'll find out for sure.
[26:16.370 --> 26:21.070]  If nobody has heard anything that Jim has said, and Arsene, you haven't said much at all, so we don't know about that channel.
[26:21.710 --> 26:22.630]  That's the left channel.
[26:25.090 --> 26:27.010]  BAI, you know, people listen to the left channel.
[26:27.010 --> 26:29.010]  Yeah, it doesn't have to be anything of relevance.
[26:29.150 --> 26:31.130]  We're here just for testing purposes right now.
[26:31.130 --> 26:35.730]  Okay, Mike, you have something of interest that you brought in special.
[26:36.030 --> 26:45.030]  I brought in an audio clip of a press conference that was given by General Hayden at the National Press Club the other day.
[26:45.330 --> 26:46.610]  What is unusual about...
[26:46.610 --> 26:47.470]  Who is General Hayden?
[26:47.690 --> 26:48.370]  I'm getting to that.
[26:48.830 --> 27:10.830]  What is unusual about this general is that he is the former head of the National Security Agency, the NSA, which is a position that does not generally give interviews, but there's been so much fallout from this scandal where the NSA has been spying on people in the United States that they were forced to give this press briefing.
[27:11.370 --> 27:14.050]  And a lot of the questions were pretty good.
[27:14.470 --> 27:17.130]  A lot of the answers were not so good.
[27:17.130 --> 27:29.610]  It mostly consists of the general saying, well, yes, I understand that some people are concerned, but we're taking every precaution and you should to avoid violating the Fourth Amendment.
[27:29.850 --> 27:31.890]  No, I can't offer any evidence for this.
[27:32.030 --> 27:35.810]  You should just trust us and it's operationally necessary.
[27:36.090 --> 27:36.270]  All right.
[27:36.350 --> 27:39.870]  Let's let him say it in his own non-words, I guess.
[27:40.470 --> 27:40.970]  Yes, General.
[27:41.610 --> 27:43.890]  I'm Nuneser Sleiman with Al-Mustaqbal Arabi.
[27:43.890 --> 27:52.470]  Does NSA now currently listen to conversation from overseas to U.S.
[27:52.670 --> 27:58.350]  citizens traveling abroad or diplomats that station abroad?
[27:59.190 --> 28:01.870]  The other question, I want to quote you.
[28:02.290 --> 28:09.870]  You said you listen to individual or to the calls that we believe associated with Al-Qaeda.
[28:10.870 --> 28:13.630]  And you mentioned the issue of focus many times.
[28:14.650 --> 28:19.410]  Now, how you reach the level of believing?
[28:19.710 --> 28:25.010]  I mean, give us just an indication without divulging any secrets here.
[28:25.290 --> 28:26.510]  How it's determined?
[28:26.710 --> 28:42.390]  Because in the Arab and Muslim community, Arab American and Muslim American in the United States, Bin Laden was not able to recruit any one of them, but they feel that they are being profiled under threat under constant harassment, et cetera, et cetera.
[28:42.390 --> 28:53.910]  So, is it open season on the Arab American and Muslim American United States that any conversation that it is believed to be associated with Al-Qaeda?
[28:54.910 --> 28:58.650]  Thank you very much for asking that question.
[28:58.750 --> 28:59.530]  It gives me an opportunity.
[29:00.430 --> 29:13.150]  That's why I was almost so emphatic in my prepared remarks about this not being a driftnet over parts of the United States and then we sort through by keywords or some other things.
[29:13.310 --> 29:14.490]  This is not this at all.
[29:14.710 --> 29:25.450]  If we are intercepting a communication, it is because we have reason to believe that one or both communicants are affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
[29:26.030 --> 29:27.210]  That's our criteria.
[29:27.210 --> 29:29.170]  Why they're not already in jail, General?
[29:30.030 --> 29:37.570]  Well, in some cases the communicant is not affiliated with Al-Qaeda is not in the United States.
[29:38.050 --> 29:41.630]  Now you asked earlier about how confident are you.
[29:44.890 --> 29:46.510]  This is both art and science.
[29:46.870 --> 29:49.190]  We use every tool available to us.
[29:49.390 --> 29:58.390]  We have the best people at the National Security Agency and the best technology of the National Security Agency on this effort.
[29:58.670 --> 30:00.610]  I don't want to be overly dramatic here.
[30:00.770 --> 30:01.590]  I really don't.
[30:07.080 --> 30:10.120]  We use signals intelligence for a lot of things.
[30:11.480 --> 30:15.700]  We use signals intelligence to support America's armed forces.
[30:17.120 --> 30:35.960]  The tools and techniques and tactics and procedures we use to determine is this an Al-Qaeda communication are the same tools, techniques, tactics, and procedures we use to tell America's armed forces that you can go ahead and put a 500-pound bomb on that target.
[30:38.220 --> 30:41.060]  It's the same art and science.
[30:42.540 --> 30:43.620]  So this is not done.
[30:43.700 --> 30:45.980]  What I'm saying is this is not done idly.
[30:48.560 --> 30:52.120]  Well, yeah, he definitely was a bit evasive there.
[30:52.980 --> 30:54.820]  It's interesting to note that the U.S.
[30:54.940 --> 31:00.260]  military bombs the wrong people all the time, but I guess he doesn't think so.
[31:01.120 --> 31:13.120]  Well, the NSA thing is getting a good amount of press, I've got to say, and most people seem to understand the relevance, the importance of it, and the scariness of having all our conversations subject to monitoring.
[31:13.120 --> 31:26.400]  I had a chance to actually hear this whole interview on Democracy Now, and if our listeners are really interested, they should really find the whole thing online because this isn't the only time he basically evades the question or answers a different question or something.
[31:26.400 --> 31:30.020]  It's pretty interesting because you don't really hear the NSA speak as much.
[31:30.600 --> 31:30.860]  Okay.
[31:32.320 --> 31:40.100]  And by the way, again, if anyone out there is having trouble hearing us, let us know by calling us at 212-209-2900.
[31:40.100 --> 31:43.800]  But I suspect that anyone with a mono radio is able to hear us just fine.
[31:44.080 --> 31:47.020]  If you have just a left speaker plugged in, then that's a mistake.
[31:47.800 --> 31:53.440]  And consider this a wake-up call to configure your radio properly so that you actually get...
[31:53.440 --> 31:54.980]  Because you could be missing things all the time.
[31:55.200 --> 31:56.840]  Stereo is something that's with us.
[31:56.980 --> 32:02.260]  There may be listeners though who have asked us for a version of the program without Jim and now they know what to do.
[32:03.420 --> 32:03.860]  Yes.
[32:04.480 --> 32:05.140]  That's something.
[32:05.260 --> 32:06.380]  Yeah, we can now filter out people.
[32:07.760 --> 32:09.860]  It's a bit annoying though, I've got to say.
[32:10.180 --> 32:14.500]  Just hearing it going through all my different sides it's a little bit too much.
[32:14.740 --> 32:17.660]  But let's continue on with some other topics here.
[32:17.840 --> 32:20.240]  Google has been in the news a lot this week.
[32:20.420 --> 32:25.620]  They were subpoenaed last week by the Bush administration.
[32:26.080 --> 32:27.160]  What was this all about?
[32:27.320 --> 32:29.620]  They're looking for information on pornography or something?
[32:29.740 --> 32:30.620]  It's very complicated.
[32:31.120 --> 32:41.560]  There's this law called the Children Online Protection Act or something which is like the third version of the government's attempt to censor the internet.
[32:41.560 --> 32:44.600]  They keep trying and failing and then they write a new law and they try again.
[32:44.820 --> 32:59.180]  And so this third version went to the Supreme Court and they said basically you have to prove at trial that this is the least intrusive or most effective way to achieve the government's goal of protecting minors
[33:02.820 --> 33:17.740]  and so the government has decided that in order to do this they need to know what is on the internet or know what people are searching for something vague so they have decided that they're entitled to the records of all the major search engines.
[33:18.580 --> 33:27.680]  And so they subpoenaed Google and Yahoo and AOL and maybe some others and all of them except Google said oh, government you want this information?
[33:27.680 --> 33:28.580]  Sure, have it.
[33:28.740 --> 33:36.000]  So this is not a criminal proceeding where the information could be used for some benefit.
[33:36.180 --> 33:46.800]  This is the government's political attempt to defend this law which is a very bad law and all these search companies except Google are just signing away their information.
[33:47.720 --> 33:51.920]  So we really should salute Google for standing up for this, right?
[33:52.060 --> 33:53.040]  It was nice of them, yeah.
[33:53.640 --> 34:07.120]  Unfortunately, it was also the same week that Google decided to kowtow to China and censor its search services in order to get greater access to China's fast-growing market.
[34:07.280 --> 34:16.880]  How many times have we heard this where people are or organizations rather are simply, I guess, censoring themselves?
[34:16.960 --> 34:18.300]  That's what's happening here.
[34:20.060 --> 34:20.740]  Yeah.
[34:21.340 --> 34:26.880]  These corporations want to do business in China and Google claims its motto is don't be evil.
[34:28.420 --> 34:34.440]  But they see they're more than willing to cooperate with evil regimes when it will yield them profit.
[34:34.640 --> 34:45.900]  Now, this is all about google.cn, a new site that I guess when they search for certain things in China, they won't see what the rest of the world sees.
[34:46.060 --> 34:47.660]  They'll see what the Chinese government wants them to see.
[34:47.660 --> 34:49.480]  I went to google.cn today.
[34:49.700 --> 34:50.080]  Did you?
[34:50.540 --> 34:50.920]  I did.
[34:51.100 --> 34:55.940]  And I went to see if I could find anything on 2600 magazine and found all kinds of links.
[34:56.120 --> 34:58.840]  And then I put in Tiananmen square, making sure I spelled it correctly.
[34:59.140 --> 35:02.920]  And it was finding all kinds of information on people that were slaughtered there.
[35:03.560 --> 35:07.860]  So it must be something that only works within the Chinese firewall, I guess.
[35:10.960 --> 35:13.220]  Well, it's interesting.
[35:14.620 --> 35:18.040]  So yeah, I guess a good week and a bad week for Google, right?
[35:18.200 --> 35:20.520]  I have one question about the first situation.
[35:21.120 --> 35:29.780]  I was wondering if it turns out that Google wins its subpoena fight and does not have to turn over this information, which is, of course, still in court.
[35:30.500 --> 35:41.220]  I wonder if users of Yahoo and MSN and the other engines can sue those companies for giving their information to the government for no reason.
[35:42.600 --> 35:49.220]  So I encourage you, if you're a Yahoo user, to wait some time and if Google wins, to sue Yahoo.
[35:49.560 --> 35:50.900]  I think it would be interesting.
[35:51.480 --> 35:52.580]  Or just stop using them.
[35:53.640 --> 35:56.740]  I think it would be a very interesting question of law.
[35:56.920 --> 36:00.420]  We should try writing them an email and see what their response is to this.
[36:00.820 --> 36:03.640]  Yeah, it would be like with that press clipping we just listened to.
[36:04.020 --> 36:05.760]  A lot of evasive non-answers.
[36:06.200 --> 36:09.720]  Okay, so I listened to some email that people have sent us.
[36:09.820 --> 36:15.120]  Again, our email address is OTH at 2600.com and we do love hearing from you.
[36:16.780 --> 36:21.020]  I was the last caller that got in the last 30 seconds on the January 3rd show.
[36:21.160 --> 36:25.560]  I mentioned that I work for a large telco and would like to speak about trap and trace requests.
[36:26.000 --> 36:28.180]  And you guys told me to email you, so here goes.
[36:28.320 --> 36:33.500]  In a nutshell, federal and state law enforcement agencies often submit what are called trap and trace requests.
[36:34.020 --> 36:39.200]  These are network operations center, I believe, right?
[36:39.840 --> 36:48.440]  Alert them, request that the knock operators alert them if a given telephone number shows up as a call either inbound or outbound.
[36:48.840 --> 36:49.960]  Now, this is important.
[36:50.060 --> 36:53.540]  The caller ID that one sees on his phone means zilch.
[36:53.660 --> 36:54.100]  Nothing.
[36:54.440 --> 37:00.740]  If you receive a weird number such as 000-000-6789, that doesn't mean that you're anonymous.
[37:00.960 --> 37:05.180]  It means that your phone number was simply not transmitted accurately through the phone network.
[37:05.360 --> 37:09.360]  The traditional phone network is a crazy patchwork of thousands of older pieces of equipment.
[37:09.720 --> 37:15.880]  Often unimportant information such as your telephone number is often dropped on caller ID.
[37:16.160 --> 37:26.580]  However, the underlying information is clearly available at the phone company in the form of a CDR, a call details record, which contains the route and duration of the call.
[37:26.800 --> 37:31.280]  This information is available for any call routed over the traditional phone network.
[37:32.140 --> 37:38.620]  So, interesting to hear some as to how it all works, how it all still works.
[37:40.900 --> 37:44.620]  Okay, and also we have this listener who wrote in.
[37:45.700 --> 37:52.180]  I'd like to quickly share some observations and then ask you some questions on the subject of using a cell phone as a modem.
[37:52.460 --> 38:01.440]  Up until approximately one year ago, T-Mobile had granted free and unrestricted access to their internet gateway via GPRS on any phone which supported it.
[38:01.660 --> 38:22.740]  By appropriately linking any such phone to a computer and dialing star nine nine pound, one would be assigned an IP address supporting data transfer over port 80 and perhaps a few other ports for common services, allowing any T-Mobile network subscriber to view webpages or access absolutely anything else via a proxy on port 80.
[38:23.280 --> 38:24.000]  Here's the question.
[38:24.080 --> 38:25.860]  Are any of you familiar with this particular issue?
[38:26.000 --> 38:29.420]  Do you happen to know why T-Mobile is allowing free and unrestricted connections?
[38:29.420 --> 38:34.700]  Do you know if it's an intentional bit of negligence or an actual feature?
[38:35.000 --> 38:36.900]  And I see you have some information on this, Redbird.
[38:37.100 --> 38:39.420]  I've played around with T-Mobile a little bit.
[38:39.520 --> 38:43.560]  I'm not a T-Mobile subscriber, but I did purchase one of their prepaid SIMs.
[38:44.140 --> 38:56.600]  And it seems as though when you connect to the GPRS number that they have there, when you're using as a modem, you are able to resolve domain names.
[38:56.660 --> 39:06.240]  If you try to connect to any domain on port 80, that's the standard HTTP port, you'll get an error saying the service is not available with your plan or something along those lines.
[39:06.740 --> 39:14.640]  And that seems to be the only data that they allow you to transmit across, except that you're allowed to resolve domain names.
[39:14.800 --> 39:23.580]  And so what does work is if you want to tunnel traffic over DNS requests, which isn't the fastest way to do things over GPRS, but it does work.
[39:23.820 --> 39:27.140]  And I'm not going to get into how to do that over the air, but...
[39:27.140 --> 39:29.180]  But that works actually for people who don't subscribe.
[39:29.380 --> 39:33.380]  It works for non-subscribers, and you can get data through, so...
[39:33.380 --> 39:33.860]  Interesting.
[39:33.960 --> 39:34.860]  It's very interesting.
[39:34.920 --> 39:35.880]  Is it very slow though?
[39:36.020 --> 39:38.880]  It's very slow, but that's to be expected over GPRS anyway.
[39:39.520 --> 39:48.880]  There's a related article in the latest issue of 2600, which I just received today, the one with some disheveled man on an airplane on the cover.
[39:48.940 --> 39:50.360]  Well, don't ruin it for people who haven't seen it yet.
[39:50.380 --> 39:51.160]  It only just went out.
[39:51.320 --> 39:53.240]  I'm not telling them any more than that.
[39:53.980 --> 40:04.000]  And it has an article on how to use your cell phone as a modem to connect to Verizon for free, an exploit that will probably be shut soon enough.
[40:04.160 --> 40:14.960]  But it does give a number of addresses on the net for more information and various drivers, which would probably be useful and adaptable to this situation.
[40:16.020 --> 40:21.200]  There's always all sorts of ways around security measures that they have in place for these sort of things.
[40:21.380 --> 40:23.300]  It just depends on what route you're willing to take.
[40:24.560 --> 40:25.080]  Okay.
[40:25.600 --> 40:28.620]  Interesting bits of information that we're getting.
[40:28.620 --> 40:37.260]  On a side note, we have received email that our signal is being heard stereo in a bunch of places.
[40:37.740 --> 40:38.340]  Well, that's good.
[40:38.580 --> 40:39.380]  As it should be.
[40:39.500 --> 40:39.660]  Yes.
[40:39.820 --> 40:42.800]  We're not encouraging people to email us during the show because generally we don't check it.
[40:43.060 --> 40:43.380]  Yeah.
[40:44.020 --> 40:44.980]  People do that all the time.
[40:45.120 --> 40:45.620]  We're not online.
[40:46.680 --> 40:47.940]  It's awfully distracting when we are.
[40:48.980 --> 40:51.060]  Dear Off the Hook, I really like your show tonight.
[40:51.060 --> 40:54.300]  I think that a two-hour show would be much better if the station can swing it.
[40:54.400 --> 40:55.180]  It's good to hear you guys.
[40:55.280 --> 40:57.620]  It's been a few semesters since I've had Wednesday nights without a class.
[40:57.780 --> 40:58.400]  Looking forward to Hope.
[40:58.500 --> 40:59.020]  Signed, Oliver.
[40:59.660 --> 41:02.900]  Thanks, Oliver, for listening to us live over the radio, which is kind of cool.
[41:03.120 --> 41:04.240]  Two hours would be great.
[41:05.140 --> 41:05.780]  Who knows?
[41:05.880 --> 41:07.260]  Maybe it can be swung.
[41:08.020 --> 41:09.660]  Anything can be swung around here, I'm sure.
[41:10.300 --> 41:16.620]  But, yeah, with more time we'd be able to do more things like play around with technology a bit more, feature things, interview people.
[41:17.600 --> 41:19.440]  We'd sure like to do that because look at it now.
[41:19.540 --> 41:26.040]  It's 20 minutes to the end of our show and we haven't even started taking phone calls yet and we have so many more stories and letters to get to.
[41:26.660 --> 41:28.060]  This is Adam from Tokyo.
[41:28.140 --> 41:29.780]  We met this summer on your trip.
[41:29.900 --> 41:30.180]  Hi, Adam.
[41:30.260 --> 41:30.560]  How are you?
[41:31.140 --> 41:33.660]  I had an interesting thing happen today at the hospital.
[41:33.660 --> 41:36.460]  I paid with a credit card and they didn't require my signature.
[41:36.820 --> 41:43.220]  Usually shops in Japan never look to match the signature on the card with the one on the receipt but this was strange because it was a rule.
[41:43.540 --> 41:49.200]  The lady at the counter said they don't require signatures unless the total reaches 30,000 yen or more.
[41:49.660 --> 41:53.300]  It seems they aren't doing much to stop credit card fraud in Japan.
[41:53.660 --> 41:53.980]  Interesting.
[41:54.180 --> 42:01.740]  I'd have to disagree with stopping credit card fraud because it doesn't seem as though signature verification has anything to do with fraud.
[42:01.980 --> 42:08.780]  I mean people who are comparing the signatures are not trained in analyzing handwriting.
[42:08.980 --> 42:10.180]  But it's seen as a step at least.
[42:10.400 --> 42:11.600]  Why is it a step?
[42:11.740 --> 42:13.280]  I mean you could easily sign somebody else's.
[42:13.280 --> 42:14.880]  Why else would people be checking the signature?
[42:15.000 --> 42:17.000]  It's not just to see if your penmanship has changed.
[42:17.440 --> 42:19.600]  But what are they going to say if it doesn't match clearly?
[42:19.820 --> 42:26.160]  My point is the reason why people are told check the signature is allegedly to combat fraud.
[42:26.280 --> 42:27.080]  I'm not saying it's effective.
[42:27.260 --> 42:28.800]  I'm just saying that's the reason they give.
[42:29.700 --> 42:33.640]  But having an ineffective measure is just as good as not having one at all.
[42:33.720 --> 42:36.180]  I mean I went for months without even signing my credit card.
[42:36.480 --> 42:43.900]  But what's interesting here what this writer is saying is that it's a rule that they don't check under a certain amount and I think that's just why?
[42:44.240 --> 42:45.700]  What's the point behind that?
[42:46.220 --> 42:46.660]  Speed.
[42:46.960 --> 42:51.420]  I mean even at gas stations they're not even requiring you to sign most of the time now.
[42:51.760 --> 42:53.940]  So it's just you know it's convenient.
[42:53.940 --> 42:56.160]  My credit cards have little RFID things in them now.
[42:56.680 --> 42:59.020]  And I haven't yet figured out where I can use them.
[42:59.080 --> 43:01.020]  I think what 7-Eleven I can use these things?
[43:01.120 --> 43:01.380]  7-Eleven.
[43:01.600 --> 43:03.120]  Yeah I think maybe CVS as well.
[43:03.280 --> 43:04.100]  So how does that work?
[43:04.140 --> 43:11.220]  I basically just get an armful of groceries or something, plop them on the counter, just wave my card and I can just walk right out with all the stuff.
[43:11.340 --> 43:11.520]  Yes.
[43:11.700 --> 43:13.920]  Not have to do a single thing or say anything to anybody.
[43:14.020 --> 43:16.120]  No well I mean you have to allow him to check you out.
[43:24.340 --> 43:32.920]  doesn't that mean that someone like me could be standing there with a RFID reader and getting a manual's credit card information?
[43:33.260 --> 43:37.800]  Or someone like you could be standing there getting your own credit card out and it could accidentally bill you instead of me.
[43:38.000 --> 43:39.580]  Yeah what if I walked by at the same time?
[43:39.720 --> 43:40.260]  It depends.
[43:40.600 --> 43:48.300]  If they're using a carefully crafted challenge response algorithm then maybe it's preventable but I don't know what they're using yet.
[43:51.220 --> 43:51.700]  Okay.
[43:52.740 --> 43:53.800]  Deere off the hook.
[43:53.940 --> 43:59.100]  Any chance you could use a name in your RSS podcast feed that describes the show better?
[43:59.540 --> 44:03.180]  Right now all shows appear as new off the hook online or new off the wall online.
[44:03.180 --> 44:08.120]  A title like Off the Hook 2006-01-18 would make it easier to find particular shows on portable devices.
[44:08.640 --> 44:09.300]  Signed Al.
[44:09.480 --> 44:10.480]  That seems to make sense to me.
[44:10.500 --> 44:11.560]  Is there a reason we don't do that?
[44:12.260 --> 44:18.220]  We have it in the iTunes field but not in the standard field.
[44:18.340 --> 44:18.720]  Uh-huh.
[44:18.980 --> 44:19.380]  So...
[44:19.380 --> 44:21.600]  But is there a reason why we don't have it in the standard field?
[44:21.760 --> 44:22.500]  There might be.
[44:22.840 --> 44:23.140]  Okay.
[44:23.880 --> 44:24.320]  All right.
[44:24.380 --> 44:25.660]  Well, I mean, it sounds reasonable enough.
[44:25.960 --> 44:27.200]  I could see people getting all...
[44:27.200 --> 44:31.540]  See, I don't download the show this way so I'm not aware of the problem unless people point it out.
[44:32.200 --> 44:41.220]  But yeah, if that's all you see and that's all that shows up on your little device there, you might not know which show it is and you wouldn't even know if it's off the hook or off the wall, would you?
[44:41.380 --> 44:43.040]  Well, actually, you would because that's set in the title.
[44:43.640 --> 44:45.360]  But you wouldn't know what date it was.
[44:45.820 --> 44:50.200]  I'll see if there's a reason and if there's not a reason then maybe the change can be made.
[44:50.320 --> 44:50.720]  Yes, Bernie?
[44:50.960 --> 45:04.360]  I have a suggestion that at the beginning of each show, you announce just like Captain Kirk did, announce the star date so that people at the beginning of the show will know the date of the show and they can skip to the next one if they're like flipping through them on their MP3 device.
[45:04.480 --> 45:06.800]  Well, that's great but half the time we don't even know what date it is.
[45:06.860 --> 45:07.540]  Who knows the date here?
[45:08.380 --> 45:11.020]  It's January 25th, 2006.
[45:11.560 --> 45:12.280]  I disagree.
[45:12.940 --> 45:14.200]  You see, now what are you going to do?
[45:14.900 --> 45:15.280]  Well...
[45:15.280 --> 45:16.680]  I say it's last week.
[45:17.960 --> 45:18.980]  Okay, I messed up.
[45:19.080 --> 45:19.600]  I messed up.
[45:20.020 --> 45:21.860]  But next week I'll have a better argument.
[45:22.840 --> 45:24.320]  All right, here's another suggestion.
[45:24.480 --> 45:25.300]  Your show is great.
[45:25.320 --> 45:27.460]  I guess that's not a suggestion but that's a statement.
[45:27.740 --> 45:30.900]  But you should really pay more attention towards podcast versions.
[45:32.000 --> 45:34.120]  Mike, you're gripping the table with your fingernails.
[45:34.260 --> 45:35.600]  You really don't like that word at all, do you?
[45:36.400 --> 45:38.800]  You know, I'm just full of rage.
[45:39.980 --> 45:43.860]  You show rage towards interesting things and the word podcast is one of those interesting things.
[45:44.100 --> 45:51.360]  Anyway, this listener suggests you should try to remove the part in the beginning of the show, the part where you have to listen to the end of a previous show.
[45:51.760 --> 45:52.640]  Do we do that?
[45:53.040 --> 45:55.060]  We have that online on the archives.
[45:55.740 --> 45:59.100]  Wait, when you listen to a new show, it's like previously on Off the Hook?
[45:59.240 --> 45:59.620]  Is that...
[45:59.620 --> 46:00.600]  No, no, no, no, no, no.
[46:00.700 --> 46:03.220]  It starts whenever you've started recording.
[46:04.100 --> 46:07.260]  Junts is very good at putting everything that he hears online.
[46:07.540 --> 46:08.260]  I see what you're saying.
[46:08.380 --> 46:09.660]  Okay, because...
[46:10.380 --> 46:12.720]  Okay, so you're not hearing last week's show.
[46:12.920 --> 46:15.080]  No, you're hearing the show that airs previous to ours.
[46:15.660 --> 46:17.360]  Okay, well, we can cut back on that a little bit.
[46:17.360 --> 46:22.300]  What we like to do when we distribute the things is give you...
[46:22.300 --> 46:23.060]  Some context.
[46:23.220 --> 46:23.680]  Some context.
[46:23.800 --> 46:29.260]  What BAI sounded like if you hear a promo for a show coming up after our show, it's good to include that.
[46:29.740 --> 46:35.720]  You might not think it's important, but maybe 10 years from now, you'll say, wow, I can't believe there was a show like that on the air.
[46:35.900 --> 46:37.380]  Now that kind of thought is illegal.
[46:37.640 --> 46:44.460]  It's like a newspaper morgue, which for those of you who don't know, a morgue is that file cabinet, their cabinet's full of clippings.
[46:44.860 --> 46:47.200]  They don't just cut out right around each article.
[46:47.820 --> 46:51.820]  You're able to see the surrounding articles and the back of the page as well.
[46:51.980 --> 46:54.340]  So this is sort of like a historical context.
[46:55.080 --> 47:02.600]  After the nuclear holocaust, you know, off the hook, maybe the only thing from which people can reconstruct civilization, and then you'll all be sorry.
[47:02.700 --> 47:03.900]  Now's the time to start promoting it then.
[47:04.420 --> 47:13.880]  He also suggests, or she, I'm not sure, this listener's called Dajon, I'm not sure if that's a male or female, but try to make two RSS feeds, one for off the hook and one for off the wall, good idea.
[47:14.280 --> 47:15.820]  I noticed you found out about Skype.
[47:15.820 --> 47:16.800]  I love it.
[47:16.900 --> 47:18.040]  Actually, we've known about Skype for some time.
[47:18.100 --> 47:19.540]  We just started playing with it.
[47:19.860 --> 47:22.140]  I actually discovered it last time I was visiting the USA.
[47:22.540 --> 47:30.820]  I first bought T-Mobile prepaid GSM SIM card, and 120 minutes later, I discovered that you are charged for incoming calls.
[47:31.000 --> 47:34.540]  So I bought a handheld and installed Skype on it.
[47:34.840 --> 47:40.400]  I can't stop using it, and wireless networks are open everywhere, so it's even better than GSM for traveling.
[47:41.040 --> 47:45.800]  So yeah, it's reached the point where you can use these things almost anywhere you can.
[47:45.820 --> 47:46.780]  There you go, which is kind of cool.
[47:48.000 --> 47:49.540]  Here's another interesting letter.
[47:49.900 --> 47:50.460]  Do you're off the hook?
[47:50.620 --> 47:52.340]  I look forward to your podcast every week.
[47:52.980 --> 47:59.080]  Recently, while purchasing groceries, I swiped my debit card through the machine and received a card read error.
[47:59.340 --> 48:01.740]  I did it two more times with the same results.
[48:02.100 --> 48:05.800]  The cashier said, here, let me help you, and took my card.
[48:05.980 --> 48:11.480]  She then put the card inside of a plastic bag so that the card now had a single layer of plastic where it would be swiped.
[48:11.480 --> 48:13.640]  She swiped it through and the card was read.
[48:13.860 --> 48:19.120]  I asked her how it was that this worked and she said, I think it makes it thick enough for the reader to accept it.
[48:19.460 --> 48:25.060]  Then, at a gas station down the road, while purchasing with the same debit card, they did the same trick to get my card to work.
[48:25.200 --> 48:31.460]  I asked why they thought this would work and the cashier said that the plastic film covers up some of the marks on the card so it can read it.
[48:31.460 --> 48:39.820]  I don't understand how either of these would make a difference but I have taken the carrying one of those stupid plastic bags wherever I go so I can successfully swipe my card.
[48:40.340 --> 48:42.660]  Can someone there explain why this would work?
[48:42.900 --> 48:44.220]  Avid listener, David.
[48:44.520 --> 48:45.000]  Jim.
[48:45.180 --> 48:49.460]  I've come up with an explanation for why the first explanation might be true.
[48:49.640 --> 48:56.700]  In other words, there's a certain distance that the mag stripe has to be from the mag stripe reader but this is relatively flexible.
[48:57.840 --> 49:15.940]  But if there's a wide channel, in other words, if the channel is much larger than the thickness of the card, the card could be on the extreme far edge of the channel and away from the reader and therefore any plastic bag on one side or on both sides would put the mag stripe close enough to the reader part.
[49:16.080 --> 49:18.860]  The other explanation I can't come up with an explanation with.
[49:19.020 --> 49:19.520]  Okay.
[49:19.720 --> 49:22.860]  I don't necessarily think it's a problem with the tracks not being aligned correctly.
[49:22.860 --> 49:40.120]  It's probably more of as the magnetic stripe gets worn out, there's some amount of distortion in the waveform and allowing an extra small gap between between the mag stripe reader and the mag stripe itself probably lessens the distortion a little bit.
[49:40.340 --> 49:47.200]  I don't exactly know what it would look like as far as the waveform, but I can do some experiments with that and get back to you next week.
[49:47.300 --> 49:52.420]  Someone did do that to me overseas and I was surprised that it worked and I left it on my card.
[49:52.680 --> 49:54.720]  There's a plastic strip on my card and it works better.
[49:55.940 --> 49:57.440]  Okay, should we take some phone calls?
[49:57.640 --> 50:01.000]  212-209-2900.
[50:01.000 --> 50:02.180]  That's our telephone number.
[50:02.780 --> 50:05.700]  If you're out there listening to us, why not give us a call now?
[50:06.500 --> 50:07.060]  Good evening.
[50:07.300 --> 50:07.840]  You're on the air.
[50:09.760 --> 50:10.260]  Go ahead.
[50:10.340 --> 50:10.640]  Speak up.
[50:12.420 --> 50:13.180]  There's nobody there.
[50:16.100 --> 50:18.320]  No, I'm coming through both channels so they can definitely hear me.
[50:18.640 --> 50:21.620]  I'm wondering though, maybe the phone only gets one side.
[50:21.740 --> 50:22.680]  We'll find out soon enough.
[50:22.880 --> 50:23.380]  Good evening.
[50:23.380 --> 50:23.880]  You're on the air.
[50:24.860 --> 50:26.280]  Okay, that's definitely there.
[50:26.340 --> 50:27.320]  That was a stereo dial tone.
[50:27.380 --> 50:27.640]  It was.
[50:27.760 --> 50:27.980]  Good evening.
[50:28.060 --> 50:28.480]  You're on the air.
[50:29.480 --> 50:30.020]  Go ahead.
[50:30.300 --> 50:31.420]  Hi, let me hear my radio.
[50:31.680 --> 50:33.120]  Yeah, come back to the phone please.
[50:33.320 --> 50:33.900]  I'm sorry.
[50:34.020 --> 50:34.600]  I'm very sorry.
[50:34.860 --> 50:36.300]  I enjoy your show tremendously.
[50:36.560 --> 50:40.240]  Could you please tell me, this is a dumb question, I apologize for it, how do I get to your podcast?
[50:40.540 --> 50:43.240]  There are no dumb questions, only wrong answers.
[50:44.140 --> 50:44.940]  I'm going to get him.
[50:45.440 --> 50:47.620]  All right, how do you get to the podcast?
[50:47.740 --> 50:49.020]  Who wants to tackle this one?
[50:49.960 --> 50:50.220]  Mike?
[50:51.780 --> 51:04.420]  First, you have to install some sort of aggregator, the one that I've been recommending, I don't know the current name of, I think it's like Juice or something, it used to be called iPodder, but then they had to change their name at Apple's request.
[51:05.180 --> 51:18.000]  So you have to get that, and then you can come to our website, which is 2600.com, and you will find on there a link, which you don't click on, don't click on the link, it won't work right.
[51:18.580 --> 51:26.240]  Instead, you should copy the link location to your clipboard and paste it into your aggregator, and there you go.
[51:26.280 --> 51:27.420]  Why won't our link work right?
[51:28.180 --> 51:36.860]  Because it's not a link that is to be followed in your web browser, it is a link that is to be followed by your RSS aggregator.
[51:37.000 --> 51:37.400]  Aggregator.
[51:37.840 --> 51:40.980]  So this won't just show up in my iTunes the way other...
[51:40.980 --> 51:47.960]  I apologize for my lack of knowledge here, but my wife does some podcasts from C-SPAN, they just seem to show up on iTunes.
[51:48.120 --> 51:49.000]  No, they do.
[51:49.000 --> 51:52.440]  Ours is fully capable of doing that also.
[51:52.960 --> 51:55.180]  If you search for it in iTunes, you'll definitely find it there.
[51:55.220 --> 51:56.680]  It's listed as one of the...
[51:56.680 --> 51:59.080]  Is an aggregator like a piece of software?
[51:59.900 --> 52:02.420]  Yes, iTunes is an example of an aggregator.
[52:02.580 --> 52:03.900]  Okay, fine, so I've got one.
[52:04.040 --> 52:05.360]  Yeah, you've got one.
[52:06.200 --> 52:08.960]  So yeah, just search for Off the Hook in iTunes.
[52:09.240 --> 52:17.860]  And I just want to say hey to Bernie, I'm a Philly boy, and I love hearing you talking from down there, and in the big pretzel, and checking all the reference points out.
[52:17.980 --> 52:18.980]  Keep up the good work, gentlemen.
[52:19.400 --> 52:20.260]  Okay, thanks.
[52:21.320 --> 52:22.620]  Did you say the big pretzels?
[52:22.920 --> 52:23.180]  Yes.
[52:23.360 --> 52:23.840]  What does that mean?
[52:24.280 --> 52:24.600]  Philadelphia.
[52:25.260 --> 52:26.260]  That's what Philadelphia is?
[52:26.520 --> 52:27.340]  Bernie, tell us.
[52:27.760 --> 52:28.300]  I don't know.
[52:28.440 --> 52:33.720]  Soft pretzels are sold on every corner, and I don't personally like them, but a lot of people do.
[52:33.720 --> 52:34.260]  Apples are much better.
[52:34.380 --> 52:37.840]  We sell soft pretzels in every corner, and we don't name our city after it.
[52:38.340 --> 52:39.240]  It's a strange thing.
[52:39.340 --> 52:39.500]  All right.
[52:39.560 --> 52:41.040]  How come we don't have apples on every corner?
[52:41.140 --> 52:41.760]  Good evening, you're on the air.
[52:42.140 --> 52:42.720]  Hi, Bernie.
[52:43.840 --> 52:45.280]  Hi, Emmanuel, and hi, Bernie.
[52:46.280 --> 52:51.260]  I'm calling where I live, about 100 miles out of New York City, high on a mountain.
[52:51.440 --> 52:52.060]  Oh, wow.
[52:52.360 --> 52:56.400]  And I get excellent New York and Connecticut reception here.
[52:56.560 --> 52:58.520]  Are you picking up both channels of us tonight?
[52:58.800 --> 52:59.760]  Yes, I am.
[52:59.820 --> 53:02.860]  About that, are you using pan pots to achieve that?
[53:03.000 --> 53:04.220]  Yes, we are using pan pots.
[53:04.340 --> 53:12.520]  You should probably try to keep the pan pots between 9.30 and 2.30 clock position, someplace a little bit towards the center.
[53:12.680 --> 53:18.800]  That way, if somebody does have a problem, they can hear both sides, even if one is significantly lower.
[53:18.960 --> 53:20.520]  Well, you're right about that.
[53:20.640 --> 53:22.520]  It's just we want it to be as extreme as possible.
[53:22.580 --> 53:29.740]  Also, for people who are listening on headphones, it's very unnatural to hear something coming from exclusively one side or the other.
[53:29.840 --> 53:31.960]  And we were going for that effect, too, the unnatural effect.
[53:32.300 --> 53:32.580]  Oh, okay.
[53:32.640 --> 53:33.520]  Well, if that's what you want.
[53:33.660 --> 53:36.320]  The 87.7 thing is very interesting
[53:44.340 --> 53:46.420]  TV and started getting channel 6.
[53:46.560 --> 53:48.660]  It's usually not on the scan because there's nothing there.
[53:49.060 --> 53:52.480]  And lo and behold, on the sound, I was getting that 87.7 station.
[53:52.480 --> 54:01.200]  When I traveled to New York, I checked that out on the car radio, and what I noticed is it's actually broadcasting in FM stereo, not TV stereo.
[54:01.620 --> 54:17.340]  So the guy who's running that, I've been told that's Jim Cloddick, the guy behind Metro Access and ETC studios that do all of the low-power TV and in ages past, the live cable stuff, that he's actually the licensee of that.
[54:17.480 --> 54:20.760]  He has a number of low-power UHF licenses.
[54:21.820 --> 54:24.920]  And so I get that same ethnic program.
[54:24.920 --> 54:28.560]  That's got a lot of power to it because it's making the trip all the way up here.
[54:29.100 --> 54:37.980]  But it is in FM stereo, so I don't know what his legality on doing that eventually with the FCC is, but it's certainly an interesting experiment.
[54:38.200 --> 54:42.980]  Is he using the standard 75 kilohertz FM deviation for broadcast, FM broadcast?
[54:43.300 --> 54:45.380]  Yes, yes, it certainly seems to be that.
[54:45.500 --> 54:52.500]  I'm not looking at it with a meter on my car radio, but it certainly is lighting up the stereo, and it's translating very well into stereo.
[54:52.880 --> 54:53.140]  Wow.
[54:53.260 --> 55:01.240]  I didn't think that the 87.7 was an allocated frequency for 75 kilohertz FM deviation, so that's an interesting thing.
[55:01.340 --> 55:03.900]  I don't know if that's legal or not, but more power to them.
[55:04.140 --> 55:06.120]  I don't want to get anybody in trouble here.
[55:06.500 --> 55:23.840]  As Bernie said, this had been tried before, and everything Bernie said was right that the FCC said that the other guy wasn't allowed to do it, but I guess I can't see the video carrier, but I guess as long as he's transmitting some sort of video, I think there might be a loophole in the present FM rules or TV,
[55:24.040 --> 55:29.760]  low-power TV, that allows somebody to broadcast with the FM stereo scheme.
[55:30.180 --> 55:34.160]  Keep in mind that this would be completely distorted audio if you were to receive it with the television.
[55:34.820 --> 55:48.780]  Right, it was a little bit over modulated here at a hundred miles out, so that's why, and I went and I looked at it on my portable radio that gets BAI and a lot of other stuff from New York City, and sure enough, on 877, it was there in stereo.
[55:49.240 --> 55:50.140]  What town are you in?
[55:50.380 --> 55:51.200]  I'm in Woodstock.
[55:52.240 --> 55:53.600]  Wow, you're really out there.
[55:53.720 --> 55:55.580]  Well, we're really high up on the mountain here.
[55:55.680 --> 55:59.200]  I met Emmanuel during the Woodstock Film Festival a couple years ago.
[55:59.200 --> 56:01.360]  And that was one of the best film festivals I've ever been to.
[56:01.540 --> 56:03.060]  It's very fun, we love it up here.
[56:03.060 --> 56:04.220]  We have two of them also.
[56:04.400 --> 56:10.640]  There's an alternative to the alternative film festival up here that's even more grassroots and even a lot more fun.
[56:10.780 --> 56:12.480]  It's put on by the Woodstock Museum.
[56:13.060 --> 56:13.860]  Great, great.
[56:14.200 --> 56:15.760]  Well, hopefully we'll make it up there again sometime.
[56:16.020 --> 56:17.140]  Okay, look forward to it.
[56:17.220 --> 56:17.820]  All right, take care.
[56:18.480 --> 56:19.980]  Have to make another film, I guess, to do it.
[56:21.020 --> 56:22.740]  All right, we'll do it, just to get to that festival.
[56:23.220 --> 56:24.300]  Good evening, you're on the air.
[56:25.660 --> 56:25.980]  Hello.
[56:26.320 --> 56:26.600]  Go ahead.
[56:27.820 --> 56:34.040]  Hi, I just with you guys, I ordered some stuff off your store, and I received a little problem with the credit card payments.
[56:34.280 --> 56:39.020]  I just want to thank y'all for having such a nice staff who settled the problem very quickly.
[56:39.240 --> 56:40.440]  Well, thanks, that's good to know.
[56:41.000 --> 56:43.660]  And I'm staring at the new issue, and it is a very nice issue.
[56:44.020 --> 56:45.000]  Well, that's good to know, too.
[56:45.720 --> 56:48.440]  It's good to know they actually went out and were received by people.
[56:49.000 --> 56:51.660]  It's always a moment of trepidation when we send the things out.
[56:52.660 --> 56:54.040]  All right, thanks for your call.
[56:54.460 --> 56:54.860]  Thanks, bye.
[56:56.020 --> 57:03.400]  And yes, a new issue of 2600, I guess we can announce, is released, the winter 2005-2006.
[57:04.460 --> 57:06.400]  It's still winter, so we're not that late.
[57:06.480 --> 57:07.140]  Good evening, you're on the air.
[57:08.620 --> 57:11.320]  Yes, I'd like to ask about CBs.
[57:12.040 --> 57:12.720]  About CBs?
[57:12.760 --> 57:13.380]  What do you want to ask?
[57:13.960 --> 57:16.080]  How do you tune the antenna, Bernie?
[57:16.400 --> 57:18.160]  Maybe you can answer about...
[57:18.160 --> 57:23.880]  We have a CB, and they said that the antenna is not tuned, the RWS or whatever it is.
[57:24.000 --> 57:24.380]  SWR.
[57:24.680 --> 57:28.700]  SWR, and it'll hurt the radio if I transmit, but I can still receive?
[57:29.100 --> 57:30.520]  Okay, let's try and answer that question.
[57:30.660 --> 57:35.600]  It's a relatively complicated topic, and there's been entire books written on the subject.
[57:37.740 --> 57:40.360]  I mean, it depends on what kind of antenna you have.
[57:40.400 --> 57:45.860]  It depends on a whole lot of factors as to how to get the appropriate SWR, but I mean...
[57:45.860 --> 58:00.380]  An SWR meter, to measure your standing wave ratio, your antenna has to be resonant for that 27 megahertz frequency, and you need an SWR meter to do it, and usually an Allen wrench to adjust the whip on your antenna, so those are minimum requirements.
[58:00.660 --> 58:00.860]  Okay.
[58:01.140 --> 58:02.220]  One last phone call.
[58:02.460 --> 58:02.840]  Good evening.
[58:03.020 --> 58:03.640]  You're on the air.
[58:05.800 --> 58:06.200]  Hello?
[58:06.440 --> 58:07.220]  Yes, make it quick.
[58:08.000 --> 58:08.480]  Good evening.
[58:08.580 --> 58:09.120]  You're on the air.
[58:09.280 --> 58:09.680]  Go ahead.
[58:09.780 --> 58:10.320]  Turn down your radio.
[58:10.420 --> 58:10.780]  Make it quick.
[58:11.280 --> 58:11.860]  Oh, okay.
[58:11.940 --> 58:12.380]  How are you doing?
[58:12.780 --> 58:13.280]  Okay.
[58:13.900 --> 58:26.360]  I'm calling from a brand new Motorola Razr, which I have a 212 number on, and I got a family plan, so one number's a 917, and the other I transferred from my landline.
[58:26.380 --> 58:27.680]  I no longer have a landline.
[58:27.780 --> 58:27.980]  Okay.
[58:28.220 --> 58:39.620]  This is an unlocked European Razr, which I have a T-Mobile SIM card in, and I don't seem to get some of the same features that the domestic phones have.
[58:39.620 --> 58:46.780]  My video record doesn't work, and I can't seem to pull in URLs, even though I do have a data.
[58:46.880 --> 58:46.900]  Okay.
[58:46.920 --> 58:48.940]  I'm afraid we don't really have enough time to get into this.
[58:49.040 --> 58:55.060]  Why don't you try calling us next week, and we'll try and tackle that problem a little more, or you could try calling the personal computer folks after us.
[58:55.440 --> 58:59.040]  It's not really a computer question, but it's something technical.
[58:59.580 --> 59:03.320]  Anyway, we'll be back again next week with another exciting edition of Off the Hook.
[59:03.320 --> 59:06.140]  Until then, have a good night.
[59:06.760 --> 59:10.540]  Write to us, if you notice anything, OTH at 2600.com.
[59:10.720 --> 59:13.240]  And this goes out to the memory of Nice Guy Eddie.
[59:13.420 --> 59:13.640]  Good night.
[59:13.640 --> 59:14.660]  On
[59:19.230 --> 59:44.570]  a track for a little green pack Got to find just a kind of losing my mind Outside in the night Outside in the day Looking back on a track, gonna do it my way Outside in the night I'm a silent today Looking back on a track, gonna do it my way
[01:00:31.530 --> 01:00:36.810]  Looking for some happiness for Instead of slowly rolling as to the cross
[01:00:44.330 --> 01:00:46.910]  Looking upstairs Back
[01:00:55.970 --> 01:01:22.170]  on a track, gonna do it my way Got to find just a kind of losing my mind On a side in the night Outside in the day Looking back on a track, gonna do it my way Looking back on a track for a little, little green pack Got to find just a kind But I'm losing my mind
[01:01:42.780 --> 01:01:49.040]  Looking for some happiness for dance So it's lonely as to find
[01:02:09.340 --> 01:02:11.900]  Ba-ba-ba-da Ba-ba-ba-da Hey!
[01:02:12.960 --> 01:02:13.520]  Hey!
[01:02:13.740 --> 01:02:16.400]  That was from You Know...
[01:02:16.400 --> 01:02:19.560]  Well, another tune from Off The Hook Gang.