SuperPacket

New web page - A Brief Survey of Technological Innovation in Amateur Radio

This is a paper I wrote for the ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference 2022.

A Brief Survey of Technological Innovation in Amateur Radio

By Steve Stroh N8GNJ¹
ARRL and TAPR 2022 Digital Communications Conference Charlotte, North Carolina, USA 2022-09-16 thru 18

Abstract

In recent decades, the perception of Amateur Radio within the general public has shifted from Amateur Radio being useful, innovative, and an interesting technical activity, to Amateur Radio being perceived as an anachronism and largely irrelevant (except in the direst of communications emergencies). Summarized: “Ham Radio – that’s still around?”

Amateur Radio’s service to the public for emergency communications is being supplanted by improved commercial and government communications capabilities such as improved Iridium² satellite phones, the FirstNET³ public safety cellular system, and most recently, the nomadic capability of the Starlink⁴ broadband satellite system.

Amateur Radio has continuously developed unique technological innovations in radio technology, and that has not only continued in the modern era but has accelerated. However, that ongoing, unique contribution to technological society is, increasingly, unrecognized. That is unfortunate. If regulators, lawmakers, industry, the general public... and the Amateur Radio community itself understood the unique contributions to technological innovations in radio technology that Amateur Radio continues to develop, perhaps such recognition might improve Amateur Radio’s perception that it remains a valuable part of society, worthy of continued access to portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Keywords

Amateur, Radio, Operator, Ham, Wireless, Technology, Innovation, Spectrum, Digital, VHF, UHF, SHF, Microwave, Communications, ARDC, Techies, Makers, Hackers, Zero Retries Newsletter, Experimentation, Research and Development, FlexRadio, Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Background

For decades, I have been an admirer of technological innovation in Amateur Radio. Not just new technologies like Packet Radio emerging in the 1980s, but new techniques for old problems such as digital techniques enabling reliable communications via unreliable mediums such as the High Frequency (HF)⁵ (aka Shortwave) portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Amateur Radio’s unique culture, the varying characteristics of various portions of spectrum allocated to (or shared with) Amateur Radio operations, and the many highly capable and skilled Amateur Radio Operators, have resulted in a fertile, and welcoming “experimental zone” for technological innovation in radio technologies. Until recent decades, that culture of technological innovation was widely recognized, and encouraged. In the last few decades, the recognition of

1 Email – [email protected]
2 https://www.iridium.com/network/
3 https://firstnet.gov/network
4 https://www.starlink.com/rv
5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_frequency

A Brief Survey of Technological Innovation in Amateur Radio

Amateur Radio’s utility and contributions to technological innovation have been deprecated to near irrelevence... at least in popular perception... by ubiquitous Internet access, mobile phones, caricatures of Amateur Radio as “Grandpa sitting in the basement tapping on a Morse Code key”, and most notably, the removal of old barriers to individuals communicating across international borders.

A primary reason that this is a concern for society is that it has become irrevocably dependent on radio technology as the primary method of communications for mobile devices, most notably cellular technology, wireless local area networks (Wi-Fi), and most recently, direct-to-user satellite communications. For many people, their mobile phone is their only method of communications and media consumption. Much of that technology has been developed and manufactured in China. Dependence on China for such a critical infrastructure function is proving to be fraught with peril. To counter that peril, the US and other Western nations must quickly develop additional expertise, and personnel, “in nation” to better develop and support this now-critical wireless infrastructure. Amateur Radio can be a “training ground” for developing familiarity and expertise with radio technology, leading to careers in developing and supporting radio technology... but only if Amateur Radio is recognized as a useful and interesting.

The rise of technology specialists, especially those trained in Information Technology (IT), the “Maker culture”⁶, and the “Hacking Culture”⁷ have breathed new life into Amateur Radio. “Techies” have discovered Amateur Radio as an enabling technology for supporting experimentation with Information Technologies (such as building hobbyist / not-for-profit wide- area microwave networks). Makers have discovered that there are incredibly interesting things that they can add to their personal knowledge base and practical projects based on capabilities Amateur Radio has long taken for granted, such as long-range communications via VHF / UHF repeaters. Hackers have discovered Amateur Radio as a fertile “playground” for their experiments and expansion of knowledge about radio technology, such as Software Defined Receivers... and Transmitters (with an Amateur Radio license).

I started the Zero Retries Newsletter⁸ in July, 2021 out of frustration that the totality of technological innovation in Amateur Radio wasn’t being recognized by the Amateur Radio community, its regulators, and especially the public at large. Specifically, I was worried about the growing public perception that Amateur Radio is irrelevant, or worse, an anachronism. Such a perception, if it is to continue for much longer, may prove catastrophic to Amateur Radio, most notably in the loss of Amateur Radio access to various portions of spectrum. To date I’ve published more than fifty weekly issues of Zero Retries, and each issue highlights some aspect of technological innovation in Amateur Radio.

Literally, Amateur Radio is a license to experiment with radio technology and a welcoming “innovation zone” to develop new and exciting technological innovations in radio technology. I hope to make that point with the vignettes in this paper.

 

6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maker_culture
7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture
8 https://zeroretries.substack.com (will eventually migrate to https://zeroretries.org)

...

Read the rest of the paper at:

https://www.superpacket.org/n8gnj_dcc_2022_final_for_web.pdf

 

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

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

Updated Interesting and Advanced Projects / Products in Amateur Radio page

I made a number of additions to my web page Interesting and Advanced Projects / Products in Amateur Radio.

There is no change log or diff available - it's intended as a cumulative list of Interesting and Advanced Projects / Products in Amateur Radio.

Thanks for reading!

Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-04-20
Copyright © 2021 by Steven K. Stroh

Welcome TAG IT Readers

I gave a talk (not a presentation - no slides) on Tuesday evening April 6, 2021 to the TAG NW IT Group. TAG NW is a not-for-profit association headquartered in Bellingham, Washington for individuals and organizations interested in or operating in technology fields. It is a very interesting group and I'm enjoying being a member of TAG NW.

My talk was titled "Fundamentals of Wireless Communications" but a little overzealously described:

Our guest speaker for April 2021 is Steve Stroh, a licensed HAM radio operator and electronics enthusiast. Steve will present the fundamentals of wireless communications using amateur radio principles as a foundation for understanding all wireless technologies, including newer technologies such as Bluetooth and wireless computer networking. The result? A general understanding of how all wireless technologies work!

Here are some followup notes for those that attended and would like to know more about the topics I spoke about.

Disclaimer: In my statements below, and my overall activities, I don't claim to represent Amateur Radio as a whole.
There are a lot of aspects of Amateur Radio that do not interest me and that I don't participate in. My personal interests in Amateur Radio are mostly operating on the "VHF / UHF" bands about 50 MHz, and primarily experimenting with and operating data communications and networking via Amateur Radio (formerly called "Packet Radio").

Personally, I find wireless technology overall to be fascinating. I remember watching television programs as a kid in the 1960s, and I focused on the radios in the police cars, the portable EKG transmission unit used on a show about paramedics, etc. Other people enjoy birdwatching, or model trains, or cooking. Amateur Radio is a perfect way to scratch my particular mental and technological itch. 

Why does Amateur Radio still exist? Here's the FCC's justification for Amateur Radio:

§97.1   Basis and purpose.

The rules and regulations in this part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:

(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.

(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.

(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art.

(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.

(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.

A. Emergency communication - this element is still valid, though as I discussed, there's less need for Amateur Radio emergency communications in 2021 because new, more robust communications technologies have been developed that (unlike previous systems) are likely to remain functioning in an emergency.:

• First Responders Network Authority - FirstNet now provides a hardened, prioritized cellular network to first responders for broadband data and voice services.
• Iridium Next is a significant upgrade to the Iridium satellite system that was really suitable only for voice, and was easily saturated in an emergency. The upgrade in 2020 replaced every 1990's era Iridium satellite and the new satellites resulted in capacity increases and broadband(ish) data capability. In any given area, Iridium has no dependence on ground infrastructure because Iridium satellites can route between satellites in orbit. Thus, if you have a view of the sky, an Iridium (Next) ground terminal, and power, you can communicate.
• Another satellite system that's been used for emergency communications, even though it's currently still in beta trials, is SpaceX Starlink. Starlink offers true broadband (50 - 100 Mbps) almost anywhere in the Northern hemisphere where you have reasonable view of the sky. Like Iridium, all you need for for broadband Internet connectivity is a Starlink ground terminal, sky, and power.

B. Advancement of the radio art. 

C. Advancing communications skills and technical skills.

D. Creating more operators, technicians, and electronics experts.

E. Enhancing International goodwill. For most of the 20th century, Amateur Radio was a significant mode of international goodwill. I'm old enough to remember how remarkable it was that US Amateur Radio Operators were able to exchange pleasantries and signal reports with their counterparts in (what was then) the USSR. Almost every other direct communication between US citizens and USSR citizens was at least borderline illegal. In 2021, the Internet has rendered this element a bit moot.

So, my personal interpretation / conflation / estatement of elements B, C, and D, relevant for 2021:

Amateur Radio exists to provide a portion of spectrum for personal, hands-on experimentation with radio technology and systems, as well as training for operation of radio systems and radio-based networks.

One example of Amateur Radio experimentation becoming a commercial product / system is APRS and AIS. Amateur Radio's Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) beginning in 1984 wasn't a "prototype" for the marine industry's (now required and ubiquitous) Automatic Identification System (AIS), but it was undoubtedly an inspiration for AIS. Vessels equipped with AIS automatically report their position, bearing, and other information via radio transmission - just like Amateur Radio operators began doing with APRS in 1984.

Amateur Radio and Techies
I respectfully suggest that becoming licensed as an Amateur Radio operator and doing various hands-on activities in Amateur Radio is an excellent complement to technical career, especially Information Technology (IT). Through Amateur Radio a techie can develop a thorough understanding of wireless technology instead of being forced to treat wireless systems as an inscrutable "black box" that mostly works, except when it mysteriously doesn't.

A lot of hackers have come to agree with this perspective. It's instructive that the largest Volunteer Examiner (VE) Amateur Radio license testing session was at DEFCON 22 in August 2014 (see pages 8 and 9). 205 hackers took their Amateur Radio test at DEFCON 22; the number that passed wasn't noted in the article.

Obtaining an Amateur Radio license for personal experimentation and hands-on training in radio technology is especially applicable to youth and students interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. Amateur Radio is a very broad field that can touch physics, engineering, design, electronics, communications, hands-on (building), etc. Even physical activity is encompassed within Amateur Radio, including hiking and bicycling.

In the beginning, There Were the (Only) Experimenters
Guglielmo Marconi began demonstrations of the practicality of radio in the 1890s. Before then, all radio activity was experimental - technically curious people playing around. At that time, there was no commercial / business interest in radio. The first practical application of radio was between shore stations and ships at sea. The first regulation of the electromagnetic spectrum in the US was the Radio Act of 1912. Note how closely this correlates with the sinking of the Titanic - not a coincidence. After that, "Amateur" operation was codified into the Amateur Radio Service, with countries coordinating frequencies and other technical issues so that Amateur Radio Operators in all countries could communicate with each other.

In the succeeding century, and continuing, all portions of the electromagnetic spectrum in the US have been allocated to some specific use. Many portions of spectrum are allocated for multiple uses. To put it a different way, there is no "open" portion of spectrum that has not already been assigned some previous, current, or future usage.

Thus to create a new radio-based service, a previous usage of a portion of spectrum has to be changed. The most momentous such change was the reallocation of broadcast television channels 70 - 83 (806 to 890 MHz) to create a dedicated portion of spectrum for cellular telephony (1G, then called "Advanced Mobile Phone Service - AMPS) in 1983.

There are some small portions of spectrum such as the 2.4 GHz band that are allocated for "license-exempt" use included (but not limited to) the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands (often referred to as "the junk bands"). Radio Local Area Networks (RLANs) - the technology that eventually became Wi-Fi - was permitted in the ISM bands in only in 1985 in FCC Rule Part 15.247.

Getting up to speed on Amateur Radio

• An excellent book about Amateur Radio in general is Ham Radio for Dummies. As with every "for Dummies" title, it provides an excellent overview and the content isn't actually "dumbed down". The author Ward Silver N0AX is an excellent writer and provides an unbiased overview of Amateur Radio.
• To learn more about getting your Amateur Radio license, start at http://www.arrl.org/licensing-education-training
• If you want a book to study for your Amateur Radio license, Dan Romanchik KB6NU writes good ones - https://www.kb6nu.com/study-guides/
• If you want to just dive in and practice taking your Amateur Radio Test, flash-card like, my favorite such site is https://hamexam.org.
• Shopping at the Ham Radio store - Michael Gan marveled that "stores for ham radio" actually exist, where you can just walk in and buy Amateur Radios. The nearest one to Bellingham is Ham Radio Outlet (one of a chain) in the Portland area - https://www.hamradio.com/locations.cfm?storeid=11. There used to be several Amateur Radio stores in Vancouver, BC but on a trip to Vancouver in 2019, I was curious about them and found that all of them had closed.
• If you want to dive deep down the Amateur Radio rabbit hole, and like books, the ARRL Handbook is published annually with some refreshed content every year. It's kind of an encyclopedia for Amateur Radio, especially the technical aspects of the various operating modes, antennas, some electronic and radio projects, etc.
• Although it ceased publication 40+ years ago, Ham Radio Horizons magazine was just excellent at introducing Amateur Radio to those with no previous exposure. Some of the articles are admittedly dated (home computers were bleeding edge technology then) but many articles in HRH are timeless. If you have the time, reading Ham Radio Horizons is recommended.
• There are many YouTube channels about Amateur Radio. Just search for "Amateur Radio" on YouTube and you can easily lose an entire weekend. From my perspective, for the TAG IT audience, the best Amateur Radio channel on YouTube is AmateurLogic.TV. It's a good mix of intro material, fun projects, and nice hosts.
• Hackaday's $50 Ham series is an excellent tutorial series about Amateur Radio from a techie's perspective.
• "Hamfests" (swap meets / flea markets) are absolute institutions within Amateur Radio. The canonical joke about hamfests is that you bring your electronics "junk" to a hamfest to sell, so you can get money to buy more junk at the same hamfest. In the Seattle area, the largest hamfest is the Mike & Key Amateur Radio Club Swap Meet. It's typically held in March (2021 excepted) at the Western Washington Fairgrounds (Puyallup Fair).
• Amateur Radio Field Day is an annual "emergency communications test" cleverly disguised (in plain sight) as a contest. The idea is to simulate "the big one" that has destroyed power, normal communications, and other infrastructure. To fully embrace Field Day, you carry all of your equipment, including power source (generator, battery, solar panels, etc.) into a field and set up a communications station (typically, in a tent) to communicate with the rest of the world. Field Day is a lot of fun (except for 2020 and 2021, of course).
• Bellingham has several Amateur Radio Clubs. Mount Baker Amateur Radio Club is a pretty traditional general interest Amateur Radio club. A subgroup of MBARC is the Digital Group, which does some pretty interesting things. There's also the Whatcom Emergency Communications Group and  Sudden Valley Amateur Radio Club. The San Juan Country Amateur Radio Society is particularly welcoming, even to us "off islanders" (though they're befuddled by the interest).

The American Radio Relay League - ARRL, QST, and Now You're Talking
The ARRL is omnipresent in US Amateur Radio. Given that the ARRL is now more than a century old, there is some truth in the nickname "American Radio Reenactment League". The ARRL is the largest US national radio society; tthere are a number of others, but they have much smaller membership. Given the average ARRL member's age is well into retirement, it's to be expected that the ARRL focuses on "traditional" Amateur Radio activities such as operating on HF, contesting (it publishes dozens of pages of contest results) and DXing (more pages of DX records). The ARRL publishes QST Magazine, and to subscribe to QST you must join the ARRL; membership and a QST subscription are inseparable. ARRL offers QST in an electronic version in addition to a print magazine, but there's no cost savings with the electronic version - again, not surprising given the membership demographics of ARRL. Candidly, there is not a lot of content in QST of interest to techie Amateur Radio operators, other than getting familiar with Amateur Radio vendors from the many ads in QST. In recognition that QST's content wasn't that "compelling" to many new Amateur Radio operators, the ARRL began a new magazine called Now You're Talking which is a step in the right direction. But, even the title "Now You're Talking" reflects the ARRL's bias of "traditional" Amateur Radio activities like talking on the radio instead of the more progressive activities like data communications - see below. Bottom line is that the ARRL and QST aren't synonymous with US Amateur Radio, and you don't need to be a member of ARRL to get a lot of benefit from Amateur Radio. If you want to get a feel of the content of QST and Now You're Talking, you can purchase recent issues from Ham Radio Outlet.

One major criticism I have with the ARRL is that despite their ostensible mission to promote and grow Amateur Radio in the US, almost all of their content is sequestered behind a paywall. You must be a (paid) ARRL member to access their archives. In 2021, that stance makes no sense, and the ARRL is diminished by persisting with that paid membership requirement instead of making their content publicly accessible for the overall good of Amateur Radio.

You don't have to talk on the radio to be an Amateur Radio operator
Speaking of The $50 Ham series, this excerpt from Digital Modes with WSJT-X in that series is particularly applicable and poignant to techies thinking about getting into Amateur Radio:

As it is generally practiced, [most activities in] ham radio [are] a little like going to the grocery store and striking up a conversation with everyone you bump into as you ply the aisles. Except that the grocery store is the size of the planet, and everyone brings their own shopping cart, some of which are highly modified and really expensive. And pretty much every conversation is about said carts, or about the grocery store itself.

With that admittedly iffy analogy in mind, if you’re not the kind of person who would normally strike up a conversation with someone while shopping, you might think that you’d be a poor fit for amateur radio. But just because that’s the way that most people exercise their ham radio privileges doesn’t mean it’s the only way. Exploring a few of the more popular ways to leverage the high-frequency (HF) bands and see what can be done on a limited budget, in terms of both cost of equipment as well as the amount of power used, is the focus of this installment of The $50 Ham. Welcome to the world of microphone-optional ham radio: weak-signal digital modes.

Author Dan Maloney N7DPM really nails this aspect of Amateur Radio! It is uncomfortable trying to strike up conversations with random strangers; that you're "broadcasting" on the radio as a new Amateur Radio operator can make such conversation attempts really awkward. "Get licensed, buy a radio, talk on the air" is the conventional advice on getting started in Amateur Radio, and Dan and I are here to tell you that as techies, there are a lot of other ways to enjoy what Amateur Radio has to offer than uncomfortably trying to strike up conversations with random fellow Amateur Radio operators.

Some interesting (data communications) projects / experiments going on in Amateur Radio:

• WSPR on a Raspberry Pi - The Raspberry Pi's high clock speed means that it can "modulate" (toggle) one of the Raspberry Pi's General Purpose Input / Output (GPIO) pins fast enough for that pin to create a signal within the Amateur Radio High Frequency (HF) (aka, shortwave) bands. The beauty of WSPR is that you can  see where your transmission been received around the world. The first link is to a $32 Raspberry Pi HAT that cleans up the signal coming from the Raspberry Pi GPIO pin. (You must be licensed as a General or Extra class Amateur Radio operator to use WSPR on the HF bands.)
• New Packet Radio (good overview) (details) is a new TCP/IP radio system from a techie Amateur Radio operator in France.
• Hams in Space! Amateur Radio has its own satellites in orbit, including a payload on a geostationary satellite above Europe and Africa. There’s an amateur radio station on the International Space Station. You can also build your own ground station to receive data from experimental research satellites.
• Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) is firmware for Wi-Fi and Wireless ISP hardware that enables mesh networking and uses some Amateur Radio only spectrum.
• APRS.fi is a worldwide aggregation of position reports from Amateur Radio APRS transmissions. It's not just vehicles - in the "Track Callsign" box, type in W5KUB-26. That's the callsign of an amateur high altitude balloon with an APRS "tracker" onboard. As I compose this article, it's above Northern Florida.

Winding up

The blog you're reading - SuperPacket.org is my blog for discussing "the big picture" of Amateur Radio. I try to post at least one article per week here.

My other Amateur Radio blog is N8GNJ.org where I discuss what I'm doing in my Amateur Radio activities, especially my experimentation with data modes, and my Amateur Radio station. For example, I'll discuss new developments about AREDN (see above) on SuperPacket.org, but my AREDN activities will be written up on N8GNJ.org. The posting frequency on N8GNJ.org is whenever I have something interesting to report.

I hope I've convinced you that Amateur Radio in 2021 isn't (just) old white guys sitting in the basement tapping on a Morse Code key.

Please reach out if you're interesting in the topics I've discussed above.

Thanks for reading!

Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-04-08

Thought Experiment - Western Hemisphere Amateur Radio Geosynchronous Satellite

Es'hail 2 / QO-100
Up front - I'm envious of my fellow techie Amateur Radio Operators in Europe, Africa, and Eastern Brazil because they have access to Amateur Radio transponders onboard the Es'hail 2 satellite in geosynchronous orbit directly above Africa. Those transponders are referred to as Qatar OSCAR 100 - the 100th "satellite" that made it to operational status and was formally declared to be an Obiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio (OSCAR). Because the payload was sponsored by Qatar, it gets to add a prefix to OSCAR-100 - QO-100. See the excellent AMSAT-UK article Es'hail 2 / QO-100 for more details.

Update 2021-04-22: One minor nitpick - QO-100 is often referred to as a satellite. It's not. QO-100 is a hosted payload on a commercial communications satellite. That's an important distinction - Amateur Radio does not have a dedicated satellite in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO). Nor, do I think it could; those orbit slots are simply too valuable. For a satellite to operate at a GEO slot must be highly capable and function for years, even decades, including among many other things, sufficient station-keeping fuel to correct its orbit to stay stationary as viewed from Earth. The reality is that Amateur Radio simply isn't in that league. 

I'm envious because those techie Amateur Radio Operators are having fun experimenting with homebrewing satellite uplinks to work QO-100, despite being spread over three continents. They have a common "watering hole"* to gather at in geosynchronous orbit. With a geosynchronous satellite, the barriers to entry are much lower because experimenters can spend their time and energy working on the radio systems rather than tracking systems. The more common low earth orbit Amateur Radio satellites have limited availability and are constantly moving across the sky, requiring active antenna tracking systems.

Update 2021-04-27 - A friend alerted me that there is an interesting article on what it's like to operate QO-100 from Europe. It was written by Bill Dzurilla NZ5N and published in the May/June 2021 issue of ARRL QEX. If you're an ARRL member, you can access it here. If you're not an ARRL member, you can't see QEX or any other ARRL publication. (Growing Amateur Radio, indeed. Paywalls are just the thing to get people interested in Amateur Radio.) At the moment I am an ARRL member and I was able to read the article, and operating QO-100 looks like just as much fun as I imagined it would be. In the article there's mention of an interesting hybrid mode - build up your station as transmit-only, and receive via one of several Internet-connected receivers (generically called Web Software Defined Receivers - WebSDRs) such as the one operated by the British Amateur Television Club (BATC). I suppose that's almost the next best thing to being in the footprint of QO-100.

Amateur Radio Geostationary Satellite Project
The Western hemisphere almost had an equivalent to QO-100 - a project begun (I think) in 2015, and discussed in 2016 by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) called Amateur Radio Geostationary Satellite (ARGS) / Phase 4B. The video presentation about it at the 2016 Digital Communications Conference was exciting! It was an exciting concept and would have been more sophisticated and more capable than QO-100. Unfortunately, the ARGS project / Phase 4B quietly faded away, with no conclusive explanation about what happened to it (that I can find online).

Update 2021-04-27 - A friend sent me an article which mentioned this page - AMASAT Project Status Overview where something of an answer was offered:

AMSAT / Virginia Tech Geostationary Satellite Project (Phase 4B) Status
Virginia Tech continues to investigate opportunities to fly an amateur payload aboard a geostationary or geosynchronous satellite. A Payload Accommodation Study showed that an amateur payload could be carried on a U. S. Government satellite, but that satellite has been delayed indefinitely. While Virginia Tech was offered a spot on a government satellite, the cost, duration of mission, and lack of guarantees that the payload would be activated resulted in that spot being declined. Discussions continue.

...

To be fair, it was made clear at every presentation that the project was speculative, and depended on the "never quite committed" launch of an experimental satellite.

Sadly, from my reading, there is no current, feasible possibility of an Amateur Radio payload in geosynchronous orbit above the Western hemisphere. The requirements of Amateur Radio are such that a geosynchronous satellite payload would have to be specifically engineered for Amateur Radio usage, including antennas, because the frequencies that Amateur Radio can use for satellite communications are very different than commonly used for geosynchronous satellites. The cost of such a unique payload (I'm told) runs to the hundreds of millions of dollars. (The ARGS / Phase 4B project would have been much less expensive because its satellite host was to be a research satellite rather than a "production" satellite.) Even though Amateur Radio, especially US Amateur Radio, now has a venture fund of sorts, a dedicated Amateur Radio payload for a geosynchronous satellite is beyond its capabilities.

ORI's Phase 4 Ground Station and Phase 4 Space
There was some activity that came out of the ARGS project. Open Research Institute (ORI) was founded, in part, to develop an open source Ground Station reference design - Phase 4 Ground Station. ORI decided to work on a satellite payload - Phase 4 Space. From my reading, there is no "ready to go" satellite payload available from ORI that could be placed on a satellite opportunity. They're working on it, but amateur labor comes with an amateur labor timeline.

Experimentation on Commercial Geosynchronous Satellites is Limited
I remember reading an editorial (Never Say Die) by Wayne Green, W2NSD/1, editor of the late, great 73 Magazine proposing the idea of "Amateur Radio" collectively ponying up the cost to rent a transponder on a geosynchronous satellite. (I wish I could find the reference to quote Wayne definitively.) It sounds fun, but in the end it's not that feasible to buy (time on) an existing transponder on an existing geosynchronous satellite above the Western hemisphere for Amateur Radio experimentation. No satellite operator wants "amateur experimenters" inexpertly transmitting at their precious geosynchronous satellites. Operating a geosynchronous satellite is expensive (there are only so many orbital slots in the Western hemisphere - precious real estate). Every geosynchronous satellite is a careful balancing act of juggling multiple antennas (spot beams) and multiple transmitters and receivers. That's why anything that transmits to a geosynchronous satellite must be installed by a "professional" and there are protections in place to turn off the transmitter remotely to only transmit if authorization is received from the particular transponder to be used. Even if we did do so... to what end? If we want "turnkey" communications amongst ourselves, unlike in Wayne's day, we now have the Internet.

That said, there is some experimentation going on with receiving data from commercial geosynchronous satellites. One such project is Othernet (formerly, Outernet). Othernet doesn't really involve Amateur Radio, but it is some experimentation with receiving data from geosynchronous satellites - datacasting. There is a stream of data originating on a satellite transponder that Othernet has bought time on. Othernet has developed their own receiver hardware, and has published enough of the details of its data format to allow receiption with other Software Defined Receivers.

"Brave? Yes. Experimenters? Maybe."

There is one... remote... possibility of Amateur Radio experimentation on an existing geosynchronous satellite(s) in the Western hemisphere, and the possibilities of experimentation have already been proven out by "brave experimenters".

 

The US Navy's Fleet Satellite Communications System (FLTSATCOM) is a set of remarkably long-lived (launched between 1978 and 1989) geosynchronous satellites that provide "bent pipe" transponders operating between 240 MHz and 400 MHz. Remarkably, there is no encryption, authentication, or access controls on these transponders. You transmit up to them, they transmit back down. They're wideband transponders, supporting whatever mode is transmitted to them - SSB, FM, data, etc.

 

Update 2021-04-20- I recently found an additional article about FLTSATCOM.

 

The US military supplanted FLTSATCOM with the more capable, and presumably more secure Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Follow On (UFO) satellite system. (Yes, you read that right. Apparently, there are actual "UFO"s in geosynchronous orbit, and the US military put them there.) 

 

Despite being deprecated by "UFO", two of the FLTSATCOM satellites are still operational. I'll guess that the US military is loathe to discontinue any communication system such as FLTSATCOM that's still minimally usable. 

 

FLTSATCOM is so usable, so accessible, that "pirate users" in Brazil (the Brave? Yes. Experimenters? Maybe. I alluded to) apparently use FLTSATCOM with relative impunity. See the great 2009 article in Wired - The Great Brazilian Sat-Hack Crackdown. Apparently, despite the "crackdown" described in the article, the "Brazilian pirate users" are still active.

 

Thought Experiment - Amateur Radio use of FLTSATCOM

If there are (apparently, inevitably) going to be "secondary users" of FLTSATCOM, perhaps it's worth consideration that US Amateur Radio Operators would be better "secondary users" of FLTSATCOM than "Brazilian pirate users". There's some precedent in such an idea of sharing spectrum and interoperating between US government and US Amateur Radio Operators - the sharing of the 60 meter (5 MHz band) between FEMA and US Amateur Radio Operators.

 

Why US Amateur Radio operators? First, the FLTSATCOM satellites are owned by the US military. Second, US Amateur Radio Operators generally respect the rule of law and especially cooperation with US military regarding shared spectrum. One recent example is an interference issue within 420 - 430 MHz in New Mexico.

 

One benefit of permitting US Amateur Radio Operators to use FLTSATCOM is that they could act as volunteer "stewards" of FLTSATCOM, monitoring FLTSATCOM and when there are "Brazilian pirate users" operating, "discourage" them from doing so. In return, US Amateur Radio Operators might be permitted to use FLTSATCOM for casual conversations and data communications experiments. For example, I'll guess that VARA FM would work great with FLTSATCOM.

 

If US Amateur Radio Operators were to be "deputized" to operate on FLTSATCOM, here are some ideas for formalizing the arrangement:

• There would be a (nominal) sponsor organization to provide a clear, direct line of communication between US military and the participants.
• There would be a formal plan similar to an Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Special Temporary Authority (STA) authorization such as the STA that permitted experimentation with Spread Spectrum in Amateur Radio spectrum in the 1990s. Among other things, such a plan would document the participants, their participant's equipment, and issue regular status reports. 
• The only participants would be licensed US Amateur Radio Operators.
• The participants must agree to a code of conduct, including non-commercial use, non-interference to USG communications.
• The participants must participate in an "out of band" communication system (such as an Internet email distribution list) that could quickly notify them of any change in status of their use of FLTSATCOM.
• Each participatant would be required to maintain logs of operation (perhaps online).
• Each participant must participate in regular drills to prove efficacy.
• Each participant must report their use of their station hardware.
• Each participatnt must insure that their station hardware operates optimally (no spattering from poorly designed or built transmitters, etc.).

Some benefits that I can imagine:

• Significantly reduce or eliminate the problem of "Brazilian pirate users".
• Develop "best practices" for an eventual Western hemisphere geosynchronous satellite with a wideband transponder such as FLTSATCOM.
• Generate additional excitement for Amateur Radio and especially Amateur Radio satellite activities (and space activities in general).
• Experiment with data modes for a geosynchronous satellite. For example, a datacasting mode such as Othernet (mentioned above) or even an evolution of RadioMirror.

Next Steps

Aye... there's the rub. I have no idea about next steps. I have no contacts to even explore the feasibility of this idea, even solely within Amateur Radio where this idea would have to be fleshed out much, much better than my thought experiment here. If you have any ideas, please contact me, even if only to suggest who I might talk to. Update - I thought of one such contact and reached out.

 

I'm very interested in your thoughts. (Gotta get that list server going!)

* The Watering Hole Concept is an article I have yet to write.

Thanks for reading!

Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-04-03

Imagine... A Demonstration of Amateur Radio

I heard an NPR report tonight about the meltdown of the cellular networks in Washington DC as a result of the record crowds present for President-Elect Obama's inauguration... and nearly everyone having (and trying to use) a cellphone.

It was comical listening to the description of the problem, especially knowing that access was barely half the problem - the other problem was the switching bottleneck. Another would be handling all the requests for IP addresses :-)

What would have happened if Amateur Radio had been there, providing a real-world example of Amateur Radio being relevant?

Something a lot of like highly localized Wi-Fi HotSpots (think 20' radius) all being fed by high-bandwidth links which are operating on (uncontested) Amateur Radio spectrum like 1.2 GHz using off-the-shelf Broadband Wireless Internet Access gear tuned to 1.24 - 1.30 GHz (60 MHz of spectrum there). A web splash screen briefly mentioning that it was being provided by Amateur Radio and you would have gotten a helluva lot of Blackberry and iPhone-toting techies to be really curious about Amateur Radio.

It would work gloriously.

But then... Amateur Radio wants to stay mired in the past - tube rigs, CW, contesting, analog voice repeaters occupying all VHF and UHF channels... all that.

Sigh...

73,

Steve N8GNJ