Technology, Innovation & Telecomm

March 18, 2007

Busy, busy, busy…

Filed under: Ham Radio, Work Life — Administrator @ 11:41 am

Whew…

I’ve been well and truly busy over the last several weeks.  There are two activities that have pretty much consumed 100% of my time:

1. Work - I’m responsible for the firmware of a product whose first phase was to be delivered in mid-March.  We met part of that deadline, but the last part needs to be completed and shipped.  It’s been 12-18 hour days, 7 days a week for the last several weeks.

2. ARF - I was working pretty feverishly on it prior to the WASHFest (see the home page).  I’m waiting on final pricing from my distributor, needing to complete documentation and and needing to finish the business entity aspects before I can start shipping.  I’m really anxious to get it into the “real” world.  It’s been a long haul and it’s time.

I can’t promise that I’ll be posting here often in the near term, but you should see more activity at the ARF site.  Take a gander at my home page to link there for the latest activity…

Later.

February 7, 2007

It’s a little surprising…

Filed under: Uncategorized, Ham Radio, Technology — Administrator @ 7:31 pm

I put a small notice about the ARF site on a forum of a well-known Amateur Radio Web site. It was merely something to get folks looking at what’s coming. Hams are known for their technical interests and generally helpful attitudes. Our hobby has a reputation for encouraging other Hams, encouraging experimentation, electronics, etc.

So, I was surprised by two of the comments that were posted in the forum in response to my notice. They were extremely negative and in fact rude. Worse, the arguments they put out make no sense to me, given the advantages ARF offers. Also, neither one bothered to ask me any questions, asked me to clarify any points, or offered any advice at all.
Still, I do have to consider that the product idea could be a bad one. So it got me thinking…
…and the more I think about it, the more I think they’re wrong. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but I’ve gotten such good feedback from local Hams who’ve heard about ARF, used it and contributed ideas to its design, that I’m sure the two commenters have missed something in my description. However, it’s my fault if it isn’t clear how things work, so I guess I need to improve the site’s content.

One way or another, the site will improve and I hope along with that, so will people’s understanding of what ARF is and what it can do. That said, I’m still a little shocked at the responses. I realize that not everyone will like ARF, and it won’t fill everyone’s needs. And, I know that I’ll need to develop a thicker skin. But for goodness sake I hope that folks will at least try to be a little objective and respectful.
I want to continue to believe that Ham Radio is a hobby that has remained above the level of so many other activities, as it has been for so long. I’m in it because of the type of encouragement I’ve received from Hams over the years and to a large extent, my choice of profession was influenced by Hams. Here’s hoping this recent experience doesn’t represent the new “norm” for the hobby.

February 2, 2007

ARF site and new home page

Filed under: Uncategorized, Ham Radio, Technology, Blogging — Administrator @ 10:20 pm

As you may have noticed if you arrived by way of my home page…I have a new home page! You also may have noticed a new link on that page related to the ARF (see previous post). There is a whole new sub-site dedicated to the ARF and all things related. Please take a look around at it and please let me know what you think!

January 14, 2007

Introducing A.R.F

Filed under: Ham Radio, Software Development, Technology — Administrator @ 6:22 pm

As you might know, I’m an amateur radio operator. I’ve always been interested in the hobby, having spent 20+ years traveling to the largest Ham Radio convention in the world, but it’s been in the last 5 years that I finally got my license and began operating.

A.R.F. is a product I’ve developed for the Amateur Radio community to address a need that was identified to me by a friend and that I’ve had for some time. The need is for a global, mobile database of Amateur Radio repeaters. When many Hams travel, they take along mobile radios that are capable of connecting to local repeater nodes. This allows them to participate in conversations with other Hams in other locations. The need that ARF fills is for something that lets the mobile operator know about those repeater stations. There are various pieces of information that an operator must know in order to use that repeater. A device that can travel with the operator, that can tell them what repeaters are available in the area and what those parameters are can be a true time saver. A.R.F. does just that.

Let me stop here though and tell you what A.R.F. stands for:

Amateur Repeater Finder
…

Anyhow, ARF is a device that has an on-board database of all of the repeaters that the ARRL knows about. Each record of this database contains Latitude and Longitude information about the repeater, so that when the user connects a GPS unit to ARF (or uses the optional built-in GPS), it can immediately tell them about the repeaters that are nearby. This location feature is always available, updating the list of nearby repeaters as you move. Since there are various types of repeaters, ARF allows the operator to filter on these and other parameters to provide a list of up to 16 of the closest repeaters meeting those criteria.In addition to providing information about the repeaters on a 4×20 LCD, ARF can program various radios from its on-board serial port. This allows the operator to select one of the repeaters that ARF has located and have the radio be immediately capable of using that local repeater. This feature is extended as well, by a “scan” capability. ARF can walk through the list of repeaters it’s found, programming the radio as it does so. The scan rate is programmable and can be sped up or slowed down by the simple twist of a the device’s main control knob. If there is activity on a particular repeater, the operator can quickly stop the scan and begin using that repeater.

ARF has an on-board speaker that can announce the call sign of each repeater by means of Morse code. The speed that the code is sent, as well as the “sidetone” frequency can be configured. ARF also supports what is known as Farnsworth speed. This allows the operator to select a high character speed, with a slower pace between each character and word. This feature allows one to more easily “copy” the code characters, while spacing things at a more comfortable pace.

ARF is packaged as a kit, designed for those with intermediate-level soldering and construction skill. There are two surface-mount components on the board, only one of which the user must mount. That part is a fairly large-pitch component and can be mounted easily with appropriate care. The other surface-mount component is the microcontroller. This part is pre-mounted on the circuit board so that the builder doesn’t have to worry about it. The remainder of the components are through-hole types, so construction is simple. The basic kit includes all of the components and circuit board. No case or cabling is included. There is an optional aluminum case and an optional on-board GPS for those who want a complete solution.

All aspects of ARF’s firmware can be updated, including the resident software and the repeater database. These packages will be available from the ARF website once the kit is ready for sale.

I expect to have the kit ready for purchase some time in February. It will be undergoing some field trials in the next few weeks, in order to shake out any pending problems. As things progress, I’ll be providing more information in future posts. There are other features to the product that I’ll be describing in future posts as well, so stay tuned.

One last note. I consider ARF to be simply one of many possible applications for the hardware. Thus, you’ll note that I will be separating the ARF firmware from the hardware platform in my future discussions. I have other ideas for application firmware that can be used on this platform, so ARF will hopefully be but the first of many others to come.

If you’re an Amateur Radio operator, this is a great product to have and use. I hope that you’ll agree!

September 9, 2005

Kudos to Hams

Filed under: Ham Radio, Technology — Administrator @ 4:35 pm

Up front, I’ll state that I’m an amateur radio operator (”Ham” radio if you prefer). My grandfather was one, having gotten his first license in 1933. He and so many others have a long history of lending invaluable assistance in the most trying of disasters. For example, he was once stranded in a make-shift communications center during a blizzard in the 70’s, dispatching help to the far reaches of the county. That was one of many such situations where his license was put to effective community service over the nearly-seventy years that he held it. That kind of service continues with Ham Radio operators today in the aftermath of the Katrina disaster.

While Ham radio is very much the same as it has been since its beginning, with it’s low-tech Morse Code and Single-Sideband voice modes, one thing it is *not* is irrelevant. I’ve seen numerous articles that have declared it nearly-dead, virtually-useless and no longer needed in our “Internet Age”. Tell that to the woman who wasn’t sure that her elderly aunt was even alive, who then found out through the services of the Ham Radio community that she’s well and where she’s now sheltered. Or ask the 15 people trapped on the roof of a house if Amateur Radio was useless to them when they couldn’t get through to 911. They were able to call relatives in other counties who were in turn able to contact the Red Cross…who called an Amateur operator to make contact with someone in New Orleans — who got help to them. Hardly irrelevant, wouldn’t you say?

No, Ham Radio isn’t typically high speed. It’s often not bleeding-edge. But, just how much does that matter when you find that your loved ones are ok and safe? What’s the ability to get desparately-needed services where they belong worth? How many human lives would it take to make Ham Radio “relevant”?

During this most recent catastrophy, a Motorola representative stated that “Something is better than nothing, that’s right, but ham radios are pretty close to nothing.” I wonder if he’d feel differently if he and his family were trapped on a roof… Maybe someone should ask him how much of his gear was overwhelmed by the demands of Katrina.

So, kudos to all the Hams around the world who have assisted with this and other disasters through the years!

tdw - W8LEV

BTW: My grandfather’s call sign was W8LEV and he was the only person to ever have it. He held that call from the time he was 18 years old, until he died. I am honored and fortunate to have been able to take his call sign when he passed away. It’s my intention to hold it until I pass as well. With any luck, a loved one will take it too!

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