Amateur Radio in the 21st Century

The CAARA Tech Talk series is designed to be an introduction to some of the exciting new modes of operation currently available for Amateur Radio use. All of the modes will utilize software available for download from the Internet; almost all of which is freeware. These programs have been written by dedicated Hams for the use of the Amateur Radio community without any charge. A few programs are shareware. This means you can try it and use it for free, but if you like the program and continue to use it, please consider registering it. The programs we will utilize for radio modes will all use your soundcard to capture the signals. As explained in the articles, the cost to capture and decode these signals is minimal. A 1/8” stereo cable to connect the radio’s headphone output to the input on your soundcard is all the hardware needed. Transmitting is a little more complicated but we will cover what is needed to do that as well. Links to some of the various program download sites will be provided but, once you find out how much fun these modes are, I’m sure you will explore the Internet and find and try others.  

Examples of the modes we intend to explore include SSTV, PSK31, MFSK16, RTTY, MT63, Throb, and Hellschreiber. If there is interest we will also explore the reception of satellite signals – voice, packet, and SSTV. For those of you who once used packet, dust off that old TNC. It’s hard to describe how exciting it is to send a signal to or through a satellite! Programs used to track satellite orbital positions are also available for download and we’ll discuss how they work. Working a satellite using 2-meters and up is within the privilege of a Technician class licensee. And anyone can monitor! As future modes develop we will try to cover those as well. VNBVC - Very Narrow Band Voice Communication - was described in QST recently. This mode will permit voice to be sent using only 31 hertz of bandwidth. (Hint: Encode voice using speech-to-text, send a digital signal using PSK31 with this info, decode using text-to-speech software. How cool is that!) These are exciting times to be an Amateur Radio operator.

 
Please join us as we explore.

Ric, N1YLE

Choose the links below to download each article. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view each PDF. If you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can download it free by clicking on the Adobe Acrobat Reader link below. Questions or comments on material you read? E-mail Ric here and give him your feedback.