Foundations Of Amateur Radio

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I received an email from Colin VK2JCC who mentioned that he was a keen home brewer and he was interested in a discussion about using ex-military gear in amateur radio. If you want to see his beautiful rig, check out Colin's Clansman PRC 320 Radio, does 2 to 30 MHz at 3 or 30 Watts. Look for his callsign and you'll also find a video of him calling CQ. Colin also shared his efforts for the construction of a Ground Tuning Unit which started a whole different exploration, but I'll leave that for another day. Back to the topic at hand, ex-military gear in our hobby. My initial thoughts on the subject were predictable: "What on earth do I know about this and do I have anything useful to contribute on the matter?" It turns out that this isn't something new to me. You might recall that I'm an IT professional in my non-amateur life. In that role you'll likely never see me buying second hand or refurbished gear, unless I installed it myself and was the person responsible f

Foundations of Amateur Radio During the week I finally made the decision to purchase my first software defined transmit capable radio. It wasn't an easy choice for me, given that the range of options vary in price from "not much" to "more than my car is worth" and an infinite number of choices between those. One of the considerations, other than price, was a thing called bit-depth. In the past I've spoken about how an analogue to digital converter or ADC uses bits to represent a radio signal. In short, a voltage coming from an antenna is represented as a digital value inside the radio. No signal represents a value of zero and maximum signal represents the maximum value that fits into the decoder. A concrete example might be an 8-bit ADC which can represent 256 different values. If you look at the choices available to you, you'll see that there are 8-bit radios, 12-bit ones, 16-bit, 18-bit and 24-bit radios. On the face of it you could just say, more bits is better, but how much better? For example, an ANA

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I stumbled on a social media post titled "So, you want to be an astronomer..." by /u/Andromeda321 on reddit. Look it up if you're interested how she puts together the prerequisites from her perspective as an astronomer. Apart from the fact that a few of my friends are astronomers, one even a radio amateur - and I have to confess, that's a combination that is exciting and intriguing - it got me considering how you become a radio amateur. In my mind I started putting together lists and links and other prerequisites that help you become an amateur when it occurred to me that being an amateur is in my view a state of mind. While it's true that there is a licensing process that gives you transmission privileges, that to me is not what makes an amateur. When I started my amateur radio involvement in 2010 I'd seen amateur radio exactly twice. Once as a sea-scout during a Jamboree on the Air at the end of the 1970's and once when my manager parked his tiny car, I think

Foundations of Amateur Radio The activities that our community places under the banner of amateur radio are many and varied. I've referred to this as a thousand hobbies in one. If you look at the surface, you'll find all manner of activities that readily attach to our hobby. Activations for example are invented at any opportunity, from parks to peaks, light houses, bridges, trains, boats, lakes, roads, locators and countries. We pursue contesting, making contacts using different modes, different power levels, we pick the frequencies on which we operate. If you dig a little deeper you might consider investigating propagation, or antenna builds, electronics, physics and more. It occurs to me that there is an underlying activity, one that any amateur can participate in and most do at what ever level they choose. It's the act of being curious. You can choose to turn your radio on and be curious to what's going on around you on the bands, or you can be curious as to what the underlying principles are of the

Foundations of Amateur Radio When you start life you learn early on the difference between being told about an experience and the actual experience. There's a saying that comes to mind, I use it regularly in my day job: In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is. I thought I'd do the quote justice to see where it came from, not from Einstein, who was three years old at the time it was coined and neither Yogi Berra or Richard Feynman had been born. Quote Investigator puts it in the Yale Literary Magazine of February 1882 and attributes it to Benjamin Brewster, but I digress. A little while ago the regulator in Australia altered the rules of engagement in relation to amateur radio for people holding the license that I do. All Australian amateurs are now permitted to transmit digital modes. Not that this should have been any impediment to the exploration of the receive side, but I had a few other things on my plate to try. Still do. Over the weekend I sat in my d

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day it occurred to me that my callsign had been away from HF for months, probably longer. I didn't really want to think about how long it had been. I moved QTH over two years ago and ever since I've been working on a new antenna set-up. You know the kind, you shouldn't rush this. Anyway, having just had a camp-out with some friends for a portable contest, where I gleefully had fun with the station callsign, I thought it was time to actually do what I keep advocating to anyone who stands still long enough, to get on air and make some noise. So I did. You know that feeling when the longer you wait, the harder it gets and the more you put it off? That had invaded my thinking and my avoidance. The typical excuses of not enough space, too much noise, no antenna, radio not ready, too hard, all fought their way into prominence. I'd had enough. So, on Saturday I collected all the bits that make up my portable station. It had clearly been a while since I'd used it, since I co

Foundations of Amateur Radio In our hobby we regularly talk about its purpose, its need, its usefulness and other potentially abstract notions. Often there's a nod towards science, learning, self-discovery, challenge, emergency service or some other higher order concept. I know I've discussed many of those over the years and encouraged you to find what the hobby means to you. There is one aspect of our hobby that's pretty much left unsaid. It's left unsaid because it's obvious, since radio is about communication at its heart, the idea that we use our radios for communication is ingrained and unheralded. You might find a few new amateurs talking about how they made their first contact on the local repeater, or how they want to use the hobby to stay in touch when they're out and about. It occurred to me the other day that much of the world is subject to travel restrictions and social or physical distancing requirements. There's places that are in total lock-down and whilst there are strong recommendations fo

Foundations of Amateur Radio When I started learning about antennas I was told height is might. The higher the better. For many years I've followed that advice and like a good little parrot I've dispensed that advice. Turns out that as is usual in our hobby, that's not the whole story. I first came across a ground based antenna with a BOG, that's a Beverage On Ground antenna. It's essentially a long length of coax that's pointed at what you want to hear. You can either terminate the end, or not, different effects result with plenty of discussion about directivity, angles, lobes and the like. One of the things you'll notice with you use a Beverage antenna is that it's quiet. All signals are reduced in strength, but that also means that noise is reduced. Turns out that this pays off and you hear stuff that you've not heard before. Excellent for a field day or if you want to hear some serious DX stations. There's plenty of stuff that's not nice about a Beverage antenna. For one, it's highly directional, it t

Foundations of Amateur Radio An often repeated statement about the purpose of our hobby is related to emergency preparedness. The various peak bodies around the world devote plenty of resources to the concept, with helpful examples, umbrella organisations, training, coordinators, grants and funding, photo-opportunities and all the other trimmings that come from the idea that you and I are going to be of assistance in the case of some or other emergency. Looking up the various emergency coordination groups is a disappointing experience. From broken web-sites with non-existent pages to latest news that's over two years old, through to the latest sausage sizzle and fun-run. Entreaties to make sure that you have your current Membership ID card, otherwise you won't be covered for insurance purposes. As I said, all the trimmings with lots of evidence of paper pushing and little or no evidence of actual preparedness, let alone public information that might help any new or old radio amateur become prepared. Back t

Foundations of Amateur Radio One of the things I love most about this hobby is the ability to randomly dart off into any related direction and learn new stuff. For example, the names Nikola, Guglielmo, Heinrich and Edwin emblazoned on a t-shirt sent to me by a very appreciative listener Jack KI4KEP, started an exploration into the deeds and misdeeds of the people behind those names. The first three might be somewhat familiar, Nikola Tesla whom we have to thank for inventions like Alternating Current, the Tesla coil, wireless power, radio remote control and many others. The Tesla company is named as a tribute to him. The magnetic flux density uses the letter T as its symbol and its called the Tesla. As a side note, if you've ever struggled to decide if a symbol needs to be a capital letter or not, like say the V for volt, the A for ampere, the O for ohm, the m for meter, the s in second or the K in kelvin, you just need to remember that if the unit is named after a person, the symbol needs to be a capital l

Foundations of Amateur Radio A regular lament is the lack of things to do in our hobby. I know, it's foreign to me, but there are plenty of amateurs who express frustration at the lack of activity, no contacts, nothing new, no challenges. For my poison, I started the process of contacting 100 different countries using 5 Watts. I've been at it for a number of years and truth be told, since my latest domestic move, over two years ago now, my efforts have been put on hold. Not because I didn't want to, but because I was getting annoyed with having to leave my home and wanting desperately to have a functional shack at home. As you might know, that's a project that's still in hand and thanks to some magnificent assistance from various places, I'm still making progress. That said, your perspective might be dulled by the notion that this pretty much concludes the on-air activity possibilities that exist. Within my own license class, until recently, I was permitted to use voice modes like SSB, AM and FM and I was

Foundations of Amateur Radio The other day I bumped into a concept that I've heard repeated before. The so-called "impersonal nature" of digital modes. There's this idea that any communication that isn't using voice, is devoid of the human touch. Often this assertion is specifically made in relation to modern digital modes like JT65 and FT8. As an aside, I've never heard it in relation to other digital amateur modes like slow-scan television, RTTY or PSK31. In the early 1900's when amateur radio was beginning to be a thing, the means of communication was Morse Code. With beeps across the globe contacts were made between amateur stations. With every incoming dit and dah, letters were received, words constructed and meaning derived. This is long distance communication in its early stages. Each amateur was said to have a fist, their particular rhythm of touching the key. Across multiple stations it was possible for an experienced operator to distinguish between two amateurs based on how they were sending Mor

Foundations of Amateur Radio In my day to day activities as a radio amateur I come in contact with people across all parts of their amateur journey. Some who don't yet know that they're amateurs, through to those who've just passed their test and are waiting for their callsign. Then there are those who have been amateurs for a while, experimented a bit and have settled down into the comfort of being a member of an active community. Stretch that further and I also spend regular quality time with amateurs who have been licensed longer than I've been alive. Recently I received an email from a freshly minted amateur. Just like me, still pretty much wet behind the ears, keen as mustard, trying very hard to figure out what to do next and where to go. The basic gist of the email from this amateur was that they didn't know what kind of antenna they could erect at their home and failing that, couldn't decide on what radio to acquire to match the antenna that they hadn't decided on, not to mention that the antenna n

Foundations of Amateur Radio Every person is the product of their environment. Unsurprisingly this is even true for radio amateurs. That's not too say that we can't break our mould, but it takes effort. I grew up around technology in the 1980's. As a result I'm familiar with 8-bit microprocessors like the Motorola 6502 which featured heavily at the time. I tend to think in terms of the presence or absence of a signal, rather than the intricacies of circuits and components. As a child of my time, I'm not particularly familiar with the punch card or paper tape, or core memory, or valves, 386 machine code or what's in an FPGA. As a direct result of my age, my knowledge and understanding of circuits is sparse at best. I understand basic components like resisters and capacitors in a DC setting, Ohms Law and the fun you can have with a battery, a few resistors, diodes and an LED light. As a radio amateur I've been introduced to how some things work differently in an AC circuit, like an antenna and a feed-line.

Foundations of Amateur Radio If you've ever found yourself in the position of attempting to screw a PL259 into an SO239, or an N-type plug into an N-type socket you'll have likely come across the situation where the thread doesn't quite fit. If it does, you might have issues attempting to undo the connection, even if you didn't particularly do anything strenuous in relation to mating the two in the first place. This kind of situation happens to me more than I think is reasonable. It happens on cheap connectors, on expensive ones, on the back of radio gear, on adaptors, patch leads and the like. Initially I put this down to cheap vs. expensive, but that really doesn't add up if you're attempting to connect an expensive plug into an expensive radio. If you're into machining you'll know about swarf. If not, think metallic dust. Of course it doesn't have to be metallic, it could be a single grain of sand, or it could be a slightly damaged thread. A couple of months ago I went on the hunt for a tap and die se

Foundations of Amateur Radio If you've ever had the pleasure or misfortune to hear an on-air net, you might have considered, however briefly, how that net came to be, how it's run and what's involved behind the scenes to make it happen. I host a weekly net called "F-troop". It's been running every week since the 12th of June in 2011. Since then I've made over 5000 contacts with stations scattered all over the globe. A typical net has about ten people, but depending on the weather, what's on TV or if people had a hard Friday night that number fluctuates. The biggest was about 40, the smallest just two. At this point I could tell you that the infrastructure to make this happen, the preparation, management processes, network and marketing are what take up the bulk of my week. I mean, there might be a weekly stand-up between stakeholders on a Wednesday, a plan for the content, what to discuss, you know, the typical. If I told you that, I'd be lying. The reality is that F-troop is an organic animal. I general

Foundations of Amateur Radio When you switch your radio on to start a radio fishing expedition you join all the other spectrum users across the planet. To be fair, you'll likely only become aware of some of those for the time that your radio is switched on, even if there are thousands around. One of the ways you can find other users is by ditting out "QRL?" in Morse or saying "Is this frequency in use?" into your microphone. This simple courtesy of checking to see if the frequency you're on is actually being used by someone, is part of your license. You're taught to do this and it's expected. What's not clear is what happens next. It's simple if you hear a callsign, or a "yes", but what if you hear nothing? Sometimes nothing means exactly that, there's nobody on the frequency, but that's not always the case. There's plenty of opportunity for the frequency to be in use and you still not getting a response back. Let's imagine for a moment that the frequency you're on is in use by two stations talking to

Foundations of Amateur Radio When you become a member of the amateur radio community you become part of a small group of humans who know and understand certain aspects of life. That's not to say that others don't share this or that the knowledge is unique or special, but radio amateurs are required to know this before they receive their license. In the past I've spoken about how getting a license is like receiving a key that opens the door to the world of radio communications. It's one of the more accessible ways to grab hold of this key and it's the recipe for life long learning. During the week a friend of mine, a newly minted amateur, pointed out that this represents something that the general population isn't aware of or attaches little in the way of value to. The interconnectedness of radio spectrum is something that radio amateurs take for granted. To us it's obvious. A transmitter on 3585 kHz is fundamentally the same as one on 92.1 MHz. A key fob on 434 MHz is similar to a computer on 2.45 GHz as i

Foundations of Amateur Radio As radio amateurs we learn which frequencies we're allowed to transmit on, where stuff lives and who has priority when there's a signal on the frequency you're operating on and when you need to contact your regulator if you hear an illegal station on the air. Some of that information arrives in your brain by way of the education process that eventually becomes your license after a test. Depending on which country your license is valid, determines which region of the International Amateur Radio Union your activities fall. Here in Australia, I'm part of the IARU Region 3, together with the rest of the Asia - Pacific region. In the Americas you're part of Region 2 and Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Northern Asia fall into Region 1. As amateur population sizes go, Region 2 and 3 each cover about 40% of all radio amateurs. Region 1 is about 20%. Each of these IARU regions has a specific band-plan that is updated regularly as member countries adapt and negotiate different frequ

Foundations of Amateur Radio So, you've got yourself a license, or it's coming but you're waiting for the regulator to get the administration done and for your payment to go through. The excitement is building, you're itching to get started and you've told your family and friends what your new callsign is. Then the day arrives. Your callsign is allocated, it's paid for and you're allowed to call yourself a licensed radio amateur, a member of the community, a part of history, the next thing in radio. Now what? Where do you start on this adventure of a thousand hobbies in one? The truth is that you already did. Look behind you. You have a license, a callsign and you've found the community, well, at least some of it. How do I know that you found the community? Amateur Radio is a secret, known only to those who bounce into it. That bounce is where you found the community. Like any community you'll find people you like and people you don't. People who share your interest and people who are doing things that