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.