Submission Guidelines

In anticipation of submission questions, I've created this page. Use it as a guideline. However, don't hesitate to use the webmaster email link below and ask questions or make suggestions.

When submitting materials to the website please consider the following.

What to Submit

How to Submit It

What EOSS will do with It

Articles and Text Formatting

When I receive your articles for publication on this website, I will invariably reformat the text to conform to the general styles used on the website. For this reason, the simpler the submission form the better. If you have only text a plain text file is best.

If you are submitting an article that has photos, graphs, formatting of the text that is crucial to the meaning of that text (tables, bullets, etc.) you can send it along in MS Word (DOC) or an Rich Text File (RTF) format. I will still reduce the file to its simplest elements but the formatted document will assist me when I attempt to recreate your formatting in HTML.

It is always a great benefit to a webmaster if you send the source graphics for articles that contain embedded photos and other graphics. HTML requires separate files for this type of material. I can usually deal with the embedded data. Worst case scenario, I can screen capture it. But it is best to have the original source photo or graphic.

Generally, I would suggest you stay away from submitting in html.

Data

Data should be submitted in the format that will accurately convey the information while attempting to be accessible to the widest possible audience.

For instance, try submitting Spread Sheets as ASCII delimited files. That way someone with Excel, Lotus 1,2,3, Quattro Pro or even VisiCalc will be able to see it. Effectively, it's open source data.

Only submit complex spreadsheets with macros, graphs etc. if it is absolutely necessary. If you must submit in a spreadsheet proprietary format try sticking with Excel since it is so widely available. If you go outside the bounds of "widely available" consider finding a reader for the spreadsheet you plan to submit. If you must post in a proprietary format but there are free viewers to see the data, that may be helpful. But, remember that viewers usually/always don't allow your audience to use the data themselves making their own charts and inventing interesting analyses with their own programming talents.

Photographs

As a web master I like to edit. When you send in a photo that suffers from minor problems in exposure, a little compositional problem or whatever, I will often drop it into Photoshop and "fix" it. The bigger the picture the better. An example of how I often manipulate a picture in Photoshop is displayed HERE.

I would prefer to work with pictures that are between 2 and 4 megapixels in physical size. That would be a photo with dimensions in the range of:

2 megapixels = 1600 x 1200 = 1920000

3 megapixels = 2040 x 1530 = 3121200

4 megapixels = 2368 x 1776 = 4205568

If you are on a slow connection or wish to conserve bandwidth I can live with:

1 megapixel = 1200 x 900 = 1080000

If you use a 35mm Digital SLR then the aspect ratio will be slightly wider (4.5 x 3 instead of the computer common dimension of 4 x 3 used by pocket and range finder digitals in general).

Minimal JPEG compression of photos in these dimensions will yield file sizes(1) in the range of:

1 megapixel

  • 409 KB (8 quality)
  • 1.2 MB (12 quality)

2 megapixels

  • 550 KB (8 quality)
  • 1.67 MB (12 quality)

3 megapixels

  • 700 KB (8 quality)
  • 2.47 MB (12 quality)

4 megapixels

  • 900 KB (8 quality)
  • 3.1 MB (12 quality)

Naturally the complexity of the image will affect the real compressed size. But, generally you get quite a benefit from using a quality setting in Photoshop of 8 on the original image. It's quite hard to detect the difference without zooming into very small features on the photos. Yet, the photos are approximately 30% the size of the original 100% quality JPEG.

Having essentially begged for fairly high resolution images above, I guess I'll have to admit that any photo => 640 x 480 can be used. But generally they won't be tweaked as extensively for color correction and/or cropped into a more ideal composition.

Pictures larger than 4 megapixels aren't necessary for the work I do unless it is necessary to crop at smaller than 70% of the original photo.

1.) Figures obtained from the analysis of a single complex image inside Photoshop

Audio

I don't get many audio submissions. However the general rule here is, attempt to maintain the quality of the original recording while minimizing the file size by compressing into MP3 or perhaps AAC. Do NOT send uncompressed WAV files unless the file size is very small (under half a meg).

So, what do I mean by maintaining the quality?

Audio Geeks, jump in here and provide me with a good explanation or perhaps a web page to link to and I and others may appreciate it ... however ...

Check out:

http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm/techinf/layer3/

They are the inventors of MP3 and AAC. You will find information that may be of help there.

Well, a rank amateur can use this method (mine) and come out just fine.

I record audio from repeaters at 64 Kbps (that's bits per second) at a sampling rate of 44.1 KHz. This is way better than the audio that actually comes out of a radio or scanner. This is my high quality base audio file.

I then pop it into an audio editor and reduce it. First I reduce the sample rate. When I first hear a noticeable and unacceptable reduction in quality, I back up to the previous rate.

Next I decrease encoding data rate. Once again, when the reduced data rate is unable to preserve the level of quality I require, I back off to the previous setting.

For audio from 2 meters and 70 centimeters I generally post files that are 16 Kbps at 16 KHz. You can record approximately one hour of audio in a 7 megabyte file.

Oh, and a mistake I made early on. Do NOT submit stereo recording unless they are needed. Amateur radio audio should almost always be mono in recorded form. You reduce your file size by 50% if you submit mono files.

I did hear one interesting stereo recording. Audio was recorded continuously (no VOX) on a repeater and an airborne payload. The recordings were synced in an editor and used to create a stereo file. You could then listen to the activity on both "bands" simultaneously, or by using the balance control, listen to either one or the other.

Generally, I'd prefer two separate recording but if a complicated event is occurring and being recorded on two audio sources, it is sometimes useful to "multiplex" them in this way to let folks know what was happening on both frequencies contemporaneously.

Video

This is an area where I really don't have an answer as above. Video files are large no matter what. So, it's pretty much up to you to get the video into digital form, and reduce it to run at approximately 2.5 megabytes per minute. In WMV that results in a 320x240 image played at 30 frames per second. I leave it to you go reduce the video to this data rate.

Alternatively, you can send me video on MiniDV or a standard Television DVD or as a Quicktime, AVI, WMV MPEG file as data on a CD or DVD. I'll attempt the conversion.

The way I handle this is to work with the original recording in the video editing suite. Once I have the video in its final form I save it as a miniDV format file. Actually it's in WMV in a quality format that mimics miniDV. Then I drop that into Microsoft Media Encoder and specify:

  • Video: VHS quality video (250 Kbps CBR)
  • Audio: CD quality audio (CBR)

The resulting data is:

  • 323 Kbps data rate
  • 29.97 frames per second (NTSC)
  • 320 x 240 resolution.

The resulting file is small in display dimensions, however it plays smoothly at 30 fps and the audio is terrific. I usually set the video to display at 200% size when I watch these snippets. It looks Ok.

Files compressed in this way by Windows Media Encoder result in a 2.5 Megabyte per minute file size I indicated was acceptable.

Generally 4 minutes (10 MBytes) should be considered the practical limit. Exceptions will probably be made but really 4 minutes is a lot of time if you edit your source material wisely.

EOSS FTP Site

I've created an FTP account for folks to submit files to the EOSS website. While the username and password seem to indicate this is for photos only, that's not the case. Just follow the directions below and submit anything you think the webmaster needs to post and I'll take care of it.

Remember that this is not a File Download FTP site. It isn't public, in that you need a ussername and password to gain access, and as soon as I've downloaded your files to my computer, they will be removed from the FTP folder.

URL: ftp.eoss.org
username: photos@eoss.org
password: photos

Once you get there, create a folder with your name or call sign or something unique to you and place your photos into that folder. Otherwise you'll run into potential problems with overwriting others photos if they happen to have the same name. Also, I'll never be able to sort out who submitted what without that folder to properly identify you as the creator of your pictures.

Be aware, anyone who knows the username and password for this folder can view anything within it. So, don't send along anything you consider private in any sense. Once the photos are there on the FTP server, anyone can look at them.

Email me once your photos are posted and I'll go grab them and pull them into my system. After I've downloaded them, I'll delete them from the server to make room.

There is a limit to how much data can be uploaded to this folder so it's important to alert me to the presence of your materials otherwise, the next submitter may find that there isn't any room at the Inn.

Email

The preferred method of submission is email. As of April, 2005 I can now receive 50 megabyte files at my main email address of rick at fastmail dot us. When you attach a binary file to an email it is UUENCODED or MIME encoded. Either way the file size generally increases since most submissions are in compressed format already (JPEG, MP3, MPEG, AVI, etc.). I recommend you leave a 10% overhead or aim to NOT exceed 40 Megabytes. This should ensure that the files will make it through ok.

Your Website

Post your info to your own personal web site. This might be a site you pay for or a site that you can obtain for free from one of the usual suspects. Once the files are posted and you have checked their availability, write me and include the URL directly to either a page where the files are located, or if you wish, a URL directly to the material you posted.

Your FTP Site

If you have an FTP server, send me the info on how I can gain access to the directory where you have stored your sumission materials.

Zipped Files

In any of the above methods, it may be convenient to zip the files together into a single archive.

This may be especially important if you are sending an article containing a text file, some graphs, some photos and a data file. Zipping it all together will ensure I get everything.

Zipping up items already compressed won't save space. In fact it will actually add a tiny bit of overhead to index the zip file. However, once again, placing everything in a single file may be beneficial. Say you have 10 pictures of a balloon launch and 10 pictures of the touchdown area. It might be convenient to save them to two zip files (launch.zip and touchdown.zip). That way, I'll not confuse them.

USPS

Mail your stuff on a CD or DVD.

In Person

Hand me your materials in person. Some folks prefer to hand off big video files at our monthly meetings.

Your Files Will Be Renamed

When I get materials they almost invariable come from fellow amateur radio operators. This is convenient because I rename EVERYTHING I get with their callsign and other info that will help id the item should it become separated from its normal storage location.

Hypothetically you are now me and your callsign is N0KKZ so ...

For the flight of EOSS-1000, you send me:

  • IMG_0455.JPG
  • Pretty_Sunset.JPG

I'll rename them

  • eoss_1000_n0kkz_001.jpg
  • eoss_1000_n0kkz_002.jpg

If you have no callsign I'll use your name or perhaps initials or a combination of both to ID the data.

I used to preserve excellent filenames as descriptive of the images, but over time I've had to abandon that as it can get extremely confusing should a picture be inadvertently moved out of its "home" directory. Currently there are approximately 4500 pictures in my EOSS photo archives. Organization takes precedence over descriptions. Usually if a picture can be correctly associated with a flight, someone can be found who was on the flight and can identify the key elements of the photo.

Your Files Will be Shared

If you send in data, photos, video, expect to see it on another web site eventually. Our policy generally is to share the information on our site freely with other groups.

Normally I post low resolution photos of around 500 pixels in their largest dimension. These photos are unsuitable for print uses so I am occasionally asked for higher rez versions. If I have a higher rez version I:

Attempt to contact the creator for permission to forward it along to the publication. However, if I have a high rez version of a photo, unless I've been specifically instructed that it is for EOSS internal use only (the case with a single group of photos), I'll probably forward the high rez versions after a suitable waiting period for a response from the author.

You can forward high resolution versions of your work and specifically instruct me to NOT distribute it via the web or email, but I would prefer you only submit data at the resolution you are comfortable sharing freely with all. That way, if someone wants something in high rez and I don't have it, I'll just have to direct them to the source for that data.

It is a VERY rare photo that has real monetary value. If you take one, and it may certainly happen, and you want to submit it to the EOSS website for our use for free, I would suggest you do so at a resolution you believe will not damage your ability to resell the original.

Your Files Will be Ignored

I'm just being up front here. Send me 10 pictures and I may not use any. However, much more likely, I'll pick out the very best photos and add them to the flight recap page.

So, why should you send the 10 pictures to me in the first place? Well, you should trust my expertise in picking out the best pictures. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm an easy 6 of an photo expert. I'll pick the photos that look best to me.

Even if you are a 7 or better photographic expert, here's something else you should consider. You have a photo that isn't all that great. It's very slightly out of focus, it has other technical problems. You decide, hey someone else's photo of this will be better and get used. You don't send it it. I get NO OTHER PHOTOS of this interesting event. Result, no coverage at all. I get between 50 and 200 photos of each flight. You never know when you will have the photo needed to round out the recap. But, I'll know cause I see all that material you never get to lay your eyes on.

So, if your photos aren't being used to the extent you'd like I apologize but, a webmaster simply has to edit to be concise. We have a fairly good reservoir of free space but it fills up amazingly fast. Then we have to boost our monetary investment in running the website.

Suppose you submitted a photo you KNOW should be posted but I've neglected to do so. Tap me on the shoulder and ask, "What about that picture showing ..." . I may have missed it and I'll certainly appreciate it if you have something unique that I failed to discern in going over your submissions.