Archive for August 2008
Sniffer sounds from Martin Howse
Martin Howse has been working in Berlin on the sniffers for the Electromagnetic Fountain.
He has sent me nine audio samples from 4 different detectors where he mainly focused on placing a mobile phone close to different antenna/detector pairs while making incoming and outcoming calls.
You’ll find links to the sounds below as well as location details and notes that he enclosed with the sounds.
**location
Backyard (hinterhof) studio in berlin, Mitte – plenty of 50 Hz power
lines, laptop in 30 m2 room and wireless router at other end of
room. Around 20 wireless networks close by in the yard. Also worth
noting is that the studio is very close to the huge Alexanderplatz TV
and radio transmitter (Fernsehturm).
**samples
This is using a detector based on the AD8307 chip which is looking at a
low/mid range of frequencies (DC to approx 500 MHz). I’m using it here
with the largest printed antenna which is kind of A4 sized (all the
printed antennas are the green ones for which I sent you the link
before) and is for 400 to 1000 MHz. As in most of the recordings the
mobile phone (standard Nokia on o2.de network – see below) is moved
around 1 to 3m from the detector. In this case the signal is not
amplified much (all recorded to minidisk and then transferred to
laptop).
As above but with a bare wire antenna of maybe 1m length.
Using a detector based on the AD8313 chip which demodulates (roughly) in
wide band, high frequency range of 100 Mhz to 3.5 GHz. This is used with
a medium-sized printed antenna for 900 Mhz to 3 GHz. This one needs a
bit of amplification but the phone signal is very strong and clear even
4m away from the device.
As above but coming from 10m outside street door into studio with phone
ringing and then talking on the phone.
Using a detector based on the AD8318 which demodulates (again in rough
terms) a very high range of frequencies from 1 MHz to 8 GHz. Used with
smallest printed antenna (maybe 6 cm long) for 2-11 GHz. Amplification
is needed and the phone is quite close (maybe 1/2 to 1m) to get a
signal.
As above but with a laptop (external wireless card, bittorrent
downloading) providing this strong noisy signal up to 5m away. The
regular beating is from the wireless router which is then turned off
towards the end of the sample and turned on again. The other signals I
have no idea!
This is my own designed sniffer (from the Maxwell workshop but altered
with filter removed for a stronger signal). Here it is used with a tiny
coil (enclosed in plastic) – the one for this recording is 10
microhenries (Mh). Little amplification and a good signal from 2 to 3
metres away
As above but using a wire coil around 1m diameter and made from 2 km
thin copper wire. Power lines 50 Hz overwhelms all signals. Phone is
maybe 2cm away to be heard.
As above but with a chain of six 1mH tiny coils arranged in a circle.
**conclusions
The “ownsniff” detector (with small coils) covers a good, general range
and the other three focus well on more defined parts of the spectrum,
with 8313 working well for GSM900/1800 network devices (mobile phones),
and the 8318 for wireless networked devices (2.4 GHz and UMTS/3G –
around 2 GHz (untested)). These detectors are particularly sensitive
even at around a two metre distance and with only one phone. It may be
necessary to avoid overloading the detectors.
**further notes
The standard Nokia phone (o2.de network) used is a dual band GSM900/1800
model (operating at both 900 MHz and 1800 MHz). These frequencies are
common throughout Europe. The high frequency signals are detected by the
devices and demodulated – what we here is the lower, now audible
frequencies (for GSM900 apparently 217 Hz) which pulse the higher
(carrier) frequency, and the overall envelope of the signal (a rough
analogy would be to standing outside a room with a cocktail party
happening inside – we can’t hear the individual voices or listen to the
conversations but we have an idea of how many people there are, when
they start and stop talking, and how loud they are).
Lonely battle against electromagnetic radiation
Here’s a link to an article published in Aftenposten (Norwegian, 22nd August, 2008) about 12 year old Gaute from Oslo, and his battle to ward off the effects of electromagnetic radiation.
Photo: Christopher Olssøn for Aftenposten
Final pre-construction network set up
This is the final version of the network set up for the Electromagnetic Fountain. Now all the parts are being ordered, and the construction work will begin in Skien on September 1st. If all goes well, I then have 3 weeks in October to install the sniffers that Martin Howse is working on, and program the fountain.
More pictures of the fountain bowl
Just got these pictures of the EMF fountain bowl from before it was dismantled from Tryvann TV transmission tower on the hills of Oslo.
EMF – reality bytes
As mentioned before, co-ordinating this project in relation to equipment and budget through the summer break has been a bit chaotic since my last meeting with ROM3 and NLI. Working through the budget thoroughly proved that the previous design was too ambitious. The fountain design has been reverted to my original idea for a prototype for the Electromagnetic Fountain – to use 5 jets in a pentagon design with a larger jet in the centre. So the changes from the 03 version are:
5 jets with controllable valves instead of 15
2 variable speed water pumps instead of 5
8 RGB LED lights instead of 18
2 RGB controllers instead of 4
LANBOX LCX instead of LCE
Use the digital outputs on the Lanbox instead of Milford DMX relay/switch box to control the water/solenoid valves, with a custom made switch/relay box.
Control scheme revised
The time has almost come for ordering the parts for, and construction of the Electromagnetic Fountain. The summer break has put a nervous edge on the project. It has been difficult to contact people and keep the project flow going. The main hick-up (at least at present) has been to decide on how, and with what to light the fountain. The eventual solution is to use LED lights and DMX controllable RGB controllers manufactured by Wibre and sold by an Oslo-based company called Illuminator AS. After many communications with Svein Kjetil at NLI, and a long meeting with petter at Illuminator AS it became obvious that any ambitions to individually control 18 industrial RGB colour changing LED lights was economically impossible. So a new idea evolved during our meeting:
Each manifold with 5 jets should have 5 colour changing 3×1 LED lights.
The central jet should have 3 colour changing 3×1 LED lights.
Each set of lights (3 manifolds sets, 1 central jet set) has its own controller.
If this solution puts too much strain on the budget, then the only solution I can think of is that the number of water jets will have to be reduced. There is no point in having a poorly lit fountain.
Other changes to the scheme:
LANBOX LCX replaced with LANBOX LCE mini DMX controller.
USB connection to mac replaced with ethernet connection
x2 Milford Electronics DMX relay boxes for the soleniod valves of the water jets.
The Electromagnetic Fountain 