44Net Assessment Survey Results are In!→

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44Net Assessment Survey Results are In!

One of the reasons that Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) exists is to manage – and encourage the use of – 44Net (also known as AMPRNet), the IP address space allocated to amateur radio. This space consists of about 12 million IPv4 addresses (44.0.0.0/9 and 44.128.0.0/10) and is used exclusively by radio amateurs for scientific research and experimentation with digital communications.

In early 2022, ARDC contracted with Two P, a consultancy with expertise in networking and systems management, to determine who is using 44Net and how they are using it. Two P’s first step was to conduct a survey of current users and potential users to get some basic data. They then conducted multiple focus groups to dive deeper into the data. Their report – ARDC 44Net Assessment Results – characterises 44Net users, details the applications and services that run on 44Net,  and comments on ARDC’s stewardship of 44Net.

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The Voice of ChatGPT is Now on the Air

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The Voice of ChatGPT is Now on the Air

AIs can now apparently carry on a passable conversation, depending on what you classify as passable conversation. The quality of your local pub’s banter aside, an AI stuck in a text box doesn’t have much of a living quality. human. An AI that holds a conversation aloud, though, is another thing entirely.

The concept is straightforward, if convoluted. A DSTAR digital voice transmission is received, which is then transcoded to regular digital audio. The audio then goes through a voice recognition engine, and that is used as a question for a ChatGPT AI. The AI’s output is then fed to a text-to-speech engine, and it speaks back with its own voice over the airwaves.

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People across North Central Florida learn to use ham radios for communication

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The Gainesville Amateur Radio Society invited the public to Waldo City Square to show a demonstration of another form of communication in case of severe emergency situations.

Amateur radios, better known as ham radios, were invented in the early 1900′s to communicate during power outages.

“One of my biggest is seeing new hams and young people get involved in it,. I think amateur radio gives to the kids and other people kind of a disciplined approach to communication where you kind of lose that in your texting or in your internet and stuff.”
— Michael Martell

Barbara Matthews started using ham radios so she can keep in touch with her sisters in case of a hurricane. She said she also gets to talk to hundreds of people across North America.

“If the phones go down, it’s still a way you can communicate,. You can literally have a car battery attached to a small radio or a handheld battery powered and still talk to people to find out what’s going on in the world or let them know that you’re okay, that’s what I really like about it.”
— Barbara Matthews

Now, many people may be curious about how ham radio got its name and the answer is quite hilarious.

“The amateurs were competing with the military types and what they said the military said was hey you guys are just a bunch of hams and it kind of stuck.”
— Michael Martell

The organization will be hosting another ham radio demonstration in July just in time for hurricane season. Now if you find yourself without cell service, you can count on ham radio for communication.