Tag Archive for 'gadgets'

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Dialup Radio

There is not much information on the site, but Dialup Radio claims to have been specifically designed for use by human rights activists in the deveoping world, with particular attention to security and keeping costs down. From the brief description, I think it could also be used as an alternative distribution method for radio news where stations don’t have access to the internet, but do have a telephone. They would simply call the (open source Asterisk) tepehony server and “order” news from a menu of options.

“Dialup Radio is a tool that distributes human rights and independent media via telephone. Brief radio-style audio files are uploaded and managed via the Dialup Radio website. These files are immediately available to callers who phone the project phone number. Our automatically generates interactive voice response (IVR) menus that enable callers to naviage audio content using their telephone keypads. Dialup radio works with any telephone, and can be adopted for a variety of activist campaigns.”

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Frontline SMS

I am convinced that Frontline SMS or something similar should be part of an essential toolkit for radio stations within the footprint of a telephone signal.

Frontline is a text messaging system “conceived, designed and written firmly with the needs of the non-profit sector in mind”. Basically it is an management and broadcast system that runs on a computer connected to a mobile phone with a data cable. All you need to do is insert a SIM card and you broadcast messages to your listeners and classify and process messages received from them.

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eTUKTUK – taking Kothmale a little further

eTUKTUKBen Grubb sent me an article he wrote about the eTUKTUK for an upcoming issue of the Telecentre Magazine, published by telecentre.org. I won’t steal anyone’s thunder by posting it here, but he also included some interesting links to online videos. A tuk-tuk is a motorised rickshaw or three-wheeled motorcycle, a popular form of transport in much of South and South East Asia. An eTUKTUK is (you guessed it) a tuktuk equipped with a computer and an internet connection, and Kothmale Community Radio‘s eTUKTUK which is not only a telecentre but also a radio station (with it’s own low-power transmitter) and a remote broadcasting unit that send a signal via its CDMA connection back to Kotmale’s main transmitter for rebroadcast throughout the region.

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Broadcast your podcast

from http://www.afrigadget.com/Broadcast your podcast (BYP) is a micro transmitter that offers podcasters the chance to transmit their podcasts on FM. BYP units are handmade FM transmitters made following the circuit design of micro radio pioneer Tetsuo Kogawa. from afrigadget.com/By connecting a BYP unit to your computer or mp3 player podcasts can be transmitted on FM to your neighbourhood. The BYP can broadcast 100 metres or more and uses a 9 volt battery. The Broadcast your Podcast website has step-by-step instructions for making your own BYP with materials readily available at an electronics store.

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Reuters/Nokia Collaboration Has Potential for Citizen Journalists

MobileActive.org has written about a Reuters/Nokia collaboration to design and test a phone equipped with a camera, video, a tripod, GPS, an external keyboard, an external microphone, a solar charger and that turns it into a portable studio that a journalist can use to record, edit and transmit stories with audio, photos, video and text. This may be overkill for radio, but I don’t know of another phone that lets you record with a good quality external mic. According to a Reuters article on the toolkit, it required a special adapter plug made by Nokia.

A good mobile phone with multimedia capabilities is part of our ICT and community radio essential toolkit.

Read the story from MobileActive.org: Reuters/Nokia Collaboration Has Potential for Citizen Journalists

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