anyone know why the ppb and pfb feeds droped this morning?

brandytu11 · #1 (**permalink**) 09-16-2012, 11:38 AM

good morning,

just wondering if anyone knew why both the portland fire and portland police feeds droped??
thanks for your help!

W8RMH · #2 (**permalink**) 09-17-2012, 2:12 AM

Why is this feed offline? Where did a feed go? How to get my area added?

PMJ2kx · #3 (**permalink**) 09-17-2012, 2:36 AM

Actually, there were some feed / signal issues earlier. At least, that's what he wrote in the status message for Clackamas Fire.

joescanner · #4 (**permalink**) 09-17-2012, 3:42 AM

I have thought long and hard about how to reply to this, as the operator/provider of the audio feed(s) in question.

I'm going to start out with the feed uptime history for the last 30 days:

There are a few dimples in the graph, but for the last 30 days, the feed has been "up" and "operating" more than 95% of the time. I'm sure that if pressed, uptime statistics for far longer could be provided.

Today, I took the system down for some long overdue maintenance. (See the second attached image.) You know, installing the dreaded Windows Updates, running a full virus scan, performing a full backup of the disk, in order to be able to continue providing the service reliably. The quality of the feed degrades if I attempt to do all that with the feeds running, so I take them down so that I don't get complaints about the quality of the feed.

ALL of the RadioReference.com (and soon Broadcastify.com) live audio feeds are provided by volunteers who are free to put the feeds up and take them down as often, or for as long as they like (subject to a few restrictions). The feeds are not guaranteed - anywhere to be available with any SLA: if they're down, they're down.

When the feeds go down, I am automatically notified twice: once by my own system and once by RadioReference.com for EACH FEED. I don't need facebook messages, "feed problem reports", emails, or any other notices. I work a day job. On a radio. 40+ hours a week. I don't sit in front of the feed computer 24/7/365 when I'm not working and wait for a problem so I can fix it. When a problem comes up, I will take care of it as soon as I can - getting bombarded with other messages isn't going to make the end of my shift come any sooner, or get me back home from the coast any faster, or anything else I might be doing (for example, I just got back from 4 days in the Nevada desert - if the feed(s) had gone down while I was gone, guess what? They would have stayed down until I had gotten back and settled in.)

I try to wait for a time period where there is nothing "big" happening so that I can take care of routine maintenance activities without disturbing people from being able to listen to a potential "big event". Usually this works just fine. Sometimes it doesn't.

I also don't listen to the audio from my feeds frequently. I have separate monitoring facilities that I can include the things I want to listen to (as opposed to just my advertised feeds), and so if there is a problem with a feed (for example, when the Portland Fire scanner quit scanning and was stuck on Tapout a few weeks ago), that is when I welcome Feed Problem Reports. But, as I stated above. If I am out of town, at work, or somewhere that I don't have the facilities to troubleshoot the problem being reported, IT WILL TAKE TIME to resolve.

bbrown77 · #5 (**permalink**) 09-17-2012, 4:54 AM

Did I miss something, was somebody being disrespectful to the feed provider and I didn't see it? Somebody asked a simple and polite question about why the feed being down and the providers response sounds like he is on the defensive. I think a lot of us have instances where we take the system down for maintenance and also the dreaded problems that we can not fix until we get off of work. For those scheduled outages, I use the feature that allows you to display a message when the feed is offline "Sorry for the inconvenience, system down for maintenance" that way people will know when they try to listen, otherwise it is set for a default message saying it is down and the problem will be resolved soon. If you use other means of communication for feedback (Facebook, Twitter, Two cans and a string) then simply alerting others of the scheduled outage works well too. Remember, we provide a service to the public, they are not always aware of what goes on behind the scenes to make these things work, educating them is going to always be a chore and patience will make it a lot less stressful.

kd7jfv · #6 (**permalink**) 09-17-2012, 8:52 AM

It appears that someone has repeatedly contacts the PFB feed provider regarding the feed going down. I am a feed provider as well, provide the equipment at my cost, pay the electricity bill, and pay the internet bill all to provide a feed at no cost to the listener

Key points:
- Radioreference.com notifies the provider by e-mail and other methods the instant a feed drops
- Sometimes we can log in remote and fix the issue, other times it may take hours or days to fix the problem.
- E-mails and facebook notifications from listeners of the scanner being stuck on a particular frequency and audio problems truly are beneficial to the provider, but Facebook messages, text messages and other ways of repeatedly harassing a feed provider because their feed is down is not necessary and not needed. We'll fix it when we can.

Ben

loumaag · #7 (**permalink**) 10-02-2012, 10:48 AM

Responding to a report of possible TOS violation I arrived here and elsewhere on the Oregon forum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbrown77

Did I miss something, was somebody being disrespectful to the feed provider and I didn't see it? Somebody asked a simple and polite question about why the feed being down and the providers response sounds like he is on the defensive....

Um, same here. I don't see the specific problem here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kd7jfv

It appears that someone has repeatedly contacts the PFB feed provider regarding the feed going down. I am a feed provider as well, provide the equipment at my cost, pay the electricity bill, and pay the internet bill all to provide a feed at no cost to the listener...

Ben,
"Repeatedly contacts the PFB feed provider"? I see two total posts by the OP and although both are about the feed, neither address the feed provider and they are better than two weeks apart.

Folks, specifically the feed providers following this topic, I realize that this is a trying time with the impending changes for you; however, there is no reason to take it out on your listeners, your customers. They are the reason you do what you do, and granted you do it on a volunteer basis and at your own expense, but when a simple question is asked by someone who obviously enjoys your efforts but has no idea what goes into it, it is no reason to get your panties in a twist and take it out on them.

As a general rule to everyone using the forums:
If you feel you have to think "long and hard" about how to respond, then don't; you are under no obligation to respond at all.

lowboy654 · #8 (**permalink**) 10-05-2012, 12:57 PM

Joe, I understand when our feeds go off line for what ever reason, the back lash can be to much. We do this for free on our end, so enjoy whats free for you. We have a free scanner to stream this stuff so enjoy. I Myself I never listen to my feed, I have 10 more scanners to listen to what I want to, if I get a report of something is not working on my feed then I will fix it when I can or have the time.

~~egulley612~~ · #9 (**permalink**) 10-05-2012, 1:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loumaag

Responding to a report of possible TOS violation I arrived here and elsewhere on the Oregon forum.
Um, same here. I don't see the specific problem here.

Ben,
"Repeatedly contacts the PFB feed provider"? I see two total posts by the OP and although both are about the feed, neither address the feed provider and they are better than two weeks apart.

Folks, specifically the feed providers following this topic, I realize that this is a trying time with the impending changes for you; however, there is no reason to take it out on your listeners, your customers. They are the reason you do what you do, and granted you do it on a volunteer basis and at your own expense, but when a simple question is asked by someone who obviously enjoys your efforts but has no idea what goes into it, it is no reason to get your panties in a twist and take it out on them.

As a general rule to everyone using the forums:
If you feel you have to think "long and hard" about how to respond, then don't; you are under no obligation to respond at all.

I agree. The feed providers are taking their aggression out on the listeners and taking their feeds off line. That really doesn't accomplish anything but shows how foolish the providers can be.

I have said it a million times, You are mistaken about the new changes providers, The database will still be free. the only way you will know what is really going to happen providers to to just sit and wait and see what happens. Thetre is no reason at all for grown adults to throw a temper tantrum and take down their feeds to show that you don't agree with the changes.

lowboy654 · #10 (**permalink**) 10-05-2012, 6:59 PM

Well said Joe, as a feed provider when it goes down am not in front of my PC all of the times, I to have a job, if my kid is home I will have him reload it... its the best that I can do.....this service is free, so don't get bent if its not there, I do the best that I can to keep it up and running, I am Sure that he got bombarded with emails on whats wrong with him and how he needs to get his stuff together,i it can be a pain in the butt
73's

DickH · #11 (**permalink**) 10-06-2012, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lowboy654

Well said Joe, as a feed provider when it goes down am not in front of my PC all of the times, I to have a job, if my kid is home I will have him reload it... its the best that I can do.....this service is free, so don't get bent if its not there, I do the best that I can to keep it up and running, I am Sure that he got bombarded with emails on whats wrong with him and how he needs to get his stuff together,i it can be a pain in the butt
73's

I agree Ken - and Joe. Being from Boston, I like to listen to Boston Fire and Brooklyn, NY.
Sometimes the feeds disappear, but I just try to find another feed.

rosecitytransit · #12 (**permalink**) 10-06-2012, 6:00 PM

I believe there is a saying about how one doesn't know just how much something is valued until that thing is taken away (this goes for both the feed providers and listeners).

Overall, it seems the right attitudes are to be thankful that the feeds exist in the first place (and for free!), believe that having a feeds with 95% uptime is much, much better than no feeds at all, and think "oh well" when the feeds do go down.

Considering those, I think it would be welcoming for listeners to include a "thank you" message stating how much they enjoy the feed when they bring up problems with it.

I assist with (but don't host) a non-Radio Reference feed, and don't get unhappy when a desired event didn't get recorded or there's other problems with the feed/recordings.

DickH · #13 (**permalink**) 10-07-2012, 8:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosecitytransit

I believe there is a saying about how one doesn't know just how much something is valued until that thing is taken away (this goes for both the feed providers and listeners).

Overall, it seems the right attitudes are to be thankful that the feeds exist in the first place (and for free!) ...

Exactly. And there is another old adage, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

Beaverinzone25 · #14 (**permalink**) 10-07-2012, 8:14 PM

I see this argument going both ways. I totally understand Joe's frustration with the listeners because in a way its freeloading(listening online); Scanner'ers spend money to get their own scanner and also the dependability of it, if a problem occurs they themselves will fix it. Online listeners pay nothing and then when a problem occurs want to know why there is an issue. On the other hand the people that are wondering about the feed issues often don't understand the process and are simply curious as to what the issue is. Uploading feeds costs money as he said and when they go offline there seems to be someone asking about it, which I understand can get annoying.

I think both the question and response were justified; as a previous online only listener, and now a Multiple scanner owner.

If an uploader is tired of people bugging him, in the end its their decision on how to handle it, even if its by taking down the feed altogether.