Blog Title: LittleCamels.com

First snow

… and I made it home by bike anyway

Frequencies of the FM radio stations in Oulu area

The FM radio stations audible from Oulu, Finland, are listed in the table below.

(k): cable radio

HTTP status code for 404 - page not found in Joomla!

In case you are setting an error.php page in Joomla! to customise the “404 Page Not Found” error page, remember to add the following lines in your your template index.php page, before the DOCTYPE line:

if($this->error->code = '404'){
	header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found");
} ?>

The reason is that when a request is made for a page on your site, Joomla! returns the HTTP status code “200 - the server successfully returned the page” also for error pages. This is problematic for those working with Google Webmaster Tools and trying to get a sitemap resolved.

Information found (after weeks of search) here. That is: “When all else fails, read the instructions”.

UPDATE 12.8.2008: Forget what I have written above, at least in case you use SEF, it doesn’t work. That is, the if loop is inexplicably matched all the time, so it returns a 404 Page Not Found also for existing pages

UPDATE 27.8.2008: Following this suggestion on a Joomla! Forum thread, I managed to do the trick. The best way is to create the error.php page not in the way it is suggested on the Joomla! web site, but in the following way:

// no direct access
defined( '_JEXEC' ) or die( 'Restricted access' );

if (($this->error->code) == '404') {
  echo file_get_contents('http://www.yoursite.com/
                            error-404-page-not-found');
} 

where error-404-page-not-found is your customised “404 Page Not Found” error page. This will return a 404 page for any error it occurs. To prevent to show the 404 page for other errors, paste the full code showed in the post.

Motorcycle summer tour 2008

After many years without having a proper biking trip, this summer I tried to get back the feeling of long journeys. And I have to say I managed to do it pretty well.

With a total amount of 2224 km spanned in ten days, the trip day by day was as follows:

• 18.7. Oulu - Virrat - Tampere
• 19.7. Stay in Tampere for the Iron Maiden’s gig
• 20.7. Tampere - Hämeenlinna - Helsinki
• 21.7. Trip to Suomenlinna (not by bike)
• 22.7. Helsinki-Porvoo-Helsinki
• 23.7. Helsinki-(ferry)-Tallin-Haapsalu (Estonia)
• 24.7. Haapsalu-(ferry)-Kärdla-Kiudja-Kõpu-Ristna
• 25.7. Kiudja-Sõru-(ferry)-Triigi-Kurressaare-Mändjala
• 26.7. Mändjala-Kuivastu-(ferry)-Virtsu-Tallin-(ferry)-Helsinki
• 27.7. Helsinki-Valkeakoski-Oulu (almost 700 km in one day!)

So basically the journey was half in Finland and half in Estonia, including five ferries to get also to the island of Hiiumaa and Saaremaa. If you count on top of this that 800 km have been done in two people with tent and mattresses on the back, it was really a good seikkailu!

I have to say really enjoyed Estonia, still quite cheap (but I wonder for how long), wonderful sand beaches and nice people.

And, by the way, on the way back to Oulu, the Pegaso overtook 97000 km, just 3000 to the sixth figure!

Here below the detailed map of the journey, it might take a while to load: be patient, I said it was a long trip!

View Larger Map

SMartaBoys Reunion 29.3.2008

After that typical time lag it takes to me to do anything, I’m now proud to present you the pictures of the SMartaBoys reunion of 29.3.2008. Quality is not at its best, quantity as much as usual.

For brave people there are also some interesting videos of the SMB gang. We tried to dub them in Italian, but it was extremely difficult, due to the bad command of any language of those ugly mugs, so it was decided to add some English subtitles, but it ended up to add just nothing to an impossible understanding…

SMartaBoys video section

Pegaso’s check-up: 94 000 km

While approaching the one hundred thousand kilometres (!!!) with my good ol’ Pegaso, I’ve decided to keep trace of the checks and repairs that are done on the bike. Really, until now I haven’t kept records of the maintenance, and still the bike works great after all these years (11 and a half right now).

So here we go with the 94 000 km maintenance:

• Spark plug replaced
• Rear shock-absorber replaced
• Oil changed
• Oil filter replaced
• Cooling liquid changed
• Brake fluid changed
• Battery replaced

To be done in a short time:

• Change brake pads (changed on 16.7.2008)
• Change air filter

To be done at a certain stage:

• Change air box

Important replacements done some time ago:

• ~85 000 km: Fork seals replaced
• ~90 000 km: Exhaust-pipes replaced
• ~90 000 km: Tyres replaced

Midnight Sun Film Festival 2008

Brilliant new pictures from the Midnight Sun Film Festival 2008

Weather forecast on shortwave

Here is my first reception of an RTTY signal transmitting weather forecast.

TX station: Marine Weather Service - Hamburg, Germany
Frequency: 10100.8 kHz
Way of transmission: RTTY, speed 50 baud, shift 450 Hz
RX location: Oulu, Finland
Receiver: Degen DE1103
Antenna: Shortwave active loop antenna placed indoor close to a window towards SW
SINPO: 43443
Decoder: SeaTTY software, line-out of the receiver connected to mic-in of a laptop

Despite the interference coming from the laptop (the LCD screen creates really bad interference through the audio cable), the reception was really good.

Working with radios on Sampo icebreaker

I’m quite sure if I get this cable connected…

… I can make the radio work!!!

And if you can’t get it, the voice says: “Hello, this is EA3JE [it actually says: 'echo apple three juliet echo'], ehm, good evening and thank you for getting back to my call, you are five and eight, your signal report here in Barcelona, Spain, you’re five and eight”.

DXing

By ordering a radio for shortwave listening, I’ve officially (re)started my activity as a DXer.

The radio I chose is a small-size portable Degen DE1103. It’s a Chinese brand and it has got a lot of good reviews by SWL listeners (and an own discussion group as well), so I’m starting with something small and cheap but working well.

I decided at the same time to join the Finnish DX Association, while I’m still waiting to get the Finnish radio amateur call sign. It’ll take some time, since I’ve done the amateur radio exam in Italy, and it’s a kind of not-so-short bureaucratic process to get the exam recognised in Finland. Thanks to the EU and the HAREC recommendation, at least it should be possible.

While waiting for the radio to arrive (it should take around ten days, it is shipped directly from China), I decided to start (re)collecting basic information on SWLing, for example the common codes used in broadcast and amateur transmissions in the SW bands. Little by little I’ll put them here on the blog hoping they might be useful also for someone else in this planet:

Raffa’s way to DXing »