Want to bone up on wireless tech? Try ham radio
John D. Hays, an IT manager in Edmonds, Wash., devotes most of his
spare time these days to helping develop a communications system that's
designed to integrate portable two-way radios with the global telephone
network. The project's goal is to create a failure-proof voice
communications infrastructure that can immediately connect first
responders with the outside world.
"Individuals with radios in the field could interconnect with the
telephone system even when their cell phones are shut down by an
emergency," he says. This would be useful in all manner of disasters,
from natural to man-made.
Hays claims his research efforts wouldn't be possible if he wasn't a
licensed amateur radio operator -- or "ham," the term he and his fellow
hobbyists use to describe themselves. He says ham radio gives him
"space and a choice of spectrum [in which] to experiment." He also
values the hobby's largely self-policing regulatory structure and
close-knit user community. "There are many others who would share your
passion and provide [a] great opportunity for brainstorming and
support," says Hays, whose ham call sign is K7VE.
For IT professionals, ham radio can foster skills that are
translatable into real-world wireless and wired networking
applications.
Hays says his hobby and profession have long been intertwined. His
experimentation with TCP/IP over AX.25 (a ham-oriented data link layer
protocol) on the radio in the late '70s and '80s "helped me understand
the inner workings of networking protocols and the use of wireless
transports," he says. "From this, I was able to write some widely read
and popular internal papers on subjects such as TCP/IP over Ethernet
verses token passing ring topology."
More recently, Hays used his ham knowledge to implement several
RF-networked warehouse management systems. "My knowledge of radio
transmission, combined with networking [skills], optimized the
placement of base stations and mobile units," he says.
Reviving innovation
Decades ago, amateur radio operators were on the forefront of scores of technological innovations, including television, digital communications, solid-state design and cellular networks. The hobby's roots trace back to radio pioneers such as Guglielmo Marconi and FM-inventor Edwin Armstrong.But in recent years, as many potential new hams were attracted to computers, the Internet and other technologies that they could explore without passing a licensing exam, some veteran hams worried that ham radio was at risk of gradually sliding into stagnation and was perhaps even on the road toward technological irrelevance. Over time, many old-timers worried, experimenters would gradually be replaced by hams more focused on the hobby's operational aspects, such as restoring antique radios and providing communications services for community parades and other charity events.
Other hams, however, believed that the hobby was actually entering a new era of innovation, one driven by the same type of people lured away from ham radio by advancing digital technologies. They reasoned that a streamlined licensing system, capped by the FCC's elimination of Morse code testing two years ago, would, over time, revitalize the hobby. This would happen by attracting technically skilled innovators who were interested in more than merely tapping a telegraph key.
Whatever the reason, a budding corps of innovators is now working to
restore at least some of ham radio's past glory, focusing on projects
ranging from satellite construction to power-line communications to
testing long-range Wi-Fi links. "Ham radio provides the broadest and
most powerful wireless communications capability available to any
private citizen anywhere in the world," says Allen Pitts, a spokesman
for the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), a national association of ham radio operators based in Newington, Conn.
Major pluses: Free radio spectrum, big transmitters and more
For experimenters, ham radio's strongest drawing card is megahertz upon megahertz of lightly used (sometimes virtually unused) radio spectrum at key locations in the LF, HF, VHF, UHF and SHF bands and beyond. Unlike their commercial counterparts, hams are free to use any of these frequencies for experimental purposes without any government authorization other than the ham license itself. "Don't underestimate the value of these frequencies -- they could fetch hundreds of millions of dollars if sold," says Hays, who views the bands as a "national resource," useful for both experimental and disaster-related communications activities.Beyond gaining access to enough radio spectrum space to conduct their experiments in relative peace and privacy, hams can also legally use transmitters with power levels of up to 1.5 kilowatts. "That's comparable to a small AM broadcast station," Pitts says
A high-power transmitter comes in handy for applications like bouncing a radio signal off of Venus (as a group of German hams did earlier this year) or for skipping signals off of the ionosphere to communicate with someone on the other side or the world without the help of the Internet.
Although radio amateurs have long battled local governments and homeowners' associations over the right to erect antennas in their yards, a recent FCC ruling now requires planning authorities to "reasonably accommodate" a ham's need to erect the large antennas that are useful for satellite communications, radio astronomy and other types of weak-signal radio applications, as well as long-distance terrestrial communications.Testing, testing
Yet aspiring hams still face the challenge of passing one or more written tests, depending on the class of license they are seeking. Those exams cover both technical and regulatory subjects. The entry-level Technician-class license, which provides access to nearly all VHF and higher frequencies, requires applicants to pass a 35-question, multiple-choice test. "While not difficult, it does require several hours of reading and study," Pitts says. "This initial test is designed to be sure that new licensees understand the service, can operate competently without causing disruption to others, and have a basic knowledge of the rules and capabilities of ham radio." Two higher-level licenses -- General and Amateur Extra -- require
applicants to demonstrate progressively greater knowledge and
understanding of technical and regulatory issues in exchange for access
to more frequencies.
The downside to using ham frequencies for wireless experimentation
include an FCC rule prohibiting encryption that hides the meaning of a
transmission, bandwidth limits on some modes and frequencies, and the
hobby's strictly noncommercial nature. "No pecuniary benefit can arise
out of communication you are engaged [in] on the air," says Hays, who
believes that the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks.
Skill building
Experimenters are using ham radio as a way to pioneer an array of new technologies as well as to refine many existing products and services. One popular activity, Pitts says, is testing Wi-Fi's distance boundaries. "A number of consumer-grade wireless network routers share frequencies with amateur radio," he says. "With an amateur radio license, you can legally couple amplifiers to these routers and, with gain antennas, extend their range to cover several miles or more." Pitts notes that hams have used these techniques to create experimental high-speed wireless networks that encompass entire cities.Meanwhile, at the U.S. Naval Academy, midshipmen hams are in the process of sending a series of small communications satellites into orbit with the help of NASA. The project's goal is to develop a low-cost orbital platform for flying various types of scientific instruments into space.
Richard Campbell, an associate professor of computer and electrical
engineering at Portland State University in Oregon, says ham radio
helps him turn theoretical concepts into reality. Campbell, licensed as
KK7B, is currently working on projects that are designed to add digital
communications capabilities to the national power grid and to create
remote sensors for use with ocean wave power generators. "Amateur radio
serves as the testbed for new ideas I like to play around with before
looking for commercial applications," he says. "Much of what I am
experimenting with at the moment will likely end up in low-power
wireless networks, such as the smart grid."
Over the years, many hams have parlayed their radio experimentation
into lucrative and even distinguished professional careers. Joe Taylor,
licensed as K1JT, says the years he spent tinkering with radios led him
into his current post as a Princeton University physics professor. "My
practical knowledge of RF techniques, built up over years of
enthusiastic pursuit of many amateur radio goals, turned out to be very
useful when choosing and designing specialized equipment for unique
studies of pulsars and other astrophysical objects," he says. In 1993,
Taylor was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the co-discovery of a
new type of pulsar.
No formal training needed
As it has since its earliest days, the hobby also continues to attract experimenters without any formal electronics training. Many of these people "homebrew" their own radios and accessories, building equipment from components obtained commercially, collected through purchases or trades with fellow homebrewers or even painstakingly crafted by hand.Bill Meara, a diplomat stationed at the U.S. embassy in Rome, experiments with bare-bones radio technologies. "I am tinkering with one of the simplest possible high-frequency radio transceivers -- it uses just one transistor," he says. The single sliver of silicon serves as both a transmitter and receiver. "In an age in which we use chips with millions of transistors inside, I kind of like the idea of going minimalist," he says.
Meara, who hosts SolderSmoke, a podcast targeted at electronics hobbyists, recently wrote a book on his life as a radio experimenter. He feels that ham radio gives amateur researchers like himself easy access to professional-level support resources, ranging from technical discussion groups to international meetings.
On the flip side, the hobby provides science and engineering professionals with an opportunity to test ideas in a low-key environment. "It offers [them] the chance to legally play with some of the most cutting-edge technologies available today... without any of the pressure that may come with professional, on-the-job experimentation," Meara says
Looking ahead
Amateur radio isn't likely to ever recapture the grip it held on the technology industry from the 1950s through the 1970s, when it seemed that virtually everyone in electronics design and the technical end of radio held a ham license. For his part, Campbell feels that even a modest return to ham radio's experimental roots would be a good thing. "We just celebrated the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11; maybe the past isn't such a bad place to think about."
