Interest Groups
Computers & Internet Linking
Computers and the internet have re-shaped so many aspects of our lives, and the amateur radio hobby has been no exception. The following several examples are just some of the facets it has added to our hobby.
Internet Relay Linking Project
The Internet Relay Linking Project (IRLP) was developed by Canadian amateur David Cameron (VE7LTD), and is now in worldwide use linking repeaters together using the internet. Our members can call into one of our local repeaters with an inexpensive low-powered radio, enter the code for a repeater in Australia, or Japan, or other countries, and begin talking to local amateurs there. Their voices are converted to data by our repeater, sent over the internet, and converted back to voice at the remote repeater.
Winlink
The amateur-developed and volunteer-run Winlink system offers a reliable means of message passing to front-line emergency service providers. The system uses the internet if available, but has fall-back protocols to radio-only message passing if the internet fails for any reason. Messages can be passed within a region, or across the continent.
Conditions Reporting
Amateur-developed applications gather solar and atmospheric activity data from various sources around the globe and present it in informative packages useful to amateurs and commercial broadcasters alike.
DX Cluster
An application called DX-Cluster publishes worldwide alerts when one amateur successfully contacts another over a long distance. Upon seeing the alert report, other amateurs in the area of the person who reported it or the station that he/she contacted know that there may be an "opening" between those points, and attempt contacts themselves.
Remote Operation
Using the internet it is now possible for amateurs - often those in crowded cities who might otherwise have challenges making worldwide contacts - to place their stations in more-favourable locations and remotely operate them across the internet.
These and countless other applications illustrate the expansion of our hobby into the digital world. Continuing activity and experimentation by amateurs ensures that new technologies will bring even more to our hobby, and to the world of communications.
There are many facets to the amateur radio hobby, and this is but one of them. If merging radio technologies with the reach of computers and the internet sounds interesting to you, come out to one of our meetings or contact us via our Contact Us page.
