AMERICAN RADIO ALLIANCE  GROUP

-- when Things aren't Right, Do Something about it!

Hello, OM!

November 02, 2010

The Listening Post                                                          

Welcome to the Re-opening of the ARA Group's section dedicated to Communications with emphasis on Radio Enthusiasts known as Shortwave Listeners (SWLs), Amateur Radio Operators and the new Hybrid operator who is combining conventional radio via airwaves and the INTERNET -- the new simulated or virtual ionosphere!

The purpose of these articles is to identify and track new ideas/ new products and services that may restore some of the appeal that once existed when Amateur Radio was the first experience for young people who were eventually inspired to find their Life's work in Radio Communications! 

The ARA Group was created in 1990 to conduct a three year survey of the Ham Bands. That project produced a sixty page report regarding the damage done to the Amateur Radio Service by Federal "deregulation" from the 1970s through 1987. All ARA Reports on this investigation were distributed widely to all organizations and leaders of the ARS. Seven recommendations were made in ARA's REPORT, some of which were acted upon near the close of the Clinton Administration (1998-2000). Copies of all of this work and findings are available here.

We are returning THE LISTENING POST to active duty because in the past ten years the INTERNET has tremendously impacted the Amateur Radio Service as well as Shortwave Listening. We have remained quite active in following these developments since we believed that some of the problems incurred by efforts to "democratize" HAM RADIO would be resolved once the INTERNET had changed WHO participated in this activity and HOW HAM RADIO and SWLing would merge with the INTERNET! One of the major developments has been the Software Defined Radio (SDR) products, more commonly referred to today as FLEX RADIO. Ten-Tec Inc. introduced the concept of SDR in its highly successful PEGASUS, however, not everyone enjoys giving up real boxes with many knobs on! We will try to touch-base, so to speak, in an effort to critique these developments over the passed ten years.

As National Sales Supervisor of Vacuum Tubes for Sylvania Electric, I had the opportunity to see the transistor displace the vacuum tube. Today, I am quite sensitive to how new technology is introduced that provides the Consumer very marginal performance benefits as well as adding many negatives like shipping expensive Ham equipment across the country to have a $1.99 transistor replaced. Cost: $200.00!

At the moment, we are seeing Digital Technology adding to the Consumer's Dilemma, yet I see very little effort on anyone's part to ask: "What are the benefits and tradeoffs with Ham equipment prices gone "out-of-sight?!" With the Economy gone sour and restrictions on CREDIT, will Ham Radio continue to to bring folks into the Hobby who don't know how to solder two wires together!    

Today, we see those changes becoming more mature but is the performance we are getting today worth the price tag!!

For example, we now use CORMAC's CQ100 software to contact amateurs throughout the world in a simulation that has eliminated QRM. A contact with a station in Australia or Japan is just as trouble-free as if you are talking with a local station across town! Audio quality is great but would you believe it: I miss the noise level! Fortunately, Kelly Lindman's HAMSPHERE System attempts to bring back some of that old sporting quality -- like going fishing in a real mountain stream!  

There are many new possibilities when you use the Internet for both Audio and Video. You can be receiving pictures while talking. Picture files take only seconds, compared to long 2-4 minutes tones for analog Hi-Color photos. Now, more than ever, the challenge is to get operators to understand how to prepare good readable/legible text messages, learn lighting techniques so the photos are nice to look at, learn to edit photos for good contrast, brightness etc. The first rule is to never use the color RED for fonts! We will be running articles like that here soon!  

During the early 1990s we published newsletters and wrote articles to help newcomers operate the SSTV Modes. If you are a HAM or an SWL, you will find the new digital software called PC_ISSTV very interesting to use. Another called SIDESADDLE is even better for overall aesthetics, photo editing and color management for operators who have eyesight problems.

If you also have CQ100, you will be in full contact with the other fellows on the frequency in a way that you have never before enjoyed. (In 2008, CQ100 added hi-color, hi-resolution still pictures which simulates SSTV quite well although the time to send or receive the pictures is less than 4 seconds! You can be talking to a whole group and pictures can be incoming all the time. They are saved sequentially which permits a Net control to let the fellows inquire about the photos. Many former pilots find airplane photos to be a lot of fun!

There are some very unique improvements over the old-fashioned ANALOG method of sending SSTV pictures! However, again many of us like the old analog preferring the musical tones rather than the hideous rasping noise of digital Video such as we hear on 14.233kc! 

In CQ100 it is impossible to have two stations talk at the same time! If someone tries to grab the channel to interfere, their identity is shown to everyone. CQ100 is for licensed Hams only. However, there is no separation of new and old licensees based upon Class of License which poses some problems. By eliminating the hierarchical or class separation and giving rank newcomers the same privileges, the CORMAC system has opened the opportunity for inexperienced, unseasoned newcomers -- many with No Code, Tech licenses -- to dominate the CQ100 bands! Today, HAMSPHERE accepts jicensed HAMS and Citizen Band types which accounts for its apparent popularity! Very soon, Nets will spring up all over the servers, Contests will be organized and run willy-nilly by young upstarts who want to play games. To deal with these potential problems, certain activity COULD be restricted to certain servers.

Frankly, there is no absolute reason why the bands have to correspond to the bands in a conventional HF Ham Radio transceiver. It's a nice touch, BUT on CQ100 there are other ways to provide Sections, Regions or Areas defined for specific uses. Examples: experimenting with a new Video program should be done up at the Server to the extreme right, not anywhere in the five bands. Nets could be authorized only in that same Server/Section! Today, traffic is so light that not many would object. But the time to establish protocol and discipline is before the system becomes loaded!   

PC_ISSTV and SIDESADDLE are open to anyone who knows how to operate a Personal Computer. Fortunately, a person must be able to manage a computer which, like the Code Test (now extinct) assured a more "organized" individual on the bands! We recognize this is a touchy subject in this Day & Age when  people seek to tear down all the barriers between classes of people. This is not a matter of politics so much as a matter of recognizing that people with different goals and interests in Communications will try to find other operators having similar interests. Often age of the individuals naturally separate them from the New comers! But, not always!

If the CQ100 -- and other VOIP systems -- fail to recognize these issues, many operators will drop out just as they have quit regular Amateur Radio! In the 1930s, Ham operators were Gentlemen and they had respect for each other! Today, you are confronted with the same kind of pathological troublemakers and Activists that you usually find at any local bar! 

I hope you find this section of some help. Should you have a question and there are no Support Groups available on YAHOO, please feel free to send your questions to:

franklyn1991@gmail.com/     We will try to get the answer for you!

Feel free to feed us any info that you believe would be of help to other operators! Thank you!

Best 73,

Cholly/ W3OHV  (available at CQ100 frequency 7.173, 14.230, 21.230 & 28.680 kc) to get us on a specific frequency, send us a picture with text indicating what CQ100 channel you want to meet us on!

FOR ARCHIVES AND NEW ARTICLES WITH UP-TO-DATE INFO ON SOFTWARE ETC GO TO:  ARAG ARCHIVES PLUS 

HAM RADIO NOSTALGIA: WHO REMEMBERS HI5X in the Dominican Republic?

          GEE WHIZ HAM RADIO VERSUS A SOUND TECHNICAL HOBBY?

          DO YAHOO HAM RADIO GROUPS REALLY HELP -- a CRITIQUE!

          THE OM REVIEWS THE OMNI VII & IT'S INTERNET OPTION!

          CORMAC's CQ-100 System!

            ARE FLEX RADIO GUI AUTHORS MISSING THE BOAT?!

            FLEX RADIO or SDR: HAS IT FOUND IT'S NICHE?!

            ADAPTING MM-SSTV TO CQ100  (SOON)

            INTERNET DIGITAL VIDEO - STANDARDS & PROTOCOL (soon)

            MAKING READABLE TEXT ON DIGITAL VIDEO (soon)

            CQ100 ENHANCEMENTS - a CRITIQUE (soon)

If interest is shown in our articles, we will write them! Feedback helps us know what you want to read! If this material is of little value to you, we will not spend much time on it!

Contact me at:  franklyn1991@gmail.com 

FLEX RADIO Graphic User's Interface: How about more realistic looking GUI's? Check out CORMAC's CQ100 which is the most realistic on-screen view! Any other's that you know about? How about a nice isometric view with a three dimensional view. Include 4-5 skins or Schemes that let you use a GUI that looks like a $10,000 ICOM or a new Kenwood in 3-D! Wow!!