News and Views Sources

Verified “neutral” sources in Mandarin:

http://www.chinatimes.com/syndication/rss

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Yes I can read the reference page you sent me fine - - that is it is all in Mandarin characters - - not that read it.

Still the Skylark rendering is not right yet using the same Chrome browser. Ken

Thanks! I will try adding this and some more sources post-OTA.

Ken,

I dropped that source for now - those are articles already sent out, and will remain non-reabable. That encoding conversion is quite painful, especially given I can’t read the results anyway :-/

I will try other sources - like the one @kf4hzu mentioned.

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I have been trying since mid-December to get confirmation from the following News Sources for Outernet use of their RSS feeds:

Chinese - CCTV
Russia - RT
Iran - PressTV
Australia - Radio Australia
New York Times

After repeated attempts by e mail to have them confirm my interpretation of their RSS use policies which would allow Outernet to use their feeds, I have not heard back. The only prompt reply I received was from BBC (which Outernet now carries).

So my question to Syed @Syed is - - let’s stop waiting for concurrence in our thinking, and just start using those RSS feeds? Your call. Ken

Yep! RSS works for us, but not all feeds are useful, since they don’t always contain the full text of the article.

Well good - - pick what works (after careful review of RSS feed’s use rules :confused:), and put them up. Ken

I’m impressed :heart_eyes:

The new RSS News Feeds in Arabic and Chinese are readable here. Check them out everbody. Ken

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I have been reading them…
It is all Greek to me though :slight_smile:

Good Onya Ken!

It looked like “good” Greek to me too!! But it’s finally right.

Good on you @Abhishek Ken

The problem of question marks in news titles still exists. When a news item has a question mark
in the title, it cannot be read. 404 Not found is displayed.
It should be possible to fix this on the central system that prepares the news batches by dropping
the question marks, similar to periods that already are dropped.

@Abhishek is aware of this. He thought he had the problem fixed, but it is now back on his to do list.

Not having heard from Radio Australia after several E Mail requests, I’m sending Radio Australia an old time letter posted with STAMPS :open_mouth: asking for their concurrence to allow Outernet to rebroadcast their RSS feeds.

Radio Australia provide valuable news as to what is happening in Asia, India, and Australia. No doubt Aussies in the “Outback” (and I know you are there) might like to see their RSS news feeds. Ken

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RA have just had their budget cut ( and Shortwave turned off !) so they may not be very responsive.

It may be worth trying to actually rig them, there is a number on the website (remembering t6he time difference , of course LOL!)
BTW do we know why any article with a “?” in the tile is still not working? . I understand that the question mark is used as as delimiter in URL’s ( which is prob why it fails - what ever creates an HTML page of the RSS is expecting some parameters that never arrive) but can they be filtered out so that the article isn’t blank?

Working with the BBC was easier, but here’s my letter to the CEO of Radio Australia:

QUOTE

25 February 2017
Radio Australia
GPO Box 9994, Melbourne
Australia 3001

Dear Mr McCluskey,

I am corresponding by mail to ask for assistance with a request I have asked for twice thru your web site since December 2016 which have not been answered.

I am a backer of the Crowd Funded satellite broadcasting project called Outernet. It is described at www.outernet.is

Outernet is a free L-band satellite information distribution system operating on a world-wide basis downloading news, weather, and other information from 3 Intelsat satellites that cover the globe. I-4 F1 APAC (Asia-Pacific) at 143.5-degrees East broadcasts to all of Australia and Asia. Its primary goal is to reach people with no reliable internet infrastructure (or who are censured by their Governments as China and Iran does) by broadcasting to their small $100 cigar box sized terminals.

Currently, Outernet broadcasts Really Simple Syndication (RSS) news feeds from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Voice of America (VOA), Deutsche Welle (DW), Eurek!Alert, Al Jazeera, MEDLINE, and the World Health Organization. BBC news is provided Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, and Arabic.

We would like to include your RSS feeds in the worldwide broadcasts which comes at a particularly good time for your organization as you have recently ended your shortwave broadcasts. After reading your Terms of Use, I believe we could be allowed to do that on a complimentary basis as we do with the other RSS feeds, but seek your concurrence in the matter.

There are a number of Australian Outernet Crowd Fund backers living in your Outback who would also be very pleased to see your RSS news over the satellite.

Thank you for consideration of this matter.

					Sincerely,


					Kenneth W. Barbi

UNQUOTE

That’s really solid.

Looks good :slight_smile:
I hope they respond …

and lets not forget Radio New Zealand International who with the demise of Radio Australia are about the only broadcaster focusing on the Pacific Island nations via shortwave.

This is a link to their RSS feeds, the Pacific RSS is probably the most appropriate.

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Thanks Lorne, I’m going to approach them next. Their conditions for use seem easy to apply to Outernet. I’ll report back soon.

As to other RSS sources I have approached, I’m still waiting on China CCTV, Iran PressTV, Russia RT, NY Times, and off course Radio Australia.

Your right about the need to fill in the Asia News stories. Let’s see what happens in the next few days. Ken

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Could you add

http://www.20minutos.es/rss/internacional/

It’s creative commons good quality international Spanish news.