Recently, we were approached by Telecurve (www.telecurve.com ) a firm which provides the ability for ordinary phone or cell users to listen to an existing audio stream available on the web wondering if we would be interested in making our streams available for ordinary phone users to be able to dial in to listen using their land-line or non-data enabled cell phone. 

We have decided to go forward with this option to allow users to listen to our streams using an ordinary wired phone, or a cellular phone without a data plan.

The user MAY incur a long distance charge (the inital phone no. to call is in the Iowa 712 area code) if their home phone plan charges Long Distance (same for a cell phone plan) but many people these days have "all you can eat" LD minutes associated with their wired or wireless phone service. 

 In other words you should check if you are charged for long-distance (out of state) calls before trying this option.

What are the benefits in offering a "Telecurve" option for stream listening?  These are what come to my mind initially:

1) If an unexpected event occurs (derailment, special train movement, Steam Powered excursion, natural disaster) the server listener slots can fill up and we can't serve everyone that wants to listen.

2) Some people's work internet disallows people streaming via firewall blockages, this provides a work-around.

3) Some people only have very poor internet bandwidth ability or poor quality which makes streaming difficult/frustrating..

4) People may have limited data packages on their smartphone but unlimited voice... Or they don't want to eat up their data budget.

5) Some people don't have smart phones period. (there are still non-smartphone users out there and we want to serve the entire cross section of rail-enthusiasts).

For now, to test the quality and the mechanics, I've chosen 1 stream from each of our drop down menus which are very busy with radio traffic so we can test their system.

The user interface for the test set up is different than what it will be when this goes live for all the streams.  For now, when you dial into 712-432-4216 (long distance charges may apply depeding on your phone/cell plan) you will be given a choice of:

Western (Press 1):

Vancouver/Columbia River Wa.

Mountain (Press 2):

Montana Rail Link - Helena, MT

Central (Press 3):

Houston Area, TX

Eastern (Press 4):

Westslope/Sandpatch Area, PA

Eastern Canada (Press 5):

Hamilton - Ontario

Press # to stop listening to the current stream and go back to the menu.

When we move to the production version of this, each stream will have a unique 4 Digit Stream ID # assigned and posted on the stream info page for that stream and you will be able to select the stream via that 4 digit no.

Eventually, a Menu-Tree will be created where you can navigate via a series of options or by the 4 digit Stream ID# if you know it.