Ham Radio:More Than Talking to Pork

Products Chris Sullivan, NØDOS

What is Amateur Radio?

The legal version:

"... A radiocommunication service for the purpose of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by amateurs, that is, duly authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest." -FCC Rules, Part 97

What is Amateur Radio?

My version:

Geeks playing with radio.

It's supposed to be a technologist's playground.

It's supposed to be about learning new

things.

It's supposed to be about fun.

When was the last time the government did something specifically for techno-geeks

to play around?

Who are these people?  It's a conspiracy!

We all know this about ham radio, right?

Disaster communications (OR/WA floods, Katrina)Talking to distant placesIt must be cool, it's big in Japan!

DIY is alive and well in ham radio

Even today, the homebrew scene isalive in amateurradio.

Experimentation is encouraged.

You are encouraged to try different things, test theoretical designs and experimental equipment, hack, turn knobs, and generally try to break things. And yes, void your warranties.

The Distant Past (the early 1990s)

Packet Radio gave slow (typically 1.2k/sec) access to the early Internet It didn't stop there.

WiFi.. across miles, not feet

Channel 1-6 is in ham radio spectrumHams are using off-the-shelf hardwareHomebrew and commercial amplifiers add range90 mile WiFi?

Montana MultiMedia Network

First experimental link was mountain top to mountain top, Red Lodge to Crazy Peak, near Bozeman MT.

The most amazing thing?

IT WORKED.

2-4 Mb/s, 90 miles

1.2k/sec.. 1200 baud.. remember those days?

Google's new Latitude service? Hams were doing it in the 1990's APRS uses GPS, packet radio to transmit positions to other hams, the Internet

APRS - Brightkite, unplugged.

APRS can relay more than location: telemetry, weather information, short SMS-style messages.. all automatically!

And guess what?

It does all of this using 1200 baud modems, the likes of which were "obsolete" in the 1980's.A modern modem is 50x faster, and that's WAY slower than most people's Internet connection now a days... yikes!

It's just the tip of the iceberg.Amateur Television"Impossible" communications - slow modes near noise floorExperimental modesSoftware-defined radiosStore and forward packet radioTalking to the International Space Station / Space ShuttleAmateur radio satellitesEarth-moon-earth and meteor scatterPortable communicationsMicrowave and NanowaveLight beam communicationsNarrow-bandwidth digital voiceAuroral / coronal discharge Radios in used pork product tins Talking to arrogant windbags on 7.290 MHz

Modern Ham Radios

The basement room of equipment? Largely gone!

There are a few rules.

No commercial useNo profanityStay in our yard Don't be a jerk.

There's plenty left to do!

It's never been easier to get startedNo more Morse code requirementsBasic electronics, operational knowledge

Longer notes, pointers to more information at my website:http://nødos.org/#ip5