The Adventure Radio Protocol
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This is just 146.520 with extra steps, everyone will just use that instead. It's not like there's competition, that frequency gets more and more dead by the year.
Digital is the present and future for amateur radio. M17, for instance, can do all of this and way more. Extremely high efficiency digital voice, GPS location data pings, text messaging and arbitrary data with store and forward if you want, routing/addressing.
For HF there’s all sorts of digital stuff going on. Check out FreeDV for a Codec2-derived digital voice mode. We are also doing packet radio (yes, AX.25, still built into the Linux kernel) with BPSK/QPSK modems on HF replacing the 61 year old Bell tones- see https://wiki.oarc.uk/packet:ninotnc#experimental_new_modes_f...
I recently stood up this site to support and track the re-emergence of the / redevelopment UK packet radio network- which is utilising VHF, UHF, a geostationary satellite, as well as HF. https://ukpacketradio.network/
It’s not my bag but I see a lot of VARA going on too.
There’s a lot more going on than just WSJT-X.
Also, by far the most heavily trafficked frequency anywhere I've been is APRS which is digital store and forward messaging. It's just extremely antiquated at this point.
I have a good ear, and can pick people out of noise, and I think most Hams have that too. I'm less concerned however with the need for spectral efficiency - we have vast amounts of lightly used spectrum, ultra-narrowband is not really needed for us - and for digital specifically, I'm much more interested in modulation schemes that are durable - and will work in very low signal situations (like being able to sustain traffic at lower than -100dBm).
My gripe with digital in the end, is its all or nothing, and often in weak signal, it's nothing. I say this as someone who works in the two way radio world for my day job.
That all said, I've had another unrelated idea for years of being able to build multi-band wide area trunked and non-trunked systems with roaming.
The first part of it is a beacon operating in every area this network exists, I've taken to calling it a localizer - but basically it'd broadcast a band plan on a handful of known frequencies (say allocating 8-10 fixed frequencies in each band, with the idea that only one per band would be used in a given area), with frequencies, which talkgroup ID's they carry, what operating mode they operate with (digital of one or more flavors, analog, etc), where the local control channels are for any trunked systems, what talkgroup ID's those systems carry, what area that localizer covers (a bounded box for example), and what the adjacent localizers are.
So when you turn on your radio and put it in this operating mode, it's going to scan the known frequencies for beacons, then auto-program the local RF properties in.
From there you can chose a channel (your radio would auto-program from the localizer), and you can chose that 'channel' - if its trunked, you'd register to that system, but for conventional analog or digital, you would just tune into it. For systems using dial on demand talkgroups, you could just request that talkgroup be served to you as part of your registration.
The idea is to create a multi-band, multi-mode radio system, that anyone could use with the correct radio. But because it would also include conventional analog repeaters, anyone with any radio made in the last ~60 years could still participate.
If any of this sounds familiar, its because some of it is borrowed from Nextel - its not exactly how Nextel worked, but iDEN didn't have a consistent band plan from city to city so when you'd turn your subscriber on, it'd scan for control channels, then register to one, and as part of that process, you'd be sent the band plan for that market (because Nextel was not built out of a national allocation, but rather individual SMR pairs which varied from market to market).
I'm also really interested in medium bandwidth mesh radio applications (ala Ricochet).
What it solves relative to its competitors is having an open voice codec instead of relying on a very expensive silicon encoder/decoder chip while also having greater flexibility and performance.
Also, if we just look at data capabilities, Meshtastic is a much more interesting comparison.
> Radio transmitters using CTCSS always transmit their own tone code whenever the transmit button is pressed. The tone is transmitted at a low level simultaneously with the voice. This is called CTCSS encoding. CTCSS tones range from 67 to 257 Hz. The tones are usually referred to as sub-audible tones. In an FM two-way radio system, CTCSS encoder levels are usually set for 15% of system deviation. For example, in a 5 kHz deviation system, the CTCSS tone level would normally be set to 750 Hz deviation. Engineered systems may call for different level settings in the 500 Hz to 1 kHz (10–20%) range.
[…]
> A CTCSS decoder is based on a very narrow bandpass filter which passes the desired CTCSS tone. The filter's output is amplified and rectified, creating a DC voltage whenever the desired tone is present. The DC voltage is used to turn on, enable, or unmute the receiver's speaker audio stages. When the tone is present, the receiver is unmuted, when it is not present the receiver is silent.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_Tone-Coded_Squelch_...
The most successful system I've seen are areas with linked repeaters and good backcountry coverage have operators that are volunteering to keep the network monitored during most of the day[0]. Repeaters are always listening and can backhaul you to someone listening in a shack at home. Sure, it relies on a repeater network but it's slightly more likely than a stranger being near you also following the same protocol.
[0]: eg https://co-cern.org/
In my area, Utah, the mountains make it impossible to hit any repeater even when on the tallest peak of the state. Unless I'm hiking on the Wasatch range where I can see the Salt Lake valley this doesn't work for me. I'll be getting my general soon and won't really be looking back at VHF.
1. https://www.sierraradio.net/adventure-radio.html 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhDkGCmuJY8
But that doesn't mean it is obsolete. They're enjoying building this, and that's perfectly fine. Everyone is entitled to their own odd hobbies. Just... don't expect to be able to rely on it in an actual emergency.
Their muster sites for a major disaster had at least 50% of their space dedicated to radio equipment. Every community center had equipment installed on site. There was a large radio room in the regional emergency operations center building, a wackload of antennas on the roof, and a dedicated desk for the group in the main EOC room.
The city paid for me to attend multi-day courses where some of the other 12 people in the room were “the chief of the fire department”.
The group, internally, ran a multitude of training programs to ensure the people responding would be able to handle the tasks they would need to do. During some day-long simulations to test the emergency response, the city explicitly called a communications blackout to simulate all phone and other communication systems going dark and validate the capabilities of the radio group.
There’s still a lot of value in amateur radio in an emergency… with an organized, trained group of people. Which across the multitude of places I’ve lived I’ve only ever come across once.
So yeah, mostly just LARPing.
(As a maybe-interesting side note… The average age in that group was substantially lower than anywhere else I’ve dropped in on a radio group as well.)
Today that is possibly true. But back in the 1990's when I was really active, I did pass health and welfare traffic during a natural disaster. And probably the coolest thing, I provided a phone patch for a missionary in Africa, to call his home in Virginia.
Now with the prevalence of the internet and cell phones... yeah, probably just LARPing.
There’s definitely those “when shit hits the fan” prepper types but outside rural US hams it’s not the norm worldwide. They’re a certainly deluded group.
A) Expensive
B) Requires working ground station hardware