Week 1

Workshop

On the first workshop, I pair up with Sara to try to make an FM Transmitter using a breadboard.

We follow this tutorial How to make FM transmitter.

We were able to plug everything right, but we couldn't find the right tune to listening to the transmitter.

On the tutorial they gave us a formula to find out the right tune,

 L = [(d^2)(n^2)] / [18d + 40l]
 L – in uH (inductor)
 d – in inches (coil diameter)
 l – coil length in inches
 n – number of turns

But it didn't work as expected. The failed transmitter was exposed together with the other students work at the Radiation - Digital Craft exhibition.

Radio Projects

Architecture of Radio by Richard Vijgen

" The Architecture of Radio, a new exhibition by Dutch designer Richard Vijgen that uses an augmented reality iPad app to visualize the network of radio waves that surrounds us, revealing the invisible traffic of smartphones, GPS units, Wi-Fi routers, cell towers, overhead satellites, and more."

"As an information designer, I'm interested in visualizing things we cannot see. Most of the information we consume is 
 delivered to us over the air via radio waves . . . We are connected 24/7 through devices that communicate wirelessly 
 over Wi-Fi or cellular networks, yet contrary to the radio towers and transmission stations of the early days of radio, 
 the infrastructure that underpins our information society is barely visible. Wi-Fi routers are hidden behind bookshelves 
 and cell towers are mounted to existing buildings or disguised as trees."

Sequential Wave Imprinting Machine by Steve Mann

With the S.W.I.M. (Sequential Wave Imprinting Machine) you can see otherwise invisible sound waves and radio waves, imprinted onto your retina, onto photographic media, or eyeglass/camera.

This is due to something I call Phenomenological or Phenomenal Augmented Reality, i.e. the AR (Augmented Reality) of physical phenomena

You can find a tutorial of how to build one here

Tree Radio Installation at YSP

"This work addresses issues surrounding the rate that new digital technology often becomes out-of-date, as it uses 100 year old tried and tested wireless technology. I have been working at the intersection between art and technology and this project takes forward my current interests.

I wanted to make people think about trees and the root of all wireless technology: radio, and how simple and green it can be to use. Wireless, free and solar powered. The tree transmitter reveals the hidden facets of organic tree life using simple FM wireless technology."

Video of the Project

You can read more about this project here
and more Radio Projects at Radio Arts

Week 2

A look at RTL-SDR

We use the RTL device to try to receive some interesting signals on our computer. I personally found this way of find signals very difficult and not very precise. Difficult in the way that you need to expend a lot of time and patience to go through the channels waiting to see some signal, you also need to count with a little of lucky, because sometimes you pass by a channel but it's not being used by the time you were on it, so you consider it has nothing there.