VP’s Corner
Jeff Fuller WB6UJE
One of the more interesting things I’ve seen during my return journey to ham radio has been the marriage of the microprocessor and the radio. It started with frequency synthesizers. Easy to net everybody up on one frequency and no more drifting VFOs.
And them came digital modes. All those nifty error correcting codes I studied years ago in school were once limited to pencil and paper exercises, or maybe a mainframe lab or two. Now they run on a laptop computer sound card, like the one I used last month in a transatlantic QSO running five watts of PSK31.
And, ham radio has joined the Internet of Things (IoT) – a variety of unmanned systems and sensors for monitoring and reporting. Want to learn more about IoT ? Are you an Arduino programmer, Skywarn participant, or just enjoy tracking weather conditions ? Join us for the April meeting where Karl, W4KRL, will demonstrate his solar powered wireless weather station.
Ultimately, it looks like the computer has become the radio. It’s called SDR, or Software Defined Radio.
Want to learn more about SDR and maybe put together one of your own? Join us at the Manassas Hamfest for Reginald Eisenblatt’s presentation and vendor table. Looking forward to seeing you there !
73,
Jeff