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

 

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)
[email protected]

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

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

 

ARDC is Hiring for Two Key Positions

In parsing this, it's useful to know that ARDC is Amateur Radio Digital Communications, a US-based philanthropic organization that provides grants and gifts to entities (and eventually, individuals) in support of ARDC's mission, including the promotion and support of Amateur Radio. I wrote an article about ARDC that provides my perspective about them - Amateur Radio Digital Communications (aka ampr.org / 44net).

Disclaimer - I am a volunteer member of the ARDC Grants Advisory Committee. My involvement in ARDC does not extend to any influence on hiring or other involvement in these two positions, other than minor cheerleading from me that ARDC has decided to staff these two badly needed positions. (Yay!)

ARDC is Hiring a Communications & Community Manager
Posted on 2021-04-30 by Rosy Wolfe
ARDC seeks an experienced Communications and Community Manager to join our team. Under the direction of the Executive Director, the Communications and Community Manager will serve a key role in developing and delivering a comprehensive communications strategy. This role requires a dynamic individual who is well-versed in writing press releases and blog posts, as well as engaging with people on social media and chat forums like Discord, Discourse, and Zulip. An ideal candidate will be active in technology communities – particularly those related to amateur radio, digital communications science, free/libre open source software, and DIY culture. This is an excellent opportunity for someone interested in doing communications work in a philanthropic environment related to technology.

(See additional details via the link.)

ARDC is Hiring an Administrative Coordinator
Posted on 2021-04-30 by Rosy Wolfe
ARDC seeks an experienced Administrative Coordinator – a Jack or Jackie of all trades! – to join our team. Under the direction of the Executive Director, the Administrative Coordinator will serve as a key role in maintaining the overall operations of ARDC. This is a great opportunity for someone who is interested in learning about the operations of a small but mighty philanthropic organization.

(See additional details via the link.)

Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-04-30

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

ARDC Soliciting Requests for Proposals from Amateur Radio Clubs

(As I typed the date, I realized that today is April Fool's Day, thus I'm disclaiming that no, this isn't an AFD joke.)

Amateur Radio Digital Corporation (ARDC) has released its 2021 Requests for Proposals (RFPs), including a specific one soliciting Amateur Radio organizations to apply for an ARDC grant. (The other ARDC RFPs are a "General" RFP and an "Education" RFP).

For more information about ARDC, see https://www.ampr.org.

There was no text-only version of the RFP released, so here are links to the announcement article and the ARDC Request for Proposals: Support for Amateur Radio Clubs April 2021 PDF.

For my take on ARDC, see my article Amateur Radio Digital Communications (aka ampr.org / 44net).

Despite that ARDC is years old, it's still in its early days as a philathropic grant making organization, so please be patient if you do apply for an ARDC grant.

Disclaimer: I'm a volunteer member of ARDC's Grants Advisory Committee, and the above reflects my personal perspective, not the views of ARDC or its Grants Advisory Committee.

 

Thanks for reading!

Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-04-01

 

 

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (aka ampr.org / 44net)

(This was originally published on N8GNJ.org, and copied here; SuperPacket is now my "big picture of Amateur Radio" blog for articles like this - see About SuperPacket.)

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a (now) confusing name for a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose primary mission is (now) philanthropic grantmaking. ARDC sold a portion of its 44.x.x.x Class A address space for a substantial profit, and invested the proceeds into an endowment. ARDC will continue to manage (and significantly improve) "ampr.org / 44net", which is the infrastructure involved in routing ARDC's remaining allocation of 44net addresses (44.0.0.0/9 and 44.128.0.0/10). With its endowment, ARDC can now make philanthropic grants of significant size and scope. See the list of ARDC's grants to date. 

Disclosure: I am a volunteer member of ARDC's Grants Advisory Committee (GAC). What follows is my personal perspective, and does not represent the views of ARDC.

Shortly after ARDC's announcement of its endowment and that it would begin grantmaking, I wrote the following article in 2019-08 about the potential of ARDC. I haven't published it until now. The mentions of Zero Retries refer to my newsletter which is still in development.

 

Amateur Radio Digital Corporation Creates Endowment for Angel Funding for Advanced Amateur Radio

 

(For those that aren’t familiar with venture capital terminology, the first, relatively small funding that a startup company receives, intended to be enough to prove out the company’s concept, is referred to as “Angel Funding”.) In July, 2019 (the exact date isn’t stated), a very significant development occurred for the Zero Retries Areas of Interest. I can’t summarize this development better than Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) did in their official announcement, reproduced below.

 

[I quoted a lot of background info about ARDC which is now all available on its website https://www.ampr.org. Thus I won't rehash anything already there (that was originally in my article).]

 

Wow. Just... Wow. Let’s let this sink in a bit. I for one am gobsmacked by this announcement, in a good way – I’m incredibly excited for what this will be for the future of Amateur Radio as a whole and especially the Zero Retries Areas of Interest.

 

[ARDC's late founder Brian Kantor WB6CYT] mentions in passing that they’re receiving “... a lot of vitriol, hate, and threats from small-minded hotheads.” I believe that. I’m really sorry that’s happening. If you feel as I do, considering dropping the folks at ARDC a note of encouragement and Thanks.

 

It’s my (strong) opinion that ARDC did a good thing in selling 44.192.0.0/10 and generating a pool of money for investing in Amateur Radio.. Again, they did a good thing... the right thing... and I believe they did it for the right reasons.

 

I’m excited that the ARDC board and their advisors have been “doing Internet” for a very long time. They get networking, they’ve been Amateur Radio operators for a very long time, and they can see the potential doing networking over Amateur Radio.

 

I’m also excited that the ARDC board has committed to funding “... a program of grants and scholarships that will serve to promote the art and science of digital communications including Amateur Radio” and “... apply for funding to support their projects, whether they be fundamental research, scholarships for education, design of new algorithms or technology, or the construction of Amateur facilities.” That... is... cool!!!

 

Note that ARDC is careful not to constrain themselves soley to Amateur Radio. As I’ll explore in Zero Retries, there’s an incredible amount of innovation adjacent, and relevant to Amateur Radio, that isn’t actually occurring within Amateur Radio. Just one example is the evolution of inexpensive Software Defined Receivers, epitomized by RTL-SDR.com. The creator of the unique RTL-SDR receivers certainly acknowledges innovative uses of his products with Amateur Radio... but by no means does he limit the uses of his products, or markets solely to Amateur Radio. I agree wholeheartedly with ARDC not to limit themselves to funding solely in relation to Amateur Radio.

 

Why does the emergence of an “investment fund” that understands Amateur Radio and “next generation” areas such as networking, (new) technology, facilities, etc. matter? I have a few stories to tell that are applicable.

 

Story 1: ARRL and TAPR DCC Student Paper Program

 

The first is about student paper presentations at the ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference (DCC) in 1996 and 1997 (PDF). For those two years, a small grant (from the ARRL and TAPR, I think) created a program for university students to submit a paper that was relevant to “electronic communications” (I don’t think the subject was required to be about Amateur Radio, or radio communications, or even digital communications). The program was refereed. Although the DCC was not and is not an academic conference, the student paper program had the same rigor applied as for paper presentations at an academic conference. The papers were refereed by a committee of academics chaired by Greg Jones WD5IVD. The two best papers in each year were awarded a small stipend, and an all-expenses-paid trip to the DCC in 1996 and 1997. From my observations, the program was a success – there were a number of paper submissions, the four winning authors were thrilled to attend the DCC with all expenses paid, and the stipend was a nice bonus. But what was best for the students was that by formally presenting their paper at the DCC, they were able to claim credit on their CV as having presented a paper! That is a major accomplishment for a university student.

 

But, the program ran only for two years. While I don’t know exactly why the program wasn’t continued, here’s my speculation. After the first two years, Greg Jones (not yet Dr. Jones, if memory serves) couldn’t devote the time to managing the committee for a third year, and no one else stepped forward to do so. It takes a lot of time and energy manage a committee of academics to referee papers for a conference. Second, funding didn’t materialize to fund a third year of student paper presentations.

 

It might be that a small grant from ARDC might have enabled the continuation of the DCC Student Papers Program. The grant could have paid a small stipend to the academic committee to referee the submitted papers, and payment of the student’s travel expenses to the DCC to present their papers, and provide the students with a small stipend.

 

Amateur Radio needs more meaningful experiences like the DCC Student Papers Program, and it’s my hope that grants from ARDC can enable more experiences like it.

 

Story 2: ARISS Next Generation Radio Systems

 

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a tremendous success for Amateur Radio. Likely you’ve read the stories about the many grade school students who’ve actually talked, directly over Amateur Radio (usually, but not always) to astronaut Amateur Radio operators onboard the International Space Station (ISS). What you probably don’t know is that all of the Amateur Radio equipment onboard the ISS is not furnished by NASA or other country sponsors of the ISS. All Amateur Radio equipment on the ISS has to be furnished at no cost to NASA. That includes development of the equipment, testing, certification, training, and launch costs.

 

The original Amateur Radio equipment on the ISS, nearly since beginning operations, is old, inadequate, and in some cases, failed. The ARISS funding goal for new Amateur Radio systems is $150,000, of which only $33,000 has been raised to date.

 

ARISS is in critical need of an infrastructure update to ensure that programs like students talking to astronauts in space via amateur radio can continue. Through your donations ARISS seeks the following upgrades:
• Next Generation radio system will support easier radio mode transition, to enable new, exciting capabilities for hams, students and the general public including:

• New amateur radio communication and experimentation capabilities, including an enhanced voice repeater and updated digital packet radio (APRS) capabilities
• Slow Scan TV (picture up and downlinks) in both the US and Russian segments of ISS
• New multi-voltage power supply will support present and future radio capabilities and allow wireless experiments to be conducted

• ARISS needs to build 10 Next Generation Radio Systems to support our development, on-orbit operations, training and long-term maintenance. This includes units on-orbit (2 units--1 unit each in US and Russian segment), flight spares (2 units), training (3 units), testing (1 unit) and ground-based maintenance & troubleshooting (2 units).


All of that $150,000 is for actual expenses, not salaries, travel expenses, etc. The range of requirements for ISS hardware is astonishing, such as seamless operation on the US or Russian power systems (totally incompatible with each other), testing that failure of the systems won’t cause electrical damage, won’t outgas into the ISS atmosphere, maybe even endure vacuum conditions. $150,000 is a totally reasonable cost, especially when weighed against the vast goodwill that is generated from student contacts with the ISS.

 

And yet... they’re still $117,000 short – donations of only $33,000. I certainly don’t fault ARISS for that; I’ve met a few of the ARISS folks at Hamvention, and they’re incredibly hardworking. Time spent evangelizing for funds is time that’s not spent doing what ARISS is supposed to be about – getting the kids excited about space.

 

Thus, a grant from ARDC to ARISS to fully fund the ARISS Next Generation Radio Systems would make a huge difference to ARISS, and let them get on with the ARISS mission instead of worrying about fundraising.

 

Story 3: The Radios That Weren’t; Part 1

 

In 1997, a project was begun under the sponsorship of TAPR to build a Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) Radio that was designed specifically for use by Amateur Radio operators in the 902-928 MHz band, available to hams in ITU Region 1. This would have been the first radio specifically for Amateur Radio use that employed spread spectrum technology, and it was intended to prove that spread spectrum technology was usable and useful in Amateur Radio. If spread spectrum could work for Amateur Radio in the 902-928 MHz band (which was also a band used for Industrial, Scientific, and Medical [ISM] devices, also known as “Part 15” devices), it could work in the other Amateur Radio VHF/UHF bands.

 

In 2002, the TAPR FHSS Radio project was discontinued. The reason, in a nutshell, is that radio frequency (RF) design is hard. It’s hard enough that those who are good at RF design are always in intensive demand. Despite heroic efforts by the FHSS Radio designers, the project stretched out over several years, long enough that the key components that were in the first design were obsoleted by the manufacturer. So, the team developed a second design for the FHSS Radio using different parts. It happened again! The parts for the second design were obsoleted by the manufacturer!

 

The problem seemed to be that the development stretched out over several years because the RF development was being done on a part-time basis. If funds had been available to hire a RF engineer that could focus on the design, and complete it within a few months, the design might have been able to be manufactured (at least one or two production runs) before the parts were obsoleted. If that had happened, we might well now be using FHSS or other methods of spread spectrum on Amateur Radio spectrum.

 

Story 4: The Radios That Weren’t; Part 2

 

A more recent example was the decision by NW Digital Radio in 2018 to formally discontinue their project for a software-defined transceiver for the 440-450 MHz band that they called the UDRX-440.

 

Disclaimer: I’ve had a number of private conversations about the UDRX-440 over the past years with some of the principals of NW Digital Radio, and it’s not my intent to betray any confidences. Thus, the following description of the UDRX-440 project will be very general.

 

The genesis of the UDRX-440 was a presentation and a resulting conversation at the 2010 ARRL and TAPR DCC in Vancouver, WA. The UDRX-440 as it came to be called was proposed to be a software-defined transceiver for the Amateur Radio 440-450 MHz band. It would have a 25 watt tramisit power, and its emission and reception characteristics would be defined by software. It would incorporate a powerful embedded computer which would manage the radio functions (such as transmit / receive channel), and also provide higher level functions such as data modems, and networking. The design for the UDRX-440 was originally hoped to be a relatively quick design process around an existing RF modem chipset, but that chipset was found to have profound limitations. Like with the TAPR FHSS Radio, the design was restarted using another chipset. From this point, the story of the UDRX-440 is much the same as the FHSS Radio; there just wasn’t time, or funds, available to devote focused, full-time effort (both RF hardware and supporting software) into getting the project completed in a reasonable amount of time to push a design into production.

 

I feel that the UDRX-440 would have been a profound step change in Amateur Radio, likely a larger impact to Amateur Radio than the emergence of the TAPR TNC-2 in 1985. Like the TAPR FHSS Radio, it would have enabled experimentation with spread spectrum techniques (FHSS at a minimum) in the popular 440-450 MHz band. If the UDRX-440 had become a product, it would likely have been followed by versions for the 222-225 MHz band, and likely the 144-148 MHz band. The UDRX’s 25 watts provided ample power to form up store-and-forward mesh networks between widely separated Amateur Radio stations to jointly experiment. It would have been able to operate at larger channel sizes such as 100 kHz, adequate to support 56 kbps and faster speeds. It would have enabled more advanced data modes such as incorporating Forward Error Correction (FEC), and much, much more. It was originally going to incorporate a proprietary single board computer running Linux, but with the overwhelming popularity of the Raspberry Pi series of computers use in Amateur Radio, the UDRX-440 was redesigned around the use of a Raspberry Pi.

 

In short, it was a very promising radio concept for us data geeks in Amateur Radio.

 

The UDRX-440 was formally discontinued in 2018. To date, there have been no announcements from NW Digital Radio about a successor to the UDRX-440.

 

Would a grant from ARDC to NW Digital Radio have made a difference in the development of the UDRX-440? And would that have been a good thing, a grant from a 501(c)(3) organization to a for-profit company? Yes, I think it would have made a difference and likely would have resulted in the UDRX-440 becoming a product. ARDC funding could have enabled the hiring of full time, focused RF design as well as hiring of full time, focused software. Consider that NW Digital Radio has demonstrated some history of contributing to open source, so if ARDC made that a requirement of a grant from them (with reasonable provisions for NW Digital Radio to make a profit, say a year of exclusivity before releasing the designs and software as open source), the Amateur Radio would have benefited from a released product and a “template” for other innovative designs based on the open source template of the UDRX-440.

 

Those are just four stories of how much difference “enlightened” investment on Amateur Radio projects could make. I am very much looking forward to what ARDC does with its “Angel Fund for Advanced Amateur Radio”.

 

I'm pleased that ARDC did fund Student Paper presentations at the TAPR DCC, and ARDC also helped fund the new radio system for the International Space Station. (I did suggest that they do so in private emails to some ARDC board members.)

 

In 2021, ARDC is going to be pretty busy.

 

ARDC released its 2020 Annual Report - https://www.ampr.org/wp-content/uploads/2020-ardc-annual-report-sm.pdf.

 

ARDC has rounded out its Grants Advisory Committee (GAC) and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), as well as adding two board members - https://www.ampr.org/about/who-we-are/.

 

ARDC is now accepting applications for a Grants Manager - https://www.ampr.org/ardc-is-hiring-a-grants-manager/.

 

ARDC is now soliciting grant proposals - https://www.ampr.org/general-request-for-proposals-rfp-march-2020/

 

Lastly, ARDC's incredibly hard-working Executive Director is Rosy Wolfe KJ7RYV. If you appreciate what ARDC is doing, as I do, consider dropping her an email note with your thoughts.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Steve N8GNJ

Bellingham, Washington, USA