Phantom Radio
Jan. 9th, 2018 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
radiantfractureFirst of all, thank you for the suggestions about insulating the Beautiful Shed. I think I have made some progress.
For some time, S. has been experiencing an unusual audio phenomenon. Unusual phenomena of a benign sort are, in my opinion, nice, since so many bizarre things now happen daily and turn out to be a) "immersive marketing" b) the horrifying actions of despots c) all of the above.
S. insists that when he drives around listening to the radio, he sometimes picks up a station in the murky lower regions of the dial that broadcasts back-to-back episodes of John Oliver's Last Week Tonight.
S. does not have satellite radio, so this is a terrestrial phenomenon. And he's never been able to duplicate it when LB and I are in the car, so LB treats it as myth. (I treat it as experiential knowledge.)
LB, S and I went to the gym tonight. On the way home, he turned up the hill instead of towards LB's house. "I'm going this way for a particular reason," he said.
"So long as it isn't something alarming." I said.
He laughed. "What would be alarming?"
"Anything involving death."
"Or spiders." added LB.
"I want you to share in my delusion."
He took us up to Hillside Avenue, which runs along the top of a ridge. He turned on the radio.
At first there were flickerings of what sounded like a religious station; then music; and then -- "I don't like pain when I cath!" Which we recognized, of course, as this.
(CW: genital diagram, dodgy pronunciation of important bits)
So it's real -- someone is broadcasting the audio of John Oliver segments (editing out the "Now This", which is often largely visual / repetitive), in a fairly constrained area (quite near the radio tower), for all or much of the day and night.
S. says you can pick up TV signals this way sometimes, but none of us know of a channel playing nothing but John Oliver 24/7. (I just asked S. if it's always Oliver, and he said "once it was a Trevor Noah standup special," but that's it.)
I suggested pirate radio. Is there anything else it could be?
Anyway, as an expenditure of energies, broadcasting non-stop pirate John Oliver on the radio seems gratuitous and good-humoured and vaguely subversive, so I like it.
{rf}
For some time, S. has been experiencing an unusual audio phenomenon. Unusual phenomena of a benign sort are, in my opinion, nice, since so many bizarre things now happen daily and turn out to be a) "immersive marketing" b) the horrifying actions of despots c) all of the above.
S. insists that when he drives around listening to the radio, he sometimes picks up a station in the murky lower regions of the dial that broadcasts back-to-back episodes of John Oliver's Last Week Tonight.
S. does not have satellite radio, so this is a terrestrial phenomenon. And he's never been able to duplicate it when LB and I are in the car, so LB treats it as myth. (I treat it as experiential knowledge.)
LB, S and I went to the gym tonight. On the way home, he turned up the hill instead of towards LB's house. "I'm going this way for a particular reason," he said.
"So long as it isn't something alarming." I said.
He laughed. "What would be alarming?"
"Anything involving death."
"Or spiders." added LB.
"I want you to share in my delusion."
He took us up to Hillside Avenue, which runs along the top of a ridge. He turned on the radio.
At first there were flickerings of what sounded like a religious station; then music; and then -- "I don't like pain when I cath!" Which we recognized, of course, as this.
(CW: genital diagram, dodgy pronunciation of important bits)
So it's real -- someone is broadcasting the audio of John Oliver segments (editing out the "Now This", which is often largely visual / repetitive), in a fairly constrained area (quite near the radio tower), for all or much of the day and night.
S. says you can pick up TV signals this way sometimes, but none of us know of a channel playing nothing but John Oliver 24/7. (I just asked S. if it's always Oliver, and he said "once it was a Trevor Noah standup special," but that's it.)
I suggested pirate radio. Is there anything else it could be?
Anyway, as an expenditure of energies, broadcasting non-stop pirate John Oliver on the radio seems gratuitous and good-humoured and vaguely subversive, so I like it.
{rf}
no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 11:44 am (UTC)I could never work out what was going on but I always took the sound as a good sign, a benign mystery.
(My working theory was some sort of Spanish longwave broadcast bouncing off some ionised layer of atmosphere.)
no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 04:59 pm (UTC)The Internet tells me that lower-frequency waves are longer, so they travel farther.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-11 10:44 am (UTC)At least I think I wish I understood. Perhaps I don't want to know. I find myself in a C P Snow dilemma.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 12:40 pm (UTC)The Beeb and the UK government hated it so, of course, we loved it! :o)
no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 05:15 pm (UTC)Since you're now my tech expert, I have more questions... (lucky you -- bats and strange radio signals).
I now know that a wireless signal is broadcast on a similar frequency to FM radio, so that makes sense.
Would an ordinary radio receiver understand a wifi signal? I guess I thought the wifi information would be digitally encoded (or something).
no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-01-10 08:55 pm (UTC)Whether it's pirate radio or accidental overflow, it's wonderful.
no subject
Date: 2018-01-11 06:04 pm (UTC)