I Heart Ramsgate

 
Not so long ago I went to Ramsgate for the first time.
A friend had been there and posted a picture on Instagram of a junk shop situated under the arches on the marina. I wanted to go there because I saw an interesting typewriter and I was curious.
When I did go and have a look I found a Sony ICF-2001D shortwave radio. It was very dusty in its little hiding place and had no cover for the battery compartment. At £5 it was worth a gamble. When I got some batteries later in the evening I discovered that it worked perfectly. I was really happy just to be able to pick up local French stations on FM as I could see the French coastline from where I was tuning in.
Tonight has changed everything. My small, second hand £5 wonder has delivered not one but two numbers stations. I've been fascinated by these for years and wondered if I would ever hear one live. Thanks to an iPad app that decodes CW (morse code) I've been able to establish that the broadcasts are indeed numbers stations.

 
As you can see from the picture above, this is the standard format for sending messages encoded using the One Time Pad cipher.
I'll never know what the message says or who it was intended for but at least I know that some things never change and that the golden age of SW coded transmissions is far from over.
 

In Tune

 
I love radio.
That's an all encompassing statement. I don't love or even like a lot of what's broadcast but I do love the medium on which it's broadcast. There are plenty of good things to listen to on the radio and the more bands one has to scan the more one finds to distract oneself.
I own a pocket DAB radio, a MW/LW/FM/SW radio, an internet radio and now a SW scanner. The latter is my newest acquisition. I intend at some stage to hook it up to either my PC or iPad and decode morse messages so that there is more content to listen to.
I've mentioned here before that daydreaming is a hobby of mine, I find that radio is good fuel for that pastime and now I have a new high octane pump to draw from.
If you'd like to listen to some SW and you don't have a radio that'll pick it up here's a link. If you're using iOS or Android there's a link on the page for your device.
Wide-band WebSDR in JO32KF

I hope you enjoy a bit of daydreaming too.
 

In Or Out?

 
A few people in the world will know that my favourite car is the Oldsmobile Aerotech.
In the early nineties I bought one of these Matchbox toys. I bought it because it so closely resembled the picture in my head of what my perfect car would look like. That's how it became my favourite car, because of a Matchbox toy.
Many moons later when the internet came along I was able to do some research about the Aerotech. I wasn't disappointed and so to this day I still like this car best. The only thing missing was that original Matchbox car. It had found its way onto the open road over the years and I lamented its disappearance.
I'll never own an Aerotech because it was only a concept car. Apparently you can still see them at car shows but that's as close as you'll ever get. I decided that the only way to own (another) one was to try and track down a model. I was in luck. The internet didn't disappoint.
So here I am with a brand new, still sealed in the box Matchbox Oldsmobile Aerotech. I'm happy but one question remains. Shall I leave it in the box or take it out?
I just don't know.
 

Writing In Scale

 
I've never been one to write in scale but I thought I'd try.
The reason is that I'd like to be able to work out a melody to a new tune I'm writing. Thing is it tougher than it looks. Knowing the scale is the easy part and I have an app that'll show me all the chords in the scale. Unfortunately that app isn't conducive to writing tunes. I used an app that was supposed to suggest chords in a scale but that let me down by producing a double b and so that approach was abruptly halted.
My new approach is to write as I always have done, without a key, producing chords that I like. What I'll do afterwards is to change the out of key chords into in key chords while trying to keep the same structure. It has to be easier than limiting myself from the start.
Write free, knock into shape later is my new mantra.
Let's hope it works.
 

Does What It Says On The App

 
A few days ago I watched a video from The SoundTestRoom about an app called Genius Songwriter.
 

I was suitably impressed as it seemed to me to sort the age old problem of being stuck in a rut and churning out the same chords. I thought I'd challenge myself today and see if it really would work so here's what I did.
Firstly I wrote down a simple twelve bar blues sequence in Chordbot. Then I added the root notes of those chords to Genius Sonwriter and let it do it's thing with a couple of minor adjustments from myself. Then I wrote the new chord progression back into Chordbot and made a couple of changes until it all sounded right.
I have to say that I would never have got to that chord sequence on my own and what I ended up with I really liked. What's more is that once the sequence is in Chordbot you can mess with the feel until you're close to something you'd use.
Genius Songwriter is an app I'll use a lot. Thanks to TheSoundTestRoom for bringing it to my attention.
 

 
Here's what I ended up with.