The (fleet footed) future of ham radio.

My blogging and operator colleague, Bas, PE4BAS, recently posted a very interesting article on the need for integrated ('press the button and go') digital field transceivers.

Bas' article hits on some very pressing issues within the amateur radio community, although the community itself, for the most part, seems to think those issues don't exist.

Firstly, it is natural enough for most of us to want to operate from the warmth and convenience of our homes.  The older you get, the more you want to be in a comfortable place.

But operating from home, even without the often insurmountable local authority consent issues for antennas, is becoming very difficult or impossible for many people.  In places like the Netherlands and the UK, which have very high population densities averaging up to 410 people per square kilometre, conflict between hams' needs for quiet RF conditions and others' needs for ever-more electrically-noisy consumer electronics is inevitable - and widespread.

Nice - if you can afford it, and your neighbour doesn't install PV.

Here is a simple situation to illustrate.  It very nearly came to happen to me last year, with only the lack of funds next door deciding against proceeding.

You set up a home station.  You have read the magazines and decide to make a big investment.  Your rig may well cost upwards of £1200.  Add in the PSU, ATU, antenna, etc, and you quickly reach a very significant sum of money.

You operate for a few years very successfully, probably having spent more money.  Then, one day, a van is parked outside at your neighbour's house.  The man starts to install a 4kW solar PV array on the roof.  It's entirely lawful, and your neighbours are doing their bit for the environment and their pockets. There are always more people who want a PV system or LED lighting than there are ham operators.

The next day, he switches the system on and, voila!  Your whole HF spectrum is full of RFI forever more.  If it's not a neighbour, then solar PV 'farms' are now springing up all over the place.  There are several very large ones on my island already.

Just one potential source of RFI - now very common everywhere. 

Although I do keep raising this as a very big threat to the way hams have traditionally operated, a lot of people don't really take it seriously.  Operating from home in much of the western world these days really is putting all your financial (and emotional) eggs into one basket.  In the end, most of the RFI-causing installations are lawful and seen as 'more important' than ham radio, and so cannot realistically be challenged.  Regulating authorities have neither the legal basis nor the resources to tackle individuals' RFI issues in most cases.

The only thing between the situation in the video below and you is whether or not your neighbours decide to install PV:
Yet, if we go back to those magazines, they continue to push expensive rigs that, almost exclusively, are only suited to home operation.

Why?

Well, look at the age profile of ham radio operators.  It is extremely skewed towards the older, typically retired male.  Men like technical 'stuff', and the post-war generation have good pensions with which to buy that stuff.  Being older, they don't want to spend time on a cold, windswept beach or stuck in their cars, operating in the field.

It might look laughable, but the DX available at the beach is remarkable.  Image: 2E0EDX.

Manufacturers of rigs, therefore, know where the profit is to be made, and have continued to target that older, male generation.  Carried through to its logical conclusion, it means that rig makers will, one day in the not too distant future, find themselves trying to sell expensive things to the dead, and having nothing to offer those who remain alive - who just happen also to have a worse (or no) pension.

Over the past few years, love them or loathe them, digital modes have completely transformed ham radio.  Gone are the days of fixed thinking about which bands are open at a given point in the solar cycle.  Gone is the need for 100W (or, if you are American, much more).  Gone is the need for a directional antenna for efficient long-haul DX working.  And to any sensible person who has tried it, gone is the need for a powerful laptop and expensive transceiver.

More than enough computing for digimodes.  A £32 Raspberry Pi 3B+

Bas' article reminds us that there is an active and increasing population, typically a bit younger, that likes to (or, due to RFI, must) operate digital modes away from the home.  For this, we need a small, QRP transceiver, a lightweight, high power density power source, and a computer with reasonable time keeping (and, contrary to so many 'wise' men's words, this does not necessarily mean atomic-level accuracy; +/- a second or two is more than adequate).

These things are not difficult to integrate, yet no manufacturer has really bothered to do it yet.  I am not sure why.  It seems to be an opportunity that is screaming 'please do this!'

If, like Marconi did, you could gather together all the bits that already exist and put them into a box with an 'on' switch, you could make a very good proft from selling an integrated digimodes transceiver at the price point that people have been led to expect over the years (typically £600 - £1000).  Obviously, we should also, perhaps naively for this hobby, expect the price to come down over time.

Marconi: the man who invented putting existing technology into a box - and making a killing!

The way of the future really does not lie in domestic-based operating.  There is only RFI to be expected there.  The way of the future is in having a compact, self-contained radio system with digital capability that can easily be taken wherever the environment is good.

In the meantime, people like Bas and I create our own works.  Although it is not yet tidy and packaged into one unit, I have nevertheless achieved the following in my 'journey':

(1) Kicked out power-hungry, expensive and Windows-based laptops, replacing them with physically much smaller Raspberry Pi computers that use a few Watts of power, and cost a tenth as much.

(2) Carefully approached power management.  PV-based battery operating (60-100W panel) on anything other than the darkest winter day (or night!) allows continuous operating at up to about 20W in digimodes with the battery never falling below 12V, and usually remaining well above that.  Static mobile operating, especially if supplemented with occasional engine starts or PV for charging, is much the same or, with an engine start at night, better).

(3) Paying attention to the operating environment, and seeking seashore locations.  If you have never tried this, the advantage for long-haul DX is spectacular.  People on the beach with 5W SSB and an artificially ground-tuned vertical can make daily contacts with VK from the UK, whilst people at home with a Yagi often can't hear VK at all.  It sounds silly, but it isn't.  The environment is everything.

Not the way to go.

In a very long blogpost, the underlying message is mercifully simple: don't add lead weights to your shoes by over-investing in a home-based station.  Always retain the ability to operate away from home!