Looking for a way to pipe audio from one program to another without using JACK? Pulse Audio, default sound system for Ubuntu can do this and it’s really not that hard.
When the International Space Station passes overhead it is still possible to view the SSTV (Slow Scan Television) images they are sending on 145.800Mhz using your Linux computer and a Realtek SDR USB Dongle. I did this on Ubuntu 20.20 but it should work on any Linux running pulse audio.
NOTE 1: 12-31-2020 is the last day the ISS will be transmitting images (for now). This tutorial can still help you get GQRX sending audio to QSSTV or any other “recording” app.
NOTE: When I installed GQRX on Ubuntu 20.20 only the myriadrf repos worked. Your mileage may vary.
You now need to run GQRX and configure it to work with your dongle. This is out of the scope of this howto and much info is available via Google. Once you can listen to radio via GQRX it’s time to move to the next steps.
Here is what my settings for the ISS look like:
Step 2: Install and configure QSSTV
I followed this guide to get QSSTV working, however, I found that howto a bit over complicated and many of the steps unnecessary if you already have GQRX installed. I was simply able to install QSSTV like this:
sudo apt install qsstv
Run QSSTV and in the configuration for sound set input and output to Pulse Audio.
Step 3: Install Pulse Audio Volume Control
Now that you have both your apps, you need to install some stuff to get pulse to make them play together. First install pavucontrol:
sudo apt install pavucontrol
Step 4: Invoke the NULL Sink
Finally it’s time to make a dummy sink. This is the glue that puts it all together. Using pavucontrol, any app can be outputted to the null sink and then any other app can record from this null sink.
Once this null sink is created open up Pulse Audio Volume Control, GQRX and QSSTV. In the recording tab, set the input for QSSTV to Monitor of Null Output.
Finally in the output devices tab, set GQRX to Null Output.
That should be about it.
Find out when the space station is passing overhead and then tune GQRX to 145.800… QSSTV will do the rest. Feel free to post any questions you may have.
NOTE: You can use this technique to pipe audio from any program to another.
If you have been using the PPA to get the Chirp dailies, you will quickly find out that this no longer works in Ubuntu 20.04 Focal.
Python 2 is getting phased out and whatever is running the GUI for Chirp has been phased out completely. This makes getting Chirp to run a little more difficult than before.
UPDATE: It looks like major progress has been made with the Python 3 upgrade and Chirp is available in Groovy (20.10)! This article will likely be outdated soon.
As of this writing, there are a few options:
Wait until the python 3 version of Chirp is finished (NOT!)
Install via the Snap: This gives a warning against doing so
Install via flatpak: WINNAR!
A Flatpak is a self contained package that includes all necessary libraries. Similar to a Snap, but this uses a package directly from the author. I like the flatpak option because I don’t need to manually install a bunch of deprecated libs or add some PPA that wasn’t even meant for Ubuntu.
Note from user: If you already have Chirp installed, you will need to remove it first. See comments section for details.
First thing you need to do is download the latest .flatpak file from here:
The other howtos seem to have missed this next step. You need to use flatpak to install the “freedesktop” platform. First update flatpak and your paths.
$ flatpak update -v
This will give you a warning about paths, something like:
Note that the directories
'/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share'
'/home/[username]/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share'
are not in the search path set by the XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable, so applications installed by Flatpak may not appear on your desktop until the session is restarted.
Since we now have to log out anyway, now might be a good time to make sure you are in the dialout group.
Use the groups command to list your active groups. If the group “dialout” does not appear, add yourself to the group (replace [username] with your username):
$ sudo usermod -aG dialout [username]
Now restart your session (or computer) and return to the terminal.
~$ flatpak update -v
Looking for updates…
Nothing to do.
Don’t worry about installation directory warnings if you haven’t installed anything yet. Those will be created later. Important is that we got rid of the path warning. Moving on….
Now you need to get the Freedesktop repository installed:
You’re done! You can run chirp from your applications menu or from the command like like this:
$ flatpak run com.danplanet.chirp
Remember, this is only a temporary solution until the Python 3 conversion of Chirp has been completely rolled out. However, in the interim if you want to easily update the flatpak, or automate it with a cron job, here is a script that works for me:
#!/bin/bash
#
#
# This script updats chirp flatpak to latest daily build
# Add this to root's crontab for automatic updates
# If run as standard user, you will get a popop asking for admin password
#
#
#Make download folder if doesn't exist
mkdir -p ~/Downloads/ChirpFP
#Move to Download folder
cd ~/Downloads/ChirpFP
#Remove previously downloaded flatpaks
rm *.flatpak
#Pull link from download page and download latest flatpak
wget `lynx -dump https://trac.chirp.danplanet.com/chirp_daily/LATEST/ | awk '/http/{print $2}' | grep flatpak`
#Install the file
flatpak install -y --noninteractive *.flatpak
In Hinduism there is the description of the cycle of time known as the Yugas. The Yugas describe a rising and falling cycle of virtue that broadcast through time. Wikipedia describes it as such:
Yuga in Hinduism is an epoch or era within a four-age cycle. A complete Yuga starts with the Satya Yuga, via Treta Yuga and Dvapara Yuga into a Kali Yuga. Some scholars say that our present time is ascending Kali yuga [1], while some scholars say that Kali Yuga has ended in 1700 A.D. and now we’re in ascending Dwapara Yuga [2].
The Satya Yuga (Sanskrit: सत्य युग), also called Sat Yuga, or Kṛta Yuga (Sanskrit: कृत युग) in Hinduism, is the first of the four Yugas, the “Yuga (Age or Era) of Truth”, when humanity is governed by gods, and every manifestation or work is close to the purest ideal and humanity will allow intrinsic goodness to rule supreme. It is sometimes referred to as the “Golden Age“. The Satya Yuga lasts 1,728,000 years. The goddess Dharma (depicted in the form of a cow), which symbolises morality, stood on all four legs during this period. Later on in the Treta Yuga, it would become three, followed by two in the Dvapara Yuga. In the immoral age of Kali, it stands on one leg.
Treta Yuga (Sanskrit: त्रेता युग) is the second out of the four yugas, or ages of mankind, in the religion of Hinduism. It follows the Satya Yuga and is followed by the Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. Treta means ‘a collection of three arousing things’ in Sanskrit, and is so called because during the Treta Yuga, there were two Avatars of Vishnu that were seen, the sixth and seventh incarnations as Parashurama and Rama respectively. The name could also be derived from the fact that the Treta Yuga lasted 3,600 divine years, or 1,278,000 human years.(1 divine year = 1000 human years)[1] The bull of Dharma symbolises that mortality stood on three legs during this period.
The Dvapara Yuga, also spelled as Dwapara Yuga, is the third out of four Yugas, or ages, described in the scriptures of Hinduism. Dvapara in Sanskrit literally means “two ahead”,[1] that is, something in the third place. The Dvapara Yuga follows the Treta Yuga and precedes the Kali Yuga.[2] According to the Puranas, this yuga ended at the moment when Krishna returned to his eternal abode of Vaikuntha. According to the Bhagavata Purana, the Dvapara Yuga lasts 864,000 years.[3]
There are only two pillars of religion during the Dvapara Yuga: compassion and truthfulness. Vishnu assumes the colour yellow and the Vedas are categorized into four parts: Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. During these times, the Brahmins are knowledgeable of two or three of these but rarely have studied all the four Vedas thoroughly. Accordingly, because of this categorization, different actions and activities come into existence.
In Hinduism, Kali Yuga (Sanskrit: कलियुग, romanized: kaliyuga, lit. ‘age of Kali‘) is the last of the four stages (or ages or yugas) the world goes through as part of a ‘cycle of yugas’ (i.e. mahayuga) described in the Sanskrit scriptures.[1] The other ages are called Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, and Dvapara Yuga. The “Kali” of Kali Yuga means “strife”, “discord”, “quarrel” or “contention” and Kali Yuga is associated with the demonKali (not to be confused with the goddess Kali).
A New Theory – Cycles Within Cycles
We live in the age of electromagnetic frequency and we know that frequencies can carry other frequencies. A good example is tuning to a specific radio station and hearing the sound frequencies broadcast across the radio frequency you are tuned into.
Long before Tesla’s discovery of radio, the Yogis, Bhudists, Mayans and others were describing reality as vibration.
Taking all of the above into account, I believe it is safe to say that reality, and therefore the Yugas operate similarly. Layers upon layers. Frequencies riding frequencies. And while these layers likely become both infinitely large and infinitely small, I should be able to describe those which are understandable on a human level.
We can see the Yugas all around us. Summer Solstice is clearly the transition of SYA into SYD as winter solstice is the transition from KYD to KYA. The same transitions can be seen to happen midday and midnight. Cycles within cycles.
Quoting the great scientist, Rick Sanchez, “Infinity is a really big number, Jerry”. Therefore I will outline the 7 levels of Yugas that are at least somewhat fathomable to the human mind. This is by no means a complete or authoritative set.
The Huge Yuga: Yuga of the Universe. Timescales in Trillions of Years or Years of Brahman.
The Big Yuga: Yuga of the Galaxy. Timescales in Billions of Years or Days of Brahman.
The Medium Yuga: Yuga of the Stars. Timescales in Millions of Years.
The Small Yuga: Yuga of the Planets. Timescales in Thousands of years.
The Mini Yuga: Yuga of Humans. Timescales in years.
The Tiny Yuga: Yuga of Seasons. Timescales in Days.
The Micro Yuga: Yuga of the Day. Timescales in Minutes.
Numbers 1 and 2 are unfortunately too large and span to much time to calculate with our current knowledge of the Universe. We know the Universe is 13.8 Billion years old, give or take 1%. Only problem is that 1% of 13.8 billion is 138 million! Far too much room for error to make any useful calculations.
When we get to level 3, we can begin searching for values. A full Yuga Circle for our sun, (2 Yuga Cycles) is a full orbit of our sun around the galactic center. Our universe is expanding from a single source point (big bang). As our sun orbits the galaxy when it gets closest to this point of origin we are at the peak of the Satya Yuga, and when we are farthest away we are at the peak of the Kali Yuga. Now all we need to know is what direction we are traveling away from the source and how long our suns’ orbit is and we can figure out the length of the Medium Yuga.
A New Calculation
As described above we can find the values for the Small Yuga using the procession of the Equinox. We will then explore the use of the alignments as an end date for Descending Satya Yuga OR we can figure out when our north pole points toward the galactic center and use that as the end date for the Ascending Satya Yuga. I will explore both.
However, both of these theories have three glaring issues:
1: Where do we start?
2: There are no known astronomical movements corresponding to these values.
3: These theories allow a single cycle. I believe there are cycles within cycles. As above, so below.
In this paper I will address these issues and hopefully expand on the theory of the ages.
First let’s look at the commonly accepted date, as outlined in this article. The crucial bits are as thus:
“It is generally believed that Aryabhatta had calculated the start date of the Kali Yuga on the basis of the information in the Sanskrit astronomical treatise, the Surya Siddhanta, according to which the five “geocentric planets” (i.e. the planets visible to the naked eye) – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – were aligned to 0° of Aries (near the star zeta Piscium) at the beginning of the Kali Yuga. He, thus, arrived at the date of 17/18 February, 3102 BC as the starting point of the Kali Yuga. However, modern simulations carried out by Richard Thompson show that on 17/18 February, 3102 BC, the five geocentric planets occupied an arc of roughly 42° in the sky and were scattered over three zodiacal signs – Aries, Pisces and Aquarius.”
“Does this mean Aryabhatta made an error in his back calculations? Not really. For, the Surya Siddhanta does not ever specify that such an alignment of planets took place at the beginning of the Kali Yuga. On the contrary, the Surya Siddhanta explicitly states that this conjunction of planets at 0° of Aries takes place at the end of the Golden Age (Satya / Krita Yuga). The text states: “Now, at the end of the Golden Age (Krita Yuga), all the planets, by their mean motion – excepting however their nodes and apsides – are in conjunction in the first of Aries”[2]
Actually, it he didn’t just make a slight error, he was completely wrong. This error is easily corrected using astronomy software and a good ephemeris. The quintuple alignments, occuring in the constellation of Aries, for the last 15000 years are:
B.C. 12577-Jan-26 11:28:22.3032 UT
B.C. 12517-Jan-03 10:51:41.9401 UT
B.C. 10608-Jan-03 02:24:34.3357 UT
B.C. 7454-Mar-14 01:28:44.4471 UT
B.C. 7215-Feb-27 04:35:59.8512 UT
B.C. 0822-Jul-06 16:07:43.5310 UT
A.D. 1007-Aug-10 13:27:51.2772 UT
A.D. 1562-Jul-22 01:14:19.5253 UT
Not one single date is even close to the Aryabhatta date. However, if we look close we can see that in 125th century BCE, this alignment occurs twice, with only a 60 year separation. This date span initially seemed the most logical choice, however, any date preceding the writing of the Mahabaratta could be correct. If we look at the dates of ancient stone structures using Astro-Archeology we see that the 10,608 BCE corresponds to the alignment of the pyramids to Orion and the alignment of the Sphinx with Leo.
I initially assumed the three oldest dates to be the most logical starting point. By this logic the last Descending Satya Yuga ended some time between 11:30AM January 26th, 12,577 BCE and 10:50AM January 3rd, 12,517 BCE. Or maybe some time around 2:25AM January 3rd, 10,608 BCE. However, after plugging all the discovered dates into Xephem I made a few discoveries.
Frist, my calculated dates were not exact and I had to do some time stepping to find the best conjunctions. This was fairly easy to do in Xephem. I investigated all of the BC dates my script discovered. I found that all alignments, except one, occurred during the day (all planets were in conjunction with the sun).
That’s right, there was only ONE date that the conjunction was actually visible. Eureka! I think we have a starting point:
Descending Satya Yuga Ended at 5:07AM IST, July 1st, 7215 BCE
Though I can’t say with 100% certainty this is correct, it does seem to be the only date matching the description in ancient texts. This also fits with my theory that our past is much older than we realize.
2: There are no known astronomical movements corresponding to accepted values.
12,000 years seems like a made up number. It doesn’t really correspond to anything astronomically, other than the “12” part. This could correspond to the months or perhaps to the signs of the zodiac.
What does this number and the breakdown of Yuga lengths tell us? Perhaps it is not actual lengths of time it is conveying but a ratio. I Yuga Unit is 1/10th the length of a Yuga Cycle, or 1/20th the length of the Yuga circle.
So now we have a ratio. What is our base number or actual Yuga Length? We know that the Yugas describe a circular motion:
We can see the Yugas play out as our planet orbits the sun or in the daily rotation of our planet.
With this knowledge we can safely say that a full trip around a circle will comprise two Yugas. Now we ask ourselves, “What circular motion is close to 12,000 x 2 (24,000)?” Actually that answer is quite simple: The Procession of the Equinoxes! Even better we have an exact (enough) value for our calculations: A Yuga Circle, or 2 Yuga Cycles (1 ascending, 1 descending) FOR OUR PLANET is 25,772 human years. Using the Yuga Unit ratio of 1/10th of a Yuga Cycle (Yuga Circle / 2) we get the following values:
Satya Yuga: 5,154.4 Years
Treta Yuga: 3,865.8 Years
Dwarpa Yuga: 2,577.2 Years
Kali Yuga: 1,288.6 Years
We can use these values, along with astronomical alignments to easily determine our CPC.
So why the incorrect values in the Ancient Texts? If these tomes were truly passed down from an intergalactic/interplanetary civilization, perhaps these values represent some sort of cosmic mean value. So instead of a Yuga cycle being 12,000 Earth Years (EY), it’s something more on the line of a “Universal Standard Human Year” (UHY). If we once again use our precession as a clue we can determine that:
One (1) Earth Year (EY) = .93124 of a Universal Standard Human Year (UHY)
Though this may be a stretch, it may not. If this is true, then all values from Puranic Texts will need to be multiplied by this ratio. For example, if the above ratio is correct: One (1) Divine Year (DY) = 360 UHY or 386.58 EY.
We can play with this more as we get further down the rabbit hole.
3. The Calculations
Before I start playing with the theory of Yugas Within Yugas, I will create a timeline using my discovered start date and scale.
According to this calculation, the last Descending Satya Yuga ended at 5:07AM IST, July 1st, 7215 BCE. As time of day is not crucial with such a large calculation we can say that the conjunction happened on the 180th day of 7215 BCE, or 7215.5BC. Using the precession values described above, I will calculate some dates:
Start of Satya Yuga Descending: 12,269.9 BCE or Approx. November 24th, 12,269 BCE
End of SYD Start of Treta Desc: Approximately 7215.5 BCE or July 1st, 7,215 BCE
End of TYD Start of Dwarpa Desc: 3249.7 BCE or Approx. September 12th, 3,249 BCE
End of DYD Start of Kali Desc: 672.5 BCE or Approx. July 1st, 672 BCE
End of KYD Start of Kali Ascending: 616.1 CE or Approx. February 6th, 616 CE
End of KYA Start of Dwarpa Asc: 1904.7 CE or Approx. September 12th, 1904 CE
Current Yuga:Dwarpa Ascending
Began:September 12th, 1,904
Ends:November 24th, 4,481
Not only do these dates work mathematically, we are using a start date as described in the Puranas AND we are using a Yuga length calculation that corresponds to the precession of the equinoxes, the dates also seem to line up with historical events.
By these calculations:
The ice age starts ending as SYD Begins.
Ice age is over by the beginning of TYD.
Pyramids begin falling into disrepair at beginning of DYD.
Death of Christ and Dark Ages in KYD.
Crusades and World domination is the climate during KYA.
Life of Tesla / Industrial Revolution marks end of KYA and beginning of DYA
Another interesting note is that by this calculation KYD ended in 1904. Aside from bullet point 6, This is the year the Yogi Ramacharaka books were released, marking the introduction of Yoga to the western world. Coincidence? I think not.
It becomes clear that these new calculations for the Yuga cycles of Earth have the potential to be quite accurate. But what of the other Yuga cycles?
As stated before our dating of the universe and celestial bodies is accurate to about 1%, Unfortunately in the timescales we are dealing with, this 1% margin of error is just too much. For example, if we take the age of the universe, 1% 13.8 billion years is 138 million years.
If our sun takes 230 Million years to orbit the galaxy, it would have a Yuga length of 115 Million years. This puts our margin of error for calculating the Galactic CPC at almost an entire Yuga in each direction ending in basically a 0% accuracy level.
However, this margin is small enough for “Day of Bahman” calculations. If we use the exact numbers from the Puranas, we are approximately on day 3.18796 of Brahman. If we incorporate the above calculated ratio of Earth Years (EY) to Universal Standard Human Years (UHY), we are approximately on day 2.96481 of Brahman. These two values are close enough that we can say we are somewhere close to the beginning of Day 3 of Brahman.
At this time I have not discovered data to give an accurate depiction of our location within any of the Yugas other than “Earth Yuga”. I do believe I will eventually be able to determine the location of our sun within the galactic Yuga cycle. I propose that our sun is in the center point of SYA and SYD when its position in our galaxy is closest to the Big Bang point of origin and in the center point of KYD and KYA when its orbital point is farthest from origin.
It is also possible that the conjunction described in the Puranas was not merely marking the end of Earths’ SYD cycle but a conjunction of cycles as well. If we use this point in time to mark the end of SYD for Yuga Levels 1-4 as described above, we can come to the following conclusion:
Although the Earth is in an Upswing (eg: Technological Progress) the larger yugas are all in TYD. No matter how far we progress along our Yuga cycle, the overall universal downward trend will hold us back energetically. This is why we are seeing more technological progress and less spiritual progress. This large downward trend will not end for millions of years.
Should we dispair? By all means NO! Read on…
4. The Conclusion
Now it seems like an eternity before the next true golden age. This is only true from the point of the human body. Our souls are eternal, and compared to infinity, EVERY number is insignificantly small.
OK then, what’s the point of the cycles. Wouldn’t it make more sense to just live forever in the Golden Age? The answer is a resounding NO! He who knows everything has nothing to learn.
We always have to be moving forward as time will let us do nothing but. Even when we reach the peak of spiritual perfection, we still have to keep going forward, and at this point, the only forward is a downward one. Until of course we hit bottom, then the only way forward is up. This gives us the infinite repetition of the Yugic cycles.
If spiritual progression is the goal of the soul, it’s the riding of the wave that accomplishes our goal. What looks to be the worst of times is actually the time of most rapid evolution. A candle shines brightest in complete darkness.
Has the bear come out of hibernation already? Looks like the latest bull run has come to an end and the market is correcting quicker than I expected.
It would seem that after the last huge spike, people’s faith in crypto has not fully returned. Once the price hit about $13.5k there was a massive drop as millions of dollars in BTC were cashed in.
Looking at the standard growth baseline over the years, this correction could bring the price of BTC as low as $4k.
However the approaching of the halvening in 2020, when the price of mining doubles, there could be a true increase in the coins over all value.
While I truly believe BTC could reach $100k in the next 20 years, it’s not going to happen over night. As always, just keep an eye on the market and buy low, sell high. (Sounds so easy right????)
Bitcoin is about to hit $13k and this rally is looking just like December of 2017. Only about 20% larger in scale.
I predict that this next upswing will last about two weeks and the price of Bitcoin will hit at least $24k. $24k is my most conservative estimate, however hitting $400k is not entirely out of the question.
My best and, by my theories, most logical guess is that in this rally BTC will hit $36k in 1.5-3 weeks. After it hits this high, it will rapidly drop over the next 3 weeks down to about $10-12k. It will hold there for a couple months then drop to $8k where it will sit until the next rally.
The next rally should then take place around April 2020 as The Halvening grows near. More info here,
In the beginning against everyone else’s better judgement I started mining bitcoin. I mined 10 coins in total.
When bitcoin would hit its previous highs I would buy stuff in an attempt to encourage the BTC economy. I spent over half my coins, but luckily had the foresight to hang on to some.
In this article I will tell the hypothetical story of what would have happened if I played my cards right from the get go.
If I had saved all 10 coins and then sold them at near peak prices I would have had about $180,000 of US cash.
If I then waited until bitcoin crashed and bought again $4000 per coin I would have 40 coins and some change to spare after fees.
At current value I would have almost $500,000 at current value, which is only going up.
I am going to attempt to regain all my spent coins in this next rally. Check out my next article to see my plan of action!
