Ottawa LRT: Everybody Off!

Good grief, enough, already!

Ottawa's Light Rail Transit has been a total disaster from the get-go. The list is monstrous:

- Train doors jam on a daily basis

- Switching hardware and computers fail regularly

- Stations are overcrowded

- Bad smells at some stations

- Slippery steps at others

- The system grinds to a halt at least once a day.

Sadly, this is going to end in tragedy.

What happens during an LRT shutdown?

When the LRT shuts down--an almost-daily occurrence in Ottawa right now, the trains arrive at their next stops and empty out. These spills crowds of hundreds of people, who then collide with crowds incoming. All rapidly flow outside, to the bus compound.

Now, OC Transpo have really mastered the 'R1' bus transition. That's when replacement buses cover the same basic route as the LRT. Within minutes, R1s are rolling.

But in the meantime, as more and more passengers arrive at the station, the bus compound fills to overflowing. People have no choice but to step out into the roadway in order to get somewhere.

The backlog quickly fills the station, as more and more incoming buses arrive and deposit passengers, in the minutes before the R1 buses are called upon.

Eventually, the whole thing becomes so crowded that you can't move. People spill onto random buses in an attempt to flee the crowds. Nearby bus stops become crowded with refugees.

The point that nobody seems to be making is that we're describing a death trap.

That's right. If I were a terrorist, or someone with something to prove, I'd strike Tunney's Pasture station during an LRT outage. People are absolutely trapped. And I'd bet you could get something going with a simple pocket lighter.

Before (hopefully) it comes to that, the City will have the presence of mind to stop the nonsense, now. The LRT is not working as advertised--not even close.  It's dangerous, and you are giving your riders no choice in the matter. Someone is going to be hurt--and the blame will lie solely at our City Mothers' feet.

Where is the RTG, Anyway?

Which brings us to another point. The Rideau Transit Group--the bunch of turkeys who designed and built the initial segment of the LRT--Phase One, as it's called--seem to be puckered up more tightly than a sphincter during a Mexican vacation. Various companies have come forward, claiming large amounts of monies owed. The City is getting nowhere in its complaints.

Need I remind you that these same turkeys, who have delivered a system that does not work; who seem to be out of money and out of answers, already have the nod for Phases Two and Three?

Clearly, something has to change--fast.

The City needs to shut down the LRT--right now. There should be no debate; it's a question of rider safety. As I understand it, RTG was to have delivered a system that worked. Therefore, shut it down, fix the problems with the hardware; have the manufacturer redesign the doors so that they are not so easily jammed; and fix the problems with the stations, most immediately the size of the bus compounds, so that there is no more dangerous overcrowding. Test it thoroughly next time--two weeks  of nonstop operation, with testers doing whatever they can to halt the ting. This must be done before any work can continue on Phases Two and Three. If that puts RTG behind schedule, well, that's their lookout.

But so far, that's not happening. The Mayor continues to attend photo-ops and promises 'relief buses'; only OC Transpo, in its hubris, had already sold off a huge fleet and as a result has to go begging. Well, too bad; buy 'em new, and charge 'em to the RTG.

This whole thing stinks to the core, and by the end of it you know that the Ottawa taxpayer will foot the bill.

It's well past time for for action. You're putting people into grave danger. Mister Mayor, I'm addressing you. Time to grow a pair, Yerhonner.

-Bill

DX'ing Revisited

Once again, I'm trying to get readers interested in DX'ing--trying to receive radio stations over long distances.

Equipment

At its base, DX'ing requires a radio of some sort. I tend to focus on AM radio, as do many others. In the United States, southern Canada, and across Europe, the nighttime dial comes alive with stations near and distant, and DX opportunities abound.

Your receiver should make it fairly easy to determine the frequency to which you are tuned. As such, digital receivers are best; but at night, it's usually possible to keep track from a reference station, as virtually every frequency has a station at night. Good-quality audio, and especially bass and treble  controls, as important.

The radio should be fairly directional, and have good adjacent-channel rejection. I.e.: tune away from a strong local station, and the noise associated with it should quickly disappear.

Other controls, such as sideband, BFO, or VFO tend to be of limited use in the AM band.

It helps to have a logbook or logsheets handy, so you can record your catches. You'll probably want to record the date and time; the frequency and callsign of the station; and any notes about its reception, the type of programming, network affiliation, etc.

When starting a DX session, either go to a strong local station first, to get your bearings, or just tune in to a frequency. If you hear a signal, try rotating your radio for strongest reception. Oftentimes you will hear more than one station, and often you can vary the rotation of the radio to favour one over the other.

Patience is a good watchword, here. Stations tend to fade in and out, and often exhibit fluttering of the signal.

Identifying a station can take some time. You'll find that, frustratingly, signals tend to fade out just when they're identifying. It happens enough that my partner has noticed it, also. Many stations air network programming and identify just once per hour--or even less.

The golden time for DX'ers is at the top of the hour, when stations tend to pause their programming, air some commercials and news bulletins, and often identify.

Every station is assigned a callsign, consisting of from three to five letters. What you'll hear depends upon your location:

Canada: CBxx, CFxx-CKxx
USA (West of the Mississippi): Kxxx
USA (East of the Mississippi): Wxxx
Mexico: XExxx
Cuba: CMxx

It helps to get into the habit of listening for four letters in a jumble of noise. Beware that what you hear may not be what has been uttered; check your station lists carefully.

There are other ways in which you can identify a station. Local advertisements often mention business names that can be Googled; or localities. Phone numbers are a great one.

The type of programming can be a help, too. Most radio resources carry notes about the type of programming. Sports, for example; or News/Talk. If you're hearing a sports event, network talk or religious programming, or music, chances are that you won't get an identification apart from at the top of the hour. Put a pin in that one, and come back to it.

The language can be an important indicator. If it's french, for example, then the station is probably in Quebec. Other languages can often help to narrow it down, with the assistance of your references.

As for resources, they are numerous. I know that the National Radio Club, in the United States, publishes an annual guide to stations in North America. I find myself, these days, turning more and more to MWList, a fantastic worldwide resource. It can be found at https://www.mwlist.org/ul_login.php.

From time to time, you'll want to mine the graveyard frequencies (1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490 in North America). They usually are just a jumble of hundreds of stations, churning furiously; but every now and then, one station will pop through just long enough to identify. Often you'll catch new stations in bunches.

If you do get into DX'ing, tracking your finds can become important. I have used a spreadsheet for the past twenty years. I'm now hard at work developing a program to automate it all; it's coming along and should be available for release near the end of this year.

The nice thing about DX'ing is that whether you've got five minutes, or two hours, you can just do it.

Happy DX'ing!

-Bill

Bill's Rules for Adjusting to the Time Change:

Here it is. It takes me about one day to adapt to a time change. I've had plenty of practice: 110 times in my life. That should be enough for anybody.

Rule 1: Practice

Humans are creatures of habit, very easily trained. We want to go to sleep at the same hour every night; wake up at the same time in the morning. Well, I do it a bit differently.

Quite often, I'll head to bed a half-hour to an hour later than usual. But--and here is the catch--I'm up around the same time every morning (from 4:15 to 5:00). That leaves me a little tired. One of the first things I do upon getting up is to look at a clock. Whatever time the clock says it is, that's the time I accept. I do other things, too--vary my eating times, etc. It keeps the schedule fluid and makes you more adaptable to change. I'm up at about the same time on weekends, too; I love it.

It helps if you have a late-night hobby that can distract you. Me, I do DX'ing--listening for AM radio stations at great distances, at night. It's a low-energy hobby, but quite engaging; and, at least in this household, it's become a spectator sport; Tonia loves listening in as I ply the dial. She's begun making log entries for me (that's exciting). The benefit is that my logs are now human-readable. She's beginning to understand the vagaries of signal propagation and probably sharpening her hearing. It's a win-win.

Rule 2: Preparation

Whenever a time change is upon us, I stay up later. That means I'll be still a bit tired when I wake up. That makes it easier to make the change. Again, just accepting what the clock says is a big deal. Here, it's six o'clock in the morning. Yesterday, it would have been seven o'clock. Doesn't matter--the clock says it's six, and that's what I'm going by.

In my experience, there are two daily events that you should try to avoid in the first couple of days following a time change: sunrise and sunset. They are the major arbiters of your perception of time and can reset your circadian clock (your body's internal clock). Try to avoid looking outside from six to eight in the morning, and from four to six in the evening. Big help; take it from me.

Rule 3: Acceptance

I remember, back in my childhood, constantly translating the time during the day. I'd say, okay, it's ten o'clock now; but yesterday this would have been eleven o'clock. No wonder I'm hungry.

Now I say, hey, look, it's getting dark early, and I'm not hungry yet. Oh well.

Again, the most important thing you can do is to learn just to accept what the clock says. Do that, and you've half the battle won!

-Bill

Coming Unsprung

It's time for the twice-annual whine: "I can't handle this spring-forward/fall-back thing. Why can't they leave the clock alone?"

First of all, I can sympathize that time changes are difficult to master. I remember, as a child, how it took days before my internal systems would adjust. Nowadays? Well, after about thirty-five years of accepting the time on the clock, I'm pretty much immune. I get up when I get up, and whatever is the time on the clock, okay by me. Note: it's always early (before six).

What people don't seem to understand, or perhaps appreciate, are the benefits of daylight savings time. Ask yourself: would you rather have a summer where the rising sun was in your eyes at four in the morning; where the sun set, and the evening was over, at eight o'clock?

Daylight savings time was designed to take advantage of the shift in sunrise over the summer months; and in the summer, people rising at six in the morning often lamented the fact that the sun had been up a couple hours before them; why not shift an hour, and enjoy an extra hour of sun in the evening?

Then there are the economic arguments; by shifting people's hours to something a bit more in line with the sun, less lighting is used in a day; that all adds up.

I suppose, these days, people just don't really notice what's going on outside, anyway; dark or light, rain or shine or snow; it just doesn't matter to them. Getting dark? Just flick on the lights and get back to binge-watching Lucifer; and maybe throw on a sweater for the walk out to the garage.

Well, you may not like making the adjustment, but I'll bet you anything that you'll be less happy that it'll cost you, and considerably.

It'll cost you for an extra hour of lighting, every single evening from March to November; for extending your activities deeper into the 'evening.' Your schedule, if you're an outdoorist, will also grow more cramped, as you frantically try to pack an evening's worth of activities into the couple hours between dinner and sunset.

Time to stop and really think about what you're ready to give up, people!