Hams.live
This has recently come to my attention:
Hams.live (yes, .live is a genuine Top Level Domain) is a system which takes a curated list of some 500 KiwiSDR receivers and manipulates and presents the receivers through a custom interface. Up to four KiwiSDR receivers can be viewed by a user at one time.
Browse to the site and watch the demo video to see what it is and how it works.
Hams.live charges users an annual subscription of $US40 for access to their system.
It is my opinion that hams.live is exploiting a predominantly free resource which doesn’t belong to them for commercial use without the knowledge or permission of the owners.
I don’t know how the wider KiwiSDR community feels about having their receivers hijacked for commercial purposes but as a KiwiSDR owner myself I’m not happy.
Comments
sort of sleazy IMO
hams.live resolves to 70.32.23.77 so I’ve added that to my manual block list. I don’t know if that will work as I’m not sure that’s the address of their server.
perhaps someone needs to subscribe, then access their own kiwi and see what IP# appears on it
It does seem a bit low if there is no attempt to repay John for his original, nor continued work, or the people hosting the SDR's.
I suppose all projects that rise from good will and common cause will attract those looking to make some money. I'm not saying it a bad thing but it would be better if it paid towards the stations and software development not just some website builder.
I have blacklisted 70.32.23.77/30 and have also disallowed multiple connections from the same IP address. I don't know if it will work but I'm not going to send $US40 a year to someone just to find out what IP address they're using. I suspect blocking hams.live will not work because the connection appears to be via custom browser in the client software (OBS Studio).
I have contacted the creator of hams.live who insists that because KiwiSDRs are publicly accessible he can essentially do whatever he wants. I've pointed out that KiwiSDR owners have to grant specific permission via the admin interface for listing of totally free lists like Kiwisdr.com. I also tried pointing out that his system bypasses things like donation buttons used by radio clubs who run KiwiSDRs.
If you provide a public KiwiSDR just be aware that hams.live is probably making money from your effort. You might accept that. I don't.
I added a password to all of my KiwiSDR free channels after I found a Russian and a Chechnyan on them for several hours. I assume that will also prevent hams.live access as well. If someone wants access they can email for a password.
Steve KD2OM
I assume you mean the SDR being accessed from a IP addresses listed in Russia rather than "a Russian" because that sounds like you hacked the client webcam to identify an individual.
Many VPN services have gateways all over the world, it would be trivial to appear to be connecting from Russia in order to provoke this sort of response. Totally up to you obviously but don't get played and pile on to the latest MSM theme.
You are correct Powernumpty, I should have said an user with an IP address that identified as from Russia and Chechnya. My concern was that one user was on for 6 or 7 hours listening on 3855 so probably a ham who forgot he was listening to my only free channel, the second was listening to DRM which I believe might affect other services. I use 7 channels for wsprdaemon and keep 1 free channel for listening. When I want to use my radio and someone else is on it I usually just kick them and listen, but both of these reconnected as fast as I could kick them. I tried the blacklist but that didn't work like I thought it should. The password took care of the whole problem.
Commenting on the original post, it is not trivial to install and get the ham.live interface operating, the best part is that you can uninstall it easier than the install.