Though it's Nathan among us who owns the amateur radio operator's license, my interest nevertheless perked up when I came across an ingenious technology: using ham radio to send data packets to a central network for online display. It's called APRS, Automatic Position Reporting System.
The pioneer of APRS, Bob Bruninga, reports that he processes around one million packets a day. Check out the FindU site for lots of information (despite truly hideous visual design and poor navigation).
Why in particular am I happy about this? It means I can get up-to-the-minute weather data from a weather station much closer to our house than Chicago's official National Weather Service station at O'Hare. (Though, to be honest with you, I'm suspicious about the accuracy of its anenometer; but that's another story.) For forecasts, of course, I still have to count on the NWS. I'll live.
But check out the diversity of packet-reporters (for my neighborhood, here), including in-car radios that report their position via GPS.
Posted by Jon on April 21, 2004 05:25 PMThis does look very cool. I especially like that you can see where the ISS is at any time. It updates every few seconds. I would love to try this. If I had a radio and a computer with a serial port that would run linux and high speed internet service and a TNC box to connect the radio to the computer. :)
Have you heard of http://www.echolink.org? (The best designed ham radio site on the net, which is sad.) It connects repeaters through the internet, allowing small hand held radios to work around the world.
Posted by: Nathan at April 22, 2004 11:36 AMI think I had heard of it — but probably from you. :) It's a cool idea. On the other issue you raise — that ham-radio sites are badly designed — I can't help asking why that is? Is it because radio people are a self-selected group of folks who concentrate on the non-visual?
Posted by: Jon at April 25, 2004 08:25 PM