Ham Projects for 2026 - With Some Bonuses

It is beginning to look like spring in Alaska once again, and the itch to do projects has resurfaced.  In no particular order... 

 

Site Summit BBS

A LinBPQ based packet BBS is still on the menu for Site Summit.  Minimum capabilities will include VHF 145.010 at 1200 baud, UHF 440.050 at 9600 baud, BBS functionality, chat, and winlink support on both frequencies.  I would also like to extend VARA support, at least on the UHF port to support winlink operation.

Optical Comms Project

Utilize two bi-di SFP modules with appropriate lenses for free space optical communications at distance.  It is my hope that I can achieve a stable connection over at least one mile.  Doubt it will turn into anything, but it tickles my scientific curiosity.

VARA HF APRS IGate

Deploy a VARA HF APRS igate to replace the failed robust packet igate on 30m.  Figure out a more permanent antenna solution for the igate so it is not desensed by QRO at the RSOC.

Hermes Lite 2 - Hard Rock 50 amp interface

Current direction I am leaning is to interface an ESP32 or similar to the Hard Rock 50 serial port to enable a web interface for the amp.  This will allow whatever software is driving the radio to send band data and read SWR over the network.

WiFi HaLow mesh experimentation

802.11ah utilizing babel routing to support a low cost and easy to deploy part 15 compliant MANET.  Think along the lines of Data Slayer, just with less clickbait titles. 

Truck radio installation

I have an ambitious list of radios I want to install in my truck.  First among them is a VHF/UHF rig of some sort.  Currently I am leaning towards a V-7600 paired with a head unit running android, to allow APRS function neatly integrated into the vehicle.  I also plan to install my IC-706, connected to a tuner and 102" CB whip, and a mini pc running Ion2G for basic ALE capabilities and to be able to do winlink on the go and some drive up POTA.  Having the android head unit would also support some other fun radio modes, such as pocket25 for scanning digital LMR on the go, or hardwiring a meshtastic node into the truck.

DIY Drone

 Build an endurance tricopter as a platform for cameras, utilizing 802.11ah for the primary control channel.  Use a steamdeck or similar as its ground station.

 HF antennas

 Take down at least one of the end-fed longwire antennas and replace it with the terminated folded dipole.  Possibly also a single band dipole or OFCD along the eaves of the garage.

Commercial Digital Trunked Radio Scanning

Recently, a small program called DSD+ released a free version of the software allowing following of digital trunked radio systems with only one sdr dongle.  Previous versions of this program required two dongles in order to effectively follow the trunk transmission and voice transmissions simultaneously.  I've been playing with it at home, monitoring the ski resort, power company, and most interesting to me, the public safety radio network.

Alaska Land Mobile Radio (ALMR) is a P25 Phase II/TDMA VHF radio network covering most of Southcentral Alaska, up to Fairbanks, and down the panhandle to Juneau.  The municipality of Anchorage has a complimentary system, referred to as Anchorage Wide Area Radio Network (AWARN) on 700MHz covering the Anchorage borough and networked with ALMR to transparently pass traffic.  It never fails to surprise me how much information leaks out of the system.  As shown in the picture above, each site advertises who it is, who their neighbors are and what frequencies their control channels are, and shown in the picture below, the health of the network.

Even if a voice channel is encrypted, the network will still tell you what radios are in the area based on who is subscribed to that particular repeater, and who is talking to who, since by necessity each radio has a unique ID number.  While I don't have a transmit capable sdr to verify this, I have read of attacks where individual radios respond to spoofed network pings without notifying the user.  Such an attack would make DFing of a targeted radio trivial with a transmitter and a Kraken, although the attacker would have to have done their homework beforehand and be transmitting themselves, opening them up to potential counter-attack.

Another potential attack vector would be what amounts to a wifi deauth attack, where a jamming station monitors a site or multiple sites for subscription requests and immediately sends a corresponding unsubscribe request, effectively conducting targeted jamming of a repeater at a lower power level than dumb blanket jamming.

All of this would constitute comparatively sophisticated attack vectors.  To date, I am unaware of any such attacks occurring in the wild.

Cross Reference of Radio Services Avalable to the Individual

 The CERT group in my hometown has become interested in radios for its members.  It always comes back to the question of "who do you want to talk to and how far do you want to talk?"  Therefore, I generated a basic chart of radio services available to the average person (that is, not business band or anything esoteric).  I tried to cite CFR where available, but keep in mind when reading this, it is a generalization.

 

 

	Citizens Band (95.901)	FRS (95.501)	MURS (95.2701)	GMRS (95.1701)	Amateur Technician Class (Part 97)
Frequency Range	Low VHF 27MHz	UHF 460MHz	VHF 150MHz	UHF 460MHz	Low VHF and up 29MHz+
Channels	40	22	5	30 Note: shared with FRS except for repeater channels	Unlimited (Subject to local band plan agreements)
License Required	No.  License by FCC rule	No. License by FCC rule.  Secondary user, so subject to interference from primary licensees.	No. License by FCC rule. Secondary user, so subject to interference from primary licensees.	Yes. $35 license for 10 year term. No test required. License covers licensee + 'family' (95.1705)	Yes. $35 non-refundable fee and 35 question test for 10 year term. License covers individual only.
Maximum Power / Expected Range	4 watts (AM) 12 watts (SSB) Realistic range in rural environment 10-20 mi?	2 watts. Range arbitrarily limited by fixed antenna requirement. Realistic range in rural environment 3-5 mi?	2 watts. Range may be extended by improved external antenna, but no repeaters permitted. Realistic range in rural environment 5-7 mi?	50 watts. Range may be extended by external antenna and repeaters. Simplex range in rural environment 15-25 mi?	1500 watts. Sub bands may have lower limits. 50+mi range simplex in ideal conditions. Repeaters and linking can arbitrarily extend range.
Data	No (95.971)	Yes (95.531(a))	Yes (95.2731 (a) and (b))	Yes (95.1731 (d))	All analog and digital emission types permitted*
Type Accepted Equipment Availability	Inexpensive vehicle mount systems commonly available. Handheld units uncommon with relatively poor performance due to antenna size.	Inexpensive handheld units commonly available. Units capable of data transfer uncommon.	Inexpensive handheld units commonly available. Units capable of data transfer uncommon.	Inexpensive handheld units commonly available. Vehicle mount systems available. Repeater systems commercially available.	FCC type acceptance not required.

HF APRS

  

In the past, I ran an HF APRS gateway on behalf of KL7AA on 30 meters, using Robust Packet as the transport layer.  It worked well enough, however using a proprietary undocumented mode over amateur frequencies left a bad taste in my mouth.  Supposedly the SCS tracker we were using at the time could handle both robust packet and 300bd ax.25 on the same channel, however I never saw any evidence of 300bd bell being decoded.  The equipment to run robust packet was also expensive, which severely limited uptake.  The killing blow came late last year, when the radio running this HF igate seemed to go deaf, and so I pulled it off the air.

 

Fast forward to this summer, and a fellow ham turns me on to HF APRS again, this time using the VARA softmodem as the transport layer.  A little research turns up WA8LMF, who has already done a lot of the low-level work needed to operate this mode.  So after work one day, I attempt a experimental igate to see if it would be worthwhile.  Within 30 minutes of operation, I pick up a beacon from WA7GMX in the Seattle area!  I definitely think this is something worth pursuing.

 

First order of business is a permanent full time igate.  I haven't quite figured out what form this will take, but I'm inclined to start with an igate at the KL7AA club station, and perhaps another at my home station after I get VHF APRS back online.  With work, it may be possible to gate stations heard over HF to VHF.

 

Vehicle trackers may be a more interesting problem to solve, but thanks to the work of KM4ACK on 73 Linux, VARA has been shown to run reliably on linux and even raspberry pi platforms.  A pi and usb gps interfaced to a mobile HF rig may be a nice tidy platform for a basic HF tracker.  We shall see. 

Unexpected Fossil

Went to buy firewood from the local rock quarry.  Quarry man said he found some fossils and let me pick one out.

🦐 IT'S AS SHRIMPLE AS THAT 🦐

Helped a neighbor pull shrimp pots and was paid with a portion of the catch. Nothing quite like ocean to plate in three hours.

Ham projects for 2025

 2025 has dawned with a fresh list of aspirations for myself.  While some goals, such as a new job, are outside the scope of this blog, there are multiple items that deserve to be listed here, mostly to hold my feet to the fire.

Site Summit BBS:

 I've managed to convince holdouts on the KL7AA board to let me move forward with an upgrade/replacement of the packet node on Site Summit.  The plan is to install a full featured linBPQ based packet node with BBS, forwarding, and Winlink capabilities in its place.  There will be a 1200bd port on 145.010MHz and a 9600bd port on 440.050MHz.  Ideally, this will also be links to the Wasilla node too, although I haven't yet approached the MatSu club on this matter.

Robust Packet HF APRS igate:

 The radio running the Robust Packet HF igate on 10.1473MHz USB has apparently seem to have gone deaf, although I have not dedicated time to in-depth troubleshooting of the system.  For the time being, the igate has been pulled offline, pending future troubleshooting efforts.  The future of this system is, at this time, unknown.

Home shack master plan:

Utilizing my current Hermes Lite 2 and shack pc running Linux Mint, plus hopefully a Hardrock50 amp if I manage to save up the money, my purely personal goal is to have a fully remote HF operating position.  I also plan to bring my VHF igate back online.  I also have a SEA-222 marine HF transceiver, which, if it is stable enough, I plan to press into service as an HF packet node on 14.105MHz LSB (technically 14.102MHz USB, since packet doesn't care, but who's counting).  If all this jank actually ends up working, I may crosslink the HF packet and VHF APRS port, but that's much further down the line.

There's a lot up there, when you start dissecting each piece, and that's before you factor in other obligations, but I think I can pull it off.

~moose