A very valid and useful technology

by John Gould, G3WKL

“We enjoyed Jon Honeyball’s trip down memory lane to when he took his exam 30 years ago and become licensed as a radio amateur. We’re also delighted that he is thinking of contacting the authorities to get his licence reestablished. However, after 30 years away from the hobby he is likely to be surprised—and delighted—by the changes that have occurred in that time.

Amateur radio—and by amateur we mean ‘unpaid’ rather than ‘unprofessional’—has always been at the cutting edge of developments in science and technology. In 1924, Cecil Goyder, 2SZ, made history with the first two-way radio communication across the globe, when from London he established contact with Frank Bell, 4AA a sheep farmer in New Zealand. Today, Howard Long, G6LVB a British amateur, has designed and sold many thousands of his Funcube Dongle which is used by radio amateurs, universities and schools to receive, at low cost, both satellite and other signals.

From working with, and for, over 60,000 licensed radio amateurs across the UK, we know that computing and radio will continue to converge and be complementary. Radio amateurs use digital voice with data and have extensive networks linked through the internet. There is also an amateur radio designed codec for voice. Software-defined radio (SDR)….”

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