Zero Retries 0049

Technological innovation in Amateur Radio - Data Communications; Space; Microwave… the fun stuff! The Universal Purpose of Ham Radio is to have fun messing around with radios - Bob Witte K0NR. Ultimately, amateur radio must prove that it is useful for society - Dr. Karl Meinzer DJ4ZC. We are confronted by insurmountable opportunities! - Pogo. Nothing great has ever been accomplished without irrational exuberance - Tom Evslin. Irrational exuberance is pretty much the business model of Zero Retries Newsletter - Steve Stroh N8GNJ. What’s life without whimsy? - Dr. Sheldon Cooper.

Zero Retries is a unique, quirky little highly independent, opinionated, self-published email newsletter about technological innovation in Amateur Radio, for a self-selecting niche audience, that’s free (as in beer) to subscribe.

About Zero Retries

Steve Stroh N8GNJ, Editor

Jack Stroh, Late Night Assistant Editor Emeritus

In this issue:

• Request To Send
• Hamvention Attendance
• Not Much Digital / Data - That’s a Problem
• ARISS-USA Forum
• TAPR Forum
• SDRplay’s Stealth Exhibit at Ham Radio Outlet Exhibit
• M17 Project Developments
• ZR > BEACON
• Feedback Loop
• Join the Fun on Amateur Radio
• Closing The Channel

Request To Send

As I begin this issue, I’m blissfully back in Bellingham, Washington… briefly… writing this on my big desktop system, with the full size clicky keyboard, big trackpad, and best of all, the 65” HiSense monitor that I’ve grown to love for ease of editing by being able to display multiple full-size windows that I merely have to flick my eyes to view, instead of panning my head to view multiple monitors, or squint to see tiny text on “mere” 27 inch monitors. The one downside to my office is that my Internet connection is a cable modem in our house, and my office is in the shop, and the connection between the two is a set of AC modems that for some reason, doesn’t work as well when it rains, like as I type this. One of my many projects this summer is to try to pull fiber through a partially occupied conduit… but it will probably end up being Cat5E Ethernet.

As this issue auto-publishes, my wife Tina KD7WSF and I will be attending SEA-PAC in Seaside, Oregon on June 3-5, 2022. SEA-PAC is a regional Amateur Radio convention for the (US) Pacific Northwest, complete with commercial exhibitors, seminars (forums) and a flea market, all crammed into a small (but recently expanded) convention center in Seaside. In my personal circle, only about half of the usual attendees at SEA-PAC have stated that they’ll be attending. Seaside hotel prices were always high, but this year they’re approaching absurd / ridiculous / obscene at some hotels, and of course gas prices are a factor for many, especially the retired generation that are the majority of SEA-PAC attendees.

Amateur Radio friends recommended SEA-PAC and we attend starting decades ago, and it’s become a family tradition, to the point where Tina and I spent three punishing days to get back to Bellingham from our big trip in time to unpack and repack to attend SEA-PAC. Our only plans for the summer after SEA-PAC is to enjoy Bellingham’s glorious summer.

Like Hamvention, I have no firm plans for SEA-PAC for vendors to see or people to talk to other than some old techie friends that I hope to visit with over beers at a favorite tavern on the Necanicum River that empties into the Pacific Ocean at Seaside. But, like happened at Hamvention, I’m sure I will encounter interesting people I didn’t expect, see at least a few things I didn’t anticipate, and have interesting conversations that I never could have imagined.

I do have photos from Hamvention, and I haven’t decided how to present them. Perhaps a special issue of Zero Retries with just photos and captions.

The next issue of Zero Retries - 0050 is planned, for now (as promised in Zero Retries 0040) as another decadal compilation of “Zero Retries Interesting” products, products, etc. to help “level set” new Zero Retries readers.

de Steve N8GNJ

Hamvention Attendance

Hamvention’s official tally of attendance was 31367. That feels… overstated… to me. I have no experience at judging crowd size, but I did attend all three days of the first Hamvention at the Greene County Fairgrounds in 2017 and I remember what that crowd was like. A quick websearch found this page which states that the official Hamvention attendance in 2017 was 29296, and that was, of course, pre-COVID-19. At Hamvention 2022, it just didn’t feel, to me, like there were 31367 of us during all three days of Hamvention 2022. Hamvention could have easily sold 31367 tickets… (advance tickets were $26 and onsite tickets were $31) and there may have ended up being a significant number of last minute no-shows that just decided not to chance COVID-19, or gas prices were too high, or there weren’t (enough) sexy new radios to see and touch. It was also notable that there was a distinct lack of staffing at gates, etc., of both volunteers, and paid security personnel. Thus in my opinion there was no way that actual attendees could have been actually counted.

Thus, given the gaps in the Forum seating, the very light crowding in the exhibit areas (except for the peak hours around Noon on Saturday), and the sparse crowds in the Flea Market, it’s my personal, highly unprofessional, likely very incorrect feeling, again based mostly on what I experienced in 2017 versus what I experienced in 2022, that the actual number of unique physical bodies on the grounds of Greene County Fairgrounds over the course of the 3-day weekend… was closer to 20000 than 31367.

Not Much Digital / Data - That’s a Problem

First, the idea I floated in Zero Retries 0047 of a Zero Retries exhibit at Hamvention 2023 elicited no response from Zero Retries readers. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Lead balloon. That doesn’t mean the idea is dead, just that it won’t be a “community supported” project like I discussed.

As I mentioned in Zero Retries 0048, at Hamvention 2022, I didn’t see much evidence of Digital / Data in Amateur Radio other than a few notable exhibits such as TAPR, M17 Project (hosted by Bruce Perens K6BP), K6BP’s new organization HamOpen, K6BP’s $14 Remote Rig Controller project, and of course Icom (as discussed in Zero Retries 0048). FlexRadio is a notable exception with their product line being entirely based on Software Defined Radio technology and thus everything FlexRadio makes is Zero Retries Interesting.

I think that lack of digital / data exhibits is a significant problem because without such “in person” exhibiting, one could reasonable infer, especially new Amateur Radio Operators excited to attend their first Hamvention, that “nothing much” is happening with Amateur Radio data. For example, there was no presence of AREDN, despite that AREDN networks are growing quickly. (A “back channel” communication after Zero Retries 0047 hinted that AREDN may appear at a future Hamvention.)

Another significant “data” organization that I think should exhibit at Hamvention is Amateur Radio Safety Foundation, the parent organization of the Winlink Amateur Radio email system. Winlink is the major data activity on VHF / UHF and should be represented. APRS used to be well-represented as part of the TAPR booth, but I couldn’t even find any APRS trackers being sold, let alone advocacy of APRS.

I hope Digital / Data will be better represented at future Hamventions. Let me know if I can help.

ARISS-USA Forum

I’ve mentioned here in Zero Retries, and as often as I can in conversations, that one of the proudest boasts I can make as an Amateur Radio Operator is that there is an Amateur Radio station on the International Space Station (more than one actually - see ZR > BEACON below), and it’s used by Astronauts that are Amateur Radio Operators, and their primary activity with the station is to contact kids in schools to inspire them to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) subjects… and of course, a small dose of Amateur Radio.

I was encouraged when ARISS-USA spun itself out of being supported by AMSAT-NA and ARRL into an independent organization that continues to work with both AMSAT-NA and ARRL on matters of mutual interest, but (as I understand it) ARISS-USA is no longer dependent on those organizations for core functions, especially financial. As a standalone organization with a US 501(c)(3) certification, individuals and organizations can donate specifically to support ARISS activities rather than “pass through” donations via AMSAT-NA or ARRL.

I attended ARISS-USA’s presentation at Hamvention 2022 - ARISS 2.0: A Next Generation Vision for Amateur Radio on the ISS. I was very, very impressed with their activities. They are energized with their major 2021 grant from ARDC and appear poised to make good use of it. Seriously, the presentation was just so upbeat that I left it energized. Presenters Frank Bauer KA3HDO, Randy Berger WAØD, Rosalie White K1STO, and Diane Warner KE8HLD did a great job.

What amazed me was the sheer magnitude of the schedule of contacts for ARISS. From what I have read about ARISS, my impression was that there were a few dozen contacts per year. Actually, there are many, many more than that.

I saw recording equipment in various Forums, but wasn’t aware that Hamvention was the organization actually doing the recording and putting the presentations on YouTube, thus you can watch the entire presentation for yourself: