FRIDAY 21 MARCH
GOOD FRIDAY

EMERGENCY POSTING!
As most of you seem to know already, this morning's Nightshift dropped off-air. According to Loz's blog comment, the programme had disappeared by 0150. I'm really sorry about this, especially as it means that you missed almost all of the first four chapters of Secrets. I'll see what I can do to rescue them, although frankly I don't hold out much hope. I have no idea why the programme vanished out of the airwaves but I promise I will ask Nigel, our trusty engineer, if he can find out. I just hope he doesn't discover that it was my fault!

Happy Easter!
Love
IAN
X

15 comments:

gillian said...

beautiful picture ian,
happy easter.x

in the 1600,s it was against the law to commit suicide,.

punishable by death.!

having your noggin chopped "orf" probably..

just one of those daft laws..

not really suitable for a holy day but i think god may excuse me,
in the interests of frivolity with a small smidgen of jollity..
i,m sure he has a sense of humour,

bet everyones chomping on chocolate easter eggs.


happy easter everyone x bye.

Hildie said...

Thanks for the Emergency Posting and the daffodils you sent us, Ian.
Bless you! I thought it was my radio playing up, I was so cross with it ...... then I found Loz on the blog explaining what had happened. Enjoy your weekend, but wrap up warm!

gillian said...

ian? daffodill pic ?
id like to know more, i,m looking at the wall thinking, where is that wall..?
so where was the photo taken,
these are the things that bother me..

Sid said...

Thanks for the extra posting Ian, it shows how much you care for us.
Isn't it strange how the daff's point in the same direction.

Lawrence said...

Oh oh...... is it history repeating itself?

At least Paddy's on hand so early on and he MAY be able to start the Nightshift manually.

Only thing is if it's missed it's 1am trigger the system may well stuff up at an early music slot.... so if the Padmeister gets it running..... big time fingers crossed all night long.

........ looks like Paddy has found the programme log to mannually kick off.

Just hope and pray we get the full version tonight.

Software overhaul required at the Pink Palace me thinks.

Loz

Hildie said...

I waited with baited breath as well, Loz! Well done, Paddy.

Lawrence said...

Have to say all the wait was well worth it to hear Ian reading this out.

I'll say it again... fantastic job gang.... this is really good stuff.

Thankfully the technology's kept on going after Paddy started it off ... phew.

Regarding a meeting up .... anyone any suggestions as to a venue? Best way to start I think,

Lawrence

gillian said...

I enjoyed secrets too. !

I think a good story depends a lot on a good storyteller,

ian just has a knack for it.

pickler AKA G8XGS said...

Hi everyone, sorry for not being around for a while but my brains been a bit puggled on a problem .

Ian it would be nice to find out why , radio newcastle,s audio content defaults to "radio five live" when there is a problem , i have tried in the past to find out more about the technical aspects by asking doug morris for a technical tour but he would not play with me .
i know that the studio output is fed to pontop via a dedicated link perhaps "isdn" but what i cant get my head around is how the transmitter output is monitord
presumably there is a modulation monitor at pontop and when it sees no modulation (thats what you hear) and if there is a carrier only then the modulation source is then switched.

at least thats the way i see it and it would be the "kiss" method
KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID.

but from a technical point of view i would rather have dual default in case of a failour .
the second default would take place at the same time and perhaps be in the form of a pager held by "duty engineer".

working in raynet at outdoor event we always monitor the output of our "talkthrough units" so that the radio net always has a backup within seconds be that maual relay or an other unit in a different place.

oh yes LOZ welcome to the yahoo groups

pickler AKA G8XGS said...

Hi everyone,
having gone back to Ians thursday posting and found that LOZ to quote"It's a software system called Radioman" that as may be but how is it detecting the lack of modulation and why does it switch to the dreaded radio 5 live? and more importantly (from my point of view) where is the switching done at the pink palace or at pontop?

Ian you being a technophobe and me being a technophreak may be chalk and cheese but i will try and help all i can .
i cant say more than that a "blogsite" while it is open to all its not quite the easiest to upload audio too.
in my experience its far easier to upload to a full blown website as can be heard on my own website.

but the problem with that is "others" can not upload to it

untill this problem is "resolved" what about uploading to the "yahoo group site" and then posting a link on the "google blog"

and perhaps that was too much!

pickler AKA G8XGS said...

having not been to the hallow ground AKA the pink palace it would be nice for "nigel" and i to get together at some stage.

but perhaps our feind/ sorry friend "doug morris" might not like that idea.

by the way "DM" is our gaffers boss.

but i think "nigel" should be his own person after all us technicians should stick together.

Ian you might like to ask your faithfull engineer "nigel" if he might care to educate me with respect to the technology involved within the "bbc"

and by all means you can use
john@hind-marsh.co.uk
or john.hindmarsh@raynet.net.uk

i am always very keen to learn

Lawrence said...

Sunday Morning 1am...... silence again, and unfortunately Sue Sweeney hasn't started the nightshift manually as Paddy did, and oh surprise, one minute later it's - yes welcome to Radio Five Live.

Oh deary deary me.

Go Nigel, Go Nigel, Go Nigel..... boy do us Truckshunters need your expertise now as unfortunatley now we miss out on the next chapters of Secrets.

Seems it's turning into a regular hitch now, Friday morning collapsing at 1.45, Saturday morning needing a MacDee kickstart when the initial trigger at 1am fails and again tonight that 1am initial trigger has gone boobies up but this time we're gonna miss out.

Nigel..... our quality night time listening is in your hands.... The Truckshunters need you.

Lawrence.... ahh well.... an early night for once.

Night all.

Hildie said...

Morning Everyone,
and a Happy Easter Day. All that work Ian did on Good Friday! It isn't looking very hopeful for us now to hear 'Secrets' is it?
I heard that silence last night and just knew it wasn't going to kick in. I mostly felt for Ian about the time and effort he had put in. Thing is, I live right next to Pontop. If a button needed pressing, I could have done it!!

pickler AKA G8XGS said...

HI everyone, truth is i dont know where the "modulation" detector is i only said "pontop" because thats where i would put it as it makes the most sense.

but it could be that the detector is at pontop but with the "switch" back at the "pink palace" and when i say switch i mean an automatic type of thing.

perhaps in the form of VOX so that
in "control speak"
when voice =0
wait x secconds
then switch modulation path
path=radio5 live (in this case).

thats a rather simplistic description.

i think radio newcastle came back online at about 7:00 am , i missed out on railtons sunday program fortunatly its available on the bbc website, frank wappet started late at 6:00 i was listening to the malayian grand prix on 1458khz, i am now getting ready for the raynet news on 3663khzLSB that frequency will not be found on normal household radios.

but you will find it on any "communications receiver".

HILDIE

even if there was a manual switch at pontop
the chances of gaining access to the site would be remote to say the least.
it will be as bad as fort knox for security.

unless ofcourse you are a "keyholder" and have the reqired passes.

Sid said...

Good morning folks. The nightshift program is rapidly turning into its own 'Secrets of the Sea'. You never know what's going to happen next.
I had set my hard drive to record all of Ian's readings of 'Secrets', and was hoping to commit them to a compact disc, but that went out the window on the first night. Having said that, I'm not even sure it would have been legal, so perhaps its just as well.
Enjoy your day, its freezing out there.