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