WVU Amateur Radio Club

Meeting

Oct. 12, 2011

Agenda

• What is Amateur Radio?– Why get a license?– How to get a license?

• What is the WVU ARC?• Officer Election• Software Radios– gnuRadio and the USRP

• The Ham Shack

What is Amateur Radio?• From the FCC

– A radio communications 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.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio

– Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called "hams," use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public services, recreation and self-training.

– Amateur radio operators enjoy personal (and often worldwide) wireless communications with each other and are able to support their communities with emergency and disaster communications if necessary, while increasing their personal knowledge of electronics and radio theory. An estimated six million people throughout the world are regularly involved with amateur radio.

– The term "amateur" reflects the principle that amateur radio and its skilled operators are committed to helping communities without financial compensation; whereas commercial radio operates for profit.

Why Get a License?

• Required to operate in certain bandshttp://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/Hambands_color.pdf/

• Worldwide communications.– QSL Cards and contesting.

• Experimentation– Digital modes and applications.– APRS http://www.wulfden.org/APRSQuery.shtml

• Help with emergency and disaster relief.– Also parades and triathlons.

FCC License

• In the US, there are three license levels, or "license classes" which are Technician class, General class and Extra Class. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) grants these licenses.

• Question pools available:• http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/pools.html

Tech ClassLEVEL 1: Technician Class License

EXAM REQUIREMENT: 35-question Technician Written Exam (Element 2); No Morse Code ExamPRIVILEGES: All VHF/UHF amateur bands (frequencies above 30 MHz). Limited operations in

certain HF bands.LICENSE STUDY MATERIALSThe most popular license for beginners is the Technician Class license, which requires only a 35

question multiple-choice written examination. The test is written with the beginner in mind. The exam covers basic regulations, operating practices, and electronics theory, with a focus on VHF and UHF applications. Morse Code is not required for this license. With a Technician Class license, you will have all ham radio privileges above 30 megahertz (MHz). These privileges include the very popular 2-meter band. Many Technician licensees enjoy using small (2 meter) hand-held radios to stay in touch with other hams in their area. Technicians may operate FM voice, digital packet (computers), television, single-sideband voice and several other interesting modes. You can even make international radio contacts via satellites, using relatively simple station equipment. Technician licensees now also have additional privileges on certain HF frequencies. Technicians may also operate on the 80, 40, and 15 meter bands using CW, and on the 10 meter band using CW, voice, and digital modes.

General ClassLEVEL 2: General Class License (upgrade from Technician)

EXAM REQUIREMENTS: 35-question General Written Exam (Element 3); No Morse Code ExamPRIVILEGES: All VHF/UHF amateur bands and most HF privileges (10 through 160 meters).LICENSE STUDY MATERIALSTechnicians may upgrade to General Class by passing a 35-question multiple-choice written

examination. The written exam covers intermediate regulations, operating practices, and electronics theory, with a focus on HF applications. Non-licensed individuals must pass Element 2 and Element 3 Written Exams to earn a General License. The FCC grants exam element 3 credit to individuals that previously held certain older types of licenses. Valid Forms of Examination Element Credit can be found on the Web.

The General Class is a giant step up in operating privileges. The high-power HF privileges granted to General licensees allow for cross-country and worldwide communication. Some people prefer to earn the General Class license as their first ticket, so they may operate on HF right away. In addition to the Technician privileges, General Class operators are authorized to operate on any frequency in the 160, 30, 17, 12, and 10 meter bands. They may also use significant segments of the 80, 40, 20, and 15 meter bands.

Extra ClassLEVEL 3: Extra Class License (upgrade from General)

EXAM REQUIREMENT: 50-question Extra Written Exam (Element 4); No Morse Code Exam.PRIVILEGES: All amateur privileges.LICENSE STUDY MATERIALSGeneral licensees may upgrade to Extra Class by passing a 50-question multiple-choice

examination. No Morse code test is required. In addition to some of the more obscure regulations, the test covers specialized operating practices, advanced electronics theory, and radio equipment design. Frankly, the test is very difficult, but others have passed it, and you can too. Non-licensed individuals must pass Element 2, Element 3 and Element 4 Written Exams to earn an Extra License. The FCC grants exam element 3 credit to individuals that previously held certain older types of licenses. Valid Forms of Examination Element Credit can be found on the Web.

The HF bands can be awfully crowded, particularly at the top of the solar cycle. Once one earns HF privileges, one may quickly yearn for more room. The Extra Class license is the answer. Extra Class licensees are authorized to operate on all frequencies allocated to the Amateur Service.

What is WVU ARC,and who can join?

• Online– http://www.csee.wvu.edu/~w8cul/

• Who can join?– Section 1. MEMBERSHIP- Full-time students, staff, and faculty members

interested in Amateur Radio shall be eligible for membership. – The Club will not deny membership on the basis of race, sex, age, disability,

veteran status, religion, sexual orientation, color, or national origin. – There shall be two classes of membership:

• FULL MEMBER - Those who hold a valid FCC Amateur License.• ASSOCIATE MEMBER - Those interested in Amateur Radio, but not FCC licensed.

– Section 2. ELECTION TO MEMBERSHIP - Persons may be elected to membership upon presenting themselves at a regular meeting and expressing a desire and a willingness to abide by the Club Constitution and By-Laws. Upon payment of the proper amount of dues, he/she shall be declared a member of the Club.

Officer DutiesPresident-a. Preside over meetings.b. Represent the Club in its relations with the Student Body and the Administration of WVU.c. Enforce the Rules and By-Laws of the Club.d. Perform all the customary duties of the President. Vice President-a. Shall assume the duties of the President in the absence of the President.b. Shall be the Publicity Chairman.c. Shall perform all the customary duties of the Vice-President. Secretary-a. Shall keep and preserve the Club records.b. Carry on all correspondence of the Club, except for QSL’s.c. Shall perform the usual duties of the Secretary. Treasurer-a. Shall keep all financial records of the Club.b. Shall make monthly reports to the Club, and annual reports to wvu.c. Shall perform the customary duties of the Treasurer. Activities Manager-a. Shall be in charge of all activities of the Club.

Officer Elections

• Section 1. OFFICERS- the officers of this Club shall consist of: A President, a Vice-President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and an Activities Manager.

• Section 2. The Term of Office of the officers shall be one full year. They shall be elected at a special election meeting and the officers shall take office in the next meeting. Simple majority is necessary for election. The voting membership shall be limited to organization members who are WVU students. To hold an elected office a member must have at least a C (2.0) average at the time of election and must be a full time student. Furthermore, the member may not be on academic or disciplinary probation.

USRP

• http://www.ettus.com/• The Universal Software Radio Peripheral product

family allows you to create a software radio using any computer with a USB2 or Gigagbit ethernet port. Various plug-on daughterboards allow the USRP and USRP2 to be used on different radio frequency bands. Daughterboards are available from DC to 5.9 GHz at this time. The entire design of the USRP family is open source.

• The USRP and USRP2 work with gnu Radio.

Gnu Radio• http://gnuradio.org/redmine/wiki/gnuradio• GNU Radio is a free software development toolkit that provides the signal processing

runtime and processing blocks to implement software radios using readily-available, low-cost external RF hardware and commodity processors. It is widely used in hobbyist, academic and commercial environments to support wireless communications research as well as to implement real-world radio systems.

• GNU Radio applications are primarily written using the Python programming language, while the supplied, performance-critical signal processing path is implemented in C++ using processor floating point extensions where available. Thus, the developer is able to implement real-time, high-throughput radio systems in a simple-to-use, rapid-application-development environment.

• While not primarily a simulation tool, GNU Radio does support development of signal processing algorithms using pre-recorded or generated data, avoiding the need for actual RF hardware.

• GNU Radio is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3. All of the code is copyright of the Free Software Foundation.

Ham Shack Equipment

• Working– 2 meter repeater

• Needs help– 10 meter repeater– Echolink: http://www.echolink.org/– Antenna stuck