Ham Radio and Trendpedia

I wanted to see it in the numbers. Where is ham radio in comparison to Nintendo, XBox, and cell phones? Trendpedia — discover who’s discussing what, where, when and how. Trendpedia finds trends in social media. The blogosphere is social media and ham radio is a social activity. I wanted to determine the level of ham radio noise and I searched (ham radio) as a keyword. The result indicated 1,000 ham radio blog posts. I compared ham radio against Xbox and Ninetendo. The results were not surprising with Nintendo scoring 55,000 blog posts. I followed up with a comparison of ham radio (n = 1,000) in comparison to Nintendo (n = 55,000) and cell phone (n = 49,000). Nintendo beat cell phone and ham radio flat lined on all the charts. Were is today youth? If they are not texting then they are behind a controller.

Quoted In 2008 Georgia QSO Party

My pleasure and I enjoyed operating the Georgia QSO Party. Hope to see everyone in next year's contest log. 73 from the shack.

World Wide DXpedition Trophy by Strange Radio Team

Who is the Strange Radio Team? Because, in no less terms, Strange Radio Team is boss! RadioSport Nation, it is time to get out the vote, and decide who is the Best of the Best. The counter is counting. Vote now.

KA3DRR's Twitter Statistics

If one is interested in Twitter statistics then click here. Generally, I'm socializing in the evening hours as noted in Tweets Per Hour. The NBA championship pulled me away from my evening writing and reading as shown in Tweets Per Day. On the other hand, my micro-blogging CQ WPX CW 2008 spiked May's number. Meanwhile I'm discovering the usefulness of Twitter as a way of staying in touch, sharing information, and learning new concepts along with other ham radio operators. Additionally, my CC&R defined community dampens full-time ham radio activity because of antenna restrictions. However social networking does not. Overall, something is happening in ham radio and hundreds of operators are migrating into Internet social networks. The supply of knowledge, breadth of experience, and diverse expertise is soon approaching infinity. 73.

Ettus Research LLC and GNU Software Radio

Read comment here. Matt Ettus of Ettus Research LLC has been working in wireless design for 9 years, and has extensive experience in ASIC-, FPGA-, and software-based DSP systems, as well as System-on-chip RF architecture and board-level RF design. Eric Blossom of GNU Software Radio stated, "Software radio is the technique of getting code as close to the antenna as possible. It turns radio hardware problems into software problems. The fundamental characteristic of software radio is that software defines the transmitted waveforms, and software demodulates the received waveforms." 73 from the shack.

2008 CQ World Wide WPX CW Debrief

My debrief at Thumbstacks (Web2.0) click here for short slide presentation.

Contest on.

Micro-Blogging For The Ham Radio Operator

What is micro-blogging? According to Wikipedia, micro-blogging is a form of blogging that allows the blogger to write brief text messages and publish them, usually limited to no more than 200 characters. The most popular service is Twitter.

Mark Glaser at MediaShift suggested that micro-blogging is either a breakthrough form of communication or the ultimate absorption with navel fuzz. Glaser provides useful direction and tips as well.

This statement from ReadWriteWeb, "Micro-blogging isn't a short-term trend - it is here to stay. The evolution of blogging has spawned this new mini version of blogging and many are latching on. The simplicity and ability to post frequently are what attract most to the concept. We expect much faster adoption and mainstream penetration than blogging in general."

Something is going on in the blogosphere and it is called micro-blogging. If one is interested in reading my aggregated feeds from Twitter and del.icio.us then click here and subscribe. Tumblr is sleek and clean.

Social Training stated, "The simplest way to think of the power of micro-blogging is to imagine tapping into the thoughts and lives of any number of people who have common interests, concerns, geography, hobbies or professions."

Remember to read my micro blog in the sidebar.

73 from the shack.

Alan, VA3STL said "What are your thoughts and experiences with the use of Twitter in ham radio?"

Read comment here.

My thoughts thus far on Twitter? I'm having a lot of fun sharing my ham radio activities with a diversified group of followers and those who are following ka3drr. And I welcome the additional activity that feeds directly to my blog.

My micro-blog is important especially for those 10 who read KA3DRR on a daily basis. Twitter allows me to expand the conversation without writing a blog post each and every time.

Twitter is fast and I'm delivering content into the blog at the speed of the Internet. Any reader and specifically ham radio operators can follow along while I share my every day thoughts. Furthermore, the geometry of Twitter is exceptional that is, my feed co-mingles with thousands of other feeds. Who knows what little nugget might interest someone?

Likewise, Twitter is good fit for the mission at KA3DRR, sharing my RadioSport experience while promoting ham radio as a fun hobby. It's appeal is really generational. That is, one notes a youthful, energetic, dynamic crowd who is curious, excited, and innovative. Twitter essentially is my own reflector. Those who interact with the blog generally fit the same descriptive adjectives.

I'm learning to shape my content for interactivity for those 10 who read my blog on a daily basis. What works? What does not work? I'm learning. But editing the conversation is like cutting off the legs of the micro-blog. Thus far I like posting QSL confirmations, low power scores, spotting DX stations during a contest, random KA3DRR thoughts basically, pumping up the AF gain on ham radio. I do believe, a cohort of ham radio operators, are ceasing this historic moment during the evolution of the Internet.

Alan, thanks again for your comment and hope to read your micro-blogging on Twitter.

73 from the shack.

Software Defined Radio (SDR)

Why I'm convinced software defined radio (SDR) is the next big thing in ham radio? I observed a greater number of SDR tags at del.icio.us than any other segment in the hobby. Something is going on within the research and development community as well. They are in and they are utilizing the tools of the Internet such as social bookmarking. That's not a whole lot of technical ground but I watched, listened, and tagged PI4THT WebSDR on 20m, 40m, and 80m. And I was hooked. Currently, I'm listening on 7.042.2 while adjusting the speed of the waterfall. Absolutely fascinating. I've provided a few embedded hypertext links as well FlexRadio Systems, High Performance Software Defined Radio, K2WS SDR-1000 Webpage, and hamsdr dot com. Bob, N6TV a member of the Northern California Contest Club created a 10-page presentation Adding an SDR to an SO2R Station. I'm hedging SDR into the future of ham radio.

The Future Of Ham Radio is Software Defined Radio (SDR)

I'm writing this post while listening to WebSDR 20m, 40m, and 80m. It is a web based application sponsored by Radio Club ETGD PI4THT, Faculty for Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. The future of ham radio is software defined radio (SDR). I said it. SDR is the next wave and it will eventually replace the transceiver. I'm convinced, absolutely, through and through. The next evolution will include web based applications as well. Perhaps including mobile devices connecting to one's SDR at home. The Internet is moving toward a service based, open sourced cloud and it is transforming. SDR technology is maturing and who knows what the world of ham radio will look like three years hence. Or even less.

Off The Random Wire (Week 27): Dayton Bling Arrives

Many thanks too Jeff Davis, KE9V who brought the Dayton experience into KA3DRR's shack-a-delic. I'm giant on swag and KE9V scored. The geek that is in me totally dug those ICOM plastic pocket inserts. And Tokyo Hy-Power's flashing, blinking blue pen is a perfect fit. Yaesu followed with their baseball cap for the ham radio operator of all ages. I'm clouding my cap with DX Engineering, Kenwood APRS, and ARRL EXPO 2008 pins and buttons. The Satellite Amateur Radio Club (SARC) W6AB will sponsor a local hamfest next month in Santa Maria. And I'll sport my uber geek plastic pocket insert and tag cloud Yaesu ball cap as well. The QTH for the IOTA sticker is on the back on my Ford Explorer. And I have plenty of reading material to stay happily busy. Thanks again Jeff for the Dayton Bling and for bringing the Dayton experience into the shack-a-delic.