Photos of WVMC's Ashland antennas

Here are some photos I took when we upgraded WVMC's Ashland Ohio 91.1 translator. I thought people might find it interesting.

There are two sets of antennas that were installed. The first pair were to replace the original ones that were severely damaged by ice falling off the cell tower. Then a couple months after that, the power divider that splits the signal between the two bays had water get into it.

This time instead of just replacing the power divider, we took the opportunity to put up circularly polarized Shively antennas that were donated to us from WCRF. I re-tuned them to our 91.1 frequency, as well as made my own phasing harness, which eliminated the power divider.

By the way, using circular polarization gives WVMC's signal in the Ashland area better coverage for our listeners at home (as opposed to our listeners in their cars) as well as gives our signal better penetration inside buildings.

OK, enough of the geek stuff, here are the photos:

How To Completely Erase a Hard Drive

Recently a computer was donated to WVMC however (rightly so) the donor was concerned about the data on the hard drive. I tried my best to convince them that there are ways to completely erase hard drive data so that it is not recoverable. However they were not convinced.

So as a result, I received a donated computer for WVMC without a hard drive. I later came to find out that another person had removed the hard drive and hit the platter with a hammer and severely bent it so it was unuseable. I suppose that is one way to take care of it, but I have heard rumors that it is in fact possible to even still obtain the data off the hard drive (sorry, but I don't have a link, so I am calling it a rumor)

Needless to say, the hard drive is one of the parts of a compouter that is worth salvaging, and without it, there isn't much else worth anything. Sadly, all I really got out of the computer that was worthwhile was the memory.

There are recognized stantards by the US Government for completely and securely erasing hard drive data as specified by the Department of Defence's DOD 5220.22-M will make your hard drive data completely un-readable.

This too will help out your favorite charity, such as WVMC because they will be able to also use the hard drive that was so generously donated.

Next time a computer is donated, I will have to be more specific about accepting a donated computer.

-- Mike

Interesting Audio Processor

I just found an interesting audio processor that uses an old PC. It runs on XP and not much processing power. Here is the link: Stardust VST

-- Mike