0:01

Foundations of Amateur Radio. Over

0:04

the years, I've talked about different ways

0:06

of using our license to transmit. I've

0:08

discussed things like modes, such

0:10

as voice, AM, FM, and SSB,

0:13

and digital modes like FT8,

0:15

Whisper, Ritty, 3DV, Hellschreiber, Olivia,

0:17

and even Morse code. Recently,

0:20

it occurred to me that there is something

0:23

odd about how we do this as a

0:25

community. Now that I've

0:27

realized this, it's hard to unsee. Let

0:29

me see if I can get you to the

0:32

same place of wonder. Why

0:34

is it that we as amateurs only

0:36

use one such mode at a

0:38

time? Let me say

0:40

that again. With all the modes

0:42

we have available to us, why do we only

0:44

use one mode at a time? Why do we

0:46

get our brain into the mindset of one activity? Stop

0:49

doing that in order to move to

0:51

another mode. It's weird. Amateur

0:54

radio is what's called frequency

0:56

agile. What I mean by that is

0:58

we are not restricted to a fixed number

1:01

of channels like most if not all other radio

1:03

users. We can set

1:05

our transmission frequency to whatever we

1:07

want, within the restrictions imposed by

1:09

our license conditions, and start

1:11

making noise. There's agreement

1:13

on what mode you can use where, but

1:16

within that comes a great deal

1:18

of flexibility. We have the

1:20

ability to find each other, call CQ, and

1:22

if the band is open and your station is

1:24

transmitting a signal, the chance is

1:26

good that someone somewhere on planet

1:28

Earth will respond. We

1:30

change frequency at will, almost

1:33

without thought. But why don't we

1:35

do this with modes? The

1:37

closest I've seen is local

1:39

VHF and UHF contests, where you

1:41

get different points depending on

1:43

which mode you're using, and even

1:45

that seems hard -fought. It's

1:47

weird. We have an increasing

1:49

range of software defined radios or SDR

1:51

where your voice or incoming text can

1:53

be transformed to a different mode at

1:56

the touch of a button, but

1:58

we rarely, if ever, this

2:00

ability. In case

2:02

you're thinking that the restriction relates to

2:04

the availability of SDR in the average

2:06

amateur radio shack, most amateur

2:08

modes fit within a normal audio

2:10

stream, and that same flexibility could

2:13

be applied to the vast

2:15

majority of transmitters scattered around the

2:17

globe. But to my

2:19

knowledge, it isn't. Why is

2:21

that? But still, what

2:23

can we do about it? Can

2:25

we develop procedures and processes to make

2:27

us more, let's call it mode

2:29

agile, giving us the ability to

2:31

change mode at the same ease as

2:34

we change frequency, what would

2:36

a mode and frequency agile amateur

2:38

look like? What processes would

2:40

you use? Right

2:42

now, the best we have is to

2:44

QSY or announce that we're changing

2:46

frequency, but I've never heard anyone

2:48

use that to describe a change of mode.

2:51

Of course, it's possible that I've led a sheltered life

2:53

and not been on air enough, but if that's

2:55

the case, I'd love to hear about it. So

2:58

what is stopping us from becoming even

3:00

more flexible? Do we need

3:02

to practice this, develop better tools,

3:04

teach new amateurs, have multi -mode nets,

3:07

invent new modes that share information

3:09

across different modes simultaneously, build

3:12

radios that can transmit on different

3:14

frequencies, or something else? I'm

3:17

Ono, Victor Kilo 06, Foxtrot

3:19

Lima, Alpha Bravo.