N8GNJ.org

Repeater Coordination Does Not Exclude Other Use of the Repeater's Frequencies

As I explained in About SuperPacket, "Big Picture of Amateur Radio" articles like this will now be in my blog SuperPacket. This article has been copied there.

In my earlier article The Puget Sound Amateur Radio TCP/IP Network (circa 1995) I said in passing:

The last bit regenerative 9600 bps repeater, on 146.98 MHz on Mt. Baldi fell victim to a "sneak attack" because its "coordination" with the Western Washington Amateur Repeater Association (WWARA) lapsed. The moment the coordination lapsed, WWARA gave the "coordination" for 146.98 to yet another "ego box" voice repeater. To this day, forcing the unique 146.98 9600 bps data repeater off the air is one of the stupidest things I've ever witnessed in Amateur Radio. For that reason I have a very dim view of the utility of "frequency coordination" for Amateur Radio in general, and the WWARA in particular.

The premise that "repeater coordination" is based upon is that (widely held) perception that portions of the Amateur Radio VHF / UHF bands are for the exclusive use of repeaters, and any other use of those portions of the Amateur Radio VHF / UHF bands is not allowed. It has happened that other use of a particular repeater's input or output frequencies have caused complaints to the "repeater coordination body" and sometimes escalated to a formal complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), mostly back decades ago when the FCC took Amateur Radio interference complaints seriously.

Even before the stupidity about "decoordinating" the unique Mt. Baldi 146.98 9600 bit-regent repeater, the "it's MY repeater frequency, dammit" attitude struck me as wrong. When I was learning about Amateur Radio, one of the tenets I was taught was that in operating, no Amateur Radio operator had a "right" or "claim" to a particular Amateur Radio frequency, and the "exclusivity" nature of repeater coordinations just seemed wrong. It's right there in the FCC rules - Part 97.101(b):

Each station licensee and each control operator must cooperate in selecting transmitting channels and in making the most effective use of the amateur service frequencies. No frequency will be assigned for the exclusive use of any station.

But that seems routinely ignored when "it's MY repeater frequency, dammit" is asserted.

In my opinion, the proper perspective of a "repeater coordination" is that it's a mild preference among equal peers - that all things being equal, this particular usage is preferred. No more than that.

Years afterward, I read an official opinion of the FCC that confirmed my perspective, that while coordinated repeaters are recognized as a "first among peers" designation if they have blessing from a "coordination body", that "coordination" does not extend to exclusive use of the frequencies the repeater is using, especially when the repeater is not in operation. I squirreled away that note... too well, apparently, because I could never find it again. I tried Google searches, to no avail, until a few days ago.

Kudos to the ARRL for keeping this sort of vital information online!

 http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-dismisses-two-amateur-radio-related-petitions 

But, just in case... https://web.archive.org/web/20100527003357/http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-dismisses-two-amateur-radio-related-petitions

FCC Dismisses Two Amateur Radio-Related Petitions

12/09/2009

On Wednesday, December 9, the Federal Communications Commission dismissed two separate Petitions for Rulemaking: One filed by Murray Green, K3BEQ, concerning the operation of repeater stations in the Amateur Service, and one filed by Glen Zook, K9STH, requesting amending Section 97.119(a) to change how often stations must identify themselves.

Murray Green, K3BEQ (DA 09-2559)

In his Petition, Green -- who filed his Petition on March 23, 2009 -- requested that the FCC amend Section 97.205(e) of its Rules "to prohibit a repeater station licensee or control operator from limiting the use of a repeater to only certain user stations, unless a user blatantly violates the Commission's Rules." Green argued that Section 97.205(e) -- which permits a repeater station licensee or control operator to limit the use of a repeater to certain user stations -- conflicts with Section 97.101(b) which states that no frequency is for the exclusive use of a particular amateur station, and each station's licensees must cooperate in selecting transmitting channels and in making the most effective use of the Amateur Service frequencies. In his Petition, Green argued that Section 97.205(e) permits "a pay for use policy in the Amateur Radio Service, enables user censorship and intimidation, breeds on the air inactivity by not using frequencies effectively and creates a negative public image."

In denying Green's Petition, the FCC concluded that Section 97.205(e) does not establish an exclusive assignment of a frequency to a repeater, saying that Green's contention that a coordinated closed repeater has "exclusive control of an Amateur Service frequency." The Commission noted that coordination is not required as a condition of operating a repeater: "Coordination does not and cannot result in assignment or establish control of an Amateur Service channel," the FCC said in its reply, "and nothing in the rules prohibits other amateur stations from using the channels for which a repeater has been coordinated when they are not being used by the repeater. Section 97.205(e) merely enables a repeater licensee or control operator to control the repeater so that he or she can ensure the repeater is properly operated as required by Section 97.105(a). Accordingly, there is no conflict between the rules, and no grounds for the Commission to propose to amend Section 97.105(a)."

The FCC advised Green that questions concerning the impact of the operational decisions of a repeater control operator, licensee or trustee -- such as limiting the repeater's use to certain stations -- should be addressed to the local frequency coordinator so that repeater problem can be "expeditiously dealt with at the local level by people with first-hand knowledge of the facts."

This phrase leapt out at me:

The Commission noted that coordination is not required as a condition of operating a repeater: "Coordination does not and cannot result in assignment or establish control of an Amateur Service channel," the FCC said in its reply, "and nothing in the rules prohibits other amateur stations from using the channels for which a repeater has been coordinated when they are not being used by the repeater.

Although this came too late to save the unique Mt. Baldi 146.98 9600 bit-regent repeater, it was something of a moral victory, at least to me. Armed with this, the fans and supporters of the unique Mt. Baldi 146.98 9600 bit-regent repeater could have argued that WWARA's new "coordination" of the "ego box" new 146.98 repeater was more of a gentle suggestion rather than effectively being "law of Amateur Radio in Western Washington".

Fast forward to 2021 and beyond. In my monitoring of the Amateur Radio VHF/UHF bands, the silence (unoccupied airtime) is deafening. Where is all the activity to justify the exclusion of every requested new "coordination" because "2 meters is full"?

I can also envision that based on this information, when a repeater is proposed for the 144-148 MHz band (2 meters) in Western Washington, instead of the WWARA essentially vetoing such a repeater ("2 meters is full. Go away.") that the new repeater "just do it". I think that especially applies to new data systems like the unique Mt. Baldi 146.98 9600 bit-regent repeater.

I've said that the entire function of Amateur Radio repeater coordination bodies should be, at most, a Wiki page where someone who wants to put up a repeater posts the basic information of the repeater:

• Latitude, Longtitude, and Height
• Relevant technical information - Frequency, Power, etc.
• Control operator's Amateur Radio callsign and name
• How to contact the control operator of the repeater.

That's it. Then, as the FCC suggests, any issues... can be "expeditiously dealt with at the local level by people with first-hand knowledge of the facts.

In a future post I'll discuss why all of the above is relevant - that new data modes such as VARA revive the discussion of using repeaters for data. Existing (voice) repeater owners are loathe to allow data usage of their (coordinated) existing "voice" repeaters, so those of us that want to use repeaters for data are just going to have to create new repeaters. For us "data first" enthusiasts, the situation K3BEQ describes with certain repeaters limiting usage for a select few users, we feel the same way about the exclusion of data. So, it's time to "route around those "voice only" repeaters. Likely they won't notice because their usage is so light.

The above is "cover" for putting up those new repeaters even though "2 meters is full".

There is now funding available to try interesting new things.

 

Thanks for reading!

Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA

Them That's Doin'

Update - The information in this post is now a web page that I will maintain and enhance - Interesting and Advanced Projects / Products in Amateur Radio.

... Interesting stuff in "Advanced" Amateur Radio.

I borrow this phrase from Mother Earth News which I subscribed to years ago. Them That's Doin' was a feature (if memory serves) describing people that were doing hands-on activities, not just writing about, or opining, or editorizing. Active folks!

I frequently complain to my Amateur Radio friends (sorry friends) that the problem with Amateur Radio these days isn't that there aren't interesting things going on in Amateur Radio; there absolutely are interesting things going on. The problem with Amateur Radio these days is that the interesting things aren't being widely reported to Amateur Radio in general through "popular" Amateur Radio media - magazines, blogs, YouTube channels, podcasts, etc. The worst offender of this, in my opinion, is ARRL's magazine QST. They don't write (or talk) about this "interesting stuff" much at all, and if they do at all, it's a passing mention.

For example, Packet Radio (admittedly, my passion) is undergoing a renaissance largely through the work of John Langer WB2OSZ's Dire Wolf software (Decoded Information from Radio Emissions for Windows or Linux Fans). I have yet to see (that I can recall) any mention of Dire Wolf in QST. Before anyone suggests my writing for QST... no, I'm not going to do so because what Amateur Radio needs more content that's proprietary and restricted to those that can afford the increasingly costly membership in the ARRL in order to subscribe to QST, and ARRL does not make the content of QST publicly available.

I've been threatening to do this for a long time (most recently in this forum), and time just keeps getting away from without it getting done. Keeping a list in private doesn't help anyone but me, so here is a series of terse descriptions with links to what I consider "Them That's Doin' Interesting Things in Advanced Amateur Radio". In advance, this list is highly subjective, and lack of inclusion about a favorite activity, project, vendor might just be that I haven't gotten to them yet.

Last updated 2021-02-16 - final.

• 222-225 MHz Amateur Radio band (US, Americas) - The 222-225 MHz band in the US is underused. It's an ideal "playground" for data communications, but is hampered by few 222-225 MHz radios currently in production - Alinco DR-235 MkIII and BridgeCom Systems Systems BCM-220. Both have "data" ports making higher speed data communications possible.
• 44net - Static IPv4 addresses (and routing) are available for Amateur Radio experimentation. 
• Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) - ARDC has two missions. Their origina mission was to operate 44net / AMPRnet (44.0.0.0/9, 44.128.0.0/10) which they continue. Their new, additional mission is providing philanthropic grants for Support and Growth of Amateur Radio, Education, and Technical Innovation.
• Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) - Flash selected Wi-Fi radios with AREDN firmware to create standalone mesh networks.
• Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) - ARISS supports the Amateur Radio equipment and activities on the International Space Station.
• AMSAT-DL (Germany / Europe), AMSAT-NA (North America) / AMSAT-UK (UK) - Satellites built, operated, and used by Amateur Radio Operators. 
• Analog Devices ALADM-PLUTO - A friend directed me to this device for getting started with GNU Radio. This device is different because it's a software-defined transceiver, not just a receiver.
• aprs.fi - aprs.fi is the "public face" of Amateur Radio APRS activities. For example, world-circling balloons carring Amateur Radio beacons can be followed by anyone, including school kids. aprs.fi is just an amazing project. 
• Data over Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) - It occurred to me a few years ago that all the Amateur Radio DMR repeaters that are being built are, at their core, data repeaters. The DMR specification makes provisions for data, but no one seems to know much about how to do data over DMR. These Maxon DMR data radios deserve some experimentation.
• DFQF2 T7F Data Radio - Like the Kantronics D4-10, this radio is now out of production and mentioned here as inspiration for a hoped-for new generation of data radios for Amateur Radio. The T7F was more advanced than the D4-10, including frequency agility. There were several excellent data radios for Amateur Radio made in Germany, but none remain in production (that I know of). 
• David Rowe VK5DGR - His most famous project is Codec2 and FreeDV, open source digital voice modems. He is also working on a "radio", and other projects.
• Dire Wolf - software based Packet Radio. It's simply amazing how much better Dire Wolf works than hardware modems. I can't offer enough kudos to WB2OSZ for Dire Wolf.
• D-Star Digital Data Mode / ID-1 Radio and "Repeater" - The Icom ID-1 was the fastest (that I'm aware of) data rate for an Amateur Radio product (that wasn't a kit / science project) at 128 kbps (half duplex). It also had the distinction of being of operating on the forlorn Amateur Radio 1240 - 1300 MHz band. While the ID-1 is out of production now, the D-Star Digital Data (DD) mode lives on in another Icom radio, and a planned successor to the ID-1 repeater. It would be a very cool project to create a new radio with the ID-1's data capabilities. 
• Earth - Moon - Earth Communications (EME) - AMSAT started a tradition of naming Amateur Satellites Oribiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio (OSCAR) follwed by a sequential numeric designator. The first AMSAT satellite was named OSCAR-1. EME enthusiasts sometimes refer to Luna as "OSCAR-0". I just think EME is uber-techie cool.
• F5OEO rpitx - It doesn't get any cooler than a software defined transmitter that's just a Raspberry Pi with a wire connected to a GPIO.
• F6FBB FBB - Very capable Packet Radio Bulletin Board System (BBS). Yes, BBS' are still useful.
• fldigi - A suite of software data modes. FSQ is particularly robust.
• Flex Radio - I've been impressed with Flex Radio since their founding as they are "all in" on Software Definied Radio for Amateur Radio HF like Tesla is on electric drive vehicles. I just wish they did the same thing for VHF/UHF radios.
• G8BPQ Software Suite - G8BPQ's suite of software is Packet Radio Networking - Bulletin Board Systems, Chat Bridges, and much more.
• GNU Radio - GR is open source software defined radio. GNU Radio Companion is a graphical interface that makes it possible to create software defined radios by dragging modules around in a into graphic layout. In addition to the software and support, they sponsor the GNU Radio Conference.
• Hackaday.com - I love Hackaday because they treat Amateur Radio, especially data modes and projects (like New Packet Radio) as interesting wireless experimentation for techies. Hackaday makes Amateur Radio look cool to techies, which we desparately need more of.
• HamPi - Amazing integration of much Amateur Radio software for the Raspberry Pi, already compiled into a plug-and-play image.
• HamWAN - HamWAN is a vision for building an Amateur Radio Wireless Internet Service Provider. It began as a project in the Seattle area and has since been replicated in other areas.
• Inductive Twig HamShield: LoRa Edition - This is the only vendor / project that I'm aware of that attempts to make the very popular LoRa hardware into compatibility with Amateur Radio. I think LoRa has great potential in Amateur Radio, especially if it can be made into a mesh network.
• JNOS - JNOS is the swiss army knife of Amateur Radio packet radio networking. It's a multi-mode router, including basic AX.25, Net/ROM, TCP/IP (including encapsulation), and BBS routing. Yep, it's still going after all these years.
• JS8Call - The one thing that the WSJT software suite doesn't have is a keyboard-to-keyboard chat mode. JS8 is an independent project based on the WSJT technologies.
• Kantronics D4-10 Data Radio - It's sad that in many ways the long-discontinued Kantronics D4-10 was a high point in packet radio radios. It featured a wide bandwidth that could do 19,200 bps (and faster), 10 watts transmit power, minimal design (no fancy faceplate), and best, was designed for data, not a radio designed for voice that kind-of does data. Because it uses crystals for frequency setting (which are near-unobtanium now) it's not that useful now, but it is a benchmark for what a data radio for Amateur Radio could and should be - minimalist, stable (with the mods mentioned in the link), and reasonable power output (though 25 watts would be better). I include it here as an inspiration for a new generation of data radios for Amateur Radio.
• Kenwood TM-V71A Radio - In my opinion, this is the best VHF / UHF radio for data communications available at this moment. It features the 6-pin MiniDIN standard "data" port for easy interfacing, 144 / 440 MHz, 5 / 25 / 50 watts transmit power, and its settings can be controlled via RS-232.
• M17 Project - Developing a new Digital Voice standard, and hardware, for Amateur Radio.
• MicroHAMS Digital Conference - MicroHAMS is an Amateur Radio club based in Redmond, Washington, USA. What makes it special, in my opinion, is that it sponsors an excellent Digital Conference in the Spring, on par (in my opinion) with the ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference (DCC).
• New Packet Radio - Packet Radio reimagined as higher speed and native TCP/IP.
• multimon-ng - Good example of obscure projects for Amateur Radio. This one decodes various obscure data modes, including POCSAG (paging). Imagine the robustness of paging used in Amateur Radio now that we all have access to high resolution timebases and flexible data transmission modes.
• Nexus DR-X - This is a project that's local to me for a capable, multipurpose digital interface, with great software support.
• NW Digital Radio DRAWS - The DRAWS is my favorite built-for-purpose sound card modem for Amateur Radio, mated with a Raspberry Pi.
• NW Digital Radio UDRX-440 Software Defined Transceiver / Data Radio - This was a project that came agonizingly close to becoming a product. I profoundly wish it had, even with many rough edges. It was to be a 25 watt multimode data radio with all the features we wanted - flexible modems, full software control of transmit bandwidth, frequency, power, etc. There were good, valid reasons that it didn't quite make it. It's listed here as an example of what Amateur Radio needs as tools to make great leaps forward in becoming relevant again in the minds of most techies.
• Open Research Institute (ORI) - ORI is... complicated. Its genesis was developing a ground station system for a potential Geosychronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite payload that would have been accessible from the North America. The satellite didn't happen, but ORI continued and morphed into a more generalized organization.
• OpenWebRX - web based multiple user sotware defined receiver.
• OpenWRT - Open source firmware for routers and Wi-Fi access points. It's the basis for AREDN and many other interesting projects.
• Othernet - Very cool project to do "datacasting" from satellite. Not entirely a new idea, but a new approach.
• PiGate - Imagine you're at a mass casualty shelter and people have phones that don't work on (saturated or down) cellular networks. PiGate is an appliance that combines a Wi-Fi access point, web server, form for sending email, and integration with Winlink, so that non-hams can send brief emails, via Winlink, under supervision of an Amateur Radio operator.
• PiSDR - Raspberry Pi image of a wide range of software defined receiver software for a variety of software defined receiver hardware.
• Packet Radio Users Group (PRUG) FX.25 KISS TNC - FX.25 to date has only been implemented in Dire Wolf software (needs a host like a Raspberry Pi and a sound card). An "appliance" like this could make FX.25 and Forward Error Correction more widely used.
• RadioID.net - Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) wasn't designed for Amateur Radio with support for callsigns, only "ID numbers". For DMR to be usable in Amateur Radio, someone had to provide a "translation table" of DMR ID numbers to Amateur Radio callsigns, and RadioID.net took on that task and, in my experience, does it well.
• Raspberry Pi - The Raspberry Pi ecosystem of products, projects, support, and software to me makes it the preferred computer platform for Amateur Radio. For as little as $10, "just throw a computer at it".
• Red Pitaya - This is the most capable software defined transceiver that I know of. It's so sophisticated and capable that it wasn't originally a platform for radio experimetation. As I understand the story it was created as a multifunction radio test set. As it's evolved, it seems to be the favorite Amateur Radio software defined transceiver of those who can write digital signal processing software.
• Reverse Beacon Network - Hams are incredible creative; this is a network of receivers connected to the Internet. See where your signal is being heard around the world.
• RTL-SDR.com - They make good quality inexpensive software defined receivers, and their website is the best "heads up" about anything in the software defined receiver / transceiver field.
• Repeaterbook.com - In my opinion, Repeaterbook.com and its apps is the best director of Amateur Radio repeaters. Its data is crowdsourced and usage is free.
• SDRPlay - This is my favorite manufacturer of software defined receivers. In my opinion their products are a good balance of receive performance and reasonable cost. They have very capable software for their products for Windows, and a plug and play image for a dedicated Raspberry Pi.
• SDRServer - Streaming data to multiple users from a software defined receiver device.
• SATNOGS - There are a lot of research (micro)satellites in orbit now from various institutions such as college engineering classes. The problem is that they only realize their potential when the data that they generate can get transmitted back. SATNOGS is a network of open source, inexpensive ground stations that use commodity hardware, 3D printed parts, and the Internet to receive data from these small satellites and get it back to the satellite's sponsors.
• Signal Identification Guide - an open sourced (Wiki) compendium of various modulation types. When you receive something you don't understand, look it up here.
• Single Channel Repeater - Single Channel Repeaters have been done, but only as a "record for seconds, then play back for seconds. Instead of that, think receive for 5 mS, then transmit for 5 mS.
• SMSGTE - A gateway between Amateur Radio APRS messages and Short Message Service (SMS) messages.
• SV2AGW Packet Engine - Software that operates as a packet radio switch - multiple TNCs can be connected to multiple applications.
• TAPR - TAPR didn't create the Terminal Node Controller (TNC) or Packet Radio, but they made it accessible to average Amateur Radio operators. TAPR has done many interesting things since the TNC-1 and TNC-2. Their most important mission now (in my opinion) is the annual Digital Communications Conference.
• Terrestrial Amateur Packet Radio Network (TARPN) Nino-TNC - This is a new KISS TNC with a USB interface capable of 9600 bps and a new Forward Error Correction (FEC) protocol.
• TNCPi9k6 - This is a 9600 bps KISS TNC for a Raspberry Pi designed by John Wiseman G8BPQ, originally produced by Coastal Chipworks (which has ceased operations).
• Unsigned.io OpenModem TNC - What can I say... I'm a fan of TNCs, especially ones designed and produced in the 21st century. OpenModem has a unique capability of logging AX.25 packets to an SD card for later analysis. 
• Unsigned.io RNode LoRa Radio - Another LoRa Amateur Radio for experimentation with LoRa technology.
• UZ7HO software Packet-Radio TNC - UZ7HO was one of the first to offer TNC capabilities (mostly) in software. 
• VARA-FM - Vara is a "clean sheet of paper" approach to high speed data over Amateur Radio. It offers impressive speed on VHF/UHF with improved reliability.
• Wildernets - It's hard to grok Wildernets at first, but it's an amazing piece of software. It provides a web server, Voice over IP (VOIP), mesh networking, and more. It was ported to a now hard-to-find Wi-Fi router, and it's hoped that the developer will be able to find more time to work on it.
• Winlink - Winlink has made "last mile emergency email" plug and play. Within their paragigms, it works well. I think every Amateur Radio operator should support Winlink for emergency communications.
• WSJT - Dr. Joe Taylor W1JT has revolutionized Amateur Radio data communications by creating entirely new communications methods using advanced digital signal processing made accessible to Amateur Radio operators.
• XASTIR - Open Source APRS do-everything software.

 

 

The N8GNJ Station Wishlist 1H 2012

My buddy Bill WA7NWP's similar post is my inspiration for this.

The focus of Station N8GNJ is data communications. Yeah, there's some voice, but data holds the most fascination. The vast majority of the radios have modems / TNCs rather than microphones.

Wishlist item #01: Kenwood DM-710A  Bill has convinced me that this is the best for option for doing 9600 baud on 144 and 440 MHz. Amazingly, Kenwood doesn't even mention this capability on their sales blurb for this radio.

Wishlist item #02 - 05: Alinco...

DR-06T
DR-135T/EMKIII
DR-235TMKIII
DR-435T/EMKIII 

What all of the Alinco radios above (50, 144, 222, and 440 MHz, respectively) have in common are that they can accept 9600 baud signals directly on a rear panel connector. Although Alinco offers an internal TNC unit similar to the DM-710A, after so many bad reports over the years, I can't bring myself to trust a "radio" TNC from a Japanese company. Such units have gotten a very bad reputation for operating TCP/IP because they all seem to have piddly buffers.

Wishlist item #06: (multiples) A 9600 baud TNC. I'd love something like a TNC-X with a 9600 modem, but no one seems to make one. I don't see one that really appeals to me. The best one I'm aware of is the Timewave PK-96.

Wishlist item #07: That said, I do plan to get a TNC-X. It's great to have a TNC that's hard-coded in KISS mode.

Wishlist item #08: Of course, I'll be investing a 144 / 440 D-Star radio - just not sure which one I'll be buying.

Wishlist item #09: More than a decade after witnessing its debut, I think 2012 will be the year that I finally buy an Icom ID-1.

Wishlist item #10: Doodle Labs DL-435-30 looks like some fun for experimentation.

Wishlist item #11: (multiples) Tigertronics SignaLink USB. I've seen reviews that this is a good, stable USB interface for HF digital modes. It has pots for matching up to an individual radio, it's reasonably priced, and unlike a lot of similar interfaces, it has its own sound card chip. I now have a 144 MHz and a 440 MHz all mode radio (both old enough that LED displays were "newfangled") and I plan to try the HF digital modes with them - should be interesting to try WSPR on 440 MHz SSB.

Wishlist item #12: (multiples) 144/222/440 MHz vertical, omnidirectional antennas. I made the mental leap that putting up an antenna is such an ordeal to me, and I'm willing to do it right with expensive coax, etc. that it doesn't make sense NOT to put up a tri-band antenna.

Wishlist item #13: Similar to #12, a 50/144/440 MHz vertical, omnidirectional antenna. I want to do data work on the 50 MHz band.

Wishlist item #14: Similar to #12 and #13, a 144/440/1200 MHz vertical, omnidirectional antenna. I want to do data work on the 1200 MHz band.

Wishlist item #15: Some embedded PC that is fanless (big heatsink) and operates directly off 12V DC. Extras would be that it's that sexy ARM processor (very power efficient) and thus runs a Linux implementation. But something like an Intel Atom would be OK too.

Wishlist item #16: A DC-daylight nothing-but-DSP receiver. Fully programmable for frequency or mode.

Wishlist item #17: Digital (PDF) copies of all the Amateur Radio magazines, especially the specialty ones. Many of these I have in my possession, and are just waiting patiently to be fed through the ScanSnap.

 

If I hit the lottery (real wishlist)... (perhaps I should start playing the lottery... nah)

Lottery wishlist item #01: A current generation spectrum analyzer so I can really see what all those radios and TNCs of mine are really doing.

Lottery wishlist item #02: A full solar power installation enough solar panel and battery to charge up with one day of sunshine per week (typical winter here in the Pacific NorthWET) and a big battery bank that could supply the entire shack.

Lottery wishlist item #03: FreeWave Technologies products - FreeWave has been going strong for more than a decade. I admire that they know what they do, have built out from that niche without distraction (such as 802.11), and apparently keep their customers well-satisfied. If I had to choose one company whose products I got to know very, very well, and could invest in buying their products to learn them, FreeWave would be a close second to FullMax.

Lottery wishlist item #04: ViaSat Excede (apparently the successor to WildBlue) or HughesNet satellite service. Yes, I understand that these are no substitute for terrestrial Broadband Internet Access, but what they do have is that they're uninterruptable from any localized natural disaster - earthquake, windstorm, fires, etc. As long as my antenna survives and I have power, I can be a reliable gateway between Internet and Amateur Radio.

Lottery wishlist item #05: A cellular monopole, at least 100', with a platform. Fed with at least 20 runs of hardline, of course (remember, this is lottery winning dreaming). That way, I order the radio, order the antenna, and call up the local tower jockey and hand him the parts and point to the top of the tower. That's my kind of antenna work!

Lottery wishlist item #06: A commercial quality 440 MHz 9600 baud, bit regen, FEC repeater on a downtown Seattle skyscraper (commercial site, commercial rates - that's why this is a lottery wishlist item). I'd love to have a companion 220 and 144 MHz repeaters, but 440 is the most practical and would get the most use. It needs to be in Seattle to be most accessible to the surrounding areas - Eastside, Tacom'ish, Everett'ish, and of course the Sound and the peninsula.

Lottery wishlist item #07: Just like #2, only on a high, widely accessible mountain like Baldi for even better regional coverage. 

Lottery wishlist item #08: Full Spectrum Networks' FullMAX - I'd deploy anywhere I could get a 100 KHz channel. The ARRL should be all over this.

 

Of course, there's the mystery radio that I can't talk about yet.

 

Operational:

Operating IPv6 over Packet Radio intrigues me.

 

To be continued.

de N8GNJ