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G3ZHI > IARU 03.09.00 12:52l 122 Lines 8897 Bytes #999 (999) @ WW
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WIRELESS INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA
INPUT PAPER TO THE
11 TH IARU REGION 3 CONFERENCE
DARWIN, AUSTRALIA AUGUST 2000
Linking Amateur Radio activities via the Internet
1 INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years, with the explosive growth of the Internet and its increasing
accessibility, has come many innovative and interesting experiments involving amateur
radio and the Internet. The aim of this paper is to provide some thoughts and points to
consider when looking at how the combined usage of the Internet and Amateur Radio is
helping and in some cases harming the service. Further, this paper suggests some
refinements to the work undertaken by NZART and presented to the Beijing conference
in setting up guidelines for using the Internet and Amateur Radio together.
2 Linking Amateur Radio via the Internet
Linking of amateur stations via the Internet has been growing in popularity over the past
few years. There are many reasons for this; some based in the amateurs desire to
experiment with new communications techniques, and others in the desire to improve
the communications services available to amateur radio operators.
2.1 Positive Aspects of Linking Amateur Radio and the Internet
2.1.1 Experimentation
Inter-connecting Amateur Radio with the Internet has provided several very interesting
opportunities for experimentation. One of Amateur Radios major strengths is that it is
an activity where self education is promoted, and experimentation, even in simple
things, can sometimes lead to surprising breakthroughs.
There are many levels of experimentation. There are the ground breaking, world
changing, types of experiments, like those conducted by the early pioneers
experimenting with wavelengths above 200m (which lead to the discovery of HF
communications). There are also the experiments of the individual amateur, which
while they may not lead to a new discovery, still stimulate self-education and interest in
trying new things.
This sort of experimentation has resulted in the activities that have been undertaken in
the past decade involving the Internet. Linking of voice repeaters via digital Internet
links started as an experiment. Linking of amateur radio TCP/IP packet radio computer
systems via the Internet was an experiment when it started. The development of new
TCP/IP digital protocol routing systems (such as IP-IP tunnelling and further
enhancements to the RSPF routing protocol for example) were prompted through the
experiments in linking Amateur Radio and the Internet.
These experiments that have crossed and blurred boundaries through the intermingling
of software and RF hardware experiments have all had a positive impact on the hobby.
This has primarily been through their ability to attract people with large interests in
computers to the ranks of radio amateurs. In this way, linking of amateur radio and
Internet activities has provided a recruiting porthole for the amateur radio service, and
an avenue of diversity within the amateur community that would not have otherwise
been there.
2.1.2 Providing a Window to the World of Amateur Radio
One way links or port-holes from Amateur Radio Services to the Internet have been
another aspect of linking amateur radio to the Internet that has been a benefit to the
hobby. Examples are links that allow the general public to read messages that are
circulating on the amateur digital messaging networks, and hence potentially gain an
interest in the hobby from observing the activity. Some experimenters have provided a
one way audio link from their local repeater to the Internet, so general Internet users can
hear amateurs in action.
There are many other opportunities for active one way linking from amateur radio to the
Internet, possibly through the various digital and image modes that could all promote
interest in the hobby. The amateurs that provide these port-holes into amateur activity
from the general public also fulfil other aspects of amateur radio through conducting
these linking experiments as well as providing a real time promotions facility for the
hobby. When used in conjunction with the Internets World Wide Web (WWW)
facilities, such portholes can provide a positive reinforcement to any publicity and
recruiting campaign.
Other windows into amateur radio on the Internet are already widely implemented
through the many Amateur Radio related web sites in existence. The distribution of
amateur radio software, news and information on the whole range of amateur activities
is a very positive use of the Internet within and from the amateur radio service. Point
4.1 in the IARU Region 3 guidelines already clearly covers this aspect of the amateur
service.
2.1.3 Extending the Capabilities of Amateur Modes
One of the major bonuses of mixing the Internet and Amateur Radio has been the
extension of digital services and experiments to amateur operators in widely scattered
locations through Internet tunnels. These two way links between widely scattered
amateur stations via a third party system, while perhaps offending the purist radio only
advocates, has opened up a much wider realm of experimental and communications
possibilities for the amateur service. Internet tunnels via amateur wormhole stations
in part provide a vehicle to attract those more interested in computers into the hobby of
amateur radio.
As well as the experimental aspects of the wormhole station developments, these
stations have also been a major contributor in the area of delivery of services and
facilities to other amateurs who wish to use radio to explore other areas of interest. This
service to amateur radio today permits amateurs to carry on the spirit of communicating
with people in many more diverse ways than in days gone by, and provides new and
different ways of promoting the fellowship of amateur radio.
Achieving these advances in digital communications within amateur radio certainly
would not have occurred as fast if it werent for the invention of amateur radio tunnels
and wormhole stations. High bandwidth digital communications (ie higher bit-rate)
over wide areas has not been easy for the amateur service to achieve. Long haul amateur
communications have traditionally been restricted to HF communications, where bit-rates
are limited to (currently) around 1200bps (and through put is often less than this).
Another alternative has been satellite links, which have mostly only used store and
forward operations from LEO satellites. Long haul VHF & UHF packet networks have
been spasmodically deployed and are difficult to establish and operate due to the large
financial burdens that often are associated with them that fall on non-profit
organisations or individuals prepared to donate time and equipment to construct them.
These networks dont allow inter-continental communications either, and usually are
limited to areas not much larger than 400-500Km across in most cases.
To capture the interest of those interested in computers as much as radio
communications, the marriage of Internet and amateur radio for relaying information
between amateur stations over the Internet has enabled new amateur activities to
develop. The advent of the first amateur packet radio wormhole stations in the early
90s provided the first glimpse of how the amateur service could extend its capabilities
into areas that it simply would not otherwise have been able to explore.
The experimental development of packet tunnelling through the Internet between
amateur radio networks has lead to a new service level being possible for isolated
amateur communities. In Australia, the major capital cities, as well as having access to
HF and Satellite store and forward packet systems, are now linked using Internet
wormhole stations over distances that are often >1000Km far larger than any
VHF/UHF network could hope to cover in a sparsely populated area. These stations
have brought the amateur radio digital community closer together and opened whole
new areas of experimentation. In this way, the development of this usage of the Internet
in an amateur radio environment has provided a positive benefit to the hobby.
2.2 Negative Aspects of Linking Amateur Radio and the Internet
2.2.1 Over Reliance on 3 rd Party Communications Lines
The development of Internet tunnels and amateur wormhole stations, and their relative
ease to establish in todays environment of easy affordable Internet access has a dark
side. In some areas, it has been noted that rather than establish radio links where radio
paths do exist, some amateurs have opted to provide instead a wormhole station, linking
their radio to other amateur radios, but doing so over the Internet. When this occurs
across a city, and amateur traffic within that city starts solely travelling via Internet
wormhole stations, one of the selling points of amateur radio to the authorities is lost.
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