Listen to the Clouds(listentothe.cloud)
listentothe.cloud
Listen to the Clouds
http://listentothe.cloud/
88 comments
This is really lovely, thank you!
Possibly like a lot of other folks here, I discovered this phenomenon of "radio chatter" over "ambient electronic music" via http://youarelistening.to/ - I find it so helpful for concentration.
I came up with my own improvised "mixing desk" using tabs in a separate browser window (makes it easier to separate from your main work. The most common tab URLs are:
http://priyom.org/ - For listening to numbers stations (uses websdr below!) http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ - For basically any shortwave transmissions http://www.broadcastify.com/ - Various scanner feeds from all over http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/11888/web - A fascinating repeater that I love listening to
And finally, I overlay one or more of these over my own Spotify playlist of ambient sounds. It's public, so I'll plug it here. I put this on random and use a crossfade of 10 seconds.
https://open.spotify.com/user/n_sonic/playlist/5tEUDt2X2QB0S...
Once again, thanks for this! Will be recommending it to folks today.
Possibly like a lot of other folks here, I discovered this phenomenon of "radio chatter" over "ambient electronic music" via http://youarelistening.to/ - I find it so helpful for concentration.
I came up with my own improvised "mixing desk" using tabs in a separate browser window (makes it easier to separate from your main work. The most common tab URLs are:
http://priyom.org/ - For listening to numbers stations (uses websdr below!) http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ - For basically any shortwave transmissions http://www.broadcastify.com/ - Various scanner feeds from all over http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/11888/web - A fascinating repeater that I love listening to
And finally, I overlay one or more of these over my own Spotify playlist of ambient sounds. It's public, so I'll plug it here. I put this on random and use a crossfade of 10 seconds.
https://open.spotify.com/user/n_sonic/playlist/5tEUDt2X2QB0S...
Once again, thanks for this! Will be recommending it to folks today.
Seems to max out my CPU on MBP macOS Sierra Chrome 56.0.2924.87 (64-bit)
That's really surprising. I have no problems on my win machine which I guess is why I missed it.
Is it the same problem even if you run it in backgorund? Have some listeners that will pause the youtube video when that happens (which should minimize CPU)
Is it the same problem even if you run it in backgorund? Have some listeners that will pause the youtube video when that happens (which should minimize CPU)
For me the high CPU usage seems to happen because of the video background. As soon as I remove the
<div class="video-background"></div>
the CPU usage drops to normal on my MacBook Pro (with integrated GPU)
Could be the background clouds video + software rendering.
Try taking out <div class="video-background"> and see what happens.
Try taking out <div class="video-background"> and see what happens.
Thanks for the leads. Will rewrite it to use PNGs and CSS animations instead of the youtube video! :) This is all a learning journey for me, so it fits right in! :)
Same issue here! Otherwise great work, really cool!
This is nice! But I was hoping for a transmission of the sounds at the terminal/gate, and/or the announcements at the gate.
Palm Beach International (PBI)? <3
Nice idea, thanks for sharing. How about putting the stations on a Google map?
Berlin?
It is not allowed to listen to radio transmissions you aren't the destination of in Germany and apperently in the UK.
So listening to policeradio, AirTrafficControl or anything similar is prohibited by law.
https://forums.liveatc.net/listener-forum/german-atc/
So listening to policeradio, AirTrafficControl or anything similar is prohibited by law.
https://forums.liveatc.net/listener-forum/german-atc/
Any idea why not?
What an odd law. Anybody aware of the reasoning behind this?
Why is it normal to be allowed to eavesdrop on conversations you're not a party to? Wouldn't it be odd for that to be the default position?
There's a cultural norm embedded here. What you think is odd and what's normal is strongly dependent on your priors.
There's a cultural norm embedded here. What you think is odd and what's normal is strongly dependent on your priors.
It's not a question of cultural positions but more a question about why airport communications were added to an exclusion list when it's perfectly legal listen into all other private signals bar police radio (as far as I'm aware). Even collecting data on private WiFi broadcasts is fair game; as we learned when it was exposed that Google Street Car was doing just this.
It's pretty obvious why it was made illegal to eavesdrop police radio but less clear why airport communications are also illegal. So I find it odd (baring in mind I'm speaking from a position of ignorance - which is why I'm raising this question) that airport communications were added to what seems a pretty sparse list of excluded broadcasts.
Maybe it's just another example of laws not keeping up with technology? ie that law originates from a time when radio transmissions were pretty limited to private and public broadcasts whereas nowadays most of our private communications are also broadcasted via some frequency and waveform - albeit we now have automated encryption/decryption techniques to protect our correspondence. So if the law was written now it would be more like a whitelist of content you could listen into (eg radio and TV broadcasts) rather than a blacklist of specifics you could not. I'm just guessing here though.
It's pretty obvious why it was made illegal to eavesdrop police radio but less clear why airport communications are also illegal. So I find it odd (baring in mind I'm speaking from a position of ignorance - which is why I'm raising this question) that airport communications were added to what seems a pretty sparse list of excluded broadcasts.
Maybe it's just another example of laws not keeping up with technology? ie that law originates from a time when radio transmissions were pretty limited to private and public broadcasts whereas nowadays most of our private communications are also broadcasted via some frequency and waveform - albeit we now have automated encryption/decryption techniques to protect our correspondence. So if the law was written now it would be more like a whitelist of content you could listen into (eg radio and TV broadcasts) rather than a blacklist of specifics you could not. I'm just guessing here though.
Capturing any communication is a criminal offense in Germany unless you were explicitly allowed to or it was intended as a broadcast. This is a constitutionally guaranteed right of the people communicating. There is no blacklist. Police, ATC, and similar are not even mentioned in the laws that are used to prosecute those cases.
As far as I know there have been investigations into the Google wifi case but I have never heard of anything coming out of it.
The law in its current form is pretty new, it even was clarified just a few months ago to specifically mention non-acoustic communication.
As far as I know there have been investigations into the Google wifi case but I have never heard of anything coming out of it.
The law in its current form is pretty new, it even was clarified just a few months ago to specifically mention non-acoustic communication.
Thank you. Maybe the same is true in the UK (where I reside) as well and I was mistaken about it being legal?
I'm not sure if this is the relevant legislation but I've found the following in section 48 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006:
A person commits an offence if, otherwise than under the authority of a designated person—
(a) he uses wireless telegraphy apparatus with intent to obtain information as to the contents, sender or addressee of a message (whether sent by means of wireless telegraphy or not) of which neither he nor a person on whose behalf he is acting is an intended recipient, or
(b) he discloses information as to the contents, sender or addressee of such a message.
Source: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/36/section/48
I'm not sure if this is the relevant legislation but I've found the following in section 48 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006:
A person commits an offence if, otherwise than under the authority of a designated person—
(a) he uses wireless telegraphy apparatus with intent to obtain information as to the contents, sender or addressee of a message (whether sent by means of wireless telegraphy or not) of which neither he nor a person on whose behalf he is acting is an intended recipient, or
(b) he discloses information as to the contents, sender or addressee of such a message.
Source: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/36/section/48
Anti-propoganda? I am not sure of the reasons, but I recently read a book on the pirate radio stations that broadcast am from ships just offshore England a century ago. It was illegal to listen, but the broadcasters were in international waters. There was also a tv show set in WWII about illegal radio transmission, called Alo Alo. I also know the fcc had a list of countries the US Hams arent allowed to respond to. Seems emptied now http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=about_2&id=am...
The Vienna Airport (vie) would be nice to see on the list! Thanks
Slowed down to a halt. Nexus 6p. Firefox took 15s to close.
really cool project! care to share the soundcloud playlist?
Thats the users account, not the playlist though http://www.image-share.com/ijpg-3477-185.html
Very nice! Where did you found the ISS radio feed?
O'hare (ORD), please!
Do people easily understand these transmissions? I always think there must be something wrong with either my English, or my ears because I barely understand a number here and there, even with headphones.
When I did my PPL one of the instructors gave us a CD full of recordings that we could listen to to train our ear for it. Matching that to transcripts helped - and it also helps once you know the lingo, since it's mostly a limited set of words and the phraseology has a specific structure.
For example: Altitudes and flight levels:
3,500 is spoken as "three thousand five hundred".
13,500 is spoken as "one three thousand five hundred".
But other numbers (like times, directions, etc) have every digit spoken, for example 10 minutes is "one zero minutes" or wind direction 220 is "wind direction two two zero". Speed reading would be something like "one niner zero knots" for 190 kt.
The sentence structure is also relatively strictly defined, for instance at an unattended airport you would always transmit in this order:
(1) where you are
(2) who you are
(3) what you intend
(4) repeat where you are
So you'd say something like: "Swartkops traffic(1), small Jabiru Kilo India Tango(2), left downwind for runway one eight, touch and go(3), at Swartkops(4)"
This kind of strict structure and limited lexicon does make it understandable after a bit of practice, since you are expecting certain words to show up.
For example: Altitudes and flight levels:
3,500 is spoken as "three thousand five hundred".
13,500 is spoken as "one three thousand five hundred".
But other numbers (like times, directions, etc) have every digit spoken, for example 10 minutes is "one zero minutes" or wind direction 220 is "wind direction two two zero". Speed reading would be something like "one niner zero knots" for 190 kt.
The sentence structure is also relatively strictly defined, for instance at an unattended airport you would always transmit in this order:
(1) where you are
(2) who you are
(3) what you intend
(4) repeat where you are
So you'd say something like: "Swartkops traffic(1), small Jabiru Kilo India Tango(2), left downwind for runway one eight, touch and go(3), at Swartkops(4)"
This kind of strict structure and limited lexicon does make it understandable after a bit of practice, since you are expecting certain words to show up.
Interesting, thanks! I bet it's international ? The french transmissions were also following this patterns.
Yes - UN member countries generally use ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) standards. There are some country-specific weird things, though.
You can read the ICAO Radiotelephony Guide[1], should you be interested.
Searching for something like "ICAO Phraseology Reference Guide" might give you good results too.
[1] http://www.icao.int/safety/acp/Inactive%20working%20groups%2...
You can read the ICAO Radiotelephony Guide[1], should you be interested.
Searching for something like "ICAO Phraseology Reference Guide" might give you good results too.
[1] http://www.icao.int/safety/acp/Inactive%20working%20groups%2...
"Swartkops" - hello fellow South African AV geek!
You really do get used to it. First time I got into a light plane, I had exactly the same reaction as you - it was all gobbledegook. By the time I took my first proper lesson, I'd started reading the textbook, and it was mostly making sense. Within a few hours I was fluent, and things like this recording made sense.
The big thing is understanding the vocabulary, and the things they're likely to say. It's called the "pop-out effect" - once you know what you're looking for, it's much easier to find it. You can think of it in Bayesian terms - an increased prior on certain words and phrases makes them much quicker to detect.
(I will also say that many people find American aviators/ATC much harder work. They use less standardised phraseology - perhaps because they don't have so many different native languages all crowded up into a small airspace. See if, eg, Amsterdam or Dublin is easier for you to understand.)
The big thing is understanding the vocabulary, and the things they're likely to say. It's called the "pop-out effect" - once you know what you're looking for, it's much easier to find it. You can think of it in Bayesian terms - an increased prior on certain words and phrases makes them much quicker to detect.
(I will also say that many people find American aviators/ATC much harder work. They use less standardised phraseology - perhaps because they don't have so many different native languages all crowded up into a small airspace. See if, eg, Amsterdam or Dublin is easier for you to understand.)
The most confusing thing to me is probably the nicknames that some airlines have which are used instead of their actual names. British Airways flights are usually called "Speedbird" and US Airways are called "Cactus".
Yes, but I'm a private pilot so I kinda have to. Without context there are a lot of just letters and numbers, so your brain might just be dropping them cause it can't make any meaning out of them.
But... not understanding isn't necessarily a bad thing, I can't listen to this and work because I can understand it
But... not understanding isn't necessarily a bad thing, I can't listen to this and work because I can understand it
Wow, this is incredibly soothing.
I just followed a plane taking off on https://www.flightradar24.com
Wow.. that's a lot of planes!
This is a great background sound for working. I have the airport chatter at medium and the ambient music at low, and I listen to a busy airport that I can't understand at all (Santiago is a good one) so I don't engage my brain too much.
I'm finding this incredible for helping with focus.
I'm finding this incredible for helping with focus.
The sound of a cafe can also be a nice background sound.
E.g., https://coffitivity.com/
E.g., https://coffitivity.com/
Great idea and lovely implementation. If I could make one nitpick, it would be to add some tags so that it shows up as a Twitter card for when people tweet about it:
https://dev.twitter.com/cards/overview
https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator
(FWIW, looks fine on the Facebook linter because of the og:meta tags https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/?q=http%...)
https://dev.twitter.com/cards/overview
https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator
(FWIW, looks fine on the Facebook linter because of the og:meta tags https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/?q=http%...)
Suggestion - let me link to a specific airport.
http://listentothe.cloud/#hkg http://listentothe.cloud/#dtw
etc...
http://listentothe.cloud/#hkg http://listentothe.cloud/#dtw
etc...
Wow, what is it about atmospheric music combined with radio chatter? On their own they don't have much of an impact on me , but combined I feel like I am Major Tom.
Awesome.
I also recommend the ISS feed (with orbital video!)
Awesome.
I also recommend the ISS feed (with orbital video!)
Been listening to this since I discovered it on HN this morning. A lot of it reminds of the Vangelis/Blade Runner OST. Great work!
I find the voice of the operator at HK airport incredibly soothing.
It almost sounds like it's pre-recorded speech actually. But I agree, very relaxing.
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This reminds me to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Service_Broadcasting_(b...
You can also listen to the train ride ambient in Norway - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pVWfzsgLoQ
On a similar note, I like listening to the videos of this guy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVp5RGNn_CpRKUyGaQVidHg
He has long drives, mostly around NY area.
He has long drives, mostly around NY area.
If only my office chair had pneumatic actuators to recreate the feeling of sitting in an actual train :)
Nice UI. http://youarelistening.to/jfk_atc is a similar service.
He mentions that it was inspired by YouAreListening.to
In a way this gives a new meaning to the term "live music". Especially since this is an existing style of music: anywhere from Bowie[1] to more niche bands like Public Service Broadcasting[2] and Lemon Jelly[3].
[1] David Bowie - Space Oddity
[2] Public Service Broadcasting - Go!
[3] Lemon Jelly - Space Walk
[1] David Bowie - Space Oddity
[2] Public Service Broadcasting - Go!
[3] Lemon Jelly - Space Walk
First thing I thought of was another more niche musician (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Rimbaud) who released a number of tracks in the early 1990s under the name "Scanner". Which, as the name suggests, was ambient music over recorded snippets of conversation picked over radio scanners.
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Soma.fm has this for San Francisco police scanner radio traffic.
https://somafm.com/sf1033/
https://somafm.com/sf1033/
I love Soma.fm.
I feel the SF radio was better two or three years ago. The background music was less in the front, the mix was more seamless.
I feel the SF radio was better two or three years ago. The background music was less in the front, the mix was more seamless.
Agreed. Rusty, if you're out there, kick up the police scanner!
Kinda wish I would've come up with this idea, haha. I've been listening to LiveATC.net on and off while I work for years now.
Working on code for an airline while listening to this is oddly soothing. Thank you for sharing this :)
Also works very well with some electronic music in the background, for example: https://soundcloud.com/thuishaven-amsterdam/daniel-bortz-thu...
There's even the International Space Station feed. Awesome!
Very beautiful and serene. Thank you.
Oh my this is majestic!
The difference between name (...Clouds) and address (...cloud) really triggers my ocd.
I got you covered man! http://listentothe.cloud/s
Wow.
Why would people downvote this comment? Seriously? I was saying Wow because I was able to listen to conversations through airlines in Paris and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, they were speaking English through traffic control. I think this is quite an amazing tool.
Quite simple: The content of a post saying "wow" is of roughly the same value as upvoting, but takes people reading the comments more time to parse, without adding anything useful to the conversation.
I find the "General Conduct" section of SA rules explains that kind of thing simply and clearly and in terms that apply basically across the entire internet. http://www.somethingawful.com/forum-rules/forum-rules/ The HN rules kind of don't explain this kind of thing as they assume you're tech- and internet-savvy already.
I find the "General Conduct" section of SA rules explains that kind of thing simply and clearly and in terms that apply basically across the entire internet. http://www.somethingawful.com/forum-rules/forum-rules/ The HN rules kind of don't explain this kind of thing as they assume you're tech- and internet-savvy already.
Thank you guys for taking the time to explain. I will contribute more than just "wow" next time. I was just fascinated. I opened up the page and began hearing conversations! Since it was like 4 AM my time, I realized: most of the noise would be quiet.
So I click to the other side of the world.. where there was plenty of "noise"! It's quite interesting to listen to people on the other side of the world... as my side is sleeping, they are awake and business as usual.
When the skies are peaceful, at least when the radio waves are showing that the world is conducting normal business, there is comfort in knowing that.
So I click to the other side of the world.. where there was plenty of "noise"! It's quite interesting to listen to people on the other side of the world... as my side is sleeping, they are awake and business as usual.
When the skies are peaceful, at least when the radio waves are showing that the world is conducting normal business, there is comfort in knowing that.
It's a perfectly respectable response but as I understand it HN wants to keep noise to a minimum, and I guess the downvoters think that since "wow" doesn't actually contribute to discussion in any substantial way it should not be here. Don't take it personally, I think it's just an attempt to keep the thread clean.
You have to keep in mind that even the humans on HN are robots or robotic in nature. Wanton externalizations of emotional states is undefined behavior and simply treated as noise by the hive mind.
For all we know it was 1-2 people who downvoted the comment, out of hundreds of thousands who visited the site today. It's also likely that they were downvoting because they thought the commenter was being sarcastic.
You've been a member of this community for at least 6 years. Clearly you see something of value in it. Please don't trash it with comments like this.
You've been a member of this community for at least 6 years. Clearly you see something of value in it. Please don't trash it with comments like this.
Reading this makes me smile. Thank you
Creator here, if you have any feedback, please just comment here or ping me on twitter @andersaberg, I'll take airport requests etc there :)
Have a good one, A