Over the past decade or so, Amateur (Ham) Radio has been taking a beating. With the advent of new technologies (cell phones, instant messaging, VOIP), the mystique of being able to talk to someone a world away has evaporated. Plus, a lot of people who would have gotten into radio & electronics instead went to the personal computer. You could do a lot more with a computer, and the Internet seemed to make Ham Radio a dying hobby.

Luckily, there has been a renaissance in electronics. Many people are getting back into hobby electronics as a result of things like cheap, powerful, microcontrollers being readily available. Short range communications devices (like the ZigBee) can be easily, and cheaply, added to projects. Whereas building complicated projects was tedious, using many individual components, a hobbyist today can put together a complicated device in a weekend.

Unfortunately, I don’t see the same excitement in Ham Radio. Sure, you have new digital communications, but how do you get kids interested in that? “Why don’t you just use the internet?” is a phase I hear. And, in fact, some new modes of Ham Radio dispense with the radio part altogether! (Transmitting the bulk of the conversation over the IP network, with endpoints being traditional transmitter/receiver stations.)

What Ham Radio needs is a BIG PROJECT. Something that many can get involved with. Something with a real challenge. Something that will put the hobby back on the map. To that end, I say: Google Lunar X Prize.

I’ve talked, and ranted, about this prize before: The idea is to land a rover on the moon, move about, and transmit video back to earth. A daunting task, and one that will (likely) only be won by huge university or richie-rich teams. (Nothing against them, but come on–true innovation comes from the garages of the world.)

Now, the recently opened Allen Telescope Array has generously offered free down-link communication services for any competitor. (The ATA was funded, in large part, by Paul Allen–co-founder of Microsoft. It is a large radio telescope array designed for SETI [and other] radio research. [A huge lost opportunity for Arecibo, which could be fully funded by Allen’s pocket change.])

I think it’s very cool that the ATA is being used for this, but I also believe it kinda defeats the purpose of the X Prize. After all, isn’t small scale, “hobbyist”-type innovation being sought out? Also, I see a big problem with this site being used for down-link–it is only one site, and it’s sitting in the California desert. Not exactly world-wide coverage (remember, folks, the earth rotates).

I see a couple of issues here:

• There needs to be world-wide base-station coverage, allowing for communications regardless of the moon’s position.
• The base stations need to be dirt-cheap. A expensive NASA setup is not an option.
• The stations can not be run by a government agency. The prize dictates private individuals/companies.
• The communications must be handled by people experienced in long distance radio work, often under difficult conditions.
• The frequencies used must be available for civilian use, and not overly restricted by governments (world-wide).
• A ground-up setup would be too costly and time consuming. Need to use time-tested technologies.

So, what meets these requirements? Ham radio.

• There are licensed Amateur Radio operators around the world.
• Base stations use mostly off-the-self, of home-brewed equipment. Cheap is good, in Ham Radio!
• The stations are run by individuals, not governments.
• Amateur Radio operators are extremely experienced in tough, long distance, communications.
• There are a number of high frequency bands available. For example, the 23 cm band (1.2 Ghz)–which has been used by Hams for “moon bounce” since the 1960s!
• The Hams around the world already have stations set up and running, and have full-time broadband Internet connections.

So there you go. A BIG PROJECT that Amateur Radio enthusiasts can sink their teeth into. Something with a real challenge, but based on decades of experience. Something that will, I am sure, get the next generation of Hams into the hobby. You can’t talk to the moon over the Internet!

This concept is being provided to the general public so that they may develop their own system. It is the intention of this technical disclosure to present a “prior art” document which can be referenced in the future. This idea was conceived on November 26, 2007 by Ronald L. Nelson II and Evelyn Nelson of Austin, Texas, and documented on the www.sybarite.us/puertorico blog. It was documented electronically as a technical disclosure on December 29, 2007. If you would like to learn more about this concept and the systems being developed, please leave a comment with this posting.