Social media meets morse code

Networking across the shack or around the globe

Ham radio has been called the original social network, and it’s true in more ways than one.  In an emergency, when traditional computer networks go down, amateur radio operators step in to create ad-hoc social networks.  In times of disaster, ham radio is often the only way to get the word out. In fact, our radios helped save lives after Hurricane Katrina. 

With our new models, we took networking up a notch. We designed the 6000 series so that no external computer or expensive adapters are needed at the radio site for remote operation. Each FLEX-6000 comes with a 1-Gb Ethernet port.  The initial software enables home networks but later releases will allow networking from anywhere with Internet.  That’s a boon for clubs. We’re also getting great reception from public-safety and government communication agencies. Those agencies need the advantages of networking to maintain a fleet of radios remotely. A radio server is an idea whose time has come.

In fact, all of the breakthroughs in SDR come at an opportune moment in the history of ham radio. After 100 years, the first social network is still growing and evolving.  Software radio has lots of  “low friends in high places” who are carrying out experiments across the spectrum.  In a research project in Alaska, high above the clouds, our receivers are being used to map out the ozone layer. With our new high-performance plug-and-play radios, we can only imagine to what great heights ham operators will go.

Figure 1. The hardware architecture: The FLEX-6000 series radios use one or more  “Spectral Capture Units” (SCUs) that digitize the entire HF spectrum and feed the 3.9Gbps of data per SCU into a  FPGA for digital signal processing (DSP).  Final demodulation and control are handled in the TI DaVinci ARM/DSP processor before exiting the radio as either audio or RF samples over the  1-Gb Ethernet.  An ultra-low phase noise clocking system ensures both clean receive and transmit signals.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Figure 2.Creating an optimized receiver with software. The FlexRadio 6000 Series features a graphical user interface, SmartSDR. “Spectral Capture Units” (SCUs) are reusable hardware blocks. As data from the SCUs enters the FPGA at a combined rate of over 7.8Gbps, SmartSDR performs advanced digital signal processing, splitting the data into individual Panadapters and Slice Receivers. SmartSDRdirects everything, down to the filters in the SCU, to form an optimized receiver.  If an operator wants to decode all of the CW (Morse code) signals on 40m while working a DX-pedition on 20m, it’s as easy as a few clicks. 

Steve Hicks is vice president of engineering and Greg Jurrens is vice president of sales and marketing at FlexRadio Systems in Austin, Texas.