Projects

“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.” – quoted by André Kesteloot N4ICK

  • Microcontroller Applications: References, resources, project ideas, and progress reports for AMRAD member projects using the Arduino, Rasperberry Pi, BASIC Stamp and others.
  • Weak Signal Detection: W3WAG and KA3WAC are actively developing an innovative modulation scheme using computer soundcards. They are looking for stations to participate in trials. A precision time reference and 160m station are required.
  • Low Frequency Operation: LF stands for Low Frequency, that portion of the RF spectrum extending from 30 through 300 kHz. In Europe, where there are numerous broadcast transmitters between 150 and 250 kHz, it is often called “Long Wave”. Under ideal conditions in mid-winter the high power European broadcast transmitters can be heard on the U.S. East coast.
  • Spread Spectrum: In 1998, ARRL petitioned the FCC to liberalize the code sequences and include automatic power control for powers above 1 watt. This petition may prove to be controversial, as TAPR and other groups want to lower the SS operating frequencies below 420 MHz–some as low as HF–yet others feel SS should be banned. Bob Buaas and his group on the West Coast continue to with their STA, which allows SS at 50 MHz and higher. AMRAD members could join the STA and put some systems on the air.
  • High speed digital systems: Several AMRAD members are developing regional high speed MESH networks. Because of line-of-sight propagation in these bands, their popularization requires an infrastructure or backbone. Otherwise, microwave and millimetric frequencies will be used only for isolated short-range links. We could lose these bands unless we come up with 24-hour uses over wide geographic areas occupying large portions of the bandwidth allocated.
  • DSP and Software Defined Radios. The time is right to do this. There are several guys at COMSAT Labs who are interested in this project and should be willing to cooperate with us.
  • Application of wireless chip sets to amateur systems. There are three generations of chip sets (5, 3 and now 1-volt) developed for cellular and other so-called wireless applications. It could be a worthwhile project to gather the specs, study them and decide how we could apply them to Amateur Radio designs.
  • Experimenting with digital voice such as APCO Project 25. TIA did a lot of work picking the most effective digital voice technique for new public safety radios. The one they selected may or may not be best for Amateur Radio. The FCC rules already permit digital voice, even on the HF bands.
  • Experiment with automatic link establishment (ALE). There is now a Federal Standard. QST and QEX have carried articles on this subject. We could either push for adoption of this standard or develop our own.
  • Design some tech toys. This could be a project having no other goal than having fun.

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