Advancing Ham Radio.. different ideas

Here is a thought from a local club member that contacted me about D-Star:The thought occurs to me that D-Star is one future standard and why not purchase a D-Star radio ahead of the roll-out? One issue is that it adds expense and why buy something today that you...

Read more

First some history:Depending on your point of view, Jon Lech Johansen is either your hero or adversary. To the copyright industry, Jon Lech Johansen has been a detriment to their policy of control since the advent of DeCSS (Decrypt Content Scrambling System.)At the age of 15, “DVD Jon” wrote a...

Read more

Unlike the DV Dongle, the new product allows Amateur Radio operators to walk away from the computer and transmit/receive D-STAR voice and data using a two meter D-STAR radio..... The DVAP is basically a GMSK modem with a 10 milliwatt two meter transceiver built in.This is more crap for...

Read more

Of the three ham magazines I received this week, zero really of interest in QST. Big surprise.... however the editors Eclectic Technology column titled "The cost of Codecs" did catch my eye. It's a pretty rudimentary quick explanation of what a codec is, but goes on talking about...

Read more

I've written before that mesh network topology on-top of standard 802.11 can make a powerful system. There is a group of hams in North Texas pioneering the way. They have been developing firmware using the Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) Protocol. This is an IP routing protocol which...

Read more

Anybody remember 2 meter RTTY? There is still some on HF, but it was pretty popular from 1950 to 1980 even on two meters.RTTY declined in popularity, as faster, computerized transmission modes were developed, using less-expensive equipment.That equipment was the TNC. And now roughly 30 years later, (just...

Read more

I recently picked up a Vellman K8055 interface board. My original application was in conjunction with Jonathan, G4KLX's D-Star project. He has since added other methods of support for transmitter control, such as legacy serial port keying.The Vellman board has 5 digital input channels and 8 digital output...

Read more

For nearly a decade I tinkered to my hearts content with various applications and packet radio. I learned an immense amount about TCP/IP. From DOS based NOS packages, which lead to ethernet networking the shack, later to Linux.Well, I have been tinkering with Asterisk for about 6 years...

Read more

A very interesting overview of AMSAT's phase IV Geostationary Satellite and the possible emergency communications implementations is in the Fall issue of CQ-VHF.As you can tell I don't have a lot of love for Emcomm, but here is something that actually makes sense. A high speed multi-media capable, geostationary...

Read more

This is a quick cheesy remake of a speech I have at a local club meeting. I didn't expect so many other bloggers to pick up on it.Emergency communications has been part of ham radio from it’s inception. Yet we need separate entities (ARES/RACES) to help promote it? Why...

Read more

Hamnet 2.0 is a radio based network designed by German radio amateurs, which connects the already available infrastructure of the amateur radio service to each other and will provide a new powerful base for a amateur internet wireless network.The official launch of the project and the presentation was made on...

Read more

The SolderSmoke blog noticed my 73 Magazine index project a few weeks before I completed it.It was a rather large undertaking, but worth it in my opinion. There is a wealth of timeless information in those magazines. And for many just by taking a look at the index...

Read more

One of my favorite magazines Linux Journal, also has a few articles in their January 2010 magazine.Back in April 2007 on the Texas A&M University Amateur Radio 802.11 Mailing List I made some comments that hams of the past were perhaps one of the earliest adopters of the open source...

Read more

About this time a year ago I wrote about the same thing. I pointed out that you cannot sit back and expect the big ham manufactures to come out with new technologies. As that is what we are supposed to be doing.John Hays, K7VE was recently interviewed by...

Read more

Here is the Letter to the Editor I wrote for the Green Bay Mike and Key Club, (my local club) Keyclicks newsletter in December 2008.The thoughts in this article are that of my own, and do not necessarily represent those of the GBMK. I'll admit to having a digital interest/bias.The...

Read more

Tonight's Family Guy titled "Quagmire’s Baby" featured some ham radio references.Peter goes to Quagmire’s garage sale and buys a Ham radio. He uses that radio to talk to a ghost of Ronald Reagan. Peter eventually ends up going back to return the radio.More references can be found here:http://www.qsl.net/kb9mwr/files/ham/cartoon/cartoon.html...

Read more

Until just recently if you wanted to make your own d-star repeater at a fraction of the cost, there was one way. That was the Satoshi GMSK node adapter.  To build this adapter the cost about $70 as compared (+ your analog radios) to the cost of a Icom RPC-2...

Read more

Amateur radio must seek change - and welcome it when it comes. It is essential to seek change. When change does occur, it often comes with confusion. It amateur radio is to survive, it must not run from change, it must be prepared to run toward it. Change imposed...

Read more

From: http://www.arrl.org/announce/board-0907/ Minutes of the 2009 Second MeetingARRL Board of DirectorsTeleconference July 17-18, 2009 29. On motion of Mr. Sarratt, seconded by Mr. Frenaye, the following resolution was ADOPTED: WHEREAS, there is current substantial amateur radio movement, activity, and innovation in the digital narrowband area;...

Read more

...

Read more

From: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/25/fcc_spectrum_shortage/FCC ferrets around for spare spectrum -Got any ideas?By Bill Ray The FCC is asking for suggestions in the hunt for more radio spectrum, having established that there's not going to be enough to support the next generation of broadband requirements.The US regulator wants ideas for making better use...

Read more

Several Digital Voice operators have reported hands down, absolutely no question, tested it for months, the D-Star is usable for reliable (non-garbled communications) for mobiles about 10% or less of the coverage area of the Analog FM and for base stations about 80%. This is largely due to the...

Read more

CQ-VHF editor, Joe, N6CL wrote a bit about HamCom in his "Innovations and Insights" editorial. The following is a partial excerpt:For those of us who were able to attend the HSMM seminar at HamCom in Plano, Texas, we were treated with an exciting presentation on the latest in HSMM....

Read more

Here is a repost from a wireless networking forum that shows the impact of a single small tree in the line of sight at 5.8 GHzThe antenna is at 35 feet above the ground. I'm 250 feet from the antenna.LOS signal was -68 dBm. With the tree in the way,...

Read more

Having remote control over an amateur station is traditionally done with DTMF. When it come to digital mode like D-Star the AMBE vocoder translates the DTMF to a digital signature of sorts. Most codecs add special payload forwarding information for DTMF digits. This be because most...

Read more