What will Amateur Radio – and radio in general – look like in the future? And maybe not that far in the future. Say 5 or 10 years?

At this year’s ARRL & TAPR Digital Communications Conference, two well-known hams in satellite and microwave circles made that question the focus of their Sunday Seminar talk. The Sunday Seminar at the DCC is a four hour ‘deep dive’ into a single topic, from 8 AM to noon on the final day of the three-day conference. The Friday and Saturday sessions are all 45-minute talks, and while they can get pretty technical, they’re still more overviews of their subject matter. This year’s conference was in September 2016 in St. Petersburg FL.

The two hams are Michelle Thompson W5NYV and Dr. Bob McGwier N4YH. It’s hard to reduce their session to a short summary, but I’ll try. If you want more, I recorded the whole thing on video for HamRadioNow Episode 276, and there’s an 11-minute synopsis video at the bottom of this essay. I actually recorded the whole conference, as I have since 2008, and I’m releasing each talk as a HamRadioNow episode as I get them produced.

By the way, Ham Radio 8.0 is my title, not theirs. The official title of the Sunday Seminar is Spectrum: It’s the Frequency Crunch for Real. And that gets closer to the heart of their subject.

So, the short story: out there in the real world, spectrum is in short supply. It’s been that way for a long time, but it’s getting more and more critical, especially in UHF and the microwaves as wireless broadband (4G, 5G, WiFi, etc.) needs more and more space. And yet it’s being used inefficiently. Blocks of spectrum are assigned to services as if they are city blocks of land. Yet those services don’t use every bit of the spectrum they’re given all the time.

Starting about now, software defined, cognative radios can be designed to work together, to cooperate on frequency, mode, bandwidth and spectrum to each get their message through using whatever they need to do it. I’m going to take a paragraph break here because the previous sentence is the heart of the story. So much so that I’m going to repeat it, in bold type, and turn it blue:

 Starting about now, software defined, cognative radios can be designed to work together, to cooperate on frequency, mode, bandwidth and spectrum to each get their message through using whatever they need to do it.

We’ve got the technology. We just need the plan (and the will). The plan part is being spurred on by the DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge. That’s the same DARPA that brought you cool stuff like the Internet. Your tax dollars at work. The will part… well, that probably comes from government and industry running up against a wall and finding they have no other choice.

Where does ham radio come in? Bob N4YH is Chief Scientist at the Hume Center for National Security and Technology at Virginia Tech. He’s way up there in advanced academic circles. And he mixes that up with ham radio as much as he can, encouraging students to become hams because that opens up some unique paths for experimentation. We can do almost anything we want with our allocations across the radio spectrum at will, without asking anyone’s permission. Bob expects (hopes?) that our more technically savvy hams will take on that DARPA challenge and lead the way into this brave new world.

So where does your ham radio come in, assuming you’re not one of our most technically savvy hams ready to lead the way? I think you’ll enjoy hearing Michelle and Bob wind their way around this subject, and this is really just the start, so the discussion begins here. Government and industry need this to keep communications moving forward. Bob’s take is that ham radio needs it to survive into a new generation of hams – hams who are attracted to technical challenges of the future, not legacy operation of the past (and the present). That is not going to sit well with today’s older ham gentry. We like our CW and SSB, and even our PSK 31 (and WSPR – HamRadioNow Episode 277 is on using a Raspberry Pi and a TAPR shield kit as a WSPR beacon). Bob readily admits that this is the End of Amateur Radio As We Know It. And the beginning of an Amateur Radio that we won’t recognize.

Here’s the 11-minute version. The full talk in Episode 276 runs about 3 hours (which I break up into three parts). That’s a serious time commitment, even for something this entertaining and important. Maybe the audio version will help, so HamRadioNow is available as an audio podcast you can download onto your phone.

Dave K1SWL and I spent a couple of hours at Winslow State Park at the base of Mt. Kearsarge this afternoon. It was 57F and really beautiful.

A nearby parking area serves as the trail-head for several hiking paths up the mountain. There are a few picnic tables in a small field nearby and we set up there.

Dave wanted to try out a new half wave wire and matching circuit he’d built. So he tossed a wire into a maple tree and pulled up the antenna. He used his KX3. He was already making a QSO on 20 meters as I was setting up.

A few feet away, I pulled up the 3-band LNR end fed wire. I supported it in the middle and used it as an inverted Vee. I had the 3-band MTR by KD1JV powered by 8 AA cells. The output is close to 3 watts. I made a quick contact with Ron K4UY in Alabama and received a 569 report.

As I finished I heard Dave working another station… VO1DD in Hearts Delight, Newfoundland. I called over and Dave gave me the frequency. When Dave signed, I gave the Newfoundland station a call. Doug gave me a 599 and we chatted for a minute. That was super.

In the meantime Dave was working a station in California. I never got the call, but had time to snap a quick photo of Dave before they signed.

I switched to 40 meters and happened to hear Joe N2CX calling CQ from an NPOTA site… the Clara Barton National Historic Site in Maryland. Fantastic! I gave Joe a call and received a 559. Joe left 40 meters before Dave could finish his California QSO, so Dave didn’t catch Joe this time around.

Now the sun started dipping below the trees and our picnic tables were in shade. Right away we began to feel the chill and packed up. It’s unlikely we’ll get another day this warm before the snow falls. Thank goodness we were able to take advantage of the opportunity.

Stories you’ll find in our November, 2016 issue:

TSM Reviews: Elecraft KX2 QRP Transceiver
By Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL

As a ham who already owns both the KX1 and KX3 transceivers, and likes them very well, wouldn’t a KX2 be redundant? Maybe. But it also puts him in a perfect position to compare Elecraft’s latest offering. Thomas takes the diminutive KX2 into the field, where it was meant to be, activating more than twenty NPOTAs (National Park on the Air). What he finds is that “the KX2 is a profound upgrade of the KX1.” He also checks out the KX2 on the international shortwave bands and finds, “It’s an exceptionally sensitive and selective receiver, with a stable AGC, that would please the most dedicated DXer.”

Small HF Antennas for Portable and Restricted Space Use
By Mark Haverstock K8MSH

While small and shortened antennas have their drawbacks, their advantages—convenience for portable use, backpacking and avoiding HOA conflicts—are substantial tradeoffs. And, while their performance is less than should be expected from full-sized antennas, this doesn’t mean they don’t perform—you just need to keep your expectations in perspective. Mark takes a look at several of the more popular portable HF antennas available commercially and he looks at the options for making your own, including a 40-6 meter end-fed antenna he made himself.

Radio Power Supplies: A Primer for Hams and SWLs
By Bob Grove W8JHD

It’s the most basic piece of equipment in your ham shack or radio room—it’s certainly the least interesting—but it could be the most important. Bob Grove answers just about every question you might have had about the lowly radio power supply: Why 13.8 volts? Is a same-brand power supply best for my name-brand transceiver? Do I really need meters on my power supply? What’s a switching power supply? What’s “crowbar protection” and “variable voltage?” What amperage do I really need? If I’m using a battery as a portable power supply, which is best?

The Kit’s Meow: Shopping for DIY Radio Projects
By Richard Fisher KI6SN

With Ramsey shutting down its radio kits division earlier this year, many hams and shortwave listeners felt it might signal the end of the radio kits industry. Don’t people build things anymore? Regular TSM contributor Richard Fisher KI6SN set out to discover the current state of kit making. What he found is quite encouraging: more than 250 online companies offering kits as varied as the spectrum we listen to, with a great range in prices and required maker skills. Richard lists them all, complete with a sampling of their wares and links to their websites.

MURS: Dots, Data and More
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV

Along with Class D CB, GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) and FRS, (Family Radio Service) there’s another aspect to the FCC’s Part 95 two-way radio – MURS. The Multi-Use Radio Service occupies five channels in the VHF spectrum. By rule, it is limited to a 2 watts output power and may seem quite limited, but there’s more to MURS than meets the eye. In this segment of his Part-95 radio series, Cory, looks at the little known VHF service that can meet quite a few needed applications where you live.

Scanning America
By Dan Veenaman
Public Utilities as “Critical Infrastructure”

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
TSA Radio Updates and More Small Federal Agencies

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
KPH Returns to Point Reyes

Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze
By Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU
An HF “Beep, Beep, Beep,” Chirping Signal Mystery

HF Utility Logs
By Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh Stegman

Digitally Speaking
By Cory Sickles WA3UVV
DMR Update

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
Baofeng BF-F8HP and BTech UV-5X3 Handhelds and 220 MHZ

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Forget the Holiday—It’s Contest Time!

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
What’s New in CB and FRS/GMRS

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Space Weather: Solar Cycle 24 is Dying!

The World of Shortwave Listening
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Trends in Shortwave Radio

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
EU SW Stations and Election Night Listening

Amateur Radio Astronomy
By Stan Nelson KB5VL
FITS Again

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY

Adventures in Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
The Freshman Masterpiece: a 1920s TRF Experience

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
And the Twain Shall Meet: Let’s Build a Dipole

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