If you're new to PopularWireless, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed. Also visit our forums to meet the many regular users of the PopularWireless community. Thanks for visiting!
Our web provider Network Solutions has upgraded PHP to version 5 from 4. something. Please if you notice any anomalies with the blog or the UBB community let us know.
The PopularWireless blog was upgraded to WordPress 2.5 today. This version was six months or more in development and released just hours ago on 3/29/08.
Let us know if you encounter any issues.
Those of you that lost RSS should have it back. I found the cause of three bugs that surfaced after the last Woprdpress upgrade. Two lines ere missing in a config file. Once those lines were placed where they should be the RSS feature started working again. Two other nasty issues were also fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience.
I thought I was deleting a blog on another domain - honest! A couple of days ago I deleted the PopularWireless Blog. Lucky for me since I have been using WordPress I paid attention to things like data backups. Last night I was able to import the last backup dated 12/30. Anything done between 12/30 and 1/2 was lost. So if you wrote a comment during that time that’s where it went.
On another note I had the opportunity to unload my level of dissatisfaction to a Network Solutions rep that called me out of the blue to see how I liked my service. One of the issues I dealt with was the painfully slow MYSQL server, the frequency of internal server errors, and the frustration it all causes me, the advertisers, and our readers. Poor guy that called me got an earful but I think he meant well and plans to take my comments back to the powers that be.
I have several things to do to restore missing blogroll links added since the 30th and some plugin related work to do. Most the articles should be there. This time I avoided the Network Solutions blog building interface that caused me to delete the blog in two clicks. That cannot happen built as it is now. This time around I installed WordPress myself after creating a database using the myPHPADMIN interface. Network Solutions is still installing version 2.1 with its interface requiring upgrades after each install. Last time I checked they have no plans to change their scripts to catch up to 2.3.
I learned volumes recovering from this last foopah of mine. What will I do different the next time? Before doing ANY work whatsoever on a database I will BACK IT UP. I will backup all files in all directories associated with WordPress. Any articles I wirte get written locally and if they are not copied to a local file after the article is published. Both parrots will go back in their cages and I will not accept questions on how to use the TV remote from the peanut gallery as I reach over to press a mouse button. Distractions - not good.
I really gained an impression of how cool WordPress is. Next I want to explore using an interface other than Kubrick. Probably a three column interface that looks more like a magazine. if you have some WordPress experience make a suggestion! Sorry for any inconvenience the last few days may have caused.
Personal Wireless Bulletin Board moderator “Critter” aka/Glenn started his own technology blog recently, http://www.allappropriatetech.com. Critter’s point of view is worth a read so I encourage our readers to visit the All Appropriate Technology Blog!
I want to personally thank all of our readers for another successful year. A big hats off to all of the founding members of the Personal Radio Association that joined up to help defend GMRS and sharing in the PopularWireless community.
My gratitude and special recognition goes to RadiosOnline (Advantage Communications.) Scott has been an advertiser at PopularWireless for over seven years now I think. Through thick and thin Advantage Communications has helped keep us afloat. Scott you rock!
My thanks also goes to the Google Adsense Program, Computermail.net, and FX ProCom as well as all of the advertisers that have supported us in the past. You have helped us grow and improve while we continued to provide a unique on-line place for family communicators and wireless aficionados to hang out and share their interests.
I also want to thank the friends of the General Mobile Radio Service at the Federal Communications Commission. Riley Hollingsworth, George Dillon, Kris Anne Montieth, and Scott Stone. It has been a pleasure to work with all of you on issues associated with the GMRS. We have not always agreed on everything but I believe we all understand each other’s passions. We take special note of Riley’s contribution to the GMRS. Riley took on GMRS issues and has handled them with the same aplomb as those enforcement issues in the Amateur Radio Service.
Oh and as a GMRS licensee I want to thank all those ship’s captains that are doing the right thing by using the agreed upon ITU radio channels while in US waters. I also cannot forget the contribution made to the FSI abatement effort by Dominion LLC.
Thanksgiving is a time to say thank you to our supporters and our readers for allowing us into your homes since 1995. We enjoy doing what we do because of all of you!
To all of our readers and all the ships at sea ;) Happy Thanksgiving 2007!
Doug and Eileen Smith
The WordPress blog software at this site was upgraded today to 2.3.1. Please contact us if you notice any strangeness.
The PopularWireless.com AIS Google Map introduction page was updated with some useful information on tropospheric ducting.
We encourage readers to leave a kind word for Riley regarding his planned retirement from the FCC. See article on the subject below. Thanks to Matthew for starting the thread. (Thanks to the ARRL web site.)
Google videos embedded in your site is one thing but this are some ugly looking ads.
(PopWireless: We disagree that the ads are ugly. We are enthusiastically experimenting with the videos in the PopularWireless Personal Wireless Bulletin Board as this is written. What we have seen is potentially inappropriate content for our audience. Keyword hints appear to have little or no effect at the moment. We do think there is GREAT entertainment potential for this idea and PopularWireless encourages more YouTube content folks to allow display of their work. Some of the suggested content is pure junk. We have seen an irreligious music video, wacky and pointless individual video blogs, and frankly things we wouldn’t want our children to see. Google’s ads are spot on but it does not appear that as a publisher we have the desired control over content. It would also be nice if the content changed from day to day instead of showing the same stuff over and over and over again. This may because only content providers that are allowing their work to be displayed are part of this program. In that case we encourage everyone doing videos associated with keywords that might interest our readers to produce content we would like to see!)
I upgraded to WordPress version 2.3 tonight . A bunch of widgets broke as did other functionality. It is going to take a day or two to put it all back together. Well maybe…It isn’t actually broken - just in between versions.
Most of the modifications I had made were to theme files which were not touched thank goodness. The widgets I was using just needed to be reactivated or upgraded. WordPress 2.3 now checks widgets for new versions. The developers added a TAG option form each article so the site now sports a TAG cloud at the bottom of the main blog page. Widget support is built in. The new WordPress 2.3 is outstanding. What a gem. Since the beginning, learning and using WordPress has been well FUN.
Let me know if you find any weirdness.
When you StumbleUpon or Digg our site please take a few minutes to visit our Personal Wireless Bulletin Board. Many of the posts you might expect to find in a blog are actually found inside old fashioned conversations among some very cool people. The PopularWireless site began in 1995 as a part of my first homepage dougweb.com. It grew to a new site at gmrsweb.com. That url still points to PopularWireless.com as does mursweb.com. Over the years our on-line community has grown and grown revolving around a family-friendly bulletin board moderated by some rather popular family friendly folks that love their topics. Several of the moderators of the PopularWireless forums have been with the site for over ten years. In Internet time that is forever.
At PopularWireless we are about wireless stuff. Predominantly two-way radio for families but we also dabble in wireless gadgets, hobbies, networking, marine radio, and even scanner listening and shortwave listening. You will find someone at PopularWireless interested in your topic if it involves radio, TV, or using wireless devices. We really love wireless stuff.
We think our blog is cool but our on-line community is even better ;) Join us at the Personal Wireless BBS!
This issue is not resolved! BBS is down until further notice. All three databases have had tables corrupted continuously since 1000 this morning. A call is in to Network Solutions. I will be gone most of the day. Back late. The diagnosis points to hardware or server connection problems;
The databases used by the PopularWireless.com bulletin board and AIS ship tracker crashed over night. The reason is unclear. I woke up this morning and received a message from Forum Moderator Bill Easterday who said he received a strange error when trying to access the forums. Mysteriously, the BLOG works.
I am investigating. At the moment I have no clue. The database files appear not to be there as I cannot use the Network Solutions tools at their site either. The myPHP interface crashes with
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/services/mysql/phpmyadmin/left.php:92) in /usr/services/mysql/phpmyadmin/libraries/ob.lib.php on line 61
Wish me luck.
————–
Update 0820 hrs 081707
I called Tech Support. Their center in Pennsylvania took the call. Mike told me that it appeared a large number of customers would be down based on the error he was seeing. The issue did not appear to be specific to PopularWireless.com which was good news. There was no other data from other customers regarding this issue so thanks to Bill we were the first to report it. Mike said to check in one hour intervals to see if the databases have come back to life. In the meantime enjoy the blog. Comment on some posts perhaps.
Mike did a good job setting my expectations so I am actually confident they are working on it.
Update 0900 hrs
still down
Thank you to all of our visitors! This month PopularWireless achieved a “hits” milestone of 1,140,130 hits by mid month. In May 2007 the count for the month was 1,241,527, and April was 1,331,553. It’s a raw statistic but it still speaks volumes to us. Thanks for looking in on us at PopularWireless.com!
I -think- my anti-spam configuration may have dumped some real comments that were not spam. When/if your comment is rejected please contact me directly at editor@popularwireless.com. I have only used WordPress for a few months now 
I can try to debug the problem if I know your comment was rejected. The plugins I am using now are not saving the comments for moderation.
(Huntingtown, MD 052107) - PopularWireless Magazine wants to know how your family uses GMRS. Write to us. Send us your story. Write editor@popularwireless.com. We want to share how your family uses GMRS during the day. How do you use it? Do you use repeaters or simplex? How often do you use GMRS? Is it everyday or just during trips and vacations? Let us know!
(Prince Frederick, MD 4/6/07:) In the tooting our own horn department - PopularWireless Editor Doug Smith, was interviewed by the Calvert Recorder in Prince Frederick, Calvert County Maryland recently. The article, “Scanner fans know what’s up,” appeared in Saturday’s paper. Doug manages a RadioShack dealership store in Dunkirk, MD where he sells police scanners and GMRS radios. Reporter John Wharton also wrote a nice article about GMRS. Doug is pictured on the front page of the paper holding a RadioShack PRO-96 and Midland MURS radio from RKLeef .
There is an on-line copy of the article at SOMDNEWS.COM.
Ok the new bulletin board is back. The Personal Wireless Bulletin Board is now located at:
http://www.popularwireless.com/forum/ubbthreads.php
