Now that programs like IRLP and Echolink are in use, a question comes up regularly in ham circles: “Why use Voice Over Internet Protocol in Amateur Radio?” I wrote an opinion piece on this topic; it’s published on the Southcars VOip website, where you can read more about Southcars—South Coast Amateur Radio Service.

Ham radio is changing. Many ham operators are listeners first. Many began as SWLs (shortwave listeners) and still spend 75-90% of their on-air time listening to other hams talking. I’m one of these “listeners”. Often, the radio is blaring in the background while I tinker with a project or work on the computer in the radio shack. For me, as with many other hams, the computer—and the many things it can do—has become a second hobby alongside ham radio. Heck, computer tinkering almost made ham radio extinct for me until a few years ago when I discovered a way to combine two hobbies into one.

In my radio shack I have two computers, 2 radios and a handy-talkie, plus an assortment of digital cameras and video cameras. My two telephone extensions, which once used only POTS (plain old telephone service) from Ma Bell, now use RF (cell phone) and VoIP—voice over internet protocol—over my broadband Internet connection. Times have changed since spark gap and tube-based transmitters!

A “marriage” of all the these technologies is inevitable when ham radio operators extend the tinkering and listening aspects of their hobbies toward new horizons as they “contribute to the advancement of the radio art” (Part 97.1(b). There’s nothing more interesting or exciting than working “poolside portable” with an HT in Florida in a QSO with a mobile ham driving the streets of Melbourne, Australia. This is now possible because the marriage of RF and VoIP technologies bridges the time zones at the speed of light. My HT is controlled by a computer chip, as is the Melbourne ham’s mobile rig. Both of us have computers in our radio shacks, tied to radios using home-brew interfaces, designed in the spirit of tinkering that has always been a part of ham radio.

This website is an outlet for another of my computer-based hobbies married to my ham radio hobby. I love to edit and publish worthwhile, noteworthy and interesting audio and video productions via the Internet. I do this on a sister website, smls5.com, where I feature my fifth grade students’ work. What you’ll find here are examples of hams in action advancing the radio art (97.1b), expanding the reservoir of trained operators and electronics experts (97.1d) and—my favorite FCC Part 97 rule—continuing to expand the amateur’s unique ability to enhance international goodwill (97.1e) by fostering worldwide friendships among ham radio operators. I consider it a privilege that my circle of friends and acquaintances extends around the world. We amateur radio operators are unique in our ability to make friends worldwide. On this website I hope to showcase my friends at their very best with audio and visual material. Hopefully, hams and non-hams alike will enjoy what’s inside these pages.

— N4FTD, Paul • webmaster