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Ham Radio Fills Communication Gaps In Nepal Rescue Effort
itwbennett writes: Amateur radio has stepped in to fill communication gaps in Nepal, which is struggling with power outages and a flaky Internet after a devastating earthquake on Saturday killed over 5,000 people. Though 99 persons have ham licenses in Kathmandu, about eight use high-frequency (HF) radios that can transmit long distances, while another 30 have very high frequency and ultra high frequency sets for local traffic, said Satish Kharel, a lawyer in Kathmandu, who uses the ham call signal 9N1AA. The hobbyist radio operators are working round-the-clock to help people get in touch with relatives, pass on information and alert about developing crises.
Do you think there is much powerline networking going on in Nepal right now?
These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
While you do have a good point, I think that any disaster that requires ham radio for communication would also likely have taken out the local power grid leaving consumer power line networking inoperable.
Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster?
Yes. Because it's great to hear about geeks helping people. And it's wonderful to see technology used in positive ways. I love seeing people being nice to one another. These are heroes: not the assholes shooting. Any asshole thug can pick up a gun or bomb, but it takes skill, kindness, and bravery to help people you don't know to contact others.
We need to see and hear more of this in the violent shitty World.
I think we do, but why? It's educational for the younger audience. I would have never known of ham radios and their usage during disasters if not for slashdot. We get new and young readers now and then. It's good for them, but maybe not for you.
Hey Sparky.. you don't like an article?? easy fix... Dont READ it... Some of us like to hear about ham radio being used for critical stuff... geez.. What a specail snowflake.. just because he doesn't like a story, nobody else here should be able to read it either.... .
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Do we really need stories about rescue efforts after every disaster?
No, but some of us like the news - even that which you find repetitive. I find it interesting that, with all of the modern technologies now available, old-fashioned ham is still useful. Every time a disaster happens, even more time elapses and ham gets even older - and so the news is even more interesting. To me, this is just as anachronistic and interesting as if amateurs were using hot-air balloons to effectively deliver rescue supplies.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
No, but if you're trying to work on a relay in the US and there is broadband interference it is still an issue. That said, I don't thing consumer powerline networking is going to be very widespread, thanks in no small part to the ARRL's effort.
Further, this is why you do need to 'advertise' when amateur radio is used for public safety purposes. We are still fighting a rear guard battle and anytime the public (and our wonderful legislators) see the service as beneficial it slows down the attempts to limit amateur radio's spectrum and rights.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
How is this insightful? It's someone moaning about the fact that they don't like a type of article. The only insight here is StinkyPad is a whiney little bitch.
(name withheld by request)
Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster?
Yes, because its an efficient indicator of the immediate scope and nature of a disaster. if the most critical and arguably resillient communications systems have finally failed, Ham is your red-flag indicator that the situation is dire.
I'm sure it's being used, but not to the extent of official radio communication.
Thats exactly the point. Ham is being used because Official or commerical communications systems are either damaged, destroyed, or overwhelmed beyond inteded or effective capacity. If you're in the united states the equivalent official communication would be the Emergency Alert System over a VHF repeater, if ones still standing. If not, Hams take everything from presidential to local law enforcement messages to where they need to go in a structured, orderly manner.
"People communicating by any means possible," is not news.
People communicating by any means possible is a normal society with twitter, cellphones, and wifi. People reliant upon analog and digital communication outside thestructure of a commercial ecosystem and in lieu of direct government correspondance is news. Ham operators build and run antennas, configure messaging relay and repeater systems, repair existing infrastructure, assist in dispatching emergency services and handle every communication thats needed in an emergency from local to state and even international SOS for emergency assistance. The point is when you're now reliant on Ham in any context to assist in a rescue effort, the outlook for existing infrastructure is very bad.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I'm ham licensed as well, and this kind of news is a really important aspect of the hobby. There are lots of folks out there who would like to take our radio space and sell it off and it is important that we keep reminding folks that when things get ugly we keep working.
It's not the powerline networking in Napal that is a problem. It's the powerline networking here that is. It's over loads the receivers front end and makes it near impossible to receive the signal from Napal. That is why powerline networking is bad. The typical transmitter in an HF rig is 100 watts. Put that 100 watts in to a good yagi antenna and you can send a signal any where in the world. Even with powerline networking your signal will get out. By the time that signal gets to it's destination it is only a few micro volts in strength. So if the powerline is putting out a few more micro volts then the signal your trying to receive your receiver will never here the weaker signal.
While I am a ham radio operator, it's been a while so what I'm remembering might be a bit off.
A hundred elderly Indian hams received emergency relief shipments of Geritol. A hundred more Indian hams were complaining about the sense of entitlement the lower castes had for expecting any emergency relief at all, while another few hundred Indian hams jammed the nets because it happened to be a day of the a contest and they were yelling at the emergency nets for operating on "their" frequency.
Do we really need people bitching about every damned story?
Nobody ever promised you a pony or that you'd never see a story you weren't personally interested in.
You're free to not read it. You're also free to stop kvetching about it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Ahhh....an egocentric comment by a confirmed cellular addict.
I spent two years on a sailboat in the canals and fjords of Chilean Patagonia and Argentina. I have been south of every automobile, paved road and street light in the world. Most of the time we were 100 miles or more from the nearest cell phone tower (and road). Sat phones are unreliable at these latitudes (about 55 degrees south) because the satellites are in more or less equatorial orbits. And the Chilean navy wants to hear from you twice a day when you are in Chilean waters. The only tool that will work is a single side band HF radio. When connected to A PC via a specialized modem, this setup can send and receive emails from anywhere in the world. My transmitter is only rated at 100 watts and yet it routinely communicates with stations that are more than 3000 miles away. I have contacted Europe from the Pacific Ocean. "Hobby"?!? For those of us who are really out there, amateur HF radio is the communications lifeline.
P.S. Could the submitter of "Again?" make an attempt to explain to me what "official radio communication" means?
73's
KR6AS
In 1998 there was an ice storm that struck Upstate New York. Hams were virtually the only source of communication as official communication channels ran out of gas (in many cases literally) after a day or so. I sat in a Firehouse with my own equipment relaying communications from ambulances (where another ham was riding along) to other base stations in nearby towns. We did most of this over 2 meters.
Hams were absolutely crucial because we could move in and quickly setup and operate additional equipment. I know times have changed....but every time I look at the state's disaster readiness plan hams would be needed again.
I think you are over estimating the ability of official channels to be ready to function on their own for weeks at a time.
neorush
There are in general two kinds of operation of ham radio. First is local communications - local rescue groups using hams to help communicate and coordinate between groups on the ground and HQ.
There's also the longer distance communications - these guys get the signal out so someone in an area not affected by the disaster can pass on messages and whatnot. Think more along the lines of "I'm safe and sound" type messages being passed on to family.
The problem is power line broadband basically makes the long-distance communications less reliable. I mean, given Nepal's economic conditions, sending out "I'm safe" messages usually mean transmitting to India, where the infrastructure works fine. Powerline broadband would be working as well, which means your message will not be received because the receiver can't hear your message over the noise.
Power line networking or broadband generally affects long-distance HF communications more so than short-range VHF/UHF comms. And that's bad because short range would mean the power and infrastructure is down so it's not a problem. But you want to pass your message to places unaffected by the disaster where there IS working infrastructure, and then you have interference.
And that's the beauty of ham radio that blows people's minds away - it's not just about people talking to people in a city, but around the world - it spans the ability to talk to people from your neighbourhood or city to around the globe. Most people are fascinated because most of them only see extreme short range communications - a few miles at most for a cellphone to the tower, to a few tens of feet for wifi and Bluetooth. Telling them that it's possible to actually go around the world on wireless...
Be careful if you're a HAM, locally I was able to find the name, address, and other information of callsigns with a simple look up.
In this case not a big deal but be aware that anyone can look you up via your callsign.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Interesting, see which country has the most.
Other than that kudos to these people as they are often the last working line of communication.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
It's still important to protect the bands in-between disasters.
You want hams to have working equipment ready to go when the disaster strikes. Very few are going to go through the work and expense of obtaining and maintaining equipment that they don't even get to use. Just keeping the bands interference free enough that hams get to talk to one another means that they will be turning their radios on regularly and know when something needs fixing.
You also want the hams themselves to be ready for the disaster. Well practiced people with a procedure can communicate much more efficiently than panicky people first picking up the mike in an emergency. Hams have events for practicing this sort of thing which turns it into sort of a game. There has to be open bands available during non-disaster times to do this.
Ham [static] Fills [static] Gaps
It sure does.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Yes, because everyone not affected seems to assume that stuff like the Internet and cellphones will kill ham radio. Yet I'm pretty sure that while in normal circumstances you could get access to the Internet, and yes, the vast majority of people have cellphones, well, guess what? That stuff's not working now, so now what? Bit hard to use the Google or Facebook "I'm safe" feature when you can't get online now...
Call a friend, or text? Pretty hard when the towers are overloaded and maybe even in states that would appear to work, but not.
And that's a problem because people assume that because in the normal case it's not needed, it's obsolete. I'm sure a lot of people on /. wonder about AM/FM radios given that you can stream Pandora and other stuff off the internet.
And yes, ham radio is often official radio communications methods - many rescue groups use hams to provide communications between teams on the ground and HQ, or even to provide a way to tell someone else outside the country to relay messages onwards. And local government also often uses hams for emergency communications - the ham radio infrastructure may often be better than what their official radios have.
Hell yes..!!!!!!!!! its relevant and very contemporary.. people whom speak pout about these types of things are jealous. They just spent millions of dollars and wasted man hours building a infrastructure that doesn't come close to the reliability of RADIO and the tech behind it..
Bitches just wanna bitch, because they were bored, they tried to re-invent the wheel, came up with something elliptical in stead of round, resulting in ya it works until you put a load on it, then the imperfections begin to surface, yet all that money and man power still could not get a round object..
stick that in ur pipe and consume it..
No, we're all soulless sacks of meat, fuck the other guys on the other side of the planet, we'll never meet 'em, so fuck 'em. Preach it, StickyPad!
moox. for a new generation.
Folks, someone mod the OP as troll and lets move on....
You're messin' with my Zen Thing, man.....
Ham radio fills in the gaps for ALL natural disasters. Katrina it was a huge aspect of communications.
This is not new, this is what ham radio does.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I send signals around the globe with 5 watts. 100 watts is for the guys that have crap antennas.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Well it either takes money, or no money. You can't fit too much on a sail boat, so it's not like you have a lot of possessions. It really takes setting priorities.
A good amp is the best antenna.
A good hill is the best amp.
Yes, Fldigi
Surprising that so few hams in Nepal are setup for HF operations. I wonder how many HF ham stations there are in the U.S. One can't tell by license class. I know that in a real emergency my QRP FT-817 is not going to be the most reliable but until I can fork out for some bigger solar panels and batteries to run an amp, 5 Watts is going to be what I've got. With morse code that's enough to work the world, sometimes. Beats the hell out a walkie talkie.
Actually, the FCC is now proposing that amateurs share those LF spectrums that BPL uses as experiments BY HAMS have determined they can co-exist just fine. In fact, Hams are getting more frequencies now than they have ever lost. http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-seeks-to-assign-entire-amateur-portion-of-160-meter-band-to-primary-status-to-amateur-radio-serv is just one of several similar articles the ARRL has reported on recently. Please don't keep up the BS argument that we're losing our bands and privileges when the opposite is true. Aside from a portion of the 220MHz band that we might actually be getting back, where else have we lost spectrum and rights? There are more licensed hams than ever now and the reduced license restrictions offer more privileges for less work.
W1BMW
(name withheld by request)
Packet is still alive and well, but everyone I know has switched to APRS (a protocol that sits on top of AX.25). HF packet is slow, but it's there. 300 Baud doesn't pass a lot of data. I'd rather rely on packet via satellite than packet over HF. The successful HF modes (AMTOR, SITOR, etc) have forward error correction to cut down on bad data... the packet network just has to repeat everything until it's understood.
W1BMW
(name withheld by request)
Doesn't it make you even a little bit happy to hear that in a fucking shitty situation some good is happening?
It's also a warning - don't write off old tech prematurely.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Back when McVeigh bombed the Federal building in Oklahoma City, so many emergency personnel rushed into the area from so many jurisdictions that it brought all of their radio communications down due to saturation and intermod - the only thing that worked reliably was ham radio, and there were hams assigned to work with the fire crews and police to get their traffic passed.
Also, when a disaster strikes the cell networks are usually the first to go down. The older towers can't handle the sudden massive spike in the number of people trying to make calls at once, and would actually explode from the power demand and resultant overheating. The newer towers protect themselves by shutting down when they get spiked like that.
Yes, because it gives a counter point to the technophiles who'd rather see that spectrum re-purposed for other uses.
We need the same story run for the POTS system after disasters, for the same reason.
Although everybody appreciates the amateur service's value in disasters, ham is slowly dying in the US because it is perceived by the public as falling behind compared to the more popular commercial communications technologies. What I would like to see is for ham to be assigned a legal commercial niche that it can occupy as an incentive to buy gear and revive the experimental edge that the service has long been renowned for.
How about Internet service in rural areas? Allow hams to offer commercial interconnect from fiber and other wired broadband to the scattered users who have difficulty getting ISP service any other way. HF radio would be a candidate technology. Let innovation romp and others may emerge and have unexpected applications.
The connectivity we would get from this type of commercialization is, furthermore, exactly what would help the most in time of disaster.
I'm not trying to downplay the role of amateur radio communications - I am a shortwave radio buff. But I've heard people on the news talk to survivors in Nepal using telephones. Apparently, there is some landline or satellite communications to Nepal available. Just saying.
That's the case in any disaster - some traditional communications are working, but not in all areas. Even Satellite has limited capacity, it works when a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand disaster workers are using it, but if a significant fraction of the population start using their satellite phone, the system is going to be overwhelmed. Ham Radio is also capacity constrained, but with many ham radio users being trained in disaster communications, organized health and welfare messages can still be sent out of the disaster area through the limited communication channels.
I was in Hawaii for the 2006 quake that knocked out power on Oahu. The landline system was nearly useless -- took 45 minutes to get a dialtone and even then, it was impossible to make a call (both locally and out of the area). I had DSL for about 45 minutes until my UPS battery ran out, but it was super slow. No voice cellular calls, but could send SMS within the same network (i.e. I could send to other AT&T customers, but not to Sprint and Verizon, and vice versa).
My landlord was worried about his elderly mother 15 miles away and a car accident plus a downed tree had blocked the only entrance/exit from our neighborhood so I ended up riding my bike to his Mom's house to check on her since he couldn't use the phone system to reach her. (turns out she was at her neighbor's house who was having a big BBQ to use up the meat from his fridge before it went bad)
And this was a relatively minor 6.7 earthquake 200 miles away that caused no real physical damage on Oahu, just knocked out the power on the Island. If it were a 7.0+ quake on Oahu, the situation would have been much worse.
There are indeed satellite phones in Nepal, but they are extremely rare given the number of people that have them vs. the number that don't.
Also, if you think the cell network can get overloaded in a hurry, you should look at the bandwidth budgets for those type of satellites. In disaster areas, sat phones have the same issue of 'network unavailable' when the birds are trying to pass more calls when they have bandwidth for. All commercial systems are allotted frequencies in one particular band or another and when they're full, they're full. Amateurs have at least a dozen bands, all with different propagation profiles. Not to mention, we have our own both voice and digital satellites that are exclusively for amateur communications.
Finally, in a supplement from Inmarsat's own 2013 shareholder report... 'The capacity of our satellites is limited and our network can be subject to congestion due to concentrated usage in a specific geography. Continuing congestion could damage our reputation for service availability and harm our results of operations.'
[1] http://www.inmarsat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IGL-2013-Supplemental-Disclosure-20-May-2014.pdf
(name withheld by request)
What gets me is that ham AR callsigns in general are significantly size constrained -- we're talking a standard of 5 letters and a digit, with some of those having reserved meanings, limiting the namespace. Sure, you have up to three letters appended as a location code as well, but this is still a restricted namespace.
But then, the airspace is also limited, so I guess we're lucky that there are enough dedicated hams around, while not so many that we run into significant issues that increased population density brings in any venue.
You may think so, but I assure you that your impression of amateur radio's place in the scheme of things is sadly wrong. Think of them more like rabid Maker's hooked on radios instead of Arduinos and 3D printers. They aren't random people yelling breaker, breaker into a CB. It's a very technical hobby. Some might have just a transceiver and an antenna. But others have setups that look more like a satellite comm center. The people who dive into emergency comms do so with as much seriousness dedication as any EMT, fireman, or policeman. They're more like the guys who chase tornadoes. They go _to_ the trouble.
But don't misunderstand their purpose. They don't do this just for emergencies. Radio is a way of life for many of them.
Sure, "the communicate by any means" is still there. However, amateur radio operators provide vital communications to coordinate rescue and relief efforts all over the world, way more than just providing "I'm alive" messages. They've been doing it for over 1000 years. Ham operators happen to be sprinkled around all over the world, so they might already be there when bad shit happens. The operators have networks, procedures, and contact in place for emergency situations.
Ham radio's activity in this regard is officially recognized in the US and most other countries.
In the US, MARS (DoD program), ARES (civilian org, "ARRL"), and RACES (DHS program). All three deal deal with the use of amateur radio to provide emergency/disaster services.
In the mid-west storm spotters, ham operators, and other volunteers coordinate with sheriff's departments to get relevant information to the national weather service and out to the pubic during times of severe weather. Tornado season is a particularly busy time for them and they are appreciated.
Hell, sometimes they're hard pressed to even get in position, let alone operate. Hams have the advantage (if you want to call it that) of more than likely already having hot-damn eager people in place and ready to rock and roll.
StinkyPad is probably non-tech but interested in geeky stuff and doesn't have the background or exposure to be aware of this sort of stuff.
I was downtown for 9/11 and the last big blackout.
I can tell you from experience that the cell towers overloaded or had lost power within an hour of the planes hitting and almost again instantly when the power went off in the big blackout. During the blackout some cell tower installs were powered from building generators, but there was no where near enough to handle the volume.
People like to forget that while traditional analog radio isn't secure, when these kinds of disasters happen being able to broadcast such that multiple people can receive and possibly respond is a feature, not a flaw. Consumer cell phones are designed to let the phone communicate with the carrier only, not to communicate with other phones directly. That means that contacting multiple parties is so much more complex that when the system is stressed it breaks.
I've actually broken down on the Interstate where I had no cell service, and the passengers from the other incapacitated vehicles (from debris on the road) also couldn't get cell service, so it wasn't just one provider. It wasn't a terrible emergency, but if we'd needed an emergency response we couldn't have called for it.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
When the summer storms hit I pull out the 2m HT and tune to a simplex frequency just in case. Haven't heard anyone asking for help but it's no burden to listen.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
On September 11, 2001 the cell networks nationwide failed because of the panic after the attacks, even in cities thousands of miles from the sites of the attacks. My wife was able to call her parents on the landline. That's why we still have one.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
On a day with freak weather conditions a buddy of mine in Las Vegas managed to talk on 2m to someone in Hawaii on an HT. He had a hell of a time getting people in California to quiet down and let him have airtime.
I've only managed to go about 50 miles at 5 Watts on 2m, but I haven't really made a point of trying for range either.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
We regret any discomfort your stupid fucking post has caused us.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Not freak weather, that is tropospheric ducting. It actually happens a lot more often than you think.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
There is also Pactor which is used extensively by the WinLink 2000 system. It is a fairly fast protocol (relative to what you get with other HF data protocols).
The only downside is it requires a proprietary TNC (ie, modem) which is not cheap.
This is why having multiple different means of communication is important in case of emergencies. You mention cell service being down or spotty, but amateur radio is not immune to unavailability either. There are many places in the US (and the world), where you will not be able to reliably reach somebody with ham radio (especially VHF and UHF, but even HF if you're limited in what you can carry or conditions are too bad). In some of those places, phone service may work fine.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
As far as getting all sanctimonious, when was the last time you really heard anything about what Hams did in a crisis, other than on vary narrowly focused outlets like Slashdot or Amateur Radio Newsline? It's not like we're parading in the streets crowing about our accomplisments. Just a little acknowledgement is all we want, and then only because Amateur Radio is largely invisible so people think it's dying. It's not. There are more licensed operators world wide now then ever before.
Get a grip, and get real. Seriously.
Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints.
You are exactly right. One thing though, it's "Ham" or even "ham". It's not an acronym. Thanks!
Bruce Perens.
Technically, making transceivers work when there are 30 of them in vehicles next to each other can get difficult. People wonder why you can buy a dual-band walkie talkie for $60 but the one in the police car costs much more. If it's well engineered, the one in the police car has some RF plumbing that isn't in the $60 walkie talkie.
Bruce Perens.
Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster? I'm sure it's being used, but not to the extent of official radio communication. "People communicating by any means possible," is not news.
Actually yes, we do. In today's world, people seem to think that in an emergency, you just use the smartphone. Which of course is one of the first things to fail in a disaster.
It's also important for people to understand that Amateur Radio is not some guy in Idaho yapping about overthrowing the Guvmint with like minded weirdos on their 1950's tube radios.
My Software defined radios are marvels of electronics and computers melded together. Our digital modes are used to send and recieve forms and files. The biggest issues we face are that we are outpacing the F.C.C., and need them to update some of the rules, like maximum allowed digital transmission speed.
One of our most popular programs for digital mode operation is the fldigi suite, written by a team that has transcended the Ford versus Chevy mentality, and written identically functioning software for Windows, OS X, and Linux, and a lot of instructional materials to get them to complie and work identically. Olde farts, like hell, we're assembling a lot of knowledgable and helpfull nerds, many excellent programmers.
Aside from the technology, Amateur radio has a trump card that bears repeating.
Amateur radio has very little inherent structure.This sounds like a bad thing, but one of the first things to fall apart in an emergency is the structure. Cell phone towers run out of backup batteries, or their towers fall. Same thing for other emergency services. And unfortunately, one of the things those folks excel at is imposing structure. It's integral ot the way they are wired.
But experienced Hams are adept at working in chaotic and sometimes primitive and non-ideal situations. If the professional emergency systems are down, the adept amateur can run a couple wires, and get in contact with the rest of the world.
Which is all to say, that I might be sitting at my awesome software defined radio getting emergency messages from some guy running an incredibly primitive rig. Or the other way around.
And we even offer refunds - of course, we aren't allowed to be paid.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Do we really need stories about rescue efforts after every disaster?
No, but some of us like the news - even that which you find repetitive. I find it interesting that, with all of the modern technologies now available, old-fashioned ham is still useful.
Good reply. But Ham radio has definitely kept up with the times. While the old radios still work - and it's a subset of the hobby, the new stuff like the Software Defined Radio transceivers like the FlexRadios, http://flex-radio.com/ and the various digital/soundcard modes are nothing short of amazing. Geek-A-Licious!
Disclaimer: I'm a zealot.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Ye Gods.. Listen, technical hobby it may be, some hams are technically minded, but not all of them are (back in the day, most/all of them were),
Oh boy , here we go, let's play the Ham radio is doomed game, and we'll stereotype each other. Quickly tell us about how Ham radio is dying.
We have the misfortune of having a couple locally who are little better than the stereotypical CB'er of old.. they shouldn't even be allowed access to license exempt PMR equipment let alone what they do have,
So what? You got a couple Hams who are not living up to your demands of what makes a Ham. Is there some sort of speciall way to think and act test?
Here's a dirty secret about most modern Hams, they buy their equipment and have little real idea as to what the fecking things actually do inside, and the majority of the ones who do know what the business end of a soldering iron looks like (unlike our local two muppets) slavishly follow the various mod diagrams to be found out there like electronics equivalents of script kiddies...that's the limit of their technical abilities.
Here's another dirty little secret of Ham radio. Olde fartes like you, are doing everything they can to demean the hobby. I've seen your type. You sit in the back of club meetings, and if another ham starts talking about anything but how the old time hams ant their equipment were better than the appliance operators of lady, some of whom have committed the mortal sin of not leaning and passing the Morse Code test, you'll groan and moan abbout it, You'll talk among each other about your Drake running circles around that stupid Software defined Transceiver if someone is making a presentation about some of that terrible new equipment. You are poison, and trying to destroy the hobby. Note, I say above most modern Hams...there are still honourable exceptions..
Note I say, you are not going to stand in judgement of me, and I really resent your categorical dismissal of Modern Hams. The people I have the most trouble with are people like you, who do their damndest to keep the new guys away from clubs. What's it like being better than all the new Hams? DOes it make oyu happy? Or just fuel your bitterness?
get over yourselves...unlike the police, firemen, EMT, they don't get all fucking sanctimonious about it afterwards..Wha's Like Us?, eh?
Perhaps you might get over yourself. Because you seem to believe you are better than the rest of us.
So tell me superior Ham, exactly what are YOU doing to correct his issue? Are you elmering anyone? Teaching classes? Just being friendly? Tell me, what you do for Amateur radio except bitch about how much better you are than modern Hams? I'll bet you still have a hard-on about when they restructured it with "Incentive licensing back in the 1960's dont ya? And eliminating the OOK CW test? Ermagherd!
If you are like all the other old and superior Hams, most likely you do nothing. I teach classes in digital and sound card communications, manage a contest station, Run a HF and VHF digital net, chair a State QSO Party, teach noobies how to solder, both traditional and SMT, run electronic project classes, and a lot of other stuff. You know what? If you attempt to teach these "modern Hams" knowledge and abilities, they suck it up like a solder sponge absorbs water after a week unused. Your inferior modern Ham is 90 percent in your head.
The hobby/avocation is what you make of it. If you want to sit in a corner bitching about modern Hams, and bemoaning the golden age of Amateur radio, that is yourhobby. Just keep away from the people I am teachnig to have an active part of the new and better Amateur Radio. I don't want them thinking that other Hams are like you.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Do you think there is much powerline networking going on in Nepal right now?
We get that a lot. When they were trying to ram Broadband over Powerline ( BPL ) down AMerica's throats a few years ago, we heard a lot of "Well when you are needed, the power will be down, and you'll have clear conditions then. Running digital signals over an exposed line makes for an antenna, and it generates a lot of interference.
Problem is communications takes practice, and is a learned skill. Propagation is different on different frequencies and at different times of day and year. If you never get to learn this stuff, you are of no use as a communicator. It's like decideing to save fuel, no one gets trained in aircraft, they just get on the plane, and are expected to fly it immediately.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Actually, the FCC is now proposing that amateurs share those LF spectrums that BPL uses as experiments BY HAMS have determined they can co-exist just fine.
Citations? At one point, even with notching, it was ridiculously easy to kill a BPL signal with just a few watts. So I'd love to see the data.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
A good amp is the best antenna. A good hill is the best amp.
Until everyone does it.
We used to hear about how spread spectrum was the cure for interference. Seems they forgote what happened to the noise floor whne a lot of people were using SS.
So when everyone is running a California Kilowatt, all things will be reset.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Not freak weather, that is tropospheric ducting. It actually happens a lot more often than you think.
Just not when you need it. Kinda fun though.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
There is also Pactor which is used extensively by the WinLink 2000 system. It is a fairly fast protocol (relative to what you get with other HF data protocols). The only downside is it requires a proprietary TNC (ie, modem) which is not cheap.
The Winlink users have poisoned the wells though. It's not as bad as it used to be, but many of them would just open on a frequency, and kill everything else. Thhis was especially problematic with the low bandwidth low power modes like PSK31.
And there were several cases where an unattented station kust locked up and transmitted garbage for weeks. They need to prove tehy can get along with the neighbors now, and there's that little matter of proprietary software. A lot of Hams use Linux or OS X. And being volunteers, its kind of hard to dictate to them what OS they have to use.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Anyone who is into PCs and amateur radio (or interesting tech in general) that doesn't own at least one RTLSDR dongle should dig the 10-15 dollars to get one out of their couches and start fiddling around with it and the open source software for them. The coolness factor aside, the future uses for them...and the possibility that what they can do now may be restricted in design later because of their flexibility...make these little things a must-have, and soon.
You're way more eloquent than I. Thank you.
The one on the belt of the police officer also has a few other things that make it much more expensive. First, it's more rugged than the $60 ham version; it has to be, because it is carried many hours a day and because people don't handle their working tools as carefully as they handle their personally owned equipment. Second, it has features for secure communication that aren't in the ham radio - they CAN'T be, ham radio has to be open to all listeners by law. Third, many commercial radio systems have a feature called trunking that allows many users to share a small number of radio channels while keeping the transmissions of each secure from the others; hams don't do that. (See point #2 for the reason.) Finally, it has to receive a higher level of certification by the FCC, because it is being used for critical communications and because it is being operated by untrained people who cannot be held responsible for technical failures.
Yes, some hams are using digital voice modes now, which will foil a garden variety scanner. But ham transmissions must use open and published standards and be unencrypted. (And the digital ham radios don't cost $60. Yet.)
9/11 was especially bad because most of the telecommunications infrastructure for Lower Manhattan - landline, cellular, and internet - was in the World Trade Center. So were the primary broadcast sites of most of the TV and FM radio stations in New York City. (Some but not all of the broadcasters had backup sites in New Jersey.)
Putting so many of our communication eggs in one basket may be dangerous, but it is also appealing for economic reasons; building a separate tower for each broadcaster would be a lot more expensive, and data interchange between networks is easier if they all have communication nodes in one place. I know the broadcast situation here in Boston isn't much better; toppling a couple of towers in Needham would take out most of our stations.
The non technically minded hams can also be valuable in emergency communications. Sure, you need somebody to keep the ham repeater, internet link, or whatever going. But you also need people out in the field with radios, talking to people, taking their stories, and passing information along to friends, loved ones, and authorities. Those people don't need to know how their radio works to do their service. They need to know how to USE their radio, even in times of stress and heavy demands. They have an important skill and mission: taking messages and passing them along accurately under challenging conditions.
I was a ham radio operator at the 2013 Boston Marathon. I was well away from ground zero (my station was in Newton, about 10 miles from the finish line) but we also had hams who were in the thick of the disaster. I had a long day because we held runners at our stations and later moved them to temporary shelters; we had to coordinate the plans for getting people on the buses and moving them to the shelters. I think my single most important job that day was to help keep the runners calm, assure them that things were being handled, and help them contact their friends and family so they could get home. The last was done with my cell phone because that was the appropriate tool for the job, and fortunately I had a Sprint phone which was working at my location - Verizon and AT&T towers were mostly overloaded and useless. But even when I wasn't using my ham equipment, the interpersonal and communication skills that I developed in ham radio were key.
Oh... why do hams do communications at public service events like the Marathon? In part because they are excellent training exercises for what to do when disaster strikes. In a normal year we coordinate medical supplies, ambulance pickups, and transport buses for runners who can't complete the course; we could do all of those things with cell phones. (Trained COMMUNICATORS would still be valuable; the medical and logistics people are busy doing their jobs and don't have time to spend on communications.) In 2013 the training suddenly turned into the real thing and we were ready - we wouldn't have been able to use cell phones, because the infrastructure was hopelessly overloaded and it was difficult or impossible to make a call. (Mine worked 10 miles from the finish, but things were far worse near ground zero.)
Power line networking is the least of our problems on HF. A more serious problem is the huge number of broadband noise generators in every modern home. Computing devices like computers, phones, and tablets are the starting point but far from the entire story. Microcontrollers are being put into EVERYTHING these days - if it has a digital display, control buttons, and/or a remote control, it probably has one or more microcontrollers in it. Most modern electronic gadgets have switching power supplies. We are installing CFL and LED light bulbs, so even our LIGHTS have switching power supplies.
The amount of noise that any one device can create is regulated but the cumulative effect of all of them in a dense urban neighborhood is devastating; the noise floor in my house has been raised at least 20dB by all of it. In other words, you have to send 100 times as loud a signal for me to hear you, and that puts a serious crimp in ham radio HF reception. If there were ever a major emergency where I needed to help out on HF, I would probably trip the main circuit breakers in my house and run the radio on batteries. (And I'd still have to deal with the noise from the neighbors.)
The LF spectrum in question (135-137 and 472-479 KHz) is not used for BPL (broadband over power lines). The power line communication (PLC) on those frequencies is lower bandwidth data that is used by the utility itself, to control the grid and for the remotely readable power meters that many utilities have installed. Citation for the proposed band sharing: http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-p...
A small monohull is also a lot cheaper than a house, at least in most of the developed world. Even a fairly nice "yacht" (which just means "private non-business vessel") is probably affordable if you can sell your house. My parents have lived aboard for 13 years now, and their 48' (14.5m) catamaran cost significantly less than their house near Seattle.
It's actually really annoying when people assume that yachties must be rolling in dough. Most have very little income, so even though the lifestyle is cheaper than living ashore there's not a lot of disposable income.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Very true. I do some PSK31 usually between 5 and 15 watts. Should get on the air more often but like you said, I have a crap antenna. No seriously. Since I moved I haven't been been able to get a decent antenna in the air. Stuck with a crappy OCF dipole at 20 feet. I think the spaghetti I had last night would work better.