Drone Terrorism?

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drone-octDrones are a popular topic in the news today. More and more, drones are being used by people in cities and rural areas across the country. On October 23, 2016, Law enforcement officials fired at an unmanned aircraft and a large group of opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline blocked a North Dakota state highway Sunday, capping a weekend of protests.

A helicopter helping monitor a protest against the four-state pipeline Sunday morning was approached by a drone in a “threatening manner,” the Morton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. An officer in the helicopter told law enforcement on the ground that the pilot and passengers were “in fear of their lives” and that the unmanned aircraft was going after them. Less-than-lethal ammunition damaged the drone, which was then landed by its operator.

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said drones flying near protests and near the area where hundreds have been camping out are not being operated according to federal regulations.

“Reports of drones not being operated within the (Federal Aviation Administration) guidelines or in a reckless and unsafe manner are being investigated and forwarded to the Morton County States Attorney’s office for prosecution,” Kirchmeier said in a statement. Two people operating drones during the protests have already been charged.

Sunday afternoon, the large group of protesters had blocked the highway with hay bales, rocks, tree stumps and other items to create a roadblock north of the encampments, to where at times thousands of people have flocked. The North Dakota Department of Transportation closed the highway down.

Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners is building the $3.8 billion pipeline, which crosses through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. Opponents worry about potential effects on drinking water on the reservation and farther downstream because the pipeline will cross the Missouri River, as well as destruction of cultural artifacts.

Sunday’s demonstrations come after more than 80 people were arrested Saturday during a large protest at a pipeline construction site. More than 220 people have now been arrested since demonstrations began in August.

 

Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pipeline-733083-dakota-people.html

July 2016 Photography Contest winner….

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We are proud the announce our July monthly winner in Bad Wolf Technologies 2016 Photography Contest. Thank you to everyone who submitted a photo in July. We have some great pictures so far but keep submitting your favorite aviation pictures for a chance to win monthly prizes and the grand prize!

The winner with 9 votes in July is….

off to the wild but yonder, but really loud

off to the wild but yonder, but really loud

Congratulations to Kathi Taylor! Kathi will receive a $50 gift card, Bad Wolf Technologies T-shirt and be featured for the month of July in our 2017 calendar.

PhotocontestV3The contest isn’t over yet! Even if your photo didn’t win for July, you can submit a new photo for June and still win at the end of the year for our grand prize. The photo with the most votes at the end of the year will win an IPad and be the featured cover image on the 2017 Bad Wolf Technology Calendar.

Submit your next photo for August!

Visit www.recordyourflight.com/photocontest or our Facebook page to upload your next photo and encourage your friends and co-workers to vote. Good luck!

 

The Difference Between Gain, Volume, Level, and Loudness

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This article originally appeared at  http://www.offbeatband.com/2009/08/the-difference-between-gain-volume-level-and-loudness/

When working with sound amplification equipment, we often misuse these terms. Probably because you’ll see them often, and two or three on the same piece of equipment! That can seriously make your brain want to go flip upside-down and jump into a pool of boiling acoustic particle velocity soup. On top of that, you might have channel volume, master volume, guitar volume, fader levels, guitar amp gain, mixer board gain … etc. But, it’s pretty important stuff to understand if you want to get a good sound from your equipment.

Gain
Gain is one of the harder terms to define, mainly because its used in a lot more places than just the audio world. Quite simply it means an increase in some kind of value. So for example, you can have a power gain, voltage gain, or current gain; and they all increase those respective values. Typically when referring to gain, we refer to transmission gain, which is the increase in the power of the signal. This increase is almost always expressed in dB (decibels). This could be the increase in the raw signal from your guitar or microphone before it goes into any of the other electronic components. For the curious, here’s the equation to calculate gain:

Gain = 10 x log (Power out/Power in)

expressed in dB.

Practical Use of Gain
For all non-rocket scientist purposes, you’re probably going to see a gain control in two places. One of them is on your mixer board or PA, and the other is on a guitar amp. These both mean the same thing as far as electronics go, but serve different purposes in each.

On the mixer board, you’ll see the gain at the top of the board. It’s the first control that the raw mic signal sees, and it will boost the signal to a sufficient level for the rest of the controls to work properly. You’ll want to set this gain level high enough to bring up the level of the signal, but not so high that you’ll get clipping or distortion in the signal. For this purpose, many boards come with a PFL (Pre-Fader Listen) button. This button will let you see the actual signal strength by looking at the LEDs on the board. Use the mic at normal sound levels and set the gain knob so that the peaks in sound don’t send the signal into the red, and you’re good to go.

On a guitar amp, the gain’s main intention is to create distortion (as my blood tingles with ground shaking delight). You already know what it does, so there’s no point in telling you, but I do have a small tip – turn your gain down! Yes, I also love the gut wrenching melodies of face-meltifying solos, but you seriously don’t need your gain sitting on 10 all the time. Novices will go into the recording studio thinking their sound is redonkulously awesome, only to have the sound engineer take their distortion down to a 5 or 6 cause they sound terrible. The distortion shouldn’t hide your skills, but accentuate them.

Volume
Besides defining three dimensional space, volume can also be used to describe the power level of a signal. So when you turn up the “master volume” knob on your amp, it simply means you’re increasing the amount of power used by the amp to increase the signal. This term is quite ambiguous since it’s used in so many different places, mainly to mean the actual sound you perceive in your ears, which is not exactly true. Use with caution.

Level
This term is used to describe the magnitude of the sound in reference to some arbitrary reference. More specifically we use SPL (sound pressure level) to describe sound waves. SPL is a term calculated from the log of the rms sound pressure of a measured sound related to a reference value. Basically meaning we create a measurement scale with zero starting at the lowest threshold of human hearing. The SPL scale is shown in dB and goes up to 130 dB (well, infinity, but whatever), which is the threshold of pain for the human ear. Now I just need to find a way to rock as loud as Krakatoa (180 dB standing 100 miles away).

Loudness
Loudness, even though similar to volume and level, is another monster. Since human ears are not able to hear each frequency at the same level, perceived loudness is different as we move up and down in frequency. The following graph shows the level that a human ear “thinks” its hearing, which as you can see is not correct most of the time. The lower frequencies, like the bass guitar at 40-220 Hz, need more sound pressure for us to believe it’s equally as loud as a sound at 1 kHz.

Source: http://www.offbeatband.com/2009/08/the-difference-between-gain-volume-level-and-loudness/

Source: http://www.offbeatband.com/2009/08/the-difference-between-gain-volume-level-and-loudness/

Equal Loudness Contours

Here we introduce a term called a “phon“, which is used to describe loudness. You can see on the graph that the phon contour is different for each dB level. The 120 phon contour requires less boost in the low frequencies than the 10 phon contour. Mostly because of the shape of the ear, you can also see from the graph that we hear the 3-4 kHz range the best, which happens to be on the slightly higher end of human speech. If you lost it, you’d have a hard time understanding people.

Source: http://www.offbeatband.com/2009/08/the-difference-between-gain-volume-level-and-loudness/

What to do at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016

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EAA AirVenture 2016 in Oshkosh is just around the corner. As always, this year features some great events all week long.

1. Bad Wolf Technologies photography contest
PhotocontestV3If you’ve been to AirVenture before, you know there are plenty of opportunities to take some amazing pictures of aircrafts. This year, make sure to enter our 2016 photography contest. We are giving away great monthly prizes and a grand prize at the end of the year. Show off your photography skill and if you win, you’ll be features in our 2017 calendar.

Enter the photo contest today

 

2. Third Eye Blind EAA AirVenture Oshkosh Opening Day Concert on July 25
Third Eye Blind, the San Francisco-based band that has sold more than 12 million records with a string of Top 20 hits, will get EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016 off to an energetic start when it headlines the fly-in’s popular opening night concert on Monday, July 25.

The concert, presented by Ford Motor Company, is free to all AirVenture opening-day attendees and will be held on Boeing Centennial Plaza immediately following the afternoon air show.

3. Canadian Forces Snowbirds
The Canadian Forces Snowbirds, one of the most popular military aerial demonstration teams in the world, announced EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016 as part of its schedule, which would be the first time the team would be back at Oshkosh in more than 30 years.

Snowbirds Air Show Schedule: First performance is a “practice show” – basically, a full dress rehearsal for the weekend – on Friday, July 29, at the end of the regular afternoon air show. On Saturday, July 30, the Snowbirds will again fly as the final performers in the afternoon air show. The Snowbirds will wrap up their Oshkosh performances on Sunday, July 31, as the closing act in the last air show of AirVenture 2016. Learn more…

4. World’s Largest Flying Water Bomber
The gigantic Martin Mars aircraft, the world’s largest flying water bomber and the last of its kind, will make its first trip to Wisconsin to participate at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2016.

During the event, the massive airplane will be parked near the EAA Seaplane Base on Lake Winnebago, just a few miles east of the main fly-in grounds. It will also fly several demonstrations throughout the week during the daily afternoon air shows.

Martin Mars Air Show Schedule: July 25, July 27, July 29, July 30 evening

The Martin Mars is the largest flying boat ever flown operationally, with a height of 38 feet, a length of 120 feet, and a wingspan of 200 feet (approximately the wingspan of a Boeing 747). Only six of the massive aircraft were built, with Coulson Flying Tankers of Port Alberni, British Columbia, owning the two remaining examples since 2007 and using them as water bombers on forest fires throughout the western United States, Canada, and Mexico. Learn more…

5. Aircraft of Desert Storm Gather 25 Years Later
The aircraft of Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield, which formed one of the largest air power operations in history, will return to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in 2016 for a look back 25 years after this massive undertaking.

The commemoration at Oshkosh this year will feature many of the aircraft that were highlighted at the 1991 EAA Fly-In Convention, which attracted many of the aircraft used during Operation Desert Storm. In addition, military commanders of that operation will recall their experiences during that multi-national operation, which began after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The aircraft already confirmed for this year’s AirVenture gathering include fighter jets such as the F-15 Eagle, F-16 Falcon, A-10 Warthog, and F-18 Hornet. It also includes such support aircraft as the KC-135, EA-6B, and C-5M. Many of the aircraft used during those operations remain valuable assets for the U.S. military today. In addition, the Air Combat Command F-16 Viper Demonstration Team will fly as part of the afternoon air shows on Friday through Sunday, July 29-31.

On Friday, July 29, Gen. Chuck Horner – who commanded U.S. and Allied air operations in Desert Storm and Desert Shield – will be the guest of honor at an evening “Salute to Veterans” Day program at Theater in the Woods. Horner will be joined by Gen. Gilmary Hostage, who flew combat missions during Desert Storm. Other special guests are likely to join the lineup prior to AirVenture. Learn more…

These are just a handful of the wonderful activities taking place at EAA AirVenture 2016. Visit http://www.eaa.org/en/airventure for all the details.

HD-SDI Cabling and Loss

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HD-SDI is regularly transmitted over low-loss digital video grade RG6-style coaxial cable up to a nominal maximum distance of about 100 meters. However, when a lesser diameter cable like the RG179 is used, higher loss is encountered. This is primarily because of the size (cross-section) of the center conductor. Electrical signals travel through a wire by an effect known as the ’skin effect’ and the lesser the area available, the more the attenuation. Using RG179 for transmitting HD-SDI signals is good to about 100 feet. Another important factor is to use cable sweep tested for the highest possible frequency -bandwidth. Although the Mil-SPEC RG179 cable has a very strong outer jacket, the RG179 MIL-C-17/94F is rated to carry a maximum of 3GHz, with “attenuation rated at 21dB per 100 feet, maximum, at 0.4 GHz”. In comparison the Belden RG179DT (Digital Truck) cable carries signals to 4.5GHz. The ultimate distance limitation occurs for any digital signal when the perceived signal jitter component seen by the receiver impairs its ability to recognize and reconstruct bit transitions.

The range of operation for an HD-SDI receiver is specified in SMPTE 292M to at least -20 dB at one-half the data clock rate, or about 743 MHz. Therefore, a standard level 0.800 volt peak-to-peak digital transmission may be attenuated to as low as 0.080 volt, or 80 millivolts, while performing reliably. A very high-grade receiver may recover the HD-SDI signal at a level as low as -30 dB, or 70 mV.

To perform a cable loss calculation, the designer should look for the attenuation in dB at 743 MHz, or a frequency very close to that value, on the cable specification loss chart. Cable loss is based on a 100 foot length or a 100 meter length depending on the chart column used. Divide the cable run distance by 100 and then multiply by the dB value to attain the total attenuation in dB for that run. Refer to manufacturer tables. The SMPTE recommends the designer factor in about 10% less cable than the calculated run length so as to build in a safety margin for reliable operation.

Coax is not the only medium available. Serial digital video may be routed through fiber optic cable for essentially unlimited distances depending on the system configuration. A convertor is used to convert the electrical signals to light signal, and then sent along the fiber optic cable whereas the other end would have the decoder to convert the light signals back to electrical signals. If your application requires long runs of cable, do not hesitate to contact us for suggestions and solutions.

June 2016 Photography Contest winner….

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We are proud the announce our June monthly winner in Bad Wolf Technologies 2016 Photography Contest. Thank you to everyone who submitted a photo in June. We have some great pictures so far but keep submitting your favorite aviation pictures for a chance to win monthly prizes and the grand prize!

The winner with 17 votes in June is….

Flying high in Chicago – Sue Blackwell

Congratulations to Susan Blackwell! Sue will receive a $50 gift card, Bad Wolf Technologies T-shirt and be featured for the month of June in our 2017 calendar.

PhotocontestV3The contest isn’t over yet! Even if your photo didn’t win for May, you can submit a new photo for June and still win at the end of the year for our grand prize. The photo with the most votes at the end of the year will win an IPad and be the featured cover image on the 2017 Bad Wolf Technology Calendar.

Submit your next photo for July!

Visit www.recordyourflight.com/photocontest or our Facebook page to upload your next photo and encourage your friends and co-workers to vote. Good luck!

 

Coming soon – New Software Application from Bad Wolf Technologies

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Bad Wolf Technologies specializes in airborne video systems and geo-spatial solutions. Our video systems include mission recording and mission debriefing capabilities.

Our upcoming software solution accepts MULTIPLE pre-recorded video & audio streams while synchronizing and playing them back via a CUSTOM “Aerial Video Player.” This custom application plays the pre-videos in sync, while mapping out the flight path. It shows the aircraft position (marker) along the flight path, where way-points or areas of interest are indicated by the “bread crumbs.”

This software package may be used by anyone who needs to see the FPV while reviewing a specific mission route.

This application is compatible with the AirKnight HD and the Nano DVR families of Bad Wolf Technologies video recorders and will be released later this year. Look for more updates over the next few weeks and months.

Want to learn more?

Contact us today for a quick overview of this exciting new solution.

May 2016 Photography Contest winner….

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We have our first monthly winner in Bad Wolf Technologies 2016 Photography Contest. Thank you to everyone who submitted a photo in May. We got off to a late start in May but had some truly great pictures.

The winner with 20 votes in May is….

Support our U.S. Navy! From Tina Demarco

Support our U.S. Navy!
From Tina Demarco

Congratulations to Tina Demarco! Tina will receive a $50 gift card, Bad Wolf Technologies T-shirt and be featured for the month of May in our 2017 calendar.

PhotocontestV3The contest isn’t over yet! Even if your photo didn’t win for May, you can submit a new photo for June and still win at the end of the year for our grand prize. The photo with the most votes at the end of the year will win an IPad and be the featured cover image on the 2017 Bad Wolf Technology Calendar.

Submit your next photo for June!

Visit www.recordyourflight.com/photocontest or our Facebook page to upload your next photo and encourage your friends and co-workers to vote. Good luck!

 

AirKnight Promotion

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Record audio and video with the AirKnight series. For a limited time we are offering special pricing on three of our most popular products.

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  • AirKnight-HD – $2,999 – Single Channel full HD SDI 1080p60 Digital Video Recorder
  • AirKnight-HD2 – $5,499 – Dual Channel full HD SDI 1080p60 Digital Video Recorder
  • AirKnight-HD4S – $5,499 – Single Channel full HD SDI 1080p60 Digital Video Recording with a built in Quad Switcher

Take advantage of this special pricing today! Request a quote…  or contact our sales team.

Introducing the 2016 Bad Wolf Technologies Photography Contest

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PhotoBanner2

Bad Wolf Technologies invites photographers from around the world to enter the 2016 Photography Contest. The contest provides aircraft enthusiast a platform to share images of their places, helicopters and other aircraft to the general public. Photos must feature an aircraft, people working on an aircraft or images taken from an aircraft. The general public will be able to vote for monthly and yearly winners.

Contest Details
PhotocontestV3The contest runs from Tuesday, May 24, 2016 to Saturday, December 31, 2016.

Voting for the monthly contests will run until midnight on the last day of the month and monthly winners will be announced on the 2nd of every month. Voting for the grand prize will end on December 31, 2016. The image with the most votes will win and be announced on January 2. Contestants can enter as many photos as they want. You can only vote one time per photo.

Prizes:

  • Monthly Prize – $50 Gift Card, T-shirt & photo included in Bad Wolf Technologies calendar
    • 2 runner ups – T-shirt
  • Yearly Prize – Apple iPad & featured photo in Bad Wolf Technologies calendar
    • Runner up – $200 gift card

Go to www.recordyourflight.com/photocontest or our Facebook page to enter today!

Good Luck!