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On this week’s show, we peek behind the scenes of The Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC). A project of the Internet Archive, the DLARC collection includes a range of amateur radio-related materials, including magazines, ham radio newsletters, podcasts and even discussion forums. Within the expansive library are items generally categorized as non-commercial […] The post Podcast #335 – Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Foundations of Amateur Radio What is amateur radio? What's not part of the hobby and what is? The more you dig into this, the deeper the rabbit hole goes. I'll start with an analogy to set the scene. In aviation, Sir George Cayley was the first person to investigate heavier-than-air flying vehicles. He invented the aeroplane in 1799. The first full-sized glider, built in 1849 carried the first person in history to fly, the ten-year-old son of one of his servants. Since then the Wright brothers made their flight at Kitty Hawk. We saw the invention of commercial aviation, the turbo prop, the jet engine, the space-shuttle, helicopters, drones, rockets, hot-air balloons, the Hindenburg, the Goodyear blimps, hang-gliders, gyro-copters and many, many other contraptions. Each of those are considered aviation and the person controlling the device is considered a pilot. In amateur radio we talk on the radio. We also create repeaters and talk on them. We link them together using what ever technology is available. We make it possible to connect to such networks using software such as Echolink, AllStar Link, IRLP and other internet based systems. We create digital networks with DMR, use WSPR to exchange information, make contacts using CODEC2, have contests using CW and Morse code. We build software defined radios where we use computers to decode and encode radio signals, test back scatter using all manner of signal processing, use packet radio, RTTY, Hellschreiber and bounce signals off the moon and nearby meteors or an overflying aircraft. We make auto-tuners with a Raspberry-Pi or an SWR meter with an Ardiuno. We build valve based amplifiers and program mp3 voice-keyers, GPS lock radios, map propagation using the internet and have a rag chew on the local 2m repeater. We investigate 13cm propagation, do experiments with amateur television and we set up radio stations on top of mountains, in light houses and on remote islands. All of this is amateur radio, and frankly I've only just scratched the surface. There are heated discussions about if a linked repeater using the internet to create the link is real amateur radio or not, whether using your mobile phone as a node on the Echolink network is real amateur radio or not, if using a computer to create contacts on a digital mode such as JT65 is real radio or not. Each of these questions highlights a misconception about our hobby. There are no boundaries in amateur radio. We're a bunch of inventors, mavericks, people who attempt the unthinkable, try the impossible and make progress. There are people who are passengers on planes, and there are people who fly them. There are people using technology and there are people who invent it. We have a unique perspective as a community. We have the ability to imagine something that doesn't yet exist. Why would you spend any energy on whether that thing is real amateur radio or not? Amateur radio is a myriad of things, some of them related to antennas and radio spectrum, some not. This hobby is what you make of it, so go forth and invent something, try something, get on air and make some noise! I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio The amateur radio community is as varied as humanity across the globe. It represents an endless supply of ideas and experiments that continue to attract people looking for something new and exiting. On the face of it, our hobby is about radio and electronics, about propagation and antennas, about modes and contacts, but if you limit your outlook to those topics you'll miss out on a vast expanse of opportunity that is only just beginning to emerge. Until quite recently, computing in amateur radio was essentially limited to logging and contest scoring. It has evolved to include digital modes like PSK31 and the advent of smaller, faster and cheaper computers in the home has brought the possibility of processing unimaginable amounts of data leading to modes like WSPR and FT8. In the past I've spoken about how amateur radio means different things to different people. Making contact using a digital internet enabled repeater is sacrileges to one and manna from heaven to another. Between those two extremes there is room to move and explore. Similarly where one uses valves, another expects an integrated circuit. One wants low power, the other wants every Watt they can lay their hands on. Contesting versus rag chewing, nets vs contacts, SSB vs. CW, FT8 vs. RTTY. Each of these attracts a different part of the community with different outcomes and expectations. For some it's about antenna building, others going portable, climbing a mountain, or setting up in a park. Those are all traditional amateur activities, but the choice and opportunity don't end there. The longer I play with computers the more I see a convergence in the world, a coming together of technologies and techniques. I've talked about some of this before when in 1994 I produced a competition broadcast promotion for the radio station I was working at, using just a computer in the era of reel-to-reel tape and razor blades. My station manager couldn't quite put his finger on what was different, but with hindsight it represented a landslide change in how radio stations have operated since. Mind you, I'm not saying that I was the first, just the first in that particular radio station. In many ways computing is an abstract effort. When asked, I like to express it as designing something intangible in an imaginary world using an made up language and getting paid real money to make it happen, well, numbers in my bank account at least. Within that context, amateur radio is slowly beginning to reap the rewards that come from the exponential growth in home computing power. While the majority of humanity might use the vast amount of CPU cycles to scroll through cat videos online, that access to processing power allows us to do other things as well. For example, right now I'm playing with the dataset that represents all the WSPR spots since March of 2008. As of now there are around four billion rows of contacts, containing data points like a time-stamp, the transmitter, the receiver, the signal strength, location, direction, and more. As part of that investigation I went looking for documents containing the words "RStudio" and "maidenhead", so I could consider creating a map in my statistical tool that allowed me to represent my dataset. In making that search I discovered a thesis by a mathematician who was using the reverse beacon network in an attempt to predict which station could hear which transmitter at what time. In reading the thesis, which I opened because I was looking for an example on how to convert a maidenhead locator into geo-spacial data types in R, a popular statistics platform, I discovered that the author didn't appear to have much, if any, amateur knowledge or experience, but they approached their task, attempting to predict as a mathematician what we in our community call propagation, based on a public dataset, downloaded straight from the reverse beacon network, created by amateurs like you and I. This interaction between science and the amateur community isn't new. Sometimes it's driven by science, other times it's driven by amateur radio. There's a team exploring the ionospheric prediction models that we've used for decades, popularly referred to as VOACAP or Voice of America Coverage Analysis Program, based on multiple evolutions of empirical models of the ionosphere that were first developed in the 1960's, headed by both a scientist and an amateur, Chris KL3WX. With the advent of WSPR and the associated data collection some experiments have started to compare the reality of propagation as logged by WSPR to the predicted propagation as modelled by VOACAP. One such experiment happened in 2018 where Chris and his team at HAARP, the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, set out to make transmissions at specific times and frequencies, using the amateur community logging of WSPR spots to compare their transmissions to the predictions. Interestingly they did not match. Just think about that for a moment. The tool we love and use all across our community, VOACAP, doesn't match the reality of propagation. My own playing with WSPR data is driven by the very same thing that I use to be a better contester, a burning curiosity in all things. My VOACAP prediction experience has been poor to date. Setting up my own WSPR beacon is the first step in attempting to discover what my actual propagation looks like, but in doing so, it's also a possible contribution to the wider challenges of predicting propagation based on a dataset with four billion spots. One such approach might be to create an ionospheric prediction map based on actual data and compare that to the models as well as the published space weather maps and combining these efforts into a machine learning project which might give us the next generation of ionospheric prediction tools, but only time will tell. No doubt I will have to learn more about statistics and machine learning than I expect, but then, that's half the fun. So, next time you think of amateur radio as being limited to valves, transistors, soldering, antennas and rag chewing on HF, consider that there might be other aspects to this hobby that you have not yet considered. What other research are you aware of that relates to amateur radio? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio The Hobby of Amateur Radio is a curious mix of technology, rules and people. If you're new to this you're likely to find yourself being swept up in the scale of the experience and more than I think is appropriate you'll find yourself at the pointy end of a barb by another member of the community. It's taken me over six years to begin to understand what is going on that is causing this. Let me start by saying that there is no place for bullies in this society. Correcting a mistake is one thing, but causing interference, transmitting insults, abusing people on air, ignoring new-comers or using social media to vent is just not appropriate. Bullying aside, after looking at posts on social media for a while, it occurred to me that much of what lies at the root of this behaviour is a fundamental mismatch between how licensing is achieved today, compared to how it was achieved historically. I see regular references to the type of examination. For example, historically examinations were conducted using full written exams, where today we are likely to use multiple-choice methods and even those are being reviewed. It occurs to me that historically, the process of becoming a licensed radio amateur was a slow and steady process, infused with deep contact with an existing amateur, regular training, exposure to the community, on-the-job training, interspersed with study and then finally an examination. Today, the process is more likely to be a much quicker affair, with initial exposure to the hobby, a visit to the local training facility, either face-to-face, or on-line, followed by an examination. If we assume for a moment that both examinations are the same in terms of assessment, and I know that in and of itself is controversial, what else is different between these two processes? The answer is the deep contact while learning. In the United States this is referred to as Elmering, in Australia it's called Mentoring and it isn't the same as it used to be. Today there is mentoring going on, lots of it, but often that's after someone has actually received their credentials as a licensed operator. We assume that the examination prepares us for the hobby, but actually, the examination just prepares you for the law. That is, holding a certificate of proficiency means essentially that you are now legally aware that you can create interference and that you are liable if you do so. As I said, the deep contact during the learning process is different. That deep contact exposes a new amateur to the unwritten rules and customs that form part of the community of radio amateurs across the globe. For example, we use Lower Side Band or LSB below 10 MHz and Upper Side Band or USB above 10 MHz. There is no technical reason, just historical ones, that make that this must be so. There are many, many such un-written rules about amateur radio. Often they are referred to as the "Gentleman's Agreement" - and I'll leave aside for a moment the gender issues related to that notion. This so-called "Gentleman's Agreement", is not written down, it's passed on from amateur to amateur, or assumed to have been magically acquired by the process of osmosis. So, a newly minted Amateur, truth be told, I'm one of those, steps into the stream and gets swamped by rules that appear from no-where and instead of getting chapter and verse on how to learn, the amateur gets insulted and ostracised. It is clear to me today - more than it has ever been - that old hams die hard. They are responsible for their legacy and if they want to maintain the hobby in their image, they're required to be inclusive and assist new amateurs, rather than insult them and drive them away. I know that there are many wonderful amateurs in our community who do just that. However, the noisy ones just want the new amateurs to get off their lawn and go and play with something else, preferably not in their patch. I have no doubt that I'll get flurries of people who feel insulted by what I have observed and to those I can only say: "If the shoe fits..." For the rest of us, it's time to get on air and make some noise. Document any rules you come across and perhaps one day we'll have a code of conduct that radio amateurs can hold up to the world as an example of tolerance, inclusiveness and encouragement. If we're lucky we can even incorporate the Amateurs Code, originally written in 1928. A Radio Amateur is Considerate, Loyal, Progressive, Friendly, Balanced and Patriotic. We can dream. I'm Onno VK6FLAB