I want to play a game...

[Udo Schmidt]

A foreword: if this is somehow inappropiate or in the wrong section
I apologize in advance but I think this is probably the best place to put this in.


Anyhow back to business, I would like to play a little game with you folks and if You like it
maybe even make more in the future.

Now I will post two links to two audio files of mine in here and see if You guys
can make any sense of them.
Whoever manages to figure out both files first gets an imaginary cookie. (Not really the cookie is a lie.)
I will offer VERY VERY vague hints for both files. Dont be mad if you dont get them.

#1:

https://soundcloud.com/soundcloud.com%2Fudo-schmidt-2%2Frandomtest

So this is the very vague hint that you will only get if youre both a HAM enthusiast
AND a fan of the Fringe series: "Agent Dunhams first name."

#2:

https://soundcloud.com/soundcloud.com%2Fudo-schmidt-2%2Frandomtest2

So this should be much easier than the first one for some but not for others.
Hint:"The Answer lies not within but without."

Again I apologize if this is somehow entirely inappropiate or in the wrong section.


Have fun

Udo.

 

[Omnomnick]

Seems like a pretty fun idea to run weird games like this in the forum. However, I'll admit right now that I'll be totally rubbish at a game like this, but others might be pretty good.

Now where did Vegeta get to...?

 

[Udo Schmidt]

Hey Omnomnick, thanks for the kind words! I was actually quite scared that it would get shooed away for some reason or other.
And I will also admit that this might not be easy but I got the idea when solving the original portal ARG's which I really loved.
I'll try and expand upon the premise of the idea once somebody solves this. And as I said if You guys actually like this I'll try and make it more fruitful and rewarding and maybe even harder.

 

[Krynn72]

Olivia is a digital mode in HAM radio, but I have no means to decode what you made with it. Also I wouldn't know how, because all I did to learn this much is google "HAM radio olivia" and got this youtube link

 

[MFL]

I don't particularly feel like analyzing these by ear at 2 in the morning just tell me what bands they are.

Shitty antiquated low power protocols... where's your 1024QAM?


CQ CQ CQ CQ CQ 73

Edit: No, I'm done, I'm not gonna keep listening to different ****ing PSK modes tonight.
I'm listening to god damn radiofax because of you. I hope you're happy.
You know who still uses low-speed data? Neither do ****ing I.

 

[Udo Schmidt]

Alright I'll just end this here before it gets out of hand. (also I messed up the Olivia file as I just realized after being more sober, its too long and after running through it again it seems I've left the recorder on way too long so it ran through like 2 cycles.)

But yes- The first one was as you guessed Olivia.

Specifically OL-4-250 at 94hz, the message is a test and would read all the letters in the alphabet plus the numbers one through zero and a few special symbols. so that was unfair from the beginning.

The second one was what I thought would be much easier since its just a Waterfall picture.
(I got bored with easypal when testing it. please dont hate me.)

And Krynn pointed out correctly that not everyone is willing or even able to find the proper tools to decode these modulations which
I actually expected from the start but thought hey why not. Theres a few free ones out there, if i remember correctly FLDigi is one of the better ones and I did use that for a while before switching to WCode.

Anyhow to respond to MFL, yes I am happy youre listening to radiofax. Would you like me to make you listen to JT63 instead? Hehe. Do you know who still uses low-speed data? Yes as a matter of fact we still do use them in ACARS although admittedly they use databursts instead of bpsk or qpsk. However as I said in the beginning of the thread I came up with the idea of this while sorting through all the alphanumerical shitstorms in the portal ARG's. If Valve really wanted to step it up or just gabe us they could hide these kinds of files anywhere they wanted to and I think we'd have a hard time of actually finding them. To be quite honest I am just a crazy person and i would love to see something more complicated done by Valve in the future.
But Kudos for trying in earnest, i quite appreciate that.

Now to end this I would like to say that this was done in about five minutes and a bottle of beer, so if you are actually interested in maybe doing this properly with an actual goal or some kind of incentive behind it and generally more fun in it then let me know and I might try to make this much better.



TL;DR: I love you guys. Low-speed data Rocks.

 

[MFL]

wasn't it just some SSTV in the portal ARGs? that's some stuff i can still see the general population knowing one time out of ten thousand due to historical niftyness, but i think they'd be hard pressed to figure out anything much more complicated.

edit: thanks for the files, i was looking around half-heartedly last night and didn't find anything. more tools for the toolbox

 

[Udo Schmidt]

Hey MFL, yeah it was just some SSTV and Morse Code at first but then I grew kind of fond of it what with building an image viewer from source files and digging around a BBS and what have you.

My point was really to be after some more preparation that I could most likely hide these files inside the normal game sounds and you'd be none the wiser for the most part.
I am certain Valve would not do something like that but you never know.

Oh and just to clarify the second file, It is a Waterfall Image made using EasyPal which in turn is a DigiSSTV software.
The image however is clearly viewable in any rig software or even any decoding software which has a Waterfall.

TL;DR : If Propagation is good, send porn via radio.