The original hacker community [014]
Greetings from the shack...
HERE
This week I’ve been experimenting. I was challenged to go to bed before 10PM every night. The side effect of me going to bed that early is that i’m up at 6am. Sometimes before. Feeling pretty good as well.
This means I can grab a cuppa and head to the shack for the 6am net on GB3OV. It’s something I had heard about but was mostly stuff of legends. “Oh [insert callsign] said that on the morning net” etc. Now i’m in it it’s great to get the local news first hand.
I’ve even taken to jumping on my bike and getting my daily exercise while chatting ‘bicycle-mobile’ on the net. More on that set up below.
THERE
So last weekend I found myself in Norfolk. We rented a four bed flat with some friends. The flat itself was a part of a larger farm house.
As soon as the others were busy I was quick to put up my Sotabeams linked dipole. The Bandhopper III. You might just be able to make out the antenna sat across the top of the Sotabeams Tactical Mini. I left the guy rope flapping in the wind for effect. It wasn’t really needed with the pole strapped to two heavy metal chairs. It was my family and my friend Scott’s family and much to the disdain of his Wife I was keen to give him a proper introduction to Amateur radio, There was never a more perfect person to get involved. Scott is geekier than most, smarter than most and more technical. He fixes vintage aircraft radios for fun!
So I set up my QRP station on the garden table and we had a play.
At one point one of the owners of the property strolled by after mucking out the stables. I wondered if they would have an issue with the gear but it turns out one of them was a Major in the Signals and all we got was “If you don’t have enough space here then please use the paddock.” I got to thinking that what with the games room and swimming pool, this might make some decent radio focussed accommodation in the future. Just for me and a few friends.
There was little APRS connectivity around until we wondered up a nearby hill.
GEAR
This is me brewing some coffee on the side of a reservoir while joining in on the 10am net on GB3OV. And this is me Tweeting about doing just that. You may recognise the bike from my #CyclingHertz trip where I hit ever repeater on the road from London to Edinburgh. Nearly killed me.
I have the FT5D sitting on top of the bike. When I’m riding the radio sits nicely in a stem storage bag velcro-ed to the bike. The improved speaker means it’s easy to hear while on the move and the draw cord keeps it secure when riding off the beaten track. Of course I could always use bluetooth headphones with it but I like to hear other road uses and the birds in the trees.
Sometimes when I don’t think I have time to explore the frequencies or have no need for APRS, i’ll take out my other radio.
No, not the ICom ID-52. My ‘other’ radio…
The WLN. I think at the time it cost less than a tenner.
I programmed the standard 16 UHF channels with repeaters I sometimes frequent when out and about in the car.
I had another radio with more local repeaters on but I lost it somewhere so I’m stuck with this ‘other’ one. The lanyard makes it handy for wearing while gardening or walking the dog when I mostly want to just monitor.
Although slim on actual features people haven’t complained about the sound quality. In fact when I’ve swapped between this and my ID-52 which is 58 times more expensive, people haven’t noticed!
This Digital Human podcast talking about how we are merely leasing our digital products got me thinking about my relationship with my analogue radios.
In regards to high end radios like the FT5D or the Icom ID-52 some folk ask me how I can spend so much on a radio. The truth is that I’m far more comfortable spending a large amount of money on a radio than I am on a phone. And I spend £1000 on a phone. Granted the phone does more things but when I buy a radio I own the radio and the function of it.
Of course I still enjoy my mass market, easy to use, accessible iPhone. I enjoy using it as much as it enjoys using me. “It just works.” But for who?
My relationship with my radio is very different than with my phone and the content and services it supplies. Granted I need a licence to operate the radio. But for a one off payment, providing I adhere to the laws and keep my details up to date, that licence is mine for life.
Once I have bought my radio I can mod, change or fix it. I can’t do that with my phone. It’s not designed to be fixed or tampered with. At least not easily. Especially with software part pairing.
With a radio licence, once I buy my radio I can plug in an antenna, listen to and work the world. It’s a window to low power easy access global communications. If I want I can even bounce signals off the moon and chat with astronauts. No subscription needed.
When I buy my phone it’s a camera and an iPod. If I would like to unlock it’s potential it’s a window to a world of subscriptions. I need to subscribe to a phone network, if I want to use it on home wifi I need to subscribe to an ISP. Then there are the all the other media and app subscriptions should I want to watch , create, log, store or stream data. Masses of infrastructure out of my control logging my every move.
But I control the radio, it doesn’t control me and works on my terms. I can use the controls of my phone but when Apple/Google can force updates or even albums onto my device who is really in charge?
Some hams are still using their first radio. Or radios over 50 years old. They still work and if looked after most radios should give many years of use. As a result there is a thriving second hand radio market. Nothing makes it to to landfill if it can still be used or easily fixed.
Can I say the same for my Phone? How long before it’s obsolete? In 5-10 years I might be able to boot it up and play music or take a photo. But will it enable me to add more tracks or remove the images? What happens if iCloud goes away? Will the community build another?
At the moment when someone brings out a new radio, the old one, although no longer made, does not suddenly stop working. The community will continue to support, hack, and repair older radios for as long as people want to use them.
Obviously the one use, easy to use devices with programmed obsolescence will creep in. They are already here in a way. But we need to keep our wits about us. And i’m ignoring the app based stuff and the tied down tech behind some digital modes. Also that Flex radio will charge you £100/$100 for soft/firmware updates. Then there is HamSphere’s subscription-based internet service, simulating amateur radio communication using VoIP. I’m sure it has it’s place for some people but I choose the actual ionosphere over a simulated one. This is not what we should stand for.
At the moment we have a choice and I feel like I own my radios. I don’t feel like I own my phone.
You don’t fully own a lot of the tech you use. In the near future, when more and more things become subscription based, will we even want to own our tech? I hope so.
After all, ownership is how we get to control, mod and customise our radios. To develop and evolve the hobby. These are the choices we are making. Because we are the builders and modders, tinkerers and testers. The original hacker community.
ONAIR
While in Norfolk (JO02JT) I had limited time on the radio but still had fun.
When I arrived and turned on the handheld to see what repeaters I could reach I found GB3KY and at 18:30 on the 6th of May I chatted with G3YPZ - John.
Then after setting up the HF gear at 20:30 on 7.150 I made QRP contact with 2E0DNU - Giles and G4VHJ - Julian.
The following day at 14:50 on 7.183 I made contact with DL1AAP/p who was at JO52df and also running 5W.
Then on the same frequency at 14:00 I chatted with Dave G7CNM/p
I had forgotten all about mills on the air but at 14:05 on 7.162 I stumbled upon GB2DWM and made contact with Steve G1KWF who was behind the mic
Then at 14:15 on 7.159 GW1KGW for an easy 5&9 to Anglesey and finally at 14:39 on 7.114 another mill and Jeremy running GB0BWM.
Considering we were playing pool, entertaining the kids, eating and drinking our bodyweight, swimming and generally having a family holiday, I think I managed to do ok. It helps that all the gear I had with me fit into a small unobtrusive backpack that was hidden in the boot till needed. ;-)
ELSEWHERE
This week I gatecrashed an online radio related talk put on by the Association of Lighthouse Keepers.
There were 35 participants on the zoom call and Mike Kirwan began by talking about how submarine cables enabling communication between land and lighthouses or light vessels would break in the extreme conditions. So around 1895 the permanent mushroom anchor designed got silty or sandy seabeds was modified to work with something called a centipede anchor. In one instance, 11 volts could be sent down seven miles of cable 66ft deep to leap a gap 100 ft trigger morsecode on a bell in the lighthouse. This was an interim ‘wireless’ technology shortly before radio was used.
If I remember correctly he went on to explain that the communications would mostly be for lighthouse keepers to inform the postoffice of a ships safe passage so the ports could get ready to receive it.
Then Ian Duff and Gerald Butler talked about their use of radio. Kit like the Marconi TV5 which did 15W CW/MCW/AM
It was a fascinating talk with too many interesting stories for me to remember. Should the livestream end up online I will share it here. Here are a few of the notes I took:
Outside of operational communication and specific times allowed with family the emergency frequency 2182 kHz was monitored.
Other radios mentioned were the Kelvin Hughes Falkland radio and the Redifon R499. The first SSB radio the lighthouse keepers used. Here is the manual.
The radios would also act as beacons using morse with a long tone.
Before the Americans removed the selective availability of GPS, lighthouse keepers and shipping were able to get 1m accuracy as both the ships and satellites were moving.
None of the keepers were licensed to use the radios initially. But realising this oversight they all quickly got a restricted radio operators certificate.
Initially the radio antenna was first installed inside the tower on Fastnet to protect it from the elements but this didn’t work so two parallel wires were instead installed down the tower on isolators. There was also a long wire.
Some light house keepers then went on to become ham radio operators.
I for one would love to have a go at LOTA
FINALS
Thanks for reading this longer than normal email. And if it’s your first time here, please subscribe.
I must congratulate two friends who both got their intermediate licence this week. 2E0HVQ Gordon and 2E0PPQ Farouq. Great work guys!
Over
73 de Christian G5DOC
_._