Radio

From RCC 2007

Software can do more of the functions of a radio. A programmer who understands radio can innovate by programming.

Ward Cunningham brought in a "Warbler" which is a voice channel wide software radio built from a $50 kit and well suited for new amateur radio modes like psk31. Ward suggested that this, or something very similar would be good for providing a wiki edit change path for, say, rural africa served by $100 laptops.

• http://www.olpcnews.com/content/reference/wikipeida_shipped_in.html
• http://smallwonderlabs.com/Warbler.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSK31

Bart Massey pointed out that there is a more capable software radio that is currently going for $800 range but could be cost-reduced to $50.

• http://wiki.cs.pdx.edu/sdr
• http://wiki.cs.pdx.edu/fpga

Ward advocated increased use of licensed ham radio frequencies that "skip" as a way to send public information over long distances.

• nobody owns the ionosphere so skip is free
• strong transmitters are allowed
• morse code is no longer part of the licensing (as of Feb 2006).

Cool spectrum maps can be found at:

• http://unihedron.com/projects/spectrum/index.php
• http://exploratorium

Also see http://wholewheatradio.org and http://www.futuresalon.org/2005/07/software_radio_.html

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Larger see http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=379379978&size=o