
Amateur Radio in Play in Aftermath of Nepal Earthquake - anaxag0ras
http://www.arrl.org/news/view/amateur-radio-in-play-in-aftermath-of-nepal-earthquake
======
nlh
K2KD here :)

Glad to see hams getting involved -- disaster communications is one of the
strong suits of amateur radio. I still have a to-be-implemented plan of
getting a portable HF rig w/ solar charger for my to-be-implemented "go bag".

One of the big challenges the whole hobby has faced is the struggle for
relevance in the Internet era. When I got my license (early 90s), there
basically wasn't an Internet for kids like me, so the concept of switching on
an HF rig and talking to someone from Australia from my bedroom in NYC was
awe-inspiring.

That isn't really the case these days (considered I'm likely communicating
with a bunch of people from Australia on this thread alone.) Communication
from an "exotic" place like Nigeria or Eastern Europe was rare and exciting.
Now it's a source of skepticism.

I haven't been following the hobby much for the past few years -- other than
disaster coms, any thoughts on what the highlights are these days?

~~~
doom2
W3MCD here. I was fortunate enough to operate W2SZ during my college days,
which really cemented my interest in the hobby. I actually do think talking to
strangers from afar via amateur radio is still awe-inspiring, considering that
you're not running your comms through large underwater sea cables.

I think the highlights these days are contacting DXpeditions, working the
space station, and satellite comms[1].

[1] [http://www.amsat.org/](http://www.amsat.org/)

~~~
nlh
Excellent points. I totally agree - there's still part of me that wants to
dive back into both DXpeditions and contesting, both of which don't really
have a parallel in Internet-land. Locking myself in the bedroom and doing the
ARRL 10m contest one weekend was still one of the most fun experiences I had
as a ham.

And yes - satellites / ISS are great too! Talking to a buddy - even next door
- and knowing the signals are being directly repeated by a bird whizzing by
overhead is still extremely cool :)

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tzs
I wonder how many HN readers have amateur radio licenses?

I got one last month (AF7PL). Now I'm working on getting a radio. I don't want
to just go out and buy something. I want to do this old-school, and so have at
least some of the major components of my shack home built (and ideally home
designed).

I may partially relent, though, and buy a handheld transceiver for 2m/70cm. My
electronic construction skills are pretty primitive, and my oscilloscope
(unlocked Rigol DS1054Z) only goes up to 100 MHz, so VHF and UHF radios are
probably out of my DIY league. That's fine, as I'm actually more interested in
HF anyway.

~~~
jrockway
You might enjoy getting started with a kit like the SoftRock SDR:
[http://fivedash.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1...](http://fivedash.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=7)

Personally I think it makes sense to start with a pre-built radio to learn the
radio technique and have something to compare with, but with an oscilloscope
you can probably hack a kit into doing something useful. (I have the Softrock
RX kit. Works well to receive WSPR.)

73, KD2DTW

~~~
lightlyused
I have one, but haven't put it together yet.

~~~
VLM
I have a Lite for 30M and the web guide is Very helpful

[http://www.wb5rvz.org/softrock_lite_ii/index?changeBands=no](http://www.wb5rvz.org/softrock_lite_ii/index?changeBands=no)

There are web guides at that site for all the radio models.

It doesn't drift much and is reasonably sensitive enough. To keep ground loop
hum out I ended up putting in audio isolation transformers between the radio
and the computer, life probably would have been easier with laptop, and audio
xfrmers don't work so well at 192KHz so that limits performance.

I've been thinking of buying a 455 KHz Lite model to help align tube radio IF
strips. Like a cheap spectrum analyzer. In my infinite spare time LOL.

Life is a lot simpler now with the web frontend store, although the prices are
around twice as high as the old yahoo group days. Used to sell the Lite kit in
the group for like $9 years ago although batches always sold out in about an
hour, which was annoying.

There is probably an interesting startup lesson that saving people 50%
purchase price doesn't help if they can't buy it at all, friction in the sales
process etc.

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azdle
I'm getting a 404 on that link now, it seems to be this:
[http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-
nepal-i...](http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-india-
continue-to-aid-earthquake-response)

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djmanning
link is broken. This works: [http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-
volunteers-in-nepal-i...](http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-
in-nepal-india-continue-to-aid-earthquake-response)

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dorfsmay
Is internet over ham radio still a thing?

In this particular case, it could help a lot of people, enabling them to
quickly and efficiently update their status with their family via email /
twitter / google person finder.

~~~
abruzzi
Most of the amateur radio digital protocols are keyboard to keyboard and don't
really have the concept of simultaneous traffic, packets, and routing. AX.25
(also known as packet radio) does however and could possibly be used to
transmit traffic like that. It is most frequently used on line-of-sight (VHF,
UHF) bands. There are some others like the different PACTOR protocols, but
they are essentially proprietary, and PACTOR IV TNCs are not cheap.

~~~
rickr
There's WinLink ([http://www.winlink.org/](http://www.winlink.org/)) which is
able to send email, photos, position reports etc over HF. It seems to be
pretty healthy.

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anaxag0ras
The page has been taken down.

Mirror of the original post:
[http://i.imgur.com/dpVo40p.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/dpVo40p.jpg)

Here's the updated one: [http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-
nepal-i...](http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-india-
continue-to-aid-earthquake-response)

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abruzzi
Obviously there are more than a few of us. W5ARP, general class. It was much
of the digital protocols, especially APRS/AX.25, that got me interested. Its
not nearly as high-tech as modern smartphones, but I really like the
infrastructure-free tech (living in the middle of nowhere, infrastructure is
often in short supply.)

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0xdeadbeefbabe
Is there a protocol for making your radio more phone like, that is it rings
when someone calls you or beeps when someone texts you? I guess if I were to
hack together an RTTY or PSK32 thing to do this my next question would be
where can I find a portable cheap low power draining SDR similar to a "smart
phone".

~~~
VLM
HF ALE. Not terribly popular (not many people to talk with). Its the same as
.mil ALE but on ham bands. Technologically what ALE can do is very impressive.

[http://hflink.com/](http://hflink.com/)

ALE would be HF base station type operation not hand held VHF 2M radio.

Low power and SDR do not naturally go together. The folks most interested in
low power drain (the trail hiker/camper types) use discrete devices as opposed
to SDR. Not saying its impossible of course. I have a KX1 that draws about 30
mA when listening, so "dozens of hours" on a set of batteries. It would be
challenging to find a SDR system that uses similar or less. It is challlenging
enough to find a smart phone that can idle for a dozen hours on a charge much
less actually do anything LOL. Still, good luck with that, etc.

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pdxpatzer
Interested in Amateur Radio and don't know where to start ?

Head over to
[http://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio](http://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio)
... we are waiting for you ...

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sjoerger
N4TQU checking in. I come from a family of hams, both my father and his father
(sk). I've been licensed 26 years now. Just upgraded to General last summer.

Good to see other hams here on HN.

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jasiek
2E0KEF checking in. Got my foundation last year, and intermediate a month ago,
currently studying for full.

It's a great hobby, and I'm learning a ton about electronics - love it!

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madgoat
I have been thinking of getting my license for the last couple of years.

While I've noticed its decline in the last decade, it still seems to hold some
cool factor.

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feld
So, does enabling an FM chip in your cell phone help in a disaster?

    
    
      CTRL+F fm
    

Doesn't seem like it's being used here...

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grandalf
NQ6N here

