Notice the massive lag spikes around the time class begins. I think it’s caused by the retarded behavior of windows update and anti-virus software updates being downloaded on a gazillion computers all at the same time which are required to connect to the network on Windows machines. Class start times were 8:30am, 9:35am, and 10:40am. Let’s view it on a logarithmic scale:

Finally, the code. It’s two scripts. One pings a website (kernel.org) every few seconds and records the ping time to “pings.txt”, and the other graphs the data. Here are the two scripts:

import socket, time, os, sys, re

def getping():
	pingaling = os.popen("ping -q -c2 kernel.org")
	sys.stdout.flush()
	while 1:
		line = pingaling.readline()
		if not line: break
		line=line.split("\n")
		for part in line:
			if "rtt" in part:
				part=part.split(" = ")[1]
				part=part.split('/')[1]
				print part+"ms"
				return part

def add2log(stuff):
	f=open("pings.txt",'a')
	f.write(stuff+",")
	f.close()

while 1:
	print "pinging...",
	stuff="[%s,%s]"%(time.time(),getping())
	print stuff
	add2log(stuff)
	time.sleep(1)

import pylab, time, datetime, numpy

def smoothTriangle(data,degree,dropVals=False):
	triangle=numpy.array(range(degree)+[degree]+range(degree)[::-1])+1
	smoothed=[]
	for i in range(degree,len(data)-degree*2):
		point=data[i:i+len(triangle)]*triangle
		smoothed.append(sum(point)/sum(triangle))
	if dropVals:
		print "smoothlen:",len(smoothed)
		return smoothed
	#smoothed=[smoothed[0]]*(degree+degree/2)+smoothed
	#while len(smoothed)<len(data):smoothed.append(smoothed[-1])
	while len(smoothed)<len(data):smoothed=[None]+smoothed+[None]
	if len(smoothed)>len(data):smoothed.pop(-1)
	return smoothed

print "reading"
f=open("pings.txt")
raw=eval("[%s]"%f.read())
f.close()

xs,ys,big=[],[],[]
for item in raw:
	t=datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(item[0])
	maxping=20000
	if item[1]>maxping or item[1]==None:
		item[1]=maxping
		big.append(t)
	ys.append(float(item[1]))
	xs.append(t)

#print xs
#raw_input("WAIT")

print "plotting"
fig=pylab.figure(figsize=(10,7))
pylab.plot(xs,ys,'k.',alpha=.1)
pylab.plot(xs,ys,'k-',alpha=.1)
pylab.plot(xs,smoothTriangle(ys,15),'b-')
pylab.grid(alpha=.3)
pylab.axis([None,None,None,2000])
#pylab.semilogy()
#pylab.xlabel("time")
pylab.ylabel("latency (ping kernel.org, ms)")
pylab.title("D3-3 Network Responsiveness")
fig.autofmt_xdate()
#pylab.show()
pylab.savefig('out.png')
pylab.semilogy()
pylab.savefig('out2.png')
fig.autofmt_xdate()
print "done"

>>> VD Labs Webpage

Since I ran out of steam from working so much on QRSS VD, I didn’t think I’d be publishing mush more “useful” software, but this one blind-sighted me. People on the Knights QRSS mailing list were talking about dividing QRSS transmissions into images which line up with the period of the transmitters repeated messages and projecting the images together in an attempt to average-out the noise, and boost the signal. It’s a simple idea, and it’s the basis behind how a lot of poor imaging devices can improve their output clarity by software (MRI anyone?). I was overwhelmed by dental school obligations the last few weeks, and it pained me so much to read what people were doing (or at least trying to do) and having to sit it out. Now that I have a free day (yay for weekends!) I sat down and wrote some code. I introduce VD Labs QRSS Stitcher and QRSS Stacker!

Converting Argo captures into continuous images:

example output:

Doing the same thing, with ultra-narrow images:

File produced:

Using QRSS Stacker to project images:

Another example output:

Screenshots:

DOWNLOAD:

very soon…

However, when I went to look at the logs, I realized that the software had a small, fatal bug in it. Apparently every time the program restarted (which happened a few times over the months), although it resumed at its most recent prime number, it erased the previous entries. As a result, I have no logs below N=95 billion. In other words, although I reached my target this morning, it’s completely irrelevant since I don’t have all the previous data to prove it. I’m completely beside myself, and have no idea what I’m going to do. I can start from the beginning again, but that would take another YEAR. [sigh]

So here’s the screw-up. Apparently I coded everything correctly on paper, but due to my lack of experience I overlooked the potential for multiple appends to occur simultaneously. I can only assume that’s what screwed it up, but I cannot be confident. Honestly, I still don’t know specifically what the problem is. All in all, it looks good to me. Here is the relevant Python code.

def add2log(c,v):
	f=open(logfile,'a')
	f.write("%d,%d\n"%(c,v))
	f.close()

def resumeFromLog():
	f=open('log.txt')
	raw=f.readlines()[-1]
	f.close()
	return eval("["+raw+"]")

For what it’s worth, this is what remains of the log file:

953238,28546251136703
953239,28546282140203
953240,28546313129849
...
1000772,30020181524029
1000773,30020212566353
1000774,30020243594723

Step 0: GET THE REQUIRED PROGRAMS! Yes, there’s a step zero. Make sure you have installed Python, cwtext, and lame. Now you’re ready to roll!

Step 1: PREPARE SOME TEXT! I went to Wikipedia and copy/pasted an ENTIRE article into a text file called in.txt. Don’t worry about special characters (such as ” and * and #), we’ll fix them with the following python script.

import time
f=open("out.txt")
raw=f.read()
f.close()

cmd  = """echo "TEST" | cwpcm -w 7 | """
cmd += """lame -r -m m -b 8 --resample 8 -q9 - - > text.mp3"""

import os
i=0
for chunk in raw.split("\n")[5:]:
        if chunk.count(" ")>50:
                i+=1
                print "\n\nfile",i, chunk.count(" "), "words\n"
		do = cmd.replace("TEST",chunk).replace("text","%02d"%i)
		print "running:",do,
		time.sleep(1)
		print "\n\nSTART ...",
                os.system(do)
		print "DONE"

Step 2: MAKE MP3s OF THE TEXT! There should be a new file, out.txt, which is cleaned-up nicely. Run the following script to turn every paragraph of text with more than 50 words into an mp3 file…

f=open("out.txt")
raw=f.read()
f.close()
cmd = """echo "TEST" | cwpcm -w 13 | sox -r 44k -u -b 8 -t raw - text.wav"""
cmd+="""; lame --preset phone text.wav text.mp3; rm text.wav"""
import os
i=0
for chunk in raw.split("\n")[5:]:
	if chunk.count(" ")>50:
		i+=1
		print i, chunk.count(" "), "words"
		os.system(cmd.replace("TEST",chunk).replace("text","%02d"%i))

Now you should have a directory filled with mp3 files which you can skip through (or shuffle!) using your handy dandy mp3 player. Note that “-w 13″ means 13 WPM (words per minute). Simply change that number to change the speed.

Good luck with your CW practice!
–Scott (AJ4VD)

I used the code below to generate the log, and the code further below to create the graph from the log file. Assuming your microphone is enabled and everything else is working, this software will require you to determine your own threshold for talking vs. no talking. Read the code and you’ll figure out how test your sound card settings.

If you want to try this yourself you need a Linux system (a Windows system version could be created simply by replacing getVolEach() with a Windows-based audio level detection system) with Python and the alsaaudio, numpy, and matplotlib libraries. Try running the code on your own, and if it doesn’t recognize a library “aptitude search” for it. Everything you need can be installed from packages in the common repository.

#pySquelchLogger.py
import time, random, alsaaudio, audioop
inp = alsaaudio.PCM(alsaaudio.PCM_CAPTURE,alsaaudio.PCM_NONBLOCK)
inp.setchannels(2)
inp.setrate(1000)
inp.setformat(alsaaudio.PCM_FORMAT_S8)
inp.setperiodsize(100)
addToLog=""
lastLogTime=0

testLevel=False ### SET THIS TO 'True' TO TEST YOUR SOUNDCARD

def getVolEach():
        # this is a quick way to detect activity.
        # modify this function to use alternate methods of detection.
	while True:
		l,data = inp.read() # poll the audio device
		if l>0: break
	vol = audioop.max(data,1) # get the maximum amplitude
	if testLevel: print vol
	if vol>10: return True ### SET THIS NUMBER TO SUIT YOUR NEEDS ###
	return False

def getVol():
        # reliably detect activity by getting 3 consistant readings.
	a,b,c=True,False,False
	while True:
		a=getVolEach()
		b=getVolEach()
		c=getVolEach()
		if a==b==c:
			if testLevel: print "RESULT:",a
			break
	if a==True: time.sleep(1)
	return a

def updateLog():
        # open the log file, append the new data, and save it again.
	global addToLog,lastLogTime
	#print "UPDATING LOG"
	if len(addToLog)>0:
        	f=open('log.txt','a')
        	f.write(addToLog)
        	f.close()
        	addToLog=""
	lastLogTime=time.mktime(time.localtime())

def findSquelch():
        # this will record a single transmission and store its data.
	global addToLog
	while True: # loop until we hear talking
		time.sleep(.5)
		if getVol()==True:
			start=time.mktime(time.localtime())
			print start,
			break
	while True: # loop until talking stops
		time.sleep(.1)
		if getVol()==False:
			length=time.mktime(time.localtime())-start
			print length
			break
	newLine="%d,%d "%(start,length)
	addToLog+=newLine
	if start-lastLogTime>30: updateLog() # update the log

while True:
	findSquelch()

The logging code (above) produces a log file like this (below). The values represent the start time of each transmission (in seconds since epoch) followed by the duration of the transmission.

#log.txt
1245300044,5 1245300057,4 1245300063,16 1245300094,13 1245300113,4 1245300120,14 1245300195,4 1245300295,4 1245300348,4 1245300697,7 1245300924,3 1245301157,4 1245301207,12 1245301563,4 1245302104,6 1245302114,6 1245302192,3 1245302349,4 1245302820,4 1245304812,13 1245308364,10 1245308413,14 1245312008,14 1245313953,11 1245314008,6 1245314584,4 1245314641,3 1245315212,5 1245315504,6 1245315604,13 1245315852,3 1245316255,6 1245316480,5 1245316803,3 1245316839,6 1245316848,11 1245316867,5 1245316875,12 1245316893,13 1245316912,59 1245316974,12 1245316988,21 1245317011,17 1245317044,10 1245317060,6 1245317071,7 1245317098,33 1245317140,96 1245317241,15 1245317259,14 1245317277,8 1245317298,18 1245317322,103 1245317435,40 1245317488,18 1245317508,34 1245317560,92 1245317658,29 1245317697,55 1245317755,33 1245317812,5 1245317818,7 1245317841,9 1245317865,25 1245317892,79 1245317972,30 1245318007,8 1245318021,60 1245318083,28 1245318114,23 1245318140,25 1245318167,341 1245318512,154 1245318670,160 1245318834,22 1245318859,9 1245318870,162 1245319042,57 1245319102,19 1245319123,30 1245319154,18 1245319206,5 1245319214,13 1245319229,6 1245319238,6 1245319331,9 1245319341,50 1245319397,71 1245319470,25 1245319497,40 1245319540,8 1245319551,77 1245319629,4 1245319638,36 1245319677,158 1245319837,25 1245319865,40 1245319907,33 1245319948,92 1245320043,26 1245320100,9 1245320111,34 1245320146,8 1245320159,6 1245320167,8 1245320181,12 1245320195,15 1245320212,14 1245320238,18 1245320263,46 1245320310,9 1245320326,22 1245320352,27 1245320381,15 1245320398,24 1245320425,57 1245320483,16 1245320501,40 1245320543,43 1245320589,65 1245320657,63 1245320722,129 1245320853,33 1245320889,50 1245320940,1485 1245322801,7 1245322809,103 1245322923,5 1245322929,66 1245323553,4 1245324203,15 1245324383,5 1245324570,7 1245324835,4 1245325200,8 1245325463,5 1245326414,12 1245327340,12 1245327836,4 1245327973,4 1245330006,12 1245331244,11 1245331938,11 1245332180,5 1245332187,81 1245332573,5 1245333609,12 1245334447,10 1245334924,9 1245334945,4 1245334971,4 1245335031,9 1245335076,11 1245335948,16 1245335965,27 1245335993,113 1245336107,79 1245336187,64 1245336253,37 1245336431,4 1245336588,5 1245336759,7 1245337048,3 1245337206,13 1245337228,4 1245337309,4 1245337486,6 1245337536,8 1245337565,38 1245337608,100 1245337713,25 1245337755,169 1245337930,8 1245337941,20 1245337967,6 1245337978,7 1245337996,20 1245338019,38 1245338060,127 1245338192,30 1245338227,22 1245338250,15 1245338272,15 1245338310,3 1245338508,4 1245338990,5 1245339136,5 1245339489,8 1245339765,4 1245340220,5 1245340233,6 1245340266,10 1245340278,22 1245340307,7 1245340315,28 1245340359,32 1245340395,4 1245340403,41 1245340446,46 1245340494,58 1245340554,17 1245340573,21 1245340599,3 1245340604,5 1245340611,46 1245340661,26 1245340747,4 1245340814,14 1245341043,4 1245341104,4 1245341672,4 1245341896,5 1245341906,3 1245342301,3 1245342649,6 1245342884,5 1245342929,4 1245343314,6 1245343324,10 1245343335,16 1245343353,39 1245343394,43 1245343439,62 1245343561,3 1245343790,4 1245344115,3 1245344189,5 1245344233,4 1245344241,6 1245344408,12 1245344829,3 1245345090,5 1245345457,5 1245345689,4 1245346086,3 1245347112,12 1245348006,14 1245348261,10 1245348873,4 1245348892,3 1245350303,11 1245350355,4 1245350766,5 1245350931,3 1245351605,14 1245351673,55 1245351729,23 1245351754,5 1245352123,37 1245352163,21 1245352186,18 1245352209,40 1245352251,49 1245352305,8 1245352315,5 1245352321,6 1245352329,22 1245352353,48 1245352404,77 1245352483,58 1245352543,17 1245352570,19 1245352635,5 1245352879,3 1245352899,5 1245352954,4 1245352962,6 1245352970,58 1245353031,21 1245353055,14 1245353071,52 1245353131,37 1245353170,201 1245353373,56 1245353431,18 1245353454,47 1245353502,13 1245353519,106 1245353627,10 1245353647,12 1245353660,30 1245353699,42 1245353746,28 1245353776,29 1245353806,9 1245353818,21 1245353841,10 1245353853,6 1245353862,224 1245354226,4 1245354964,63 1245355029,4 1245355036,142 1245355180,148 1245355330,7 1245355338,23 1245355363,9 1245355374,60 1245355437,142 1245355581,27 1245355609,5 1245355615,2 1245355630,64 1245355700,7 1245355709,73 1245355785,45 1245355834,85 1245355925,9 1245356234,5 1245356620,6 1245356629,12 1245356643,29 1245356676,120 1245356798,126 1245356937,62 1245357001,195 1245357210,17 1245357237,15 1245357258,24 1245357284,53 1245357339,2 1245357345,27 1245357374,76 1245357452,28 1245357482,42 1245357529,14 1245357545,35 1245357582,74 1245357661,30 1245357693,19 1245357714,38 1245357758,11 1245357777,37 1245357817,49 1245357868,19 1245357891,31 1245357931,48 1245357990,49 1245358043,24 1245358082,22 1245358108,17 1245358148,18 1245358168,7 1245358179,6 1245358186,19 1245358209,17 1245358229,5 1245358240,9 1245358252,10 1245358263,6 1245358272,9 1245358296,26 1245358328,49 1245358381,6 1245358389,38 1245358453,19 1245358476,24 1245358504,21 1245358533,76 1245358628,24 1245358653,10 1245358669,105 1245358781,20 1245358808,14 1245358836,6 1245358871,61 1245358933,0 1245358936,44 1245358982,11 1245358996,25 1245359023,15 1245359040,32 1245359076,19 1245359099,13 1245359117,16 1245359138,12 1245359161,33 1245359215,32 1245359249,14 1245359272,7 1245359314,10 1245359333,36 1245359371,21 1245359424,10 1245359447,61 1245359514,32 1245359560,42 1245359604,87 1245359700,60 1245359762,23 1245359786,4 1245359791,8 1245359803,6 1245359813,107 1245359922,29 1245359953,22 1245359978,86 1245360069,75 1245360147,22 1245360170,0 1245360184,41 1245360239,15 1245360256,34 1245360301,37 1245360339,1 1245360342,28 1245360372,20 1245360394,32 1245360440,24 1245360526,3 1245360728,3 1245361011,4 1245361026,35 1245361064,137 1245361359,5 1245362172,11 1245362225,21 1245362248,51 1245362302,20 1245362334,42 1245362418,12 1245362468,7 1245362557,9 1245362817,3 1245363175,4 1245363271,4 1245363446,3 1245363539,4 1245363573,4 1245363635,1 1245363637,3 1245363740,5 1245363875,3 1245364075,4 1245364354,14 1245364370,19 1245364391,49 1245364442,34 1245364478,23 1245364502,80 1245364633,15 1245364650,8 1245364673,16 1245364691,47 1245364739,53 1245364795,39 1245364836,25 1245365353,4 1245365640,11 1245365665,5 1245365726,8 1245365778,7 1245365982,4 1245366017,13 1245366042,6 1245366487,4 1245366493,4 1245366500,4 1245366507,3 1245366622,5 1245366690,5 1245366946,4 1245366953,16 1245366975,8 1245366996,7 1245367005,7 1245367031,6 1245367040,9 1245367051,7 1245367059,23 1245367084,76 1245367166,158 1245367740,4 1245367804,3 1245367847,4 1245367887,9 1245369300,10 1245369611,12 1245370038,10 1245370374,8 1245370668,5 1245370883,5 1245370927,7 1245370945,9 1245370961,16 1245370978,414 1245371398,135 1245371535,252 1245371791,238 1245372034,199 1245372621,4 1245372890,5 1245373043,7 1245373060,9 1245373073,6 1245373081,68 1245373151,10 1245373162,49 1245373212,79 1245373300,12 1245373313,38 1245373353,20 1245373374,59 1245373435,28 1245373465,94 1245373560,11 1245373574,53 1245373629,22 1245373654,6 1245373662,334 1245373998,169 1245374176,41 1245374219,26 1245374246,51 1245374299,31 1245374332,57 1245374391,55 1245374535,4 1245374759,7 1245374769,200 1245374971,215 1245375188,181 1245375371,81 1245375455,59 1245375516,33 1245375552,19 1245375572,56 1245375629,220 1245375850,32 1245375884,26 1245375948,7 1245375964,114 1245376473,4 1245376810,13 1245378296,10 1245378950,12 1245379004,3 1245379569,4 1245379582,4 1245379615,6 1245380030,3 1245380211,4 1245380412,14 1245380727,4 1245380850,4 

This log file is only 7.3 KB. At this rate, a years’ worth of log data can be stored in less than 3MB of plain text files. Awesome! The data presented here can be graphed (producing the image at the top of the page) using the following code:

#pySquelchGrapher.py
print "loading libraries...",
import pylab, datetime, numpy
print "complete"

def loadData(fname="log.txt"):
	print "loading data...",
	# load signal/duration from log file
	f=open(fname)
	raw=f.read()
	f.close()
	raw=raw.replace('\n',' ')
	raw=raw.split(" ")
	signals=[]
	for line in raw:
		if len(line)<3: continue
		line=line.split(',')
		sec=datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(int(line[0]))
		dur=int(line[1])
		signals.append([sec,dur])
	print "complete"
	return signals

def findDays(signals):
	# determine which days are in the log file
	print "finding days...",
	days=[]
	for signal in signals:
		day = signal[0].date()
		if not day in days:
			days.append(day)
	print "complete"
	return days

def genMins(day):
	# generate an array for every minute in a certain day
	print "generating bins...",
	mins=[]
	startTime=datetime.datetime(day.year,day.month,day.day)
	minute=datetime.timedelta(minutes=1)
	for i in xrange(60*60):
		mins.append(startTime+minute*i)
	print "complete"
	return mins

def fillMins(mins,signals):
	print "filling bins...",
	vals=[0]*len(mins)
	dayToDo=signals[0][0].date()
	for signal in signals:
		if not signal[0].date() == dayToDo: continue
		sec=signal[0]
		dur=signal[1]
		prebuf = sec.second
		minOfDay=sec.hour*60+sec.minute
		if dur+prebuf<60: # simple case, no rollover seconds
			vals[minOfDay]=dur
		else: # if duration exceeds the minute the signal started in
			vals[minOfDay]=60-prebuf
			dur=dur+prebuf
			while (dur>0): # add rollover seconds to subsequent minutes
				minOfDay+=1
				dur=dur-60
				if dur< =0: break
				if dur>=60: vals[minOfDay]=60
				else: vals[minOfDay]=dur
	print "complete"
	return vals

def normalize(vals):
	print "normalizing data...",
	divBy=float(max(vals))
	for i in xrange(len(vals)):
		vals[i]=vals[i]/divBy
	print "complete"
	return vals

def smoothListGaussian(list,degree=10):
	print "smoothing...",
	window=degree*2-1
	weight=numpy.array([1.0]*window)
	weightGauss=[]
	for i in range(window):
		i=i-degree+1
		frac=i/float(window)
		gauss=1/(numpy.exp((4*(frac))**2))
		weightGauss.append(gauss)
	weight=numpy.array(weightGauss)*weight
	smoothed=[0.0]*(len(list)-window)
	for i in range(len(smoothed)):
	  smoothed[i]=sum(numpy.array(list[i:i+window])*weight)/sum(weight)
	while len(list)>len(smoothed)+int(window/2):
		smoothed.insert(0,smoothed[0])
	while len(list)>len(smoothed):
		smoothed.append(smoothed[0])
	print "complete"
	return smoothed

signals=loadData()
days=findDays(signals)
for day in days:
	mins=genMins(day)
	vals=normalize(fillMins(mins,signals))
	fig=pylab.figure()
	pylab.grid(alpha=.2)
	pylab.plot(mins,vals,'k',alpha=.1)
	pylab.plot(mins,smoothListGaussian(vals),'b',lw=1)
	pylab.axis([day,day+datetime.timedelta(days=1),None,None])
	fig.autofmt_xdate()
	pylab.title("147.120 MHz Usage for "+str(day))
	pylab.xlabel("time of day")
	pylab.ylabel("fractional usage")
	pylab.show()

If you have any questions, Google first, then feel free to contact me if you still can’t get it. Good luck!!