Ham Radio 101: What is WSPR?
onallbands.com
onallbands.com
Am I wrong? Is there a place for hams in the world where you can more quickly and reliably reach anyone from anywhere across the internet?
So my wife and I got Ham licenses and joined our local ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) group.
(We also have a Starlink dish and a big battery.)
I think from a technical perspective the emergency use case has faded a lot since the early 90s. Since then, two things have happened that make use of Ham in emergency communications more of an "excuse to use a cool toy" than an actual necessary component of a solution.
First, FRS / Part 95B.
Second, and maybe primarily, satellite communications have come a long way.
And even on the extreme off-chance that transmitting on Ham spectrum or using FRS outside of Part 95B is necessary... well... in an emergency situation... just fuckin' do it?
So Ham exists for fun and for education. But even there, it seems to be losing relevance. I think, at some point, the spectrum reserved for Ham should be bifurcated and a portion of it should allow for (non-commercial) encrypted packet radio. I think doing so would make Ham relevant again and significantly advance the "hobby/education/science/international goodwill" goals.
Perhaps when all cell phones can reliably and routinely communicate with satellites, emcomm on ham radio won't have much purpose. But we're not there just yet.
> a portion of it should allow for (non-commercial) encrypted packet radio
If the message is encrypted, how can anyone tell whether it is commercial or not?
Absolutely no disagreement! But I think that use-case is more-or-less dead. (The tool is perfectly good... it just doesn't have the network effects and usability of the other tools, and a combo of sats and FRS is good enough almost-always).
> Perhaps when all cell phones can reliably and routinely communicate with satellites, emcomm on ham radio won't have much purpose. But we're not there just yet.
True. But we are at the point where (a) satellite communication is extremely cheap, (b) authorities can be accessed via satellite as easily as 911 (or easier), and (c) people who can help but not official responders but in a place to help are WAY more likely to have satellite+FRS than Ham. (Eg most SAR teams either stick to FRS or deviate but don't even both licensing...)
> If the message is encrypted, how can anyone tell whether it is commercial or not?
I seriously don't think this will be a huge problem.
1. What's the point? There are cheaper and better solutions. Abuse will be minimal because infinitely simpler solutions just aren't that expensive these days. This was a very valid concern in the 80s, but it's not anymore.
2. Still require a call-sign unencrypted. Huge volumes from lots of different sources w/ the same call-sign such that it's ruining the amateur purpose of the use should be easy enough to investigate. If stations don't identify, well, that problem already exists and so do the solutions.
BUT, if it does become a problem, you can solve it in a variety of ways. If congestion really becomes an issue after the rule change, it can be rolled back. Or the rules could be written with "automatic triggers" based on congestion. Or you could pre-empt by putting a maximum number of minutes per callsign per day. Etc.
I would like to point out that there has recently been an interest in HF spectrum for use shaving milliseconds off the ping of high-frequency trading firms, since skipping off the ionosphere on HF bands can be slightly faster than more reliable microwave or fiber links. There is licensing trouble (a good rundown of this is at https://computer.rip/2024-10-12-commercial-HF-radio.html) and I'm sure they would love to just use ham spectrum, even if it means paying a fine later after they've cleaned up in the markets. If this works, there will be more than enough demand for such connectivity to swamp the ham bands in encrypted digital junk.
That's fascinating.
> and I'm sure they would love to just use ham spectrum, even if it means paying a fine later after they've cleaned up in the markets. If this works, there will be more than enough demand for such connectivity to swamp the ham bands in encrypted digital junk.
What stops them from doing this NOW?
Major city marathons use Ham Radio where other services are overloaded. For an example, see https://www.hamradiochicago.org/about-us.
Ham Radio was essential to the Red Cross effort in recovery from the 9/11 attacks.
It’s nice for an emergency response team to reach out to a local ham emergency group and just delegate to them “hey why don’t you operate this net on this repeater and let us know if anyone reaches out to you? hit us up on XYZ frequency when that happens? Ok thanks”.
That’s one less task for a busy group to worry about. And if it saves or helps 1 person, then “it was vital in the rescue effort”. Heck, even if it doesn’t do anything “well it saved us from having a dedicated resource to just man a UHF/VHF repeater and keep announcing a net every 10 minutes, so it was ‘vital’ by freeing up 1 team member”
In an emergency situation you can take any person off the street and give them a 5-minute primer on how to operate a radio. That’s really all it takes. They don’t need to know FCC rules, band plans, how radios are made, RF propagation properties, antenna theory, or any of that crap. “Tune to a frequency, push to talk, any questions?”
One of the motivations for the Chicago Marathon group to reach out to the ham club was was that in a previous year a runner died due to inadequate communication. I would call the prevention of that or even less serious health consequences Vital.
> That’s really all it takes.
I would put a strong disagree about this as well.
You are leaving out a lot of the protocol for operation. This takes a bit of training and experience to be able to handle lots of situations, like when to talk, when to listen, and what to do if you are unsure if your communication has been received or not.
An emergency net operated by amateur ham operators can last for hundreds of hours answer 800 questions, 780 of those are “how is it lookin’ out there?”, “any updates when this neighborhood is getting power back”, “this is Victor-Tango-7-Kilo-Kilo-India happy to help out folks if you need anything just holler”. Maybe 15 of someone actually reporting some useful update for a given value of usefulness and maybe 0-1 actual emergency stuff. It gives people with radios a place to vent without tying up actual rescue group resources answering and re-answering mundane questions.
Ever listened to nets and comms during disasters? the experience and expertise of the station operators is immediately clear. it's not something the average person can get the hang of in a few minutes.
Obviously experience helps, but you can also summarize 95% of what needs to be done in 5 or 10 minutes. And you don’t need 95% of what you usually study or learn for a ham license
In my area SAR and even fire departments actively communicate with various amateur radio groups. While quite a few public services such as paramedics, police, fire, etc are using newer trunked/digital technology, they’re keeping analog VHF/UHF systems adjacent to amateur bands as a fall back. In the case of rural volunteer services they have nowhere near the expertise or hardware capability of an even half serious ham, and many in the scene are former military comms guys who love to help out.
It’s very rare that you’ll call on the 60 year old ham with his $25,000 station capable of using a rotating directional beam antenna to put out 1000 watts to relay a message to a team of emergency services who aren’t responding, but when you do and it saves a life you tend to see it as an advantage and not some guy waiting for an excuse to use his cool toy.
Edit: and I’m not sure where the FRS mentions are relevant since it’s pretty far from being anything hams or emergency services would go near. Type certified radios with intentionally regulation-nerfed antennas and max 2 watt output are the definition of toys, and as a result only reach their advertised range under perfect conditions on the salt flats.
I think we should go even further though, and make half of 70cm into ISM band with duty cycle limits, no license, commercial use allowed. Or maybe allow commercial use, but only with open protocols, so you can make an encrypted business radio, but only if you let others make a compatible one.
Then hams could talk to their non ham friends. Getting a license isn't trivial if you're not already an embedded dev, and it's even more of a hassle now that it costs money.
Being able to give someone a $20 radio that they could just use would be awesome. I don't think spectrum crowding is as much of an issue since people use wifi and 5g if possible for everything, aside from ultra slow long range stuff where everything uses lots of airtime.
So we're left with, ham radio exists for science, fun, and the occasional rare emergency when all other communications are down. And that's okay! The hobby is deep and wide. No person can master it all. Every ham is on their own personal journey to dive down the rabbit holes that interest them. I'm personally about knee-deep in research for putting together a portable HF station that can operate a contest for the bulk of a weekend on just solar. I've put hours of reading into it and I still know practically nothing. And I'm loving every minute of it.
If you've only encountered "old white dudes" in ham radio, you haven't gone very far. (I challenge you to find any skilled hobby that isn't represented by some population of old white dudes.) Most clubs accept members from anywhere if they have online meetings or nets, and the more urban and college-town clubs tend to be pretty diverse. There are clubs just for young people, there are clubs just for women. There are online communities which tend to be pretty welcoming and intolerant of rude behavior (hello /r/amateurradio). But the ARRL doesn't promote them, you have to go looking for them yourself.
Of thirty people, there were only men. Not all were old, but at least 70% seemed 40 to 50. Zero minorities. I fit the profile myself (a part from being German, not Dutch) but still feel grossed out by it
[0] https://matecha.net/posts/yaesu-ft857d-off-grid-portable-kit...
The recent hurricane to hit North Carolina had enormous support from ham radio as evidenced by someone who lost all power and internet: https://qrper.com/2024/11/helene-aftermath-update-insurance-.... There were many instances there of power lines not being down, but simply not existing any more.
A recently concluded event, called the CQ World Wide contest, had over 30,000 participants. A large station will make as many as 10,000 contacts in a 48 hour period exchanging basic information. Some countries call this "Radio Sport".
A US-based contest, called Sweepstakes had been going on since 1930.
A very fun event is called Field Day and takes place in June. It covers North America and participants set up emergency communication facilities as well as presenting ham radio to the public.
A recently-formed activity called Parks On The Air encourages setting up often very temporary stations in parks across the world. Activity on this is nowadays quite high with all manner of awards. See https://pota.app/ for details and index to activities.
A similar activity, called Summits on the Air (SOTA) has participants climbing peaks and putting them on the air. Some of the participants take up a challenge of building a portable station that weighs less than one pound, as some of the trails to get to the peaks require lots of hiking.
Some of the more capable hams spend significant time and energy building stations, such as K3LR: http://www.k3lr.com/. This is one of the biggest stations in the world.
One of the more significant challenges is to bounce signals off the moon and contact other hams. This is quite difficult and requires lots of RF power as well as serious antennas. The WSJTX set of protocols has made this easier, but not simple.
There are also satellites that support two-way ham radio communication. See https://www.amsat.org/ for detailed information.
There is an enormous amount of activity in building your own rigs, particularly low-powered rigs. See https://qrp-labs.com/ for example. There are many, as well as instructions on how to build them from components.
Many of these are not possible to do on the internet. For example, contacting 10,000 other stations in a 48 hour period with point-to-point communication. Or bouncing signals off the moon.
Adventurous souls often travel to nearly inaccessible locations to put them on the air. One recent example is an expedition to Bouvet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3Y0J_Bouvet_Island_DXpedition. I had the fortune to go to Vanuatu in 2000 with a group from our club.
An activity that is declining in popularity is to collect contacts with US counties, of which there are 3,007 in the US. The emphasis in this is contact with mobile stations from the counties.
This is only a summary and there are many other activities and fields of interest in Ham Radio. It can simply do some things that are not feasible on the internet, and can support activities that the internet normally handles when thing go down.
If you look at K3LR's web site, you can see his support of youth.
Line noise and other RF noise is the bugaboo of ham radio operation, particularly in an urban area. Tim gave a talk at RSGB some time ago where someone asked him what the noise level was at his station. His answer was "S 0" even though he lives in a suburban area. He has excellent relationships with his neighbors.
If I'm incorrect, I'd appreciate it if you could explain why. While I see amateur radio continuing to have value in educational and hobby contexts, I'm skeptical about its ongoing importance in emergencies , which seems to be a primary motivator for many enthusiasts.
The example in the QRPer article above indicates a different limitation. He did have a satellite dish for internet access, but there was no way to distribute that signal over multiple mile radius, which is what he did with both FM simplex and at some point with 2 meter repeaters. For such communication to work, all parties would need a dish.
He invited neighbors to come over to use his internet service so they could make wifi calls to family.
His daughters and wife staffed the FM channels, keeping the local net alive.
Many county government agencies don't work with hams anymore because they have sat links and other communication available to them. I'm sure as technology progresses and it becomes feasible and affordable to give individual first responders satcom abilities, but I'm not sure that every person with a cell phone will be able to stabily access satcom in an emergency for a while yet.
Finally, sattelites and the tools to communicate with them are relatively expensive, while you can get e.g. a Baofeng hand radio for $20-$30.
HAM radio is robust, has no outside dependency, and is fully in control of people using it. You just need to have the equipment, no ifs or buts.
Now a days it wouldn’t even make any sense to announce or mention that. You’ll have to qualify it with a lot of “oh but I didn’t use the internet, or any infrastructure. In fact I can do this with nothing more than a battery and my radio. Isn’t that cool?” And it’s cool, in a way, but only to those who are really care about the specifics.
The emergency preparedness side of things is an important side of amateur radio, but learning is an equally if not larger part of it.
Why is skin color important to you in this context?
Hobby is not about talking with people, that’s just convenient way of testing your gear and knowledge of electromagnetic fields to have person from the other side to tell you how well they receive your signal.
Seems that the movement is going through a small renaissance now. Basically - yes, the internet made it irrelevant for a long time if you think about Ham as a way to form communities, meet random people on the other side of the planet...
But imagine having devices talk to each other without the internet. This is where it starts to become really interesting!
That said, the internet relies on a lot of infrastructure, while ham radio works off batteries and / or generators. Spotify won't work when the internet is down, but vinyl records will.
Amateur in this context just means non financial interest. It’s a hobby, maybe a bit like the technical (but not really the art-) aspects of film photography in a world of 100 megapixel digital cameras.
For me, it’s just a science based hobby - study of propagation, signals processing techniques - I’m fascinated by reliable signal transmission just below the noise floor. It’s something that just should not be possible, like seeing in pitch black, except this case we’re hearing a signal that’s drowned out by noise. Utterly fascinating (the short version would be that you don’t send one weak but narrowly concentrated signal like wspr in the article, but instead you encode the signal in such a way that you send a wide band pattern. On the receiving side, you look at all the noise and you try to find correlation in power levels across the band with the shared set of patterns that can be transmitted.
It's the tinkering. If RF tinkering doesn't excite you, or if decentralized communication (truly decentralized - no other equipment but your own required!), then yeah, HAM may not be for you.
As for the future - I'm quite excited about digital, and I can imagine something like layering more and more functionality on tiny digital protocols. You can already route emails. I'd love to see delay-tolerant networking ported to HAM, so that you can have offline "couriers" of data that automatically re-transmit when they connect. Then you could set up your vehicle as a "mobile data mule" when you drive through cities or across the country.
Give it a try and I think you’ll find it’s a lot of fun.
I get signal reports everwhere from a US military base at the South Pole, Australia, and throughout Europe and Asia.
The transmitters are homemade, a Rapsperry Pi Pico, and a small external circuit of a Si5355, a couple of MOSFETS and a lowpass filter -- maybe $30 in parts.
It's fascinating how the amount of electrons needed to light up a few LEDs can be heard around the world when modulated correctly.
There is so much to learn and enjoy even without transmitting. I like to listen in on air traffic control and download weather satellite images.
establish whether particular propagation paths are open.
Transmissions convey a callsign, station location, and power level using a compressed data format with strong forward error correction (FEC) and narrow-band, four-tone frequency-shift-keying (FSK)."
[...]
>"If you’ve wondered if a [ham radio, more broadly rf] band is open, WSPR can tell you."
WSPR sounds somewhat analogous to 'ping' or perhaps 'traceroute' -- but for HAM radio (or more broadly, radio, rf) signal propagation paths...
Related:
https://vkradioamateurs.org/introduction-to-wspr/
>"The program can decode [weak] signals with S/N as low as −34 dB in a 2500 Hz bandwidth."
https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/WSPR
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSPR_(amateur_radio_software)
>"Stations with internet access can automatically upload their reception reports to a central database called WSPRnet, which includes a mapping facility.":
I'm not sure about the community aspect, either, but I definitely can see the disaster preparedness value, especially after Helene's devastation.
They are excellent - they're built around the exam questions, but structured in a way that you understand the mechanics behind everything.
I'd attempted my license before, but never managed. After finding HamStudy + those guides, got my technician, general and extra class within 3 weeks.
73!