When a major disaster strikes our country, each of us as an amateur radio operator should use our own radio technology to quickly establish a legal and legitimate emergency communication network for the nation and its people! We must do everything we can! I am proud to be an amateur radio operator!
If having the ability to directly communicate with the world, a privilege previously only available to those operating amateur radio stations decades ago, was already clear, then does amateur radio still hold appeal in today's era when the internet and mobile communications provide modern communication capabilities for everyone in the telecommunications industry?
Let's examine the development trajectory of amateur radio in China and worldwide. The answer is: Yes. The main reasons are roughly as follows:
1. The enjoyment and endless learning opportunities that come with amateur radio communication.
2. The traditional atmosphere of amateur radio groups, characterized by a focus on in-depth study and high intellectual standards.
3. Amateur radio provides the most resilient emergency communication capability.
Hobby radio activities offer a wealth of content and diverse starting points, allowing individuals to choose one or more development areas based on their interests and capabilities. Regardless of prior experience, participants can achieve significant personal growth and develop valuable technical skills.
Chat group
Using amateur radio to communicate and exchange personal information, reporting signal quality and equipment status to each other, is a common activity for beginners in the hobby. It helps familiarize oneself with equipment, practice efficient communication techniques, further cultivate interest in radio technology, and prepare necessary resources for emergency communication during disasters. However, communication must be kept concise and should not interfere with the use of frequencies by other stations, ensuring the proper use of the radio spectrum. After communicating via amateur radio, participants can exchange QSL cards as proof of contact.
DX series
DX is an abbreviation for Distance. The DX series aims to contact more and further amateur radio stations. To compare communication performance, the amateur radio community typically divides the world into several smaller areas. Common division methods include ITU zones (dividing the world into 75 zones), CQww zones (dividing the world into 40 zones), DXCC entities (dividing the world into 338 entities), and LOC Meissen grid system (dividing the world into 324 grids, each grid divided into 1,000 squares, with each square divided into 576 blocks, forming a grid with different levels of precision). The first three division methods are commonly used to describe the location of shortwave radio stations, while the last grid system is commonly used to describe the location of ultra-shortwave radio stations. The more zones or grids you can contact, the better your performance will be, and you may even reach the top of the world rankings.
Competition and Certificate Group
Every year, amateur radio organizations around the world hold various international communication competitions. The goal is to determine which participants can establish contact with the most stations and achieve the widest coverage within a specific time frame (e.g., 48 hours). Participants can compete from their homes, making it a highly challenging activity. To concentrate equipment and technical expertise, and to facilitate communication, many amateur radio enthusiasts in China have spontaneously formed competition teams. They have built "competition bases" in cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, and Chengdu, and their performance is constantly improving.
Do-it-yourself enthusiasts
The joy of building your own amateur radio equipment and directly communicating with friends in distant locations is something truly special and rewarding. That's the essence of DIY (Do-It-Yourself) interest.
DIY can start with simple kits for assembling transmitters, radio accessories, or making antennas, progressing step-by-step. Alternatively, you can design complex equipment yourself. The relevant authorities and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have allocated a significant amount of frequency resources (2.3 GHz) for amateur radio use, but many of these frequencies do not yet have commercially available devices. At this point, DIY is the only way to acquire the necessary equipment to explore new fields. In addition to hardware, you can also develop your own software programming for amateur radio communication and create new digital communication models.
"Satellite tracking enthusiasts"
This refers to amateur communication satellites and other spacecraft equipped with amateur radio equipment.
"Star trackers" are a group of amateur radio enthusiasts who extend their communication to beyond Earth, even into the infinite space. They use amateur satellites for remote communication, directly communicating with astronauts on the International Space Station or spacecraft, and transmitting signals to the Moon's surface before reflecting them back to Earth at another location to achieve "Earth-Moon-Earth" (EME) communication. Some also design and manufacture their own satellites. Additionally, some star trackers use their amateur radio technology to track signals from Mars probes and conduct radio astronomy observations of the distant universe.
Amateur radio enthusiasts have made significant contributions to human space communication. In 1957, the first artificial satellite launched by the Soviet Union only carried a beacon transmitter, but American amateur radio enthusiasts were among the first to propose installing radio repeaters on satellites to extend ground communication distances. Later, when commercial interests focused solely on geostationary satellites, amateur radio enthusiasts gained extensive practical experience with low-cost, low-orbit satellites, laying the foundation for modern constellations of low-orbit satellite communication systems.
Image set
Transmitting still or moving images via amateur radio is not only interesting but also highly practical in emergency communication. Amateur image communication can be broadly classified into two types based on the nature of the image: ATV (Amateur Television), which transmits moving images similar to television and requires a wider range of frequencies, suitable for short-distance or repeater communication; and SSTV (Slow Scan Television), which transmits near-still images and only occupies a small amount of frequency resources. SSTV can also utilize longwave frequencies with ionospheric reflection to transmit signals directly over thousands of kilometers. Depending on the modulation method, image communication can be further divided into analog and digital formats. Digital image communication can achieve high image quality but requires a good transmission environment. Analog image communication typically results in lower image quality, but in critical situations where maintaining minimal image information transmission is essential, it may be easier to achieve than digital methods.
Digital Family
Amateur radio digital communication can directly support keyboard-based conversations, or the transmission of text messages or computer files, and is known for its reliability. However, it requires specific conditions for radio wave propagation and frequency usage, so different modulation methods and communication protocols need to be selected depending on the application requirements, communication distance, and transmission environment, in order to balance communication speed and quality.
In traditional amateur radio bands, amateur radio operators typically use personal computers to handle protocol control and modulation/demodulation. Therefore, by using different software, it is possible to achieve various forms of digital communication with ordinary radios, offering a significantly better performance-to-price ratio and greater flexibility compared to other wireless communication systems.
Currently, there are dozens of digital communication methods commonly used among amateur radio enthusiasts, and new methods continue to emerge. Some of these allow for keyboard conversations with distant stations using low power (a few watts) over several thousand kilometers, while others provide platforms that enable the sending and receiving of emails via remote gateways in areas without internet or public mobile network service, making them a means of emergency communication for amateur radio operators.
Moreover, experimenting and developing new amateur radio digital communication methods to better suit different situations is both challenging and rewarding, and it can also help people with computer skills build a solid foundation in modern wireless communication technology.
CW family
In amateur radio, CW typically refers to Morse code communication. This is one of the oldest forms of wireless communication, relying on combinations of long and short signals to transmit letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. The internationally recognized signal combination used today is known as Morse code.
Hobby radio operators often face a wide variety of spoken languages from amateur stations around the world, even though everyone speaks English, there are still issues with different accents. However, Morse code (CW) does not have this problem, so it is still widely used by hobby radio operators. More importantly, CW communication has superior interference resistance compared to any other communication method, making it recommended by the International Telecommunication Union as an important backup communication method for disaster relief, and it is also still used by many countries' armies as a backup communication method.
Modern amateur radio operation has also introduced new technologies such as automatic recording and transmission, DSP filters, etc., resulting in improved efficiency and interference resistance. In addition, the difficulty and techniques required for traditional radio telegraphy have also been simplified, making it easier to learn.
Internet-connected families
A modern public communication network requires a complex underlying infrastructure to support it. However, it currently cannot meet all usage requirements, such as covering remote mountainous areas and other locations with limited commercial value, or regions affected by sudden disasters. Amateur radio access technology integrates radio with the internet, leveraging their complementary strengths. This allows the internet's functionality to extend beyond the coverage area, or enables existing amateur radio communication systems to achieve new functionalities through the internet.
For example, the EchoLink system can use the internet to connect amateur radio repeaters across half a planet, such as those in Phuket, Thailand, which were used for communication during the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami and caused conventional communications to fail. The system allowed direct transmission of information to Bangkok, the capital.
The Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS), used by amateur radio operators, can track the real-time locations of all amateur radio stations worldwide that have an APRS interface, via the internet.
Repeater group
An amateur radio repeater is a device specifically used to transmit signals from one amateur radio station to another, typically across a distance.
Utilizing amateur radio repeater networks to extend the communication range of amateur radio enthusiasts has a history spanning over a century. Many countries have already established nationwide amateur repeater networks, which serve as platforms for disaster emergency communications. During disasters such as the 2008 Sichuan Wenchuan earthquake, the 1991 Hanshin earthquake in Japan, and numerous forest fires and hurricanes in the United States, amateur radio repeaters played a crucial role. After the Wenchuan earthquake, amateur radio enthusiasts in the Sichuan region quickly deployed over ten repeater stations within hours of the event, providing vital communication for transporting injured individuals and delivering rescue supplies. Within just a few days, the network control center recorded over 300 pages of communications data.
The "relay group" refers to amateur radio enthusiasts who are actively involved in building and managing repeater networks, providing public basic services to other amateur radio stations.
Amateur radio direction finding
An activity with the purpose of games and competitions, commonly known as "radio fox hunting," involves using handheld or vehicle-mounted amateur radio direction-finding devices to walk or drive around and determine the direction and location of pre-hidden radio transmitters. The goal is to find them in the shortest amount of time.
Another approach, focused on learning techniques and practical methods for identifying and eliminating interference sources in amateur radio bands, often presents more complex challenges. This requires a deeper understanding of comprehensive radio direction-finding technology.
Amateur radio direction-finding technology may play a special role in emergency response during incidents. For example, it can be used to locate and pinpoint trapped victims or rescue targets equipped with two-way radios.
Amateur radio content is diverse and appealing to people of all ages. Share your thoughts in the comments section – which group do you belong to?
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