SuperPacket

Catching up on ARDC Grants

All SuperPacket articles on ARDC - link.

As always in a story about ARDC, I disclaim that I'm a currently a volunteer member of ARDC's Grants Advisory Committee (GAC). I can't discuss ARDC grants and gifts that are proposed, rejected, or in progress, until they're made public. Thus all of these I describe here have been made public.

Recent ARDC Grants and Gifts
Amateur Radio Digital Corporation (ARDC) (aka ampr.org / Net44) is ramping up its granting / gifting activity. ARDC is doing a good job of publicly listing awarded grants, and some links to stories about those grants on their Grants page. The most recent grants mentioned are:

2021-02 Woodridge Middle School Operation Hamulanche $5,453
2021-04 IEEE Central Jersey Section, Broadcast Technology Chapter (IEEE PCJS BTC) Make Operating Radio Easier (MORE) $200,000
2021-04 Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE) Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival $112,200
2021-04 Open Research Institute M17 Open Protocol $250,000
2021-05 Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology (MOST) Amateur Radio on the International Space Station $4,122
2021-05 The University of Arizona Amateur Radio Club Digital Mode and Long-Term Equipment Investments $8,287

The Big Dish of W1MX - the MIT Amateur Radio Society
The ARDC grant / gift to garner the most attention to date is the planned restoration of "The Big Dish" at MIT that has been restored, re-engineered, and even re-imagined by the Amateur Radio Operators of W1MX, the MIT Amateur Radio Society as a major focus of their activity. That particular ARDC gift to MIT was ~$1.6M of the total ~$1.9M needed. (Both those numbers have been publicly disclosed.) MIT's hometown newspaper, the Boston Globe, did a nice article on this project and grant - Students and faculty rescue MIT’s iconic radar dome:

One of the most distinctive landmarks of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is coming down — but not for long.

The vast golf ball-shaped installation, known as a radome, that’s been teed up atop the Cecil and Ida Green Building for more than a half-century will soon be demolished. Originally built for radar research, it still houses a large antenna dish that will come down as part of renovations to the Green building.

But the dome is steeped in MIT history as well as student lore. Now, a coalition of students, faculty, and alumni has raised nearly $2 million to replace the dome and the electronic systems inside.

...

In our deliberations within the ARDC GAC about this particular grant application, I made the point that if we approved this particular grant, it would put ARDC "on the map", and that prediction has been borne out. I'm certain that the Boston Globe article is the first mention of ARDC in any major media, and it's likely the first mention of Amateur Radio in the Boston Globe in perhaps two decades.

While it's not a stated goal of ARDC to change the perception of Amateur Radio with the general public - that Amateur Radio and Amateur Radio Operators are doing interesting things... as this article in a major US paper shows... ARDC is certainly capable of doing so.

Amateur Radio Newsline did a nice mention of this grant:
ARDC GRANT HELPS PRESERVE USE OF MIT'S 'RADOME' ON CAMPUS:

**
ARDC GRANT HELPS PRESERVE USE OF MIT'S 'RADOME' ON CAMPUS

DON/ANCHOR: In the US, an unprecedented grant from a major foundation that supports experimentation in amateur radio has helped save an important tool on one prominent college campus. Sel Embee KB3TZD has that report.

SEL: Amateur radio generosity has played a major role in saving an important part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A beloved part of the campus skyline–the radar dome, or "radome," as it is known–has been spared, thanks to a student-led fundraising campaign and an unprecedented grant from the nonprofit foundation Amateur Radio Digital Communications. ARDC has provided $1.6-million—the largest gift in its history—to replace the aging fiberglass radome and renovate the 18-foot-wide, steerable parabolic dish it houses. The radome and dish were to be removed permanently to enable new roofing to be installed on the campus' tallest building, which has been its home since 1966.

The fiberglass radome and its dish, which were once used for weather research, have been used most recently by the MIT Radio Society W1MX for microwave experiments, moonbounce communication and other radio-related activities. According to the MIT website, it most recently took on a new role beyond contacts with deep space lunar CubeSats and low-earth orbit satellites. During the pandemic, it also allowed students to conduct radio astronomy experiments remotely.

ARDC director Bob McGwier (pron: Mugwire), N4HY, issued a statement saying: [quote] “We also hope this contribution helps get the message out that ARDC is excited to support amateur radio and digital communications projects of all sizes – including big ones, especially when the results will be so long-lasting.” [endquote]

For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Sel Embee KB3TZD.

(MIT, ARDC)

Sadly, despite the W1MX Big Dish garnering mention for Amateur Radio in a major US newspaper, the ARRL (self-described as The national association for AMATEUR RADIO) deigned to mention this significant grant as barely a footnote in their May 20, 2021 ARRL Letter:

In Brief...
[This item corrects a news brief that appeared in the May 13 edition of The ARRL Letter.] The MIT UHF Repeater Association W1XM shack and radome have been saved. After a years-long process involving countless hours of meeting, writing, negotiating, and planning across half a dozen entities within MIT, and after an intense, large-scale fundraising campaign to save the shack and radome atop the Green Building Roof on campus, the club will get to keep and improve W1XM. A new radome will be installed around the 18-foot "big dish" on the roof. Helping in a big way to make this possible was a $1.6 million grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), as well as private donations from alumni, members of the MIT community, and friends of amateur radio. "Together, we made this happen," MIT UHF Repeater Association President Milo Hooper, AI1XR, said. "For this, I can only say, thank you!" MIT has two distinct ham radio clubs -- the MIT Radio Society (W1MX) and the MIT UHF Repeater Association (W1XM). W1MX is home to a larger, general-purpose school radio club, and the station is located in the Walker Memorial Building. More information about this effort is available.

(If the above sounds like I'm taking the ARRL to task... you're correct.)

W1MX finally updated its Capital Campaign web page with the new status of the campaign to save the Big Dish (they're busy students):

Update on Radome Project (May 7th, 2021)

This message was sent to our community members by Milo Hooper AI1XR on May 7

I write on behalf of the MIT Radio Society to share some long-awaited good news.

After a years-long process involving countless hours of meeting, writing, negotiating, and planning across half a dozen entities within MIT—

After an intense, large-scale fundraising campaign to save the W1XM station atop the Green Building Roof—

We did it. We met our goal.

We will keep our station, and we will get a shiny new radome around the 18-ft “big dish”.

Better yet—these facilities will be radically improved and brought up to the state of the art in the process of the overall rooftop renovation project, with infrastructural upgrades to ensure functionality for decades.

This wonderful result was made possible by an extremely generous donation of $1.6M by Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) as well as donations and support from you - our alumni, members of the MIT community, and friends of amateur radio. We spread the word far and wide, calling for assistance—and you listened. Together, we made this happen.

For this I can only say: thank you!

You can read more about this effort on MIT News here. Stay tuned for further major updates as the project moves forward over the coming year and a half.

...

ARDC Scholarships (awarded by ARRL)
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) has traditionally provided modest scholarships for college-bound students who are Amateur Radio Operators. With ARDC's help, ARRL was able to increase the number and size of scholarships they granted this year - ARRL Foundation Announces 2021 Scholarship Awards.

The Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) Scholarships, $25,000 each
Francis E. Bonte, KE8HPA, of Westerville, Ohio
Alisha M. Lin, K6AML, of Lake Forest, California
Mason W. Matrazzo, KM4SII, of Clemons, North Carolina
Sarah M. Porter, KM4WLQ, of Rock Hill, South Carolina
Hannah E. Rosenfeld, W7HER, of Eugene, Oregon
Daniel R. Thomson, KB7DRT, of Rigby, Idaho

The Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) Scholarships, $15,000 each
Jacob J. Gardner, KE8NIX, of Sunbury, Ohio
Steven T. MacLeroy, KN4STM, of Sylacauga, Alabama
David A. Puma, KG5UBB, of Crossroads, Texas
Rowen K. Warren, AE0CP, of Telluride, Colorado

The Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) Scholarships, $10,000 each
Nathan J. Appel, KD8ZIA, of Jenison, Michicgan
Ryan J. Bibby, KN4RQL, of Fayetteville, Georgia
Christopher M. Brault, KD8YVJ, of Liberty Township, Ohio
Lucas E. Carlson, KM6RXW, of Ramona, California
Holden J. Correia-Fischer, KD2JPV, of Collingswood, New Jersey
Steven M. Drabbant, K5ZL, of Conroe, Texas
Russell A. Goss, KD9FAL, of Brighton, Illinois
Catherine Hong, KC1MFU, of Cambridge, Massachusetts
Jonathan Z. Keiser, AG5SY, of San Antonio, Texas
Julie Knappik, KB1YTT, of Raynham, Massachusetts
Faith Hannah Lea, KD3Z, of Palm Coast, Florida
Zechariah J. Lea, WX4TVJ, of Palm Coast, Florida
Jacob Nagel, AD0JA, of Wright City, Missouri
Declan M. O’Hara, KG7HTE, of Lebanon, Oregon
Noah J. Sevcik, K9BZY, of Long Grove, Illinois
Maya Tamir, KM6VKD, of San Diego, California
Carolina M. Whitaker, KD9NKM, of Indianapolis, Indiana

The Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) Scholarships, $5,000 each
Cameron B. Blew, N6CAM, of Irvine, California
Conner L. Dickey, KD9LSV, of Decatur, Illinois
Allison H. Painter, KI7GIN,of Paradise, Utah
Kathryn G. Robertson, KC3NCT, of Dayton, Maryland

(Recipients listed courtesy of ARRL.)

Scholarships to student Amateur Radio Operators is one of the core missions of ARDC and seeing this long list, with significant contributions to these student's college expenses is gratifying.

Chippewa Valley Amateur Radio Club (CVARC)
On the ARDC website, Dan Romanchik KB6NU wrote a nice article about one of ARDC's recent grants - CVARC Uses ARDC Grant to Serve the Community, Promote Amateur Radio.

Last summer, the Chippewa Valley Amateur Radio Club (CVARC) had a problem: they had started working on a couple of club projects, including an upgrade of their repeater system and an emergency response trailer, when the pandemic hit. As a result, they had to cancel their hamfest, which they were relying on to fund these projects.

The emergency response trailer project was particularly ambitious—but definitely needed. The CVARC serves all of Chippewa County, WI, and the club estimates that up to 30% of the county has inadequate cell phone service. Should a disaster occur, large portions of the county could be without any communications at all.

...

I'm proud to be helping ARDC in their granting and gifting activities.

Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-05-25
Portions Copyright © 2021 by Steven K. Stroh

ARDC Interview by RATPAC

Background - see my previous article Amateur Radio Digital Communications (aka ampr.org / 44net).

Rosy Wolf KJ7RYV, Executive Director of ARDC did a Presentation about ARDC on May 12, 2021 for the Radio Amateur Training Planning and Activities Committee (RATPAC) presentation and training series. It was a good presentation, with a lot of good followup questions. ARDC President/CEO Phil Karn KA9Q was also part of the presentation.

Rosy gave a good overview of what ARDC (now) does and explained that it really wants to help Amateur Radio grow with broad-based grants and gifts to Amateur Radio and other organizations and projects.

Kudos to the RATPAC organizers; the RATPAC series was an outgrowth of in-person Amateur Radio training being canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions, and the RATPAC series has just taken off.

I also really love RATPAC's low-overhead minimalist approach - "website" on Groups.io, archival list of previous presentations on Google Sheets, posting the videos on Vimeo, etc.

To view or download the video of Rosie's presentation, see the archived presentations list and scroll down to May 12, 2021 and see the various links at the right. To save a bit of time, here's the Vimeo link.

Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-05-17
Copyright © 2021 by Steven K. Stroh

 

ARDC Press Release on Saving MIT Radio Society's Big Dish

 

5663 Balboa Ave ● Suite 432 ● San Diego, CA 92111-2705 ● USA

PRESS RELEASE

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) Makes Largest Donation to Date ($1.62m) to Save the MIT Radome

San Diego, California – May 14, 2021

If you’ve ever looked at the skyline at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), you likely have noticed the giant white sphere sitting atop the 277-foot-tall Cecil and Ida Green Building which towers above the heart of the campus. That iconic shape is a fiberglass radar dome — or radome — enclosing an 18-foot wide microwave dish, and it was recently slated for removal following necessary renovation on the building’s roof. But the student-led MIT Radio Society (W1MX), with support from faculty in the Departments of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), and Physics, saw an opportunity to possibly preserve the instrument for novel uses in remote learning and experimentation. Despite a tight timeline, the students rallied MIT alumni and community members in a crowdfunding campaign, and were able to secure a $1.6 million grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) to successfully meet their fundraising goals—and save the radome.

“Our philanthropic efforts are less than a couple years old, and this is by far our largest grant made to date,” says ARDC Director Dr. Bob McGwier (N4HY). “We are thrilled that this donation will support students and research at MIT for decades to come. We also hope this contribution helps get the message out that ARDC is excited to support amateur radio and digital communications projects of all sizes – including big ones, especially when the results will be so long-lasting.”

ARDC’s grant program, initiated in 2019, funds projects related to amateur radio and digital communications science and technology. Additionally, the program has funded over 120 scholarships through the Foundation for Amateur Radio (FAR) and the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).

Initially built in 1966, the MIT radome and the large steerable instrument it protects (fondly referred to by its users as “The Big Dish”), was used to pioneer research which led to the weather radar systems in wide use today. It fell out of use for a number of years before the MIT Radio Society adapted and upgraded the dish for their microwave experiments, most notably enabling its use for Earth-Moon-Earth or "moonbounce" communication, where signals are bounced off the moon to reach Earth-bound receivers at greater distances than radio communications sent on the ground. The large size and far-reaching capabilities of the dish make it a unique scientific instrument in an academic setting, presenting opportunities for potential creative new uses in cutting-edge research, like satellite communication. Further, the

dish can also support educational activities, like enabling remote radio astronomy experiments so the Physics Junior Laboratory (J-Lab) course could continue with minimal disruption during the Covid-19 pandemic .

"We were overwhelmed at first by the amount we needed to raise, and the short time we had before the renovation project needed to begin. We just had to hope that someone would see the same promise and potential in the dish that we did,” says Gregory Allan, a PhD student in the MIT AeroAstro who led ARDC grant submission efforts. “When we contacted ARDC, they were so supportive and willing to do whatever it took to make this happen. We're really grateful to them for this incredible gift."

To read more about MIT’s efforts to save the radome, visit http://w1mx.mit.edu/giving/ To learn more about ARDC’s grantmaking efforts, visit ampr.org/giving/.

Contact:

Rosy Wolfe
Executive Director
Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC)
contact@ampr.org

https://www.ampr.org/amateur-radio-digital-communications-ardc-makes-largest-donation-to-date-1-62m-to-save-the-mit-radome/

What I Would Say to the FCC

On a Facebook group called Amateur Radio Satellite Service, Michelle Thompson W5NYV posted this query:

Call for Comment:

Are there any technical topics you want the FCC to know about?

I have an opportunity to make a presentation. I would like to hear from you about technical issues in the service that the FCC should hear more about.

This won't cover topics related to self-regulation or operating.

It is not that those things are less important. It would simply be a different presentation.

If you want to reply privately, please mail me at (email redacted - see the post).

...

As I write this, the group and the post is public - you don't have to be logged in with a Facebook account to see it.

Michelle is one of the Directors of Open Research Institute.

If I had the same offer, I would use the opportunity to discuss:

• The changing role of radio communications from "building radio hardware" into "writing radio software" (software defined radio),
• The need for the US to become more "self-sufficient" in engineers that have hands-on exerience in conceptualizing, designing, manufacturing, and building new generations of radio technology
• The role that Amateur Radio could, and hopefully will, play in providing a "training ground" for those future engineers and technicians with these new generations of radio systems.

The good news is that creating new radio systems is now largely a matter of software, such as the ubiquitous GNU Radio.

The bad news is that creating new radio systems is now largely a matter of software, such as hardware that supports GNU Radio.

Why bad news? Because there are many, many real world issues in radio systems that can't be relegated to "largely a matter of software". It's quite possible to write radio software that works fine on the simulator, compiles perfectly into the target hardware, and utterly fails to function as a real world radio system.

Thus, even with mad skills in writing radio software, there's still a need for real world, hands-on, empirical experience with radio systems. An Amateur Radio license is, literally, a license to experiment with radio technology. You can build systems, you can experiment with antennas, you can deploy multiple units in a network, you can even do things purely for fun like bounce your Amateur Radio signals off the moon.

Involvement in Amateur Radio can help fill address the need to fundamentally understand radio technology. In the US, technological literacy and capability is increasing as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) subjects are being emphasized. In previous eras, youth that eventually became engineers began learning by tinkering with farm machinery or cars. In this era, youth that eventually become engineers are learning from STEM training and hands-on by becoming "Makers". Amateur Radio can be the "radio" element of  "Making".

Amateur Radio in the US needs to be brought out of radio systems paradigms of the 1950s into the paradigms of the early 21st century.

 

Related - The National Science Foundation is taking this issue semi-seriously:

Spectrum Innovation Initiative: National Center for Wireless Spectrum Research (SII-Center)
PROGRAM SOLICITATION NSF 21-558

(Semi-seriously - the budget for this iniative is a "mere" $25M.)

Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-05-12
Portions Copyright © 2021 by Steven K. Stroh

The MIT Radio Society's Big Dish is Saved

Photo of the Big Dish radome exterior courtesy of W1MX, the MIT Radio Society 

Nomenclature Alert - Dish vs Radome... the DISH is the active element - a 18 foot wide parabolic antenna that's steerable in azimuth and elevation. The RADOME is what you see on the outside - a fiberglass (?) shell that protects the (relatively fragile) dish from the weather. The radome is transparent to radio frequencies - the dish does all the "work".

I've known of the "Big Dish" for several years now since I visited Boston to visit my daughter. We were touring Cambridge and I glanced up and saw the Big Dish's radome on top of a tall building on the MIT campus. I web searched it and found W1MX and learned that it uses the Big Dish for a lot of interesting Amateur Radio activities.

From W1MX: The WR66 radar was once a research prototype for the NEXRAD system. Today, we use the dish for Earth-Moon-Earth communication on the 23cm band and hydrogen line radio astronomy. Getting it up and running was an incredible project involving both complex RF engineering and learning to interface to many different generations of control systems built over the past 55 years.

What makes the Big Dish so unique is a combination of factors:

• It's 18 feet wide - that allows for a great diversity of frequencies and focus points.
• It's steerable in azimuth and elevation.
• The fiberglas (?) radome protects it from weather. That radome must be pretty sturdy considering severe "Nor'easters" that periodically batter the Boston area.
• It's on top of a 22 story building - it has great views to a larger horizon than a similar size dish that's ground mounted.
• It's available for (relatively) unrestricted use by engineering students.
• Because it's not encumbered, it can be used for interesting or "just for fun" activities like Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) or Moonbounce communications during Amateur Radio contests.

Thus, the Big Dish was well worth saving, if possible. But, for one thing, while the Big Dish looks in pretty good shape, the radome as you see it in these photos, especially the one below, looks every bit of those 55 years old.

Photo of the Big Dish and its enclosing radome interior courtesy of W1MX, the MIT Radio Society 

But the radome wasn't the biggest problem - the roof of the Green Building was due for repair and refurbishment. As part of that repair, the Big Dish had to be removed. Restoring it back to the rooftop once the roof repairs were complete was another matter. Since "only" W1MX and some academic programs used it (but not a "paying customer" like developing a national weather RADAR prototype), it wasn't (initially) contemplated that the Big Dish would be returned to the rooftop.

From W1MX - Update on Radome Project (March 18th, 2021)

Our perseverance is beginning to pay off! After much discussion and collaboration with MIT Facilities and various contractor groups involved in the Green Building renovations project, we have completed an initial design and project cost for the renewal of our Large Radome.

MIT has informed us that, if we raise $1.9 million before May 1st, 2021, the restoration of the radome can be included in the Green Building renovation project. While this is an enormous challenge, we believe it is not insurmountable.

W1MX conducted a fundraising drive, but raised only a fraction of the $1.9 million that was needed.

Fortunately... Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is now up and running and providing grants and gifts for projects involving Amateur Radio, small (like Operation Hamulanche) and now, pretty large, like restoring (saving) the Big Dish. MIT just announced that the Big Dish will be restored with help from an ARDC gift:

To secure the large dish’s future and replace the deteriorating radome, the MIT Radio Society spearheaded a fundraising effort and immediately got to work. Building on the momentum of a previous successful fundraising campaign among Radio Society alumni that helped refurbish their equipment on the roof, they further mobilized the MIT community of alumni and friends by organizing a second campaign. The students also pulled together a successful grant application in record time to Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), a non-profit private foundation supporting amateur radio and digital communications science, resulting in ARDC’s largest-ever philanthropic contribution, made in memory of the organization’s founder Brian Kantor. This lead gift brought the MIT Radio Society across the finish line to successfully meet their fundraising goal.

Read the rest of MIT's Press Release - Saving the radome - Student-led efforts preserve iconic campus landmark for future generations of education and research.

As one of the volunteers on the ARDC Grants Advisory Committee, I'm proud to have played a small role in this, and I'm very proud of ARDC for stepping up to this challenge (and especially, acting quickly enough to save the Big Dish). That couldn't have been easy. I'm glad that ARDC has proven it's willing to tackle big (and small) challenges in Amateur Radio.

Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-05-09

 

Blast from the Past - Linux Routers and Amateur Radio Spread Spectrum

In doing some research for another article here on SuperPacket, I ran across a prescient statement I made to Linux Gazette (later, Linux Journal?) that routers and gateways used in Amateur radio would be based on Linux. My statement must have made an impression because Linux Gazette posted it on their website.

Subject: TAPR SS Position Statement
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 12:18:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Steve Stroh
To: Phil Hughes WB6SWR

I suspect that the "Intranet" described below will be built on Linux-based IP routers, possibly a simple implementation that can be booted from floppy or Flash Card.

It's going to be very, very interesting.

Steve N8GNJ, <old email address redacted>
Amateur Radio TCP/IP <old email address redacted>
| Amateur Spread Spectrum is the wave of the present!

...

Fast forward sixteen years... When the Raspberry Pi computers came along in 2012, I knew that they were going to be very popular in Amateur Radio. Finally we had a powerful (enough) inexpensive embeddable computer that ran a powerful operating system that could be "headless" and scriptable and stable. Before then we had embeddable computers that were expensive, Linux was fussy and non-standard on embedded devices, and most Amateur Radio software was running on Windows.

Below is the meat of that email to Linux Gazette.

...

TAPR's Statement on Spread Spectrum Technology Development

http://www.tapr.org/

TAPR was founded in 1982 as a membership supported non-profit amateur radio research and development organization with specific interests in the areas of packet and digital communications. In the tradition of TAPR, the Board of Directors at their Fall 1995 meeting voted that the organization would begin to actively pursue the research and development of amateur radio spread spectrum digital communications. At the Spring 1996 board of directors meeting, the following statement of purpose was passed:

"TAPR believes that the technical facts support our conviction that conventional and spread spectrum systems can coexist without detriment to conventional systems on all frequencies from MF to EHF. To this end, TAPR will begin to research spread spectrum systems that will develop technology for future deployment."
As stated above, the TAPR board feels strongly about TAPR's focus on spread spectrum technology and especially how it relates to the potential coexistence on frequencies that will have increased number of users occupying them. The amateur radio bands, like other spectrum will become more heavily utilized in the future. It is in the interest of amateur radio to develop systems that are interference-resistant while not interfering with other primary or secondary users on those frequencies.
TAPR understands the concerns many have with the new technology, and believes that efforts in both education and research is necessary in order to allay the fears about interference and to demonstrate the benefits of the technology.

TAPR believes that todays' communications technology is moving toward all digital transmitters and receivers. These advances in technology, combined with the swift evolution of cell based transmission and switching protocols, are opening up a new set of possibilities for unique new services utilizing intelligent networks. These will contain smart transmitters, receivers, and switches. Today's Internet is perhaps the best example of a self-regulating structure that embodies these new technological approaches to communications in the networking domain. However, to date, many of these innovations have not moved into the wireless networking arena. TAPR will work on moving these innovations into the amateur radio community.

TAPR feels that the VHF/UHF/SHF radio networks of the future will involve a mixture of links and switches of different ownership, which terminate at the end-user via relatively short-distance links. What will then be required is a built-in, distributed, self-governing set of protocols to cause the network's behavior to make more efficient use of a limited, common shared resource, the radio spectrum. Creating such a self-regulating structure for the optimal sharing of spectrum will require much effort.

One of the major problems which stands in the way of these new approaches today is the current FCC regulatory environment and the manner in which spectrum is managed and allocated under its rules.

Historically, the current regulatory approach to radio has been based upon the technology that was in use at the time that the Communications Act of 1934 was framed, basically what we would call today, 'dumb' transmitters speaking to 'dumb' receivers. The technology of that time required reserved bandwidths to be set aside for each licensed service so that spectrum would be available when needed. Given this regulatory approach, many new applications cannot be accommodated since there is no available unallocated spectrum to 'park' new services. However, given the new set of tools available to the entrepreneur with the advent of digital technology, what once were 'dumb' transmitters and receivers can now be smart devices which are capable of exercising greater judgment in the effective use and sharing of spectrum. The more flexible the tools that we incorporate in these devices, the greater the number of uses that can be accommodated in a fixed, shared spectrum.

Therefore, TAPR will focus its spread spectrum effort in the following areas:

TAPR will work to promote rules and technologies to make the most efficient use of the spectrum through power control, forward error correction, and other means to minimize interference among spread spectrum users and existing communications systems.
TAPR will work on issues and efforts with other national organizations to change the regulatory environment and rules in order to promote the experimentation, development, and later deployment of spread spectrum technology.
TAPR will work to develop information on the topic to help educate members and the amateur community as a whole about spread spectrum technology, and to disseminate this information via printed publications, the World Wide Web, presentations at conferences and meetings, and other means.
TAPR will work to foster experimentation, development, and design of spread spectrum systems, and to facilitate the exchange of information between the researchers and other interested parties.
TAPR will work to develop a national intra-network to foster the deployment of future high-speed spread spectrum systems into regional and local communities, including the development of suitable protocols and guidelines for deployment of these systems.
TAPR will work with commercial companies who manufacture spread spectrum devices which operate in spectrum shared by the amateur radio service (ARS), in order to make them more aware of the nature of ARS operations on those bands with the goal to work towards the deployment of devices which will minimize interference between all spectrum sharing partners.
TAPR will work with commercial companies who manufacture spread spectrum devices in order to identify equipments that can be either used or modified for use for Part 97 operation.
Adopted by the TAPR Board on September 20th, 1996 at Seatac, Washington Board Meeting.

Spread Spectrum Statement Committee:
Greg Jones, WD5IVD
Dewayne Hendricks, WA8DZP
Barry McLarnon, VE3JF
Steve Bible, N7HPR

...

TAPR joined an existing Special Temporary Authority (STA) investigation to operate Spread Spectrum in Amateur Radio spectrum. If memory serves there was a second STA established solely by TAPR. Both STAs concluded with a report to the FCC that Spread Spectrum operations were usable in Amateur Radio spectrum. Years later, the FCC finally made some rule changes regarding Spread Spectrum in Amateur Radio spectrum. The FCC's new rules were overly cautious regarding Spread Spectrum operations by Amateur Radio operators with onerous restrictions on power levels that the American Radio Relay League insisted on to protect legacy modes. In 2021 Spread Spectrum operation in Amateur Radio is "common", but only in the bands that Amateur Radio shares with / adjacent to Part 15.247 devices, namely in the 902-928 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5 GHz bands.

I participated in one or both of the STAs. In my report to the FCC, I concluded that Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS), even at high power levels, was completely compatible with Amateur Radio operations in Amateur Radio VHF and UHF bands, due to the minimal "dwell time" on any one portion of an Amateur Radio band. In 2021... due to the very minimal use of repeaters for voice communications, my conviction of the usability of FHSS in Amateur Radio is even stronger.

Amateur Radio dreamed bigger back then. I hope that with some new capabilities, Amateur Radio can dream big again.

Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-05-07

New Web Page - SuperPacket Events of Note - 2021

Mostly to scratch my own itch, I created a new page for SuperPacket:

SuperPacket Events of Note - 2021

(It's linked on the sidebar at right under SuperPacket Web Pages.)

These are events I think would be interesting for readers of SuperPacket. Not all are Amateur Radio.

Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-05-06
Copyright © 2021 by Steven K. Stroh

 

MicroHAMS Digital Conference 2021 - Review

The Seattle-area MicroHAMS Amateur Radio Club held their 2021 MicroHAMS Digital Conference (MHDC) on Saturday April 24, 2021. Because of COVID-19 this conference was virtual, streamed live on YouTube. The individual videos are now available separately on YouTube.

Disclaimer - I'm a nominal member of MicroHAMS, but no longer active, and I had no role in the MicroHAMS Digital Conference 2021.

As I discussed in an earlier article, the advance publication of the speakers, schedule, etc. could have, and should have, been better.

Overall, MHDC 2021 was a good event with good information content. There were the inevitable glitches with any such production that has a lot of moving pieces operated by non-professionals. The format was that each presentation was pre-recorded and played live, and there was a brief question and answer period after each presentation. The questions were submitted via the YouTube chat option and were read by the emcee of the moment to the presenter.

My one major criticism of MHDC 2021 was that (in a break with previous MHDCs) the slide decks were not collected from the presenters and made available post-conference. In my opinion, that lack detracted from the overall quality of MHDC 2021.

Hyperlinks below are to the YouTube video.

FreeDV Digital Voice for HF - Walter Holmes, K5WH 
A well-researched overview of the use of the FreeDV digital voice coder / decoder (CODEC) on Amateur Radio HF bands.

Testing Rig-In-Box (RIB) Technology in a DXpedition Environment - Gregg Marco, W6IZT / Hal Turley, W8HC
This was a fascinating presentation not so much for the stated topic (though that was definitely interesting) but rather how the "DXpeditioners"... let's just say, "go deep" on activating rare grid squares. What fascinated me wasn't the technology of an entire full-legal-limit HF station encased in a container, operated entirely remotely from a boat via a broadband wireless link... but rather the idea that the support boat was purpose-built and operated for the sole purpose of supporting DXpeditions.

APRS - Universal Digital Communication and Emergency Operations - Bob Bruninga, WB4APR 
It was good to watch this overview of Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) from "Mr. APRS", the creator of the APRS concept. Bob didn't discuss anything new in APRS, but I did enjoy his discussion of the various satellites that incorporated APRS technology. Bob also talked quite a bit about alternative power. It was novel to hear him discuss buying used hybrid vehicles and treating them essentially as "standalone chargers for a 12 volt battery" - that you can drive to the gas station when you need to refuel.

From Buoys to Turn Island (systems) and back again! -- 'Drifting' Through Ham Technology - Paul Elliot, WB6CXC
This was an interesting technical exploration of communications concepts for "drift buoys". Paul carefully considered various communication techniques in Amateur Radio for his proposed buoys, including Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR), before concluding that he needed a mode that was capable of transmitting more telemetry data than WSPR, eventually settling on JS8Call.

Design Considerations and Communications Systems for HuskySat-1 - Paul Sturmer, KI7WLV
HuskySat-1 was a relatively short lived experimental satellite from students at the University of Washington (UW, or locally... U Dub) that is now non-operational. It was very interesting to hear the details of the novel "pop out" experimental K-band (18-27 GHz) antenna system, but also about the way the satellite was constructed almost entirely by UW students. 

The Ultimate Packet Workstation - Bryan Hoyer, K7UDR
Bryan discusses an interesting concept of highly automated packet radio station that goes out and "pings" various packet radio systems on different frequencies to test whether various stations are reachable, and how reliable the various paths.

Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-05-05
Copyright © 2021 Steven K. Stroh

 

Open Source Wireless Telephony

This isn't quite about Amateur Radio, but it's about wireless technology in a related area. In addition, this discussion is part of a larger article that I've been working on about the need for "Neighborhood Area Networks". Thus it's fodder for inclusion here on SuperPacket.

The genesis of this article is that I'm involved with a private discussion about the potentials of Open Source Wireless Telephony (my loose description). Basically the idea that a small wireless telephony network could be created using open source technologies and some alternative spectrum so that an independent wireless telephony network could be created in a place that wouldn't otherwise have wireless telephony service. Our pocket computers have become such a fixture of life that being in a place where we don't have access to the Internet or being able to make a telephone call seems nearly unthinkable now. But that situation is reality, even in "first world" North America. So there is a need to think about this.

My sense is that the private discussion I'm participating in isn't going to go anywhere, at least in the direction I consider productive, and I don't want the research I've done for that discussion to just age out into obscurity, so I'm capturing my thoughts here.

It's Complicated
In the larger, picture, telephony is such a complicated ecosystem, I'm personally skeptical about DIY and Open Source Cellular Telephony. The entire ecosystem seems too thoroughly locked down to really make an impact. GSM seems to have been effectively recreated in open source implementations including in GNU Radio, but GSM isn't being used that much any more and support for it is being dropped (all the commercial networks are migrating to 4G and 5G).

While it's possible to build a DIY Open Source mobile telephony network, it's daunting to keep it running and fix it when it breaks and expand it to all the places it should be. Most people would rather use a network than run one.

That said, here are some of the most promising projects that, if one was interested in making a real difference, could "energize" with contributions, especially financial:

Community LTE Project - https://blog.colte.network/ These folks at the University of Washington did create a largely DIY Open Source mobile telephony network. I don't see any current progress on this, but in my reading the usual source of such "stalling" on a promising project is the original funding runs out and the team disbands as the individuals seek other projects that are funded. This project did all the work to prove out the concept and it seems to me, with some funding, it could be replicated nearly anywhere it's needed.

Pinephone - https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ Unlike some previous efforts to create an open source mobile phone, this one seems to have some legs. There's amazing energy in the Pine 64 organization.

Village Telco - https://villagetelco.org - This was a project that ended up creating a new type of telephone network. It incorporated Wi-Fi, Mesh Networking, telephony routing (including the ability to connect to a gateway to the worldwide telephone network) and simple, cheap, Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) telephones. The idea was that the radio was put up on a pole, and a simple cable ran down the pole for power (could also be powered by a solar panel / battery) and a telephone. You could dial any other phone in the village. The network could be constructed by local folks - there was some installation with IP configuration, which could actually be done by Interactive Voice Response on the phone. All the telephone work was done with embedded Asterisk. This project just seemed to coast down and is no longer active. In my research about Village Telco, I was told that because the grant ran out and no one financially "guaranteed" the continued production of the unique Village Telco hardware, or was able to pay the developers, the project has effectively gone into "stasis" - no one has officially declared Village Telco dead, but there are no signs of life.

Wildernets - https://villagetelco.org/get-started/wildernets/ - Wildernets is a follow-on project by one of the developers of Village Telco that considerably modernized the Village Telco paradigm including making it possible to use a mobile device on a Village Telco network by the simple expedient of having a VOIP SIP client app and using the Wi-Fi capability of the phone instead of carrier connectivity. Given that Village Telco could easily provide coverage for a village, this seemed a great idea. Wildernets also created the ability to do Instant Messaging on a Village Telco network. This project stalled because, again, the hardware to host it went out of production and there was no source of funding for continuing the work for new hardware. If there was funding, then perhaps Village Telco hardware and Wildernets firmware could be recreated and be made available to the world again.

Unlicensed Long Term Evolution (Unlicensed LTE) / MulteFire - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_in_unlicensed_spectrum ULTE / MulteFire is the idea of operating wireless telephony networks in the various license-exempt 5 GHz bands much like is done in licensed spectrum. The difference is that the 5 GHz bands aren't "owned" by any one carrier so interference is not just possible, but likely, and there are technical limitations that must be observed when operating in the various 5 GHz license-exempt bands. Theoretically, if ULTE were a reality, an entity could construct their own private LTE network using only 5 GHz spectrum. I have no information about whether ULTE / MulteFire was ever completely incorporated into the LTE standard, and of course, the migration into "5G" is now well underway and any extensions to 4G / LTE technologies might well be moot.

Also, the Wi-Fi Alliance cried foul over ULTE / MulteFire and caused a bit of a stir. 

Wi-Fi is the open source equivalent of spectrum
A general observation about wireless technologies - for all the hue and cry about the deficiencies of Wi-Fi... it works. If you want it to go long distances that's tough, but doable. What's needed in the real world is hackable devices and those are getting scarcer and scarcer. If one wants to see open source wireless technologies be made more pervasive, perhaps consider contributing to one of the open source Wi-Fi firmware efforts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_router_firmware_projects) especially OpenWRT.

Thanks for reading!

Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-05-04
Copyright © 2021 by Steven K. Stroh