Page 28 - EngineerIt February 2021

AMATEUR RADIO

where they cannot. Changes in the a complex region heavily influenced by the solar wind, extreme ultraviolet ionising radiation,
ionosphere like those caused by the and geomagnetic disturbances, and even by the lower and middle neutral atmosphere.
day–night transition or by solar activity From the perspective of scientists studying the ionosphere, ham radio data become
can impede or aid communications on most interesting in aggregate. All the data in the RBN, from 2009 to the present, are
various frequencies. For example, the 20- archived at reversebeacon.net and can be freely downloaded.
metre band (14–14.35 MHz) usually has Radio amateurs are prohibited from earning money through the act of operating, so
its longest transcontinental reach during most data used by them are open and accessible at their creation. HamSCI encouraged
daylight hours, but the 40-metre band radio amateurs to generate data on the RBN during the North American eclipse of 2017.
(7–7.3 MHz) often works best at night. Later analysis confirmed that the RBN data were consistent with physics-based
Amateur radio frequency allocations are ionospheric models [Frissell et al., 2018], indicating the promise of this system for collecting
distributed throughout the electromagnetic propagation data.
spectrum, enabling useful propagation A further advantage of collecting data through the amateur community is that these
experiments for any frequency range. observations tend to naturally fulfil the requirements of FAIR data: findable, accessible,
interoperable, and reusable. Because of the prohibition against financial gain by radio
Technical renaissance amateurs, most data used by operators are open and accessible at their creation.
Ham radio is currently experiencing a Additionally much of the amateur community is technically literate, databases and records
technical renaissance, thanks to the are structured around machine readability. Most important, amateur radio has a global and
advent of inexpensive single-board persistent identifier woven into the metadata of every recorded contact: Each licensed
computing platforms (a complete operator or club has a unique call sign, tied to a physical address in its respective
computer built onto a single circuit board, government database.
such as a Raspberry Pi) and open-source
software. Such computer-based systems “At the tone, the time will be…”
serve as virtual radio repeaters, Just outside Fort Collins, Colo., lies the heartbeat of the electromagnetic communications
connecting computers via the Internet to spectrum and one key to precision measurements of the interactions between amateur
actual ham radios in the real world to radio and solar weather. The sound of radio station WWV, the time and frequency standard
enable remote control and data collection. of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is familiar to any shortwave listener.
Beyond the old-fashioned pursuit of voice It is the oldest continuously operating radio station in the United States, having been on the
communication, the lure of maker air since 1919. Today WWV and its sister station WWVH in Hawaii broadcast the familiar
movement projects and the removal of “At the tone, the time will be…” message on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 megahertz, with the
the Morse code requirement from the frequencies calibrated to at least nine significant digits.
amateur licensing examination have led to These stations supply listeners with standardised time information, high-seas weather
a greater number of licensed amateurs forecasts, and other programming. Station WWVB, located at the same Colorado site,
than ever before. transmits on 0.060 megahertz and provides timing information to radio-controlled “atomic”
The reach of these crowdsourced clocks. In recent months, WWV’s precise, cesium-controlled carrier has found another use
systems, and the support of the amateur as a beacon for ionospheric measurements.
community, offers tremendous
opportunities for scientific measurements.
Out of this increasing technical
sophistication, digital communications
networks, such as the Automatic Packet
Reporting System (APRS), the Weak
Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR),
and the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN),
enjoy wide membership and serve the
amateur community while collecting
propagation data at rates and resolutions
that were previously impossible. The
reach of these crowdsourced systems,
and the support of the amateur
community, offers tremendous
opportunities for scientific measurements.

Harnessing the data for science
How can amateur radio signals tell
scientists about energy and particles
originating in the Sun and traveling
millions of kilometres through space? The
answer lies in the ionosphere, the
Signals from radio station WWV reflect off the ionosphere in this illustration. Space
electrified atmospheric region that can weather affects how far a signal travels before it changes direction, and the receiving
refract radio signals back to Earth. This is station detects this as a change in signal frequency. Credit: Kristina Collins

EngineerIT | February 2021 | 26