Author: Ash Nallawalla

About Ash Nallawalla

Ash Nallawalla is a consultant enterprise SEO with a long background in large companies with complex websites. He is a published author of several books and thousands of magazine articles.

Vodafone Australia Forces Mobile Logins

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Having received a new credit card, I thought I’d update a few of my direct billers before they chased me. I logged into My Vodafone and saw this helpful message.

How to login

See what that says? “through a web browser” – I was already using one, so it’s looking good at this point. I clicked the red button and it went downhill from here.

My browser offers this modal:

login form

“SMS me link” and “Email me link”? Where did they learn English? There is space to jam in an article. I provided my mobile number and received a link to click. That logged me into the mobile version of My Vodafone.

I noticed that my street address was out of date, so I changed it. Then I decided to change my billing address, as it is a PO Box. We have received all mail at that box for 40+ years. No luck.

The geniuses at Vodafone have decided that the billing address in their system cannot be a PO Box, even if that is indeed your billing address. Credit cards use that as one way to authenticate a card. Nope. If you choose the option to enter a separate billing address, you need to provide a house number, followed by a street name and then street type. No exceptions. So, I had to lie and claim that my billing address is the same as my home address.

I went back to the website to look for help and got this badly proof-read message:

badly proofread message

Vodafone Australia is telling me that logging in is now “more secure” and I no longer need a username or password. I tried again with the other option to send me a link by email.

Email with a login link

Success, almost. Yes, the link in the email took me to the desktop web interface without a password.

Web interface.

So, at this point, I have forgiven Vodafone for their poor English. Maybe it is trendy English in Sydney, or Brisbane, but I too work in a web dev environment along with UX people every day and we try to stick to boring, grammatical forms. OK, let’s try to change my billing address.

Address change form

No luck. The desktop form is the same and I cannot supply a PO Box, (what with being a responsive site, same code base and all that).

Somewhere in the earlier steps, I found the help text about accessing with a web browser.

Quite condescendingly, Vodafone Australia is telling me what is “best”. It says I can access My Vodafone “on other devices” through a “web browser”? Yes, the SMS link opens Safari on my iPhone – that is a web browser. They could have made the link open in an app, if installed – which I have on my phone. Never mind.

What about THIS device I am on? I am reading this on a desktop web browser, not a mobile app or a mobile web browser. So, they tease me there, hinting at this possibility. They don’t say “desktop”, but my phone also has a web browser. Why won’t they say “desktop” and that the secret is to ask for the link by email?

Accessibility

Now to get a little more serious. I see this largely as an accessibility issue and not semantics. I am 69 and probably better off playing lawn bowls, or whatever those grey nomads do. I have only one usable eye, so I have empathy with the visually impaired. If I want to use a desktop for my interactions, don’t decide what is “best” for me, then make me spend ages trying to find the secret entrance. I spent many volunteer hours at the Melbourne PC User Group for 25+ years helping older people navigate websites. Many of those people might have given up with this Vodafone desktop web login.

The other oddity is that even though I have chosen email billing and direct debit, what is the point of asking for a billing address? I provided my home address. In the end, I found that both credit cards and debit cards attract a small fee, so I switched to the bank debit option.

A few weeks ago, I helped my sister-in-law with a similar issue at Optus, where she has a landline. She is legally blind in both eyes, so does not own a mobile phone and does not have a computer, therefore, no email address. She gets paper bills and had missed one in the post. I thought that she could perhaps open a My Optus account with her sister’s email address and we could set up direct debit with her bank. No siree. Without a mobile phone, Optus will not let you have an online account. Without an online account, you cannot provide an email address. The customer service people told us it is all about “security”. Really? would someone hack into her account to pay her bills for her?

They told us to go to a store. We did that – quite a chore, as the lady in question uses a walker and has health issues. All sorted in person in less than 5 minutes.

Lack of Friction

My friend Roger Dooley in the US is known for a few good books that are relevant to us in the web economy. “Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing” and now “FRICTION—The Untapped Force That Can Be Your Most Powerful Advantage”. Reducing friction in customer interactions is a simple concept. When customers want to pay you, make it easy.

List of SEO Podcasts – 2022

Ash with Matt Cutts
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Full disclosure: I have a motive in compiling this list of SEO podcasts. It’s a handy reference for me, as I have published my book, featured here: https://accidentalseomanager.com. I hope they will consider interviewing me if that suits their model.

Now, for the list in no particular order.

SEO and Marketing Podcasts in 2022

Digital Marketing with Bill Hartzer
https://www.billhartzer.com/category/podcast/

SEO Pioneers – Shelley Walsh
https://shelleywalsh.com/pioneers/

Dreading Sundays
https://www.danielkcheung.com.au/dreading-sundays/

SEO for Bloggers
https://tophatrank.com/blog/category/seo-resources-for-bloggers/

The Knowledge Panel Show – Dixon Jones
https://inlinks.net/p/the-knowledge-panel-show/

Old Guard vs New Blood – Majestic.com and Dixon Jones
https://majestic.com/webinars

Not Another Marketing Podcast – Jon Tromans
https://www.jtid.co.uk/podcasts/

Paul Andre de Vera – SEO Video Show
http://youtube.seo.video

The Jason Hennessey Podcast
https://www.jasonhennessey.com/podcast/

Yoast SEO Podcast
https://yoast.com/podcast/

Search with Candour – Mark Williams-Cook and Jack Chambers
https://withcandour.co.uk/blog/category/podcast

SEO.co Podcast – Timothy Carter
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seo-podcast-seo-co-search-engine-optimization-podcast/id1491816315

Suds & Search
https://searchlabdigital.com/suds-and-search/

Women in Tech SEO – Sarah McDowell & Areej AbuAli
https://www.womenintechseo.com/podcast/

Voices of Search – Will Critchlow
https://voicesofsearch.com/episodes/

The SEO Mindset Podcast – Tazmin Suleman and Sarah McDowell
https://theseomindset.co.uk/

Search Engine Journal Show
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/category/search-engine-journal-show/

Webcology – Jim Hedger and Dave Davies
https://wmr.fm/category/podcast/webcology/

SEO 101 – Ross Dunn
https://wmr.fm/category/podcast/seo-101/

Voices of Search – Benjamin Shapiro and Jordan Koene
https://voicesofsearch.com/

The Business of Digital – Mat Siltala and Dave Rohrer
https://www.businessof.digital/series/tbod/

WorkinSEO Podcast – Isaline Muelhauser
https://workinseo.com/podcast

Inbound4Cast – Jerrel Arkes
https://inbound4cast.com/en/all-full-episodes/

Marketing O’Clock – Greg Finn, Jessica Budde, Christine ‘Shep’ Zirnheld, and Mark Saltarelli
https://marketingoclock.com/

Edge of the Web – Erin Sparks
https://edgeofthewebradio.com/

The Recipe for SEO Success Show – Kate Toon
https://therecipeforseosuccess.libsyn.com/podcast

Startup SEO with Fab – Fabrizio Ballarini
https://pechnet.com/podcast/

Marketing Scoop – Laura Morelli
https://www.semrush.com/podcast/

Marketing Speak – Stephan Spencer
https://www.marketingspeak.com/podcasts/

Duct Tape Marketing Podcast – John Jantsch
https://ducttapemarketing.com/about/duct-tape-marketing-podcast/

In Search SEO – Mordy Oberstein and David Bain
https://www.rankranger.com/blog/podcasts

SEO Rant – Mordy Oberstein
https://www.theseorant.com/

The SEO Show – Michael Costin and Arthur Fabik
https://theseoshow.co/

Contrarian Marketing – Kevin Indig and Eli Schwartz
https://www.contrarianmarketingpodcast.com/

Digital Marketing Podcast – Craig Campbell
https://www.craigcampbellseo.com/digital-marketing-podcast/

Behind The SEOs – Yosef Silver and Mordy Oberstein
https://behindtheseos.com/

Cashing in on Content Marketing – Amanda Milligan
https://info.frac.tl/content-marketing-roi-podcast

Marketing Over Coffee – John Wall and Christopher Penn
https://www.marketingovercoffee.com/category/podcast/

Everyone Hates Marketers – Louis Grenier
https://www.everyonehatesmarketers.com/podcast

Crawling Mondays – Aleyda Solis
https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/crawling-mondays-videos/

Azeem Digital Asks – Azeem Ahmed
https://iamazeemdigital.com/podcast-azeem-digital-asks/

Local Search Tuesdays – Greg Gifford
https://searchlabdigital.com/local-search-tuesdays/

Rankable – Garrett Sussman
https://ipullrank.com/resources/rankable

Authority Hacker – Gael Breton & Mark Webster
https://open.spotify.com/show/1D6MzYn5pFiNlr8aNaoqEn

Tech Bound Podcast – Kevin Indig
https://podcasts.apple.com/mt/podcast/tech-bound-podcast/id1488939659

Digital Marketing Victories – Katherine Watier Ong
https://digitalmarketingvictories.com/

The Near Memo – Greg Sterling, Mike Blumenthal, David Mihm
https://www.nearmedia.co/memo/

Today in Digital – Tod Maffin
https://todayindigital.com/

Turn Digi – Jo Turnbull
https://www.seojoblogs.com/

SEO with Mrs Ghost – Alina Ghost
https://aghost.co.uk/seo-with-mrs-ghost/

Business Anchors – Lloyd and Dan Knowlton
https://link.chtbl.com/businessanchors

Content and Conversation – Siege Media
https://open.spotify.com/show/1kiaFGXO5UcT2qXVRuXjsM?si=zKq8EPMnSDCjYRiIH8f-sQ&nd=1

Niche Pursuits – Spencer Haws
https://www.nichepursuits.com/podcasts/

The Marketing Book Podcast – Douglas Burdett
https://www.salesartillery.com/marketing-book-podcast

Search Engine Journal Show – Loren Baker
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/category/search-engine-journal-show/

Growth Hack by Papi Digital – Julian Espinosa
https://www.papidigital.com/podcast

Digital Marketing Podcast – Tim Cameron-Kitchen
https://exposureninja.com/podcast/

The Doug Show – Doug Cunnington
https://doug.show/

Local SEO Tactics – Jesse Dolan
https://www.localseotactics.com/podcast/

Experts on the Wire – Dan Shure
https://www.evolvingseo.com/category/podcast/

The Future of SEO – Kevin Rowe
https://anchor.fm/future-of-seo

Everbros: A Podcast on Agency Growth
https://open.spotify.com/show/3NZMw5jcqKYbfkbGTkz7BC

TechSEO – Keira Davidson
https://dantaylor.online/projects/techseo-podcast/

The Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing – Chris Burres and Matt Bertram
https://www.bestseopodcast.com/

Search Off the Record – Google
https://developers.google.com/search/podcasts/search-off-the-record

Make SEO Simple Again – Daniel K Cheung
https://makeseosimpleagain.com/podcast/

Kalicube Tuesdays – Jason Barnard
https://kalicubetuesdays.com/

SEO Success Stories – Ross Macumber and Gabriel Grossman
https://impressive.com.au/all-podcasts/

Search News You Can Use – Marie Haynes
https://www.mariehaynes.com/seo-newsletter/seo-podcast/

The SEO Leadership Podcast – Graham Bargeron
https://www.seoleadership.fm/author/seoleadership_eu16rf/

The Blogger Genius Podcast – Jillian Leslie
https://milotree.com/page/welcome-to-the-blogger-genius-podcast/

The SEO Freelancer Podcast – Nick LeRoy
https://www.theseofreelancer.com/podcast

Missing Podcasts/Errors?

If you know of any SEO podcast that should be added to the list above, please use the contact form or Google me. If you run one of these excellent programs, let’s book a time later in 2022. I live in Melbourne, Australia, so timezones might need to be checked.

Updating the Firmware in Malahit DSP2

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Keen owners of the Malahit SDR radio will want to update the firmware to get the latest features, so this short guide will help them. First, the latest version should be downloaded and unzipped. The files are kept here: Malahit DS2 Firmware Downloads. I downloaded version 2.10F. These instructions are largely based on Manuel’s fine resource for the Malahit DSP2.

Step 1. DFU Mode

You need to get the radio in DFU Mode, which enables you to perform the update. Get the antenna out of the way, e.g. remove or fold it. Then perform these steps:

  1. Switch off the radio.
  2. Lie the radio flat on its back.
  3. Push the two buttons (Volume and Tuning) at the same time and hold then down until step 5.
  4. Push in the power button on the side and hold it in.
  5. Release the two buttons.
  6. Release the power button.
  7. When the LED at the side of the radio is blinking green and red, it is in DFU mode.

If you cannot get the LED blinking red and green, do this sequence faster, else it don´t work.

Once the radio is in DFU mode, you can plug in a USB data cable between the Malahit DSP2 and your computer. In Windows 10 Device Manager, you should see it when you expand Universal Serial Bus devices:

Device Manager

Step 2. Start STM32CubeProgrammer

You need the free STM32CubeProgrammer program from STM. Download it and install it. Run it in Administrator mode (right-click its icon and you will see the option).

Run as Administrator

Step 3. Connect Malahit DSP2 to Computer

At the top right in STM32CubeProgrammer, select USB from the blue drop-down list, then click the Refresh icon. Next, click the green Connect button.

Select USB port.
Click Connect.

The STM32CubeProgrammer screen will look like this.

Programmer screen.

Step 4. Transfer the Firmware to the Malahit DSP2

Click the second icon on the left – Erasing and Programming. The screen should change and look like this.

Erasing and Programming screen.

Find the firmware file that you downloaded and unzipped. It will be a file with a .bin extension. It is version 2.10F in this example.

Select .bin file.

Tick the two boxes you see in the image above, Verify Programming and Run after programming. Finally, click Start Programming.

Successful upload.

The LED will flash red and green, while the STM32 CubeProgrammer will show the progress of the firmware file upload at the bottom of the screen. A success message is displayed and you can click “Disconnect” now. If it fails, try again. You will not brick your radio if it fails, as it will remain at its previous level.

When you touch the Hard menu button, you will see the firmware version at the bottom right.

If Things Go Wrong

I had this verification error.

Verification error

However, the radio seemed to work just fine, so I left it alone. I can always re-flash it if needed.

Amateur Radio Regulations, AKA LCD, and Language

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I needed to look up the “regulations” for ham radio operation in Australia because of a Facebook post concerning some hams in the US berating two French-Canadians who were speaking in French to each other. Predictably, most of the discussion was by US hams, who were repeatedly citing FCC regulations about identifying in English, but confirming that the berating was rude behaviour.

Facebook post

Later in the discussion, the original poster added that he heard this on the NE Reflector. I don’t know exactly which one that is, but it would be one of hundreds of digital mode channels used by hams around the world. This one probably covers the Northeast corner of the US and close to the Quebec area across the border. Some are known as rooms, or talkgroups. This detail was missed by many people in the thread who did not bother to open every comment and sub-comment.

It was clear from this exchange that:

  • Many hams have no idea what a “reflector” is. Perhaps they know about talkgroups, or they don’t care to learn about digital modes.
  • Many did not even see the clarification about the reflector.

These digital channels are connected by the internet across the world to several cooperating local repeaters, so it’s possible for hams to join in the discussions from anywhere, if they have the correct interface. I have one such device, the SharkRF OpenSpot 1 hotspot. Alternatively, I could use a publicly accessible repeater in Melbourne, but I would need to use a keypad to select the correct reflector if it is not the default (and I am allowed to change it).

The American hams probably were on their local repeater, possibly unaware that it was linked to the internet, thus their FCC laws had no jurisdiction over the Canadian hams who, in turn, were probably talking on their local repeater. Just a normal thread on Facebook – these threads occur everywhere every day.

Where Are the Australian Amateur Radio Regulations?

I decided to look up two points mentioned in the above thread:

  • What language must we speak on air?
  • How often must we identify with our callsign?

I (being a professional SEO in the day job) turned to Google the answer and to my consternation I could not find it. I tried the following queries – all to no avail:

  • amateur radio regulations in Australia “identification”
  • amateur radio rules in Australia “identification”
  • amateur radio rules in Australia
  • amateur radio regulations in Australia
  • amateur radio “regulations” in Australia
  • amateur radio identification in english
  • amateur radio callsigns in english
  • amateur radio regulations
  • amateur radio regulations wia
  • amateur radio “regulations” wia
  • amateur radio identify every 10 minutes
  • amateur radio callsign every 10 minutes
  • amateur radio callsign after 10 minutes
  • acma station identification
  • acma station identify
  • acma identify
  • acma transmitter identify
  • wia transmitter identify
  • wia stations identify
  • wia amateur stations identify
  • wia amateur stations announce
  • wia operating procedures
  • amateur radio operating procedure
  • radio operating procedure
  • amateur radio procedure

I could not believe it. I went to the Wireless Institute of Australia (of which I am a member) website. Of course they have a page from where the answer can be found, except that you’d need to open about 20 PDFs one by one to inspect them. It is this page:

Those PDFs are on government websites, so it’s not the WIA’s fault that their contents don’t show up in a Google search of the kind I was trying.

At this point I called my friend Trevor, VK3TWC, as he was licensed not too long ago and I asked him where did he learn the regulations, as they are part of the licensing examination syllabus. I operate in Australia on a reciprocal licence, having qualified in New Zealand in 1978. I have never needed to look up the regulations again, at least not for the two points I was looking for. I was also off-air for 32 years. That was part of the problem – terminology changes over time.

LCD

Trevor mentioned the “LCD”. Yes, I had seen references to it and it did not mean Liquid Crystal Display. It means Licence Conditions Determinations – only a government employee (OK, I was one too, when in the air force) can come up with that phrase. It can be found here:

8. Operation of an Amateur Station (extract here)

(1)   Subject to subsection (2A), if the licensee makes a single transmission from an amateur station (other than an amateur beacon station or amateur repeater station), the licensee must transmit the call sign of any station being called, or communicated with, followed by the call sign of the licensee’s amateur station:

(a) at the beginning of the transmission;

(b) at the end of the transmission;

(c) if the transmission lasts more than 10 minutes — at least once during each period of 10 minutes, or part thereof, in the transmission;

by voice (using the English language), by visual image or by an internationally recognised code.

Interpretation

The above regulations/determination make it clear that:

  • For Australian radio amateurs, there is no requirement to speak in any particular language.
  • Regardless of the spoken language, we need to announce our callsign in English (voice or image) or code (Morse or other code), at least every 10 minutes.

Extrapolation

Equally, it follows that:

  • Our VHF/UHF repeaters might be connected through the internet to overseas repeaters, so we will hear relays of overseas conversations locally.
  • Our laws don’t apply to the overseas radio operators and it’s best not to tell them to speak in English. If you think they are breaking the law somewhere else, let their own authorities deal with it.
  • The repeater operator can choose not to participate in such links if foreign languages upset their local users.

SSTV Settings for the FT-991A Transceiver

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I wanted to play with slow-scan TV (SSTV) on my Yaesu-Musen FT-991A transceiver, so I collected the menu settings, which were in a video on Youtube by a French amateur (in English). To help anyone who is looking for this information, I am sharing the settings here.

YONIQ Software

I use YONIQ (updated version of MMSSTV) for receiving and sending SSTV images, largely from the ISS. It operates under Windows. This article is about the menu settings, so follow that link for details of using YONIQ.

Yoniq
YONIQ screen

FT-991A Setup

USB Type B cable

Your PC needs a spare USB port and you need a good USB Type B cable. The rig has its USB port at the rear. Such cables are used for printers, among other uses. Some articles swear by Tripp-Lite (affiliate link), but as I’m in Australia, I could wait for weeks for delivery. So I used one that has a couple of ferrite rings on it. It has no markings and I cannot recall where I sourced it. I also tried one with a shielded cable but no ferrite rings and it worked. So you might want to try an existing cable in your collection to get it going, then order a Tripp-Lite.

USB driver

Install the Silicon Labs USB driver from the Yaesu website (and from nowhere else). This is a safe choice, even though a more recent version might work. It will show in Control Panel > Device Manager > Ports only when it is connected to a switched-on radio.

COM ports in Device Manager
Device Manager

Menu Settings

These are the settings on the FT-991A.

  • 31 = 9600
  • 32 = 10 ms
  • 33 = Enable
  • 60 = DAKY
  • 62 = Others
  • 64 = 1900 Hz (see video link at the end)
  • 65 = 1900 Hz (see video link at the end)
  • 70 = Rear
  • 71 = DTR
  • 72 = USB
  • 74 = Rear
  • 76 = RTS
  • 77 = USB
  • 79 = 9600
  • 106 = Rear
  • 108 = RTS
  • 109 = USB

Getting your Rig Back to Normal

Your rig settings for SSTV will change your previous menu settings and it can get tedious if you are switching back and forth, say from FT8 or voice to SSTV. I use RT Systems FT-991A Programmer and it has a way to store menu settings separately from memories. I downloaded settings from the radio – the “before SSTV” and the “for SSTV” conditions and saved them as separate files. So, for SSTV, I upload the “for SSTV” menu to the rig. Afterwards, I upload the “before SSTV” file (in my case it is called an “FT8” file and it is also my regular voice mode settings).

RT Systems FT-991A Programmer screen
RT Systems FT-991A Programmer menu settings screen

73 de VK3BT

Other Solutions

Here are some articles written by others on this topic. I have not tested them personally.:

Eric Ronald Harmon writes via Facebook:

I use (data vox) for keying and skip the rig control on sstv….so nothing has to change for voice…ft8….sstv…winlink…and fm packet I just select the mode and freq. And go.

Setup menu option #142…= data and activate Vox in M-list menu will show on screen as D.vox There are gain and delay and level settings also, but mine are all at default. Menu #s 146, 147, 148. Good luck. When set like this almost no change is necessary for multiple modes.

How to get free ads in LinkedIn

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Like the click-bait title above, I saw a very clever use of humour to get great visibility and engagement on LinkedIn. I noticed this curious “announcement” from someone who is not connected with me:

The funny announcement in LinkedIn
The post seen in LinkedIn

Why did I even see this? Notice the top of the image – “LinkedIn is curious about this”, which could be a result of an algorithm that promotes posts that show extraordinarily high engagement. Or it might be a manual decision. Either way, untold millions (?) of users will see it and will add their Likes or leave comments.

The Netflix logo got my attention. So I bothered to read it. What? I had to read it again and I got the joke. At the time of writing, the post had 71,807 Likes and 2,926 comments.

One of the comments.
A typical engagement

At regular intervals through the comment trail, the author was plugging a podcast, which was perhaps his main goal here. His tagline suggests that he is looking for an internship position and the language suggests somewhere in North America. The podcast has perhaps 72,000 potential eyeballs and perhaps some new listeners.

See? Advertising does not need to cost money. I wish him and the podcast well.

Postscript: Some others on LinkedIn pointed out that I had blogged about a copycat and pointed me to a post by Liam Fallen two weeks earlier, shown below:

A post by Liam Fallen
A LinkedIn post by Liam Fallen

That might well be the case, but there is a major difference. Hisham’s post managed to get over 85,000 Likes (as of today, a day after my post was first written) and was promoted for free by LinkedIn (the subject of this post). Hisham isn’t even a 3rd-degree contact of mine, while Liam is 2nd degree (being a fellow SEO). I am not sure I would have seen Liam’s post unless a mutual contact had commented on it and I happened to be looking at my news feed. What can we learn from this? Perhaps using the Netflix logo got the extra attention?

Scrambled WordPress Home Page?

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Sometimes this blog shows a scrambled home page and a hard refresh does not seem to fix it. The page looks like this:

Scrambled text
Scrambled WordPress home page

Solution

The solution is easy – flush/purge your cache. The steps might vary depending on your caching plugin, but find it and flush away. My caching menu looks like this:

Cache purge menu
Caching menu

That’s all. Check your home page now. It should be back to normal.

Google Stumped by Ham Radio Query

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Being a ham radio operator, I posed a query to Google (AU) “how long can you transmit on AM”. For anyone interested, a ham transmitter cannot transmit continuously, as our conversations tend to be short “overs”, back and forth, allowing the radio to cool down in-between the overs. AM (amplitude modulation) heats up “the finals” (the hard-working end of the transmitter) more than SSB (single sideband), which is the more common form of communication we use on HF (high frequency, also known as shortwave). In radio broadcasting, the transmitter is working continuously.

Here is the result:

Every result is about Covid-19 or some disease, not radio.

The background to this was a rather naive question posed in an amateur radio group on Facebook by someone who would like to broadcast on shortwave. He could not find any solution at ACMA, the government site that manages the radio spectrum in Australia.

I tried a more explicit term “AM transmitter duty cycle“, but barely one result is relevant. (Expanding AM to Amplitude Modulation made it worse). Trying the more collquial ham language “rig overheats duty cycle” (as hams are likely to discuss such topics, whereas broadcast engineers already know their stuff) brought up oil rig hydraulics. Mentioning my rig model helped, but not many useful results: “ft-991a overheats duty cycle“. The one that worked in the end was “ham radio overheats duty cycle“, with most results being relevant. So I needed to know most of the solution to frame the correct query! Up to this point, I got Google onto the correct topic, but not about broadcasting equipment. Ham radios are not built to transmit for hours without a break. The old valve (tube)-based models were better for longer transmisions; however, broadcast transmitters need significant cooling solutions, such as water cooling.

So why does Google fail to know much about this topic? It was put to me that ham radio is a rather obscure niche within geekdom, which is a niche to begin with. Cool people do not venture in these parts. To be honest, not many hams have used AM since SSB began to appear on ham radios in the 1970s. I have not used it, even though the mode exists on my Yaesu FT-991A transceiver. Although “ACMA” is probably as well-known as “Ofcom” or “FCC” are known, I could not find its home page on the first page of Google – but that might be the lack of SEO on ACMA’s part? That naive user trying to learn about shortwave broadcasting would have no hope of finding the answer.

Amplitude Modulation (AM) setting on my transceiver.

That disappoints me — about Google. Surely its crawlers can find numerous ham radio websites outside of Facebook and learn that transmitters have duty cycles and “transmission” is not restricted to a disease? I did not see results about car transmissions either, so it seems that the year-long pandemic has overwhelmed Google’s AI into thinking there is nothing else on people’s minds.

Are Other Search Engines Any Better?

To be fair, I checked the query in Bing: How long can you transmit on AM? In the top 50 results, barely a couple were about radio and almost all the others were about Covid-19, colds and other diseases. DuckDuckGo was just as bad. WolfRamAlpha first thought Transmit is a software product, but allowed me to change the definition to a Word, after which it spewed out a lot of definitions.

Bing wasn’t any more useful.

Sometimes, Ask a Human Instead

So my original query, “How long can you transmit on AM?” would be perfectly understood by a fellow ham, or a broadcast engineer, and a useful conversation with some confirmation questions would rapidly lead to the answer. Sometimes, there are answers outside search engines.

[SOLVED] iPhone-iCloud-iTunes-Outlook 2019 Won’t Sync

Reading Time: 2 minutes

This article is about Outlook 2019 for Windows 10 not syncing the Calendar Contacts with an iPhone X. I installed Outlook 2019 a few months ago, but noticed recently that new appointments were not showing up on my iPhone X.

Scenario 1

A couple of weeks ago I managed to solve a sync problem as per this post. That’s an easier one to solve:

  • Check the data files in Outlook. If you added an account to your existing setup, it will become the default for syncing and if it comes with contacts, e.g. your workplace, then you’ll be horrified to discover the problem.
  • Make your desired data file (typically the earlier one) the Default and that’s it.
The default Outlook Data File needs to be changed.

Scenario 2

Now my iPhone had again lost the Calendar entries I could still see in Outlook 2019 for Windows. Unlike the situation in the above scenario, I was pointing to the desired data file. When I went to Info, I could no longer get a choice to Sync With e.g. with Outlook. (I named my phone Android as a joke.)

No sync option for Outlook
Where is the option to sync with Outlook?

iTunes diagnostics had a couple of strange entries – why no USB port found, given that the phone is connected with a USB cable? I am an administrator, even though iTunes was not started in Administrator mode – it refuses to start in that mode.

Microsoft Windows 10 x64 Professional Edition (Build 19042)
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. B85M-D3H
iTunes 12.11.0.26
Store Package 12110.26.53016.0
FairPlay 2.14.46
Apple Mobile Device Driver 486.0.0.0
Apple iPod Driver not found.
Bonjour 3.0.0.2 (333.18)
Gracenote SDK 3.06.1.3084
Gracenote MusicID 3.06.1.3084
Gracenote Submit 3.06.1.3084
Gracenote DSP 3.06.1.3084
iTunes Serial Number 00
Current user is not an administrator.
The current local date and time is 2021-03-14 20:30:00.
iTunes is not running in safe mode.
WebKit accelerated compositing is disabled.
HDCP is supported.
Core Media is supported.
Display scaling 100.00
**** Runtime Libraries ****
c:\windows\system32\ucrtbase.dll: 10.0.19041.546
c:\program files\windowsapps\microsoft.vclibs.140.00.uwpdesktop_14.0.29231.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\msvcp140.dll: 14.28.29231.0
c:\program files\windowsapps\microsoft.vclibs.140.00.uwpdesktop_14.0.29231.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\vcruntime140_1.dll: 14.28.29231.0
c:\program files\windowsapps\microsoft.vclibs.140.00.uwpdesktop_14.0.29231.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\vcruntime140.dll: 14.28.29231.0
c:\windows\system32\msvcp110_win.dll: 10.0.19041.546
**** External Plug-ins Information ****
Bonjour service 3.0.0.2 (333.18) is currently running.
**** Device Connectivity Tests ****
iPodService not found.
AppleMobileDeviceProcess 486.0.2.23 is currently running.
No Universal Serial Bus Controller found.
No FireWire (IEEE 1394) Host Controller found.
Connected Device Information:
Android, iPhone X running firmware version 14.4.1
Serial Number: F
Most Recent Devices Not Currently Connected:
iPad 2 (GSM) running firmware version 9.3.5
Serial Number: D
**** Device Sync Tests ****
Sync tests completed successfully.
========================

If I try to run iTunes as administrator, the Restrictions dialog box opens. When I click OK (no restrictions), it closes, but so does iTunes.

Here is the Solution

I read a few posts complaining about Outlook 2019 not being compatible with iCloud. I recall recently connecting my Contacts and Calendar to iCloud, whereas I had not done so from the start – I don’t trust cloud services. But I connected anyway. So I disconnected to see what would happen.

disconnect from iCloud
De-select the Contacts and Calendar in iCloud settings.

That did the trick! Now I could see the option in Settings > Info to sync with Outlook.

The sync options are back!
Force Outlook data to the iPhone.

I forced the Outlook Contacts and Calendar to sync with the phone and everything was back to normal.

Facebook’s Australian News SNAFU

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Facebook has reacted badly, as far as users are concerned. Clearly, Facebook programmers are tearing their hair out in implementing the removal of news content and are making silly errors.

For starters, Facebook removed its own content (briefly):

Facebook profile page is empty
No content on Facebook’s own page?

As far as collateral damage goes, the government Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) content has been removed.

BoM screenshot
BoM content removed

I can still see some Channel 9 news content, but there are glitches such as being unable to open the comments.

Cannot see comments

The Queensland Government Health page has had its content removed.

Queensland Health content has been taken down.
Queensland Health content has been taken down.

The non-profit organisation that speaks for people affected by poverty, ACOSS (Australian Council of Social Service) has had its content removed! Is the censorship algorithm looking for the word “news” in page descriptions and acting on it? Check such affected pages to see if that’s the issue.

ACOSS content removed
ACOSS content taken down.

The sports team AFL Women’s has been impacted too.

AFLW page impacted
A professional sports team page is impacted.

Virgin Australia is also gone.

Virgin Australia page has no content
Virgin Australia is hardly a news outlet.

Domino’s pizza isn’t a news outlet. I think Facebook is making a point that almost everything can be “news”, so why not block everything? Perhaps it’s their quality, or boring menu, since Pizza Hut Australia is not blocked.

Domino's pizza content gone
No content in Domino’s

The Kids’ Cancer Project is one of many such sites affected.

Kids' Cancer Project content is gone.
Content has gone.

Overseas content also removed?

Yes, all overseas news outlets show no content, with the BBC UK content somehow slipping through this badly coded filter.

I am not sure why the UK Alzheimer’s Society page has no posts. It’s not a news organisation.

UK Alzheimer's Society content not visible.
Why?

My views on this fiasco

Being a mere user of Facebook (therefore, the product) for a mix of content and discussion, I am merely inconvenienced. I do accept the position of Facebook and Google that they send eye balls to the news websites, therefore they should not need to pay for content. At least Google has made progress by signing up with some news outlets to pay for content, but Facebook has stuffed up. At best, they can improve their “kill switch” for the time other countries follow Australia’s lead and implement similar laws.

I have created personal accounts on other platforms in case I need to abandon Facebook. Some of my friends have left it permanently. I began to do that following two “community standards violation” warnings that I disagreed with. I am simply suggesting to fellow digital marketers that they consider spreading their ad budget across other platforms.

Postscript

Facebook lifted its news ban on 26 February. There was barely any mention of it by anyone on my timeline.

Google News Showcase Is Merely a Distraction

Google Search
Reading Time: 6 minutes

Given that SEO is my profession, I have been watching the stoush between segments of the Australian news media and Google Search. Some incredible stories have been written about what it could mean for Aussies if the search engine pulls out of Australia. This article Breaking up with Google is hard to do (saved at the Wayback Machine as it might be behind a paywall) prompted me to write this and later today, Google announced its News Showcase for Australia, leading to more interpretations of “What Will Google Do?”

Roger Montti writes in Search Engine Journal Google Agrees to Pay for (Some) Australian News

Google announced that they have negotiated to begin paying for Australian News with publishers who have agreed to participate in the Google News Showcase program. It’s unclear if this is enough to stop Australian legislation that Google claims will force it to leave the country.

Google News Showcase

As best as I can tell, Google News Showcase was announced last year and launched in some countries, but I had not heard of it until today. It claims to be visible on the Google News app for Android and iPhone. It was apparently launched yesterday in Australia, but I cannot find it on the iPhone app. So far it’s just a news story, like last year’s launch in Europe.

The product will contain story panels that you can swipe and click to view the content. This Aussie version will include content from The Canberra Times, The Illawarra Mercury, The Saturday Paper, Crikey, The New Daily, InDaily, The Conversation and about 18 others.

The Media Bargaining Code

The document is formally titled Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020

I won’t go over what has been written copiously by the news media about this proposed legislation, but basically, a handful of news outlets would like to be paid by Google for linking to their material with a small snippet and perhaps a thumbnail image. A ridiculous aspect of this legislation is that it will require Facebook and Google to give 28 days’ notice of any change to its news algorithm if it will affect them in any way.

Google’s Reactions

Google published 8 Facts about Google and the News Media Bargaining Code, which is a comprehensive account of the company’s concerns. It also issued a slightly overlapping article Answering your top questions about the News Media Bargaining Code (it addresses “Why is making Search unavailable in Australia the worst case scenario, why can’t you just remove news from Search results?” which I raise as my prediction later in this blog post).

Google’s regional VP for Australia and New Zealand, Mel Silva issued an open letter, explaining its position, including its “solution”, namely this News Showcase that’s hard to find today. I quote one part here:

The ability to link freely between websites is fundamental to Search. This code creates an unreasonable and unmanageable financial and operational risk to our business. If the Code were to become law in its current form, we would have no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia. 

Public Reactions

Let’s begin with my reaction. The news outlets that complained to the ACCC are being ridiculous. Google has linked to almost every web page it can find. In a news context, Google provides free eyeballs to anything that is not behind a paywall. Google does not make money from organic search, unless a searcher notices an ad and clicks it.

This article prompted me to write this post: Breaking up with Google is hard to do – I disagree with the writer’s speculation that although Google is threatening to remove just Google Search, he decided to use alternatives to all Google services he could find to see what life without Google would look like. That’s fine as articles go, but it’s some reader reactions I saw on Facebook that were getting out of hand.

Readers were worried that they would lose access to their Gmail, YouTube, as well as the Google Search product. Worse, they would lose access to Facebook! Many people don’t read the articles before commenting. Facebook is only threatening to remove news content, not to remove the platform.

Why a Distraction?

I refer to the News Showcase announcement a distraction because it has not impressed some of the original complainants. They will not participate in negotiations until the Code is legislated. Source: Google launches News Showcase in Australia in sign of compromise over media code. Essentially, nothing seems to be changing in our Parliament as far as the legislative process is concerned. Our Prime Minister and Treasurer are unfazed. The only real concern for the government is if Google lays off most of its Australian staff.

My Predictions

Those Facebook commenters are making fanciful assumptions about what could happen. You CAN use Gmail, Google, Ads, AdSense etc at the dot com level or ones from other countries such as New Zealand or the UK. You will probably lose some localisation such as Google My Business results, but a quick check in google dot com for “pizza near me” shows local ads and local results.

A search for “pizza near me” in the global Google.com
The same search in google.com.au

The search result is almost identical and changes a little with each repeated search. Most of the time, the Australian site shows Google My Business (map) results for some local businesses, while the US site does not. The other regular search results are almost the same 10 URLs, but in a different order. SEO agencies will either curse or rejoice, depending on which listings are of their clients.

I think at best, Google will de-index some Australian news companies, which is fine by me. That will have no effect on our ability to read news in phone apps and on the news outlet’s website – some of which will probably have to loosen their paywalls. While Mel Silva has said “we would have no real choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia“, I think that is pointless, other than to make a point (to coin a phrase).

Why do I think so? Google said in that article linked above:

This is not possible due to the extremely broad and vague definition of “news” in the Code—which includes any “content that reports, investigates or explains current issues or events of interest to Australians.” This goes far beyond what most of us would consider “news.” And the content we’d need to remove could be on any website at any time, not just the websites of the news businesses registered under the Code.

https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-asia/australia/top-questions-news-code/
Simulated search result minus a news panel

Can you imagine the ACCC getting into analysing Google results to find any content that reports, investigates or explains current issues or events of interest to Australians? That refers to pages other than from professional news media companies. This very article could be interpreted as “news content”. Parliamentary proceedings in Hansard could be interpreted as news. Of course a Google lawyer would make that worst-case interpretation.

I am not a lawyer; I am a search professional who owes his livelihood for the past 20 years to Google Search and Google Ads. I trained my son Keith to be a search professional. Should I be called to an Amicus Curiae situation in the future about this, I would be pointing out the ridiculousness of making Google Australia sack all its local staff and turn off its Search servers. Honestly, de-indexing news outlets should suffice.

As for Google’s revenue from ads, there will be an impact if a company advertises the same website in google dot com and in google dot com dot au (but with different ads). Google will only display a domain once per page. Very few companies would have such a model. Most advertisers would not want to move their ads to Google New Zealand or Google dot com (USA). The bids there might be higher or lower and Aussie eye balls might not know to go to those country versions. Users might go to Bing, as Microsoft is currently hoping. Perhaps Microsoft Advertising will pick up some of this PPC budget.

Google isn’t likely to risk losing its ad revenue for the sake of paying relative peanuts to the news outlets, or an ACCC fine. GOOG stock might take a hit, which won’t please a lot of Americans who have some of it. Thus, at best, it will remove all news content from its Australian index.

I cannot see Google blocking access to its overseas properties from Australian IP addresses across the world. That is, in effect, what many seem to be thinking. Remember, only the threat to remove Google.com.au has been made, not any other Google property such as YouTube, or Ads. Surely, those overseas Google properties would also be carrying Australian “news”?

OK, in that case, Googlebot could stop crawling and indexing ALL Australian domains, just in case they happen to discuss anything resembling “news”? See how ridiculous this is getting? I did not read a transcript of what has happened at the Parliamentary hearings, but I hope the lawmakers were given a dose of reality.

It’s really going to be a case of who blinks first. I’m happy to be proven wrong.

FT-991A Setup for Digital Modes (for Windows 10 and a USB cable) – by VK3BT

FT-991A
Reading Time: 3 minutes

 

 

I have a Yaesu Musen FT-991A transceiver for my amateur radio hobby. I returned to this hobby after about 24 years, so my interest is in the new developments that came during my absence. Digital modes are new to me, so I have started with FT8. It’s a weak-signal mode that sends a warbling tone that can only be decoded by a computer. Although you might think the band is “dead” because you cannot hear any voice QSOs, the spot frequencies allocated to digital modes are probably “alive”.

More information about digital modes can be found online, such as this article about WSJT – one of a few programs that you can use to use such modes.

FT-991A
My setup

There are a few articles and videos online that might help, but I found that they gave conflicting information, or the menu numbering was different. Some were written for the FT-991 (no suffix) (predecessor of my rig) and/or for Windows 7. After a while, my rig’s settings were all over the place and I found it best to do a factory reset so as to have a reliable starting point. This is my setup.

FT-991A Setup

USB Type B cable

Your PC needs a spare USB port and you need a good USB Type B cable. The rig has its USB port at the rear. Such cables are used for printers, among other uses. Some articles swear by Tripp-Lite (affiliate link), but as I’m in Australia, I could wait for weeks for delivery. So I used one that has a couple of ferrite rings on it. It has no markings and I cannot recall where I sourced it. I also tried one with a shielded cable but no ferrite rings and it worked. So you might want to try an existing cable in your collection to get it going, then order a Tripp-Lite.

USB driver

Install the Silicon Labs USB driver from the Yaesu website (and from nowhere else). This is a safe choice, even though a more recent version might work. It will show in Control Panel > Device Manager > Ports only when it is connected to a switched-on radio.

COM ports seen in Device Manager

The Properties of these ports need to match those in the radio’s menu settings, but I noticed that I have one stop bit and not two. It works like that, so I have left it as-is.

Port properties
Port settings

FT-991A Menu settings

I settled on the following, based on a YouTube video by a fellow Aussie VK7HH

There are just four primary settings, as per the video:

  • 31 = 9600 bps (this can be anything, but some other program I tried only works at 9600, so I settled on this speed)
  • 32 = 100 msec (default is 10)
  • 108 = RTS (default is DAKY)
  • 109 = USB (default is Data)

Next, the following settings were added after reading dozens of tips:

  • 33 = Enable (factory default)
  • 62 = PSK (default is Others)
  • 70 = Rear (factory default)
  • 72 = USB (factory default)

There are two “mystery” settings suggested by some. I am not sure about them, but I have left them at these values:

  • 60 = Off (factory default)
  • 71 = DTR (default is RTS) This one is said to be for Win 7 but I have Win 10. I didn’t think that would matter, but I have made a note. I found that DAKY works equally well, hence this is a mystery setting.

Of course, the software settings also need to match. This is why some people have a different mix of settings and they also work.

JTDX settings

I use JTDX, which is based on WSJT-X, so both have identical settings.

General settings
Radio settings
Audio settings
Reporting settings
Advanced settings

Gotchas

There is a gremlin that changed my settings recently – about four of them (!), so I keep a sheet with these settings near the rig. This is most likely the regular Windows update, which somehow reset some rig settings to their defaults. That might not make sense, but I certainly don’t change my rig settings.

Another recent gremlin is that the FT-991A appears to transmit when no digital software has been started. If the rig is switched on and I shut down my laptop, the act of closing the lid causes the rig’s transmit light to come on and about 2 Amperes are drawn, but the PO reading is nil. I have yet to find the cause.

Keeping perfect time

Your computer’s time needs to be perfect, i.e. synchronised to internet time, else you might not be able to decode the signals. There are many such programs, but I use NetTime. Start it up and your PC will not need to worry about time drift.

Mastodon