Project Blue Horizon Sets Record

2008 - A group of graduate students has broken the world amateur high-altitude balloon record in a recent near-space flight that exceeded 125,000 feet. The balloon launch was the capstone effort of Project Blue Horizon (PBH), an educational component of a three-year program known as Lockheed Martin’s Engineering Leadership Development Program.   PBH is a space-flight program that incorporates amateur radio (also known as ham radio) technologies. Onboard global positioning systems and amateur radio technology allow for monitoring of launch, ascent, descent and recovery, with high-resolution images 20 miles above the earth’s surface recorded.

Read more about it at:

http://www.scientificcomputing.com/Balloon_Makes_Near_space_Flight.aspx

Ham Satellites

Amateur Satellites?

Yes, We Do That Too !

Satellite-active hams compose a relatively small but growing segment of our hobby, primarily because of an unfortunate fiction that has been circulating for many years—the myth that operating through amateur satellites is overly difficult and expensive. Like any other facet of Amateur Radio,satellite hamming is as expensive as you allow it to become. If you want to equip your home with a satellite communication station that would make a NASA engineer blush, it will be expensive. If you want to simply communicate with a few low-Earth-orbiting birds using less-than-state-of-the-art gear, a satellite station is no more expensive than a typical HF or VHF setup. In many cases hams can communicate with satellites using present station equipment—no additional purchases are necessary.
Does satellite hamming impose a steep learning curve? Not really. You have to do a bit of work and invest some brain power to be successful, but the same can be said of DXing, contesting, traffic handling, digital operating or any other specialized endeavor. You are, after all, communicating with a spacecraft!
The rewards for the efforts are substantial, making satellite operating one of the most exciting pursuits in Amateur Radio. There is nothing like the thrill of hearing someone responding to your call from a thousand miles away and knowing that he heard you through a satellite. (The same goes for the spooky, spellbinding effect of hearing your own voice echoing through a spacecraft as it streaks through the blackness of space.)
No doubt this is beginning to sound like an impassioned Captain Kirk delivery. (“Answers! I need answers, Mr Spock!”) Let’s cut to the chase.

Satellites: Orbiting Relay Stations
While a repeater antenna may be as much as a few thousand meters above the surrounding terrain, the satellite is hundreds or thousands of kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The area of the Earth that the satellite’s signals can reach is therefore much larger than the coverage area of even the best Earthbound repeaters. It is this characteristic of satellites that makes them attractive for communication. Most amateur satellites act either as analog repeaters, retransmitting signals exactly as they are received, or as packet store-and-forward systems that receive whole messages from ground stations for later relay.
There is much more to learn and enjoy. I suggest that you spend some time at the AMSAT Web site at http://www.amsat.org. You’ll pick up a wealth of information there. Speaking of “picking up,” grab a copy of the ARRL Satellite Handbook (see your favorite dealer, or buy it on the Web at http://www.arrl.org/catalog/). Between these two resources you’ll be able to tap just about all the amateur satellite knowledge you’re likely to need.

New Amateur Radio Satellite Receives OSCAR Designation

Late May 2008, Bill Tynan, W3XO, announced that Amateur Radio satellite Delfi C-3 has been issued an OSCAR number: Delfi-C3 OSCAR-64 or Dutch OSCAR-64. The shortened version of either of these two designations is DO-64.

Delfi C-3 was successfully launched April, 28, 2008 from India aboard a Polar launch vehicle and was successfully commissioned, currently transmitting telemetry on the 2 meter amateur band. In addition to its 2 meter downlink, Delfi C-3 has an uplink on the 70 cm band. This newest amateur satellite was developed by a team of some 60 students and facility members from various polytechnic schools in The Netherlands. Delfi C-3 carries two experiments: one involving thin film solar cells developed by Dutch Space, and an autonomous wireless Sun sensor from the Dutch Government Research Institute (TNO).

According to Delfi C-3 Project Manager Wolter Jan Ubbels, Delfi C-3 has been duly coordinated through Region 1 IARU representative Graham Shirville, G3VZV, and that the satellite “meets all of the criteria necessary to be issued an OSCAR number.”

“AMSAT-NA is pleased to welcome DO-64 into the family of Amateur Radio satellites,” Tynan said. “We are hopeful that it will fulfill its intended mission of furthering education and increasing interest in the Amateur Radio space program. We congratulate all of those responsible for designing, building, testing and launching this new Amateur Radio satellite and look forward to its long and productive life.”
 . . . see you in orbit!

Meteors and the Moon - WSJT

WSJT is a computer program for VHF/UHF communication using state of the art digital techniques.  It can decode fraction-of-a-second signals reflected from ionized meteor trails, as well as steady signals more than 10 dB weaker than those required for conventional CW.  One of its operating modes, JT65, is particularly optimized for amateur EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) communications.  WSJT is open source software and is licensed under the GNU General Public License.  It has an active development group: for details see http://developer.berlios.de/projects/wsjt/.

 
MAP65 is a new (July 2007) computer program designed to provide the “back end” of a semi-automated, wideband, polarization-matching receiver for JT65 signals.  In works together with Linrad (by SM5BSZ) and suitable RF hardware to receive and decode all detectable JT65 signals in a 90 kHz passband.  MAP65 runs under Windows or Linux.  Its principal intended application is EME or “moonbounce” on the amateur VHF and UHF bands.  A MAP65 status report is available, as well as a MAP65 Quick Start Guide.

D-Star

What is D-STAR?
D-STAR is a new ham radio standard which, when made into a system, offers both digital voice and data communication. It connects repeater sites over microwave links and the Internet and forms a wide area ham radio network. The DSTAR system provides a new capability and functionality to the ham radio world and increases the efficiency of emergency communications.

What can the D-STAR system do?
128kbps digital data and 4.8kbps digital voice communication!
The D-STAR system provides not only digital voice (DV mode) communication but also digital data transmission (DD mode). It can exchange various data files such as graphics, images, etc, at 128kbps.  Multiple repeater links by radio and the Internet provide long distance communication to virtually anywhere.

Many Internet applications are available
The D-STAR system uses the TCP/IP protocol, so when it is connected with a PC, web, e-mail and other Internet applications are available.

Wireless Internet Access
No matter where you travel with the DSTAR network, you can access the web, e-mail, text messages and multimedia messages.  It works even when “the net is down” and normal Internet communications are not working.
The D-Star standard, first published four years ago, resulted from government-funded research in Japan administered by the Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) to investigate Amateur Radio digital technologies. D-Star is an open protocol that’s available for implementation by anyone.

“Amateur Radio is again out there in the forefront of technology,” saiys Ray Novak of Icom America, one of the companies manufacturing D-Star equipment. Although he concedes there’s a steep learning curve ahead, he predicts Amateur Radio users will invent new ways to put D-Star technology to work as they get better acquainted with its possibilities.

At this stage, the ARRL HQ in Newington, CT has a D-Star 23-cm repeater is up and running in digital voice mode, and W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, and ARRL Web and Software Development Manager Jon Bloom, KE3Z, have enjoyed contacts through the repeater. In the meantime, Bloom has been working to interface the D-Star system with a Linux server, which will serve as an Internet gateway, to check out that aspect of the system.  It is a new technology and still being created.

The digital voice stream can simultaneously handle voice at 3600 bps with error correction and data at up to 1200 bps. Since a D-Star voice signal occupies only 6.25 kHz the potential is there to make more efficient use of available spectrum on 2 meters by squeezing up to four D-Star repeaters into the same space as two analog channels.
Working through a D-Star repeater is a bit different than using an analog repeater. While the basic “repeater” concept is the same, some aspects are altogether new. Your call sign is the key to a D-Star system since it’s incorporated into every transmission you make. Because of D-Star’s call sign-routed system, registered users are able to cross-communicate with stations registered on another network’s D-Star repeater, wherever it may be.
 
This means that if a user calls a station registered elsewhere, the voice transmission would be routed to the appropriate repeater where it would be heard just as though both stations were using the same repeater.

The 1.2 GHz D-Star system’s high-speed data capability is another exciting feature. The high-speed data stream has a data rate of 128 kbps and a maximum occupied bandwidth of 130 kHz. With the Ethernet jack on the transceiver, you now have the functionality of an ISDN (integrated services digital network) line available in your vehicle.
“We’ll have to find new ways of using this technology,” Novak said. “That will be where ham radio changes. This opens up an unbelievable array of features for repeater systems–including graphics, schedules, tables, photos, you name it!”

The D-Star discussion forum at dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com is the place where the latest developments, applications and uses are appearing almost daily with this new technology.
John Webb of Whiskey 7 Media interviewed some Washington State hams about it.

APRS

Sure your dashboard GPS might tell you where you are. But how about seeing and tracking where other people are located in real time?
Long-time packeteer Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, developed the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS), which allows packet radio to track real-time events. It deviates markedly from the usual message- and text-transfer activity. Instead, APRS concentrates on the graphic display of station and object locations and movements.
For example, if you know the latitude and longitude of your station, you can add this information to the beacon transmissions sent by your packet TNC. Any monitoring station that’s equipped with APRS software will translate the data and display your location on a computer-generated map.
Taking this idea a step further, if you own a portable Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, you have precise position information at your fingertips. Connect the GPS receiver to your TNC and you can transmit your location information even as you’re moving!
When any person in an APRS network determines where you’re located, he can move his cursor and mark your position on his map screen. This action is then transmitted to all screens in the network, so everyone gains, at a glance, the combined knowledge of all network participants. In other words, everyone knows where you are. The map screen retains this information for future reference. This means that moving objects can be dead reckoned to their current locations with one keystroke–based on their previous positions.
With a small GPS receiver, a TNC and a hand-held transceiver stuffed in a cigar box, almost any object can be tracked by packet stations running APRS software. You can place these boxes on bicycles for a marathon event, and, of course, in automobiles. This system is an excellent too for triangulating the location of a hidden transmitter or jammer.
The article Position Reporting with APRS below is a good tutorial for the APRS beginner. See also the list of other APRS articles.
A lot has happened to APRS since its humble beginnings. I think even Bob Bruninga is surprised at what has become of his idea. New applications and uses are being developed constantly.
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/aprs/pos-reporting.html

NBEMS

 

Having realized the shortcomings of current emergency messaging systems, including those that utilize voice, CW, or email robots, a ham operator, Skip Teller, KH6TY, saw the need for fast, reliable, emergency message transfer that would not be subject to any errors in translation from the spoken word to the written word, or from Morse Code to the written word, or wind up in an email inbox that nobody notices until it may be too late. The primary critera that needed to be satified is that any message that was sent must be without any errors. If a single number within a phone number to be called is in error, the entire message is undeliverable. So, more than anything else, the delivered message must be an exact duplicate of the original. To accomplish this, a verification approach, called “ARQ” for Automatic ReQest, must be utilized, and the system needed to be staffed with live amateur operators, who can verify message delivery to the intended recipient, and not depend upon any email “robots” which cannot obtain such verification in a timely manner. In addition, the system had to be capable of using very little of the radio spectrum so that there was more space left for other emergency communications activities, along with other ham radio hobby activities. The “Narrow Band” part of NBEMS refers to the NBEMS spectrum-conservative approach.

KH6TY then contacted a radio amateur friend in the Netherlands who had developed a spectrum-conservative email message system and they worked together to try an adapt that system, but in the end, it wound up being too complicated for the average radio amateur operator to operate. It was at this point that Dave, W1HKJ, a greatly experienced computer programmer as well as a radio amateur, offered to work with KH6TY and create a program that would send and receive messages without any errors. KH6TY and W1HKJ then worked together full time for the next year to bring NBEMS to fruition.

 

 

We all know what happens when there is a widescale disaster like Katrina. Phones don’t work, cell phones don’t work, the Internet is not accessible, and electric power may be out also.

We huddle together in a shelter, wondering how to tell our friends and family that we are OK, but with no traditional communications available, what are we going to do?

Well, in such situations, individual radio amateurs provide a way to connect to the outside world to request medical help or let friends and family know you are OK.

Radio amateurs often have radios in their cars or homes that can run off batteries, or the car electrical system, and are portable or mobile enough to come to that shelter and send messages to the outside world - even up to 100 miles away.

A new system to do that has recently been developed that utilizes no centralized communications points, but lets every available radio amateur send emergency messages from a disaster area, or receive them outside the disaster area, and deliver them by phone, cell phone, SMS, or Internet email.

That system is called NBEMS, for NarrowBand Emergency Messaging System, and is a set of software programs that allows the ham operator to take your message and send it, perfectly error-free, to another station outside the disaster area.

****************** How it Works ***********************

The radio amateur operator will have with him, a personal computer, NBEMS software, a communications radio, and an antenna. He can operate from his car if necessary, or inside a shelter, using battery power or electricity from a generator. Persons needing to send messages to friends and family, or request medical attention, or perhaps request supplies such as water or food for the shelter occupants give the message to the radio amateur, who then types it into his computer. When a quantity of such messages have been received, the radio amateur will broadcast a “CQ Emergency NBEMS”, which is a general call for anyone hearing him that has the NBEMS software to contact his station. The two then link together and the messages are transferred to the computer of the radio amateur that is outside the disaster area and has Internet, telephone, cell phone or text-messaging capability.

The radio amateur outside then forwards the messages on the Internet, if they are emails, or delivers the messages by telephone, cell-phone or text-messaging, confirming that the message is given to the intended recipient. If the message is delivered by email, he advises the recipient by telephone, cell phone, or text-messaging that an email is waiting. When the confirmation is by text messaging, he requests a short confirmation by return text-messaging that the message was received.

****************** Why it was Developed ***********************

The system was developed to solve a several problems:

1. Current emergency messaging systems require that outgoing messages be delivered to one of a few radio amateurs located at some central point in a disaster area.

Solution: NBEMS utilizes any NBEMS-equipped radio amateur, who might happen to be on the spot or available, to transmit messages to the outside of the disaster zone.

2. Current emergency messaging systems have only a few, unattended, email robots (similar to telephone answering machines) that can receive messages, and can be easily overloaded in a real emergency with radio amateur operators trying to contact them andthen having to wait in line to send messages.

Solution: NBEMS is able to use as many radio amateurs as are available at the time to forward messages by Internet, phone, cell phone, or text-messaging. There is no need to wait in line to send a message. The “NarrowBand” aspect and non-reliance on a handful of email robots makes this possible.

3. Because current emergency messaging systems utilize email robots to forward messages, emails can lie unnoticed for minutes, or hours, before the recipient checks his inbox.

Solution: NBEMS uses no email robots, but live radio amateur operators who can personally contact the recipient and be sure he gets the message. He can also immediately accept any return message for sending back to the station in the disaster zone the next time he contacts that station. NBEMS messaging is two-way.

 

*************************** Usage *************************************

The NBEMS is currently undergoing rigorous testing to be sure it is easy to operate and reliable in order to be ready for use in the coming 2008 hurricane system. Various radio amateur emergency communications groups are already evaluating the system for organized emergency communications needs, such as connecting Emergency Operation Centers with units in the field, or providing backup communications with hospitals in the event that normal communications are disrupted.

The NBEMS system is free for radio amateur use and is available on the Web for every radio amateur to download and use. The system is also usable for daily casual communications by radio, providing a continuing test of the readiness of the system for actual emergency use.

more info via http://w1hkj.com/NBEMS/

 KH6TY  Skip Teller

Green Radio ? -We do that!

Larry D. Barr, K5WLF, is a long-time proponent of renewable energy use, has lived off-grid in the past and is the owner of Rebel Wolf Energy Systems, a renewable energy (RE) consulting and design company. So, it was only natural that he’d look for ways to combine his passion for RE sources with amateur radio emergency communications.

One of the problems at any remote location where radios are set up is the need for reliable power. If hams are deployed in response to an emergency such as a fire, flood or tornado, there is no guarantee the the power grid will be functioning, so the hams must provide their own power. As Larry tells students at license and EmComms classes, “You can’t count on the infrastructure being in place. So the safest way is to figure that if we don’t bring it with us, it doesn’t exist.”

What’s become known locally as the “Solar Powered Ham Station” started out in response to a need for an autonomous station to serve as Net Control for the bicycle races that the Tarleton Area Amateur Radio Club (TAARC) in Stephenville, TX provides comms for each year. “We couldn’t count on being within reach of an AC power source,” says Larry. “A generator would do the job, but they’re noisy, require refueling and can be a fire hazard. Besides, I wanted to use some kind of renewable source.”

Larry had a pair of Uni-Solar US-64 photovoltaic (PV) panels “sitting at the house collecting dust when they could be collecting sunshine”, so it was an easy decision to put them in the pickup and carry them to the bike races, then stand them up in the truck bed for the event. However, it took a couple folks to load them and there was no room to carry anything else in the pickup when the PV panels were being transported.  The next logical step was to devise a way of carrying the panels on the truck all the time, so that it would always be ready for use. Not only would it be more convenient but, as Larry says, “Having the panels ready in the pickup all the time is really what Amateur Radio EmComms is all about. If we need to deploy somewhere at a moment’s notice, the panels are already on the truck and my Go-Kit is behind the seat.”

Larry and his friend Robert Taylor, K5HIX, designed and built the rack that supports the panels in the pickup. The panels ride below the top surface of the rack, so that it can be used to haul lumber or pipe without removing the PV panels. There are two antenna mast sockets in the front members of the rack enabling the erection of an antenna approximately 30 feet in the air without the need for a separate tower or guying. “Our goal was to make the pickup a self-contained EmComms response station, and I think we met that goal quite well, Although there are always things you think of after the fact that you’d like to add. So it’s subject to modification at any time.” Larry said.

The two PV panels, at 64 watts each for 128 watts total, are capable of providing almost eight amps to the two 12 volt, 100 amp-hour AGM batteries which power the radios. For larger radio systems, such as operating not only a transceiver or two, but also a repeater, four batteries are used instead of two. “We’ve left to do a bike race with less than a full charge in the batteries, run a net control radio for about five hours and come home with the batteries fully charged,” Larry says. “It’s amazing what Mother Nature will do for you.”

The batteries are PowerSonic PS-121000 AGMs, the charge controller is a Trace (now Xantrex) C12 and all the 12 VDC power is interconnected with Anderson PowerPole connectors. Power distribution is handled by either a West Mountain Radio RigRunner or distribution devices by Red-Dee-2-Connect (sold by Powerwerx).

Larry D. Barr, K5WLF, is an Amateur Extra class licensee, ARRL NTX District 3 PIO, ARES AEC and RACES CLO (Alt). Robert Taylor, K5HIX, is an Amateur Extra class licensee and ARES NTX District 3 DEC.

 

MiMo & Mike Kassner

What’s MiMo ?

 

Multiple Input/Multiple Output - Pronounced “my-mo,”

it is the use of multiple transmitters and receivers (multiple antennas) on wireless devices for improved performance. When two transmitters and two or more receivers are used, two simultaneous data streams can be sent, which double the data rate. Multiple receivers alone allow greater distances between devices. The IEEE 802.11n wireless standard, expected in 2009, uses MIMO to increase maximum speed to 100 Mbps and beyond, double the 802.11a and 11g wireless standards.

 
iMAT: MIMO without multiple antennas
-by Mike Kassner
Courtesy of www.TechRepublic.com

 
Antenna systems are not normally a preeminent topic when it comes to discussions about wireless equipment. That attitude is completely understandable; antennas are just not that interesting to most people. To some, including myself, RF propagation and antenna technology are very worthy discussion topics. My fascination started 40 years ago when I earned my first amateur radio operator’s license. I still remember the excitement of talking to as many fellow amateurs as I could on an old home built CW transmitter. Not having a great deal of money for new equipment, I focused on improving my antenna farm. It did not take long for me to notice the difference a good antenna made. Poorly designed or poorly built antennas—I learned the hard way—can literally destroy transmitter RF circuits. Whereas a well built antenna afforded me the opportunity to communicate with other amateurs anywhere in the world.

 
Antenna systems finally get some respect
Wireless equipment manufacturers will always have the challenge of trying to equal or surpass the capabilities of wired voice or data networks. Helping to close that gap are recent innovations using multiple—same frequency—antenna systems. Researchers and equipment manufacturers now understand that using MIMO antenna technology means greater receiver gain, increased data rates, larger network throughput, and improved reliability through antenna diversity. It all sounds good, but as that saying goes “nothing’s ever free” applies here as certain challenges surface when using MIMO antenna systems.

 

The author, Mike Kassner, is K0PBX.  Hear him discuss Amateur Radio

Listen to Mike 

 

 

SDR - Download a new radio? Sure!

Download a new radio?  Yes, we do that!

 

 

Since the beginning of radio itself, signals arrived at antennas and were processed by bits of hardware so that the information they carried could be understood by human beings. A century ago, the hardware amounted to little more than crystals and coils of wire. Vacuum tubes followed, which were eventually superceded by transistors and integrated circuits. Regardless of the design, the common element of every radio was hardware—a technology locked into place and difficult to change.

 
“Today’s amateurs have entered a new era. They’ve surpassed many of the limitations of hardware by using software instead. They’re still sending and receiving signals, but now they’re using computers to create “virtual” radios that can change in an instant, operating with any type of signal at the click of a mouse button. This incredible technology is known as Software Defined Radio and it promises a future that those early experimenters would never have dreamed possible.”   –Steve Ford, WB8IMY

 
Many promising amateur radio developments have now begun under the general topic heading of software defined radio. In the last six months, most of these promising developments have begun to be delivered to radio amateurs’ shacks. We are going to see a new transceiver from Flex Radio. HPSDR has begun to deliver software and hardware to its followers through the efforts TAPR with aid from AMSAT. Linrad has begun a serious experiment in delivery of highly capable network based, distributed software defined radio systems. uwSDR has delivered functional software and though its hardware efforts for VHF, UHF, and above are still under development, the early results show great promise. GnuRadio continues to move forward. Ettus Research, Inc. is close to delivering its first articles of the USRP2. A functional OFDM modem has now been implemented in GnuRadio and development on it continues with great promise for future amateur radio use. Radio manufacturers outside of Flex Radio have begun to pay attention to some of its developments and are now shifting their marketing to include claims of being software defined radio and many are now showing live, very sensitive panadapters of the type pioneered by Linrad and Flex Radio in the PowerSDR software.

 
There is amazing development going on now with better hardware becoming available for the RF front ends to radios and with much faster computing equipment becoming inexpensive enough for all to afford. SDR is really mainstream now. It should continue to be highlighted as it is here that lots of amateur radio’s most exciting action is occurring. 

 

SETI - Project ARGUS

Is anyone out there?

Project Argus is still going strong after a decade, and hams are
driving the technical developments. 135 Project Argus stations are
operating in 26 countries around the world.

What Is Project Argus?

Perhaps the most ambitious microwave SETI project ever undertaken without Government equipment or funding, Project Argus is an effort to deploy and coordinate roughly 5,000 small radio telescopes around the world, in an all-sky survey for microwave signals of possible intelligent extra-terrestrial origin. When fully operational, Project Argus will provide the first ever continuous monitoring of the entire sky, in all directions in real time.
The SETI League was established in 1994 to help privatize the scientific Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), formerly conducted by NASA. SETI League members have developed the necessary hardware, software, protocols and procedures for distribution worldwide. The name Argus derives from a 100-eyed being in Greek mythology. The search phase of Project Argus began on Earth Day, April 21, 1996, with just five operational radio telescopes. By November, 2000, the scope of our Argus equalled that of its namesake, with our 100th station actively participating.
Traditional research grade radio telescopes (the type which NASA used) can view only a small fraction of the sky at a given time, typically on the order of one part in a million. All-sky coverage with these instruments would thus require a million telescopes, properly aimed. At a cost of perhaps one hundred million US dollars apiece, such a network would exceed the Gross Planetary Product. Fortunately, there is another way.
Project Argus employs much smaller, quite inexpensive amateur radio telescopes, built and operated by SETI League members at their individual expense.  Only five thousand of these smaller instruments, properly coordinated, are necessary to see in all directions at once. The equipment, although of modest sensitivity, is still believed capable of detecting microwave radiation from technologically advanced civilizations out to a distance of several hundred light years.
http://www.setileague.org/argus/