The Internet Radio Linking Project

What is Amateur Radio? Ham Radio Activities IT and Amateur Radio Ham Radio Internet Linking The IRLP Network IRLP Hardware IRLP Software Using IRLP Listening For More Info... Demonstration

Overview

What is Amateur Radio?

Licensed as a public service by the Federal Communications Commission voluntary non-commercial communications, with an emphasis on providing emergency communications advancement of the radio art advancing communication and technical skills and provide trained operators, technicians and electronics experts promote international goodwill 680,000 hams in the U.S., 18,000 in NC

Celebrity Hams
Entertainers: Chet Atkins WA4CZD, Ronnie Milsap WB4KCG, Marlon Brando FO5GJ, Patty Loveless KD4WUJ, Gary Shandling KD6OY, Burl Ives KA6HVA, Arthur Godfrey K4LIB, Priscilla Presley N6YOS

Joe Walsh WB6ACU

A huge number of politicians and royals including: Gov. George Pataki N2ZCZ, Sen. Barry Goldwater K7UGA, Spains King Juan Carlos EA0JC, Jordan's King Hussein JY1 and Queen Noor JY2, Argentinas Pres. Carlos Menem LU1SM, Indias Rajiv Gandhi VU2RG

Famous and infamous hams: most astronauts, Hugh Downs KD6WUS, Art Bell W6OBB, Kevin Mitnick N6NHG, and the author of The Joy of Sex, Dr. Alex Comfort KA6UXR
Walter Cronkite KB2GSD

Celebrity non-Hams

Forest Whitaker Phenomenon Dennis Quaid

non-Celebrity Hams

Amateur Radio Activities

HF (shortwave) VHF/UHF and repeaters Morse code, analog voice Public Service/ Emergencies Home-building equipment Dxing (long distance contacts) Contesting Amateur Radio Satellites Digital Modes

TV

TV

IT and Amateur Radio

Computer-Controlled Modes Packet Radio Narrow Band Teletype (e.g. PSK-31) Amateur Television IEEE 802.11b WiFi / HSMM GPS & APRS Amateur Radio Satellites Internet Radio Linking Remote Bases and Web Radio Digital Signal Processing Software Defined Radio Spread Spectrum Technology Contact Logging Software Antenna Design

Computer

Radio or Repeat er Mobile Station

Internet Radio Link

Distant Radio or Repeater

Computer

 Repeater: A station that simultaneously retransmits the transmission of another station over a wider area on another 441 MHz frequency
down

446 MHz up

Coverage from 320-ft in West Raleigh

Ham Radio - Internet Linking

Radio-only Access IRLP (linux)

PC -or- Radio Access: eQSO (Windows) iLink (Windows) WIRES (Windows) EchoLink (Windows or linux)

The Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP)

Uses the Internet to link distant radio sites Gives global coverage to normally localized VHF and UHF frequencies Enables minimally equipped stations to communicate globally Allows end user control of links via their radios DTMF (Touchtone) keypad

The Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP)

Created by Dave Cameron VE7LTD of Vancouver, BC

Dave was frustrated with the unreliable operation of Windows-based Iphone and turned to linux. Iphone and other systems use VOX. IRLP uses COS. IRLP is radio-access only.

Dave VE7LTD and Pete VK2YX

IRLP Growth
December 1999 +10= 12
November 1998 - 2

December 2000 +29 = 61

June 2000 +20 = 32

December 2001 + 199 = 321

June 2001 +61 = 122

December 2002 +263 = 820

June 2002 + 236 = 557

database records 1/1/03

IRLP Network
445 United States 154 Canada 54 Australia + New Zealand 49 Europe 12 Caribbean + Bermuda 6 Japan 3 Southern Africa 2 Ecuador, Mexico 1 India 1 Antarctica
active nodes 4/1/03

Australia and New Zealand

Europe

North America

Example: Los Angeles Area Nodes

3520 8590 7380 3190 3170 3609 3745 3040 3650 3760 3830 3910 5610 8630 3670 3140 5850 3030 3340 7170 3448 4810 5900 3846 3100 3510 3410 4690

WB6EGR KF6PXL K7QT WD8CIK WD6AWP K6GTZ KE6HRV WA6JFK KE6PCV N6JVH WB5EKU WB6DAO KF6CPI KE6YGM N6JVH KE6DGM KJ6W KB6THO WR6JPL W6EKZ KJ6KB KF6FM WB9RNW WB6T N6KNW WB6EGR KD6GDB KF6JEE

Burbank Corona Highland Hollywood Huntington Beach Lakewood Long Beach Los Angeles Los Angeles Los Angeles Los Angeles Los Angeles Los Angeles Mission Viejo North Hills Norwalk Palmdale Pasadena Pasadena Pomona Rancho Palos Verdes [WALA IV] Riverside San Fernando Valley San Juan Capistrano Santa Clarita Santa Clarita Santa Monica Woodcrest

448.480 449.840 446.560 145.140 51.500 144.480 1294.600 447.720 447.240 447.200 447.600 224.580 144.440 449.340 445.600 224.480 224.080 144.440 145.725 445.180 447.540 51.860 927.500 145.800 446.280

IRLP is based on Speak Freely for Linux. Speak Freely for linux is Open Source, while Speak Freely for Windows is GPL. Linux offered the best in reliability, programmability, efficiency, and functionality. IRLP currently ships with RH 7.3 and will run on a 486 DX100 or better computer (init=3).

Typical IRLP Node

Standard PC, P100 or better Linux (Red Hat 7.3) SB16 ISA soundcard Custom IRLP computer/radio control interface Radio Dedicated internet connection

Custom Red Hat CD-ROM Boot Diskette Custom IRLP Software

IRLP Control Board Does COS, PTT & DTMF DB9 IRLP to Radio Interface LPT1 to IRLP Jumper Cable

DB9 for radio inter -face

v.2 IRLP card

+12VDC from PC

DB25 for Data Control from LPT1 & IRLP

Indicators on v.2 Control Board

DTMF Decode Sense Carrier Operated Squelch Sense

PTT out to Link Radio or Controller

v.3 IRLP card features surface-mount components

100MB Switch 10MB Hub Linksys Router

DualBand 2M/440 Control Xcvr

4270 Link Radio

4260 Link Radio

Audio Equalizer and Broadcast Leveling

KD4RAA Node 4260 / 4270 Configuration

What Happens During a Call?

Notes from Dave Cameron, VE7LTD

DTMF Decode
DTMF program monitors COS and DTMF Once detected DTMF sequence passed to the decode script Decode script checks custom_decode for matches Assuming a call is decoded, call script is started with the node number as the argument

VE7LTD

Call Script

Best server is determined by using find_best_server script Best server is asked for latest IP of node being called If IP received is different from IP in hosts file, a new hosts file is d/l from best server Irlp_call is started, and a TCP connection is made to the called node on port 15425
VE7LTD

IRLP_CALL / IRLP_ANSWER

Remote node starts irlp_answer in response to TCP call on port 15425 PGP security performs a dual challenge to ensure calling node is an IRLP node Codec (GSM/ADPCM) is determined Irlp_call and irlp_answer start speak freely software on UDP ports 2074 and 2075
VE7LTD

During the Call

Irlp_call and irlp_answer send keepalives in the background. If keepalive fails, the connection drops (every 15 sec) Irlp_call and irlp_answer keep open info channel to pass dtmf regeneration info, disconnect/timeout message

VE7LTD

Disconnects
Disconnecting node uses TCP info channel to send disconnect message. Both nodes run the off script Unexpected drop in the TCP connection prompts reset of IRLP node If the timeout elapses, disconnect is sent

VE7LTD

NCSU Bookstores:

Sending Audio
Audio streaming is enabled when the link radio receives a signal with COS and keys the IRLP interface card. The sound card receives the radios audio and creates a continuous mono 8-bit digital stream of raw audio at 8000Hz (64k bps). Speak Freelys sfmike program compresses the audio stream by a factor of two (32k bps) using an audio compression algorithm (codec).

NCSU Bookstores:

The audio is split into packets, which are transmitted over port 2074 using a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) stream. UDP does NOT confirm the reception of packets it "fires and forgets"

NCSU Bookstores:

Receiving Audio
Speak Freelys sfspeaker receives the packets on port 2075 and rejoins them into an 8-bit ULAW stream. Next the ULAW stream is uncompressed back into an 8-bit raw stream of audio. The raw audio is streamed through the digital to analog (D/A) converter (the output device of your sound card). The IRLP interface card keys the radio when the audio stream is present (live -- no buffering).
.
. .

NCSU Bookstores:

Audio Compression

ADPCM GSM

Jason Woodard, http://www-mobile.ecs.soton.ac.uk/speech_codecs/

NCSU Bookstores:

(Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation)

ADPCM

only 32 kb/s - more efficient than the PCM codec used by WAV, AIFF and CD audio (and is used on the Sony Mini Disc) cuts the data rate from 8000 to 4000 bps

superior sound quality vs. GSM

NCSU Bookstores:

GSM
(Global System for Mobile Communications)

requires only 13 kb/s bandwidth reduces the data rate from 8000 to 1650 bps, which makes a 28.8 Kb modem usable

serves 71% of the total digital wireless market and provides good quality speech

NCSU Bookstores:

ADPCM quantizes the difference between the sampled signal and a prediction. If the prediction is accurate, the difference between the real and predicted samples will have a lower variance than the real speech samples and will be accurately quantized with fewer bits than needed for the original. At the decoder the quantized difference signal is added to the predicted signal to give the reconstructed speech signal. Performance is aided by using adaptive prediction and quantization, so that the predictor and difference quantizer adapt to the changing characteristics of the sampled speech.

NCSU Bookstores:

GSM uses a Regular Pulse Excited (RPE) codec. Input is split into 20ms frames, each with 8 short term predictor coeffiecients. Frames are further split into four 5ms sub-frames, each with a delay and gain for a long term predictor. After short and long term filtering, the residual signal for each sub-frame is decimated into three possible excitation sequences, each 13 samples long. The sequence with the highest energy is chosen as the best rep-resentation of the excitation sequence, and each pulse in the sequence has its amplitude quantized with three bits.

At the decoder the reconstructed excitation signal is fed through the long term and short term synthesis filters to reconstruct the speech. A postfilter improves perceptual quality

Ports Required
2074 - 2093 Audio (bi-directional UDP) 15425-7 IRLP Control/Update (TCP)
Outbound ports used: 80 (http) for updates 873 or 8873 (rsync) for downloading updates 10000 (for IP determination)

parallel port set to "standard" or "compatible" mode, not to ECP, EPP or bi-directional

Some IRLP Details

512-bit bi-directional PGP authentication ensures connections only with other IRLP nodes. Redundant servers support IRLP-BIND (DHCP isnt a problem) as well as download of pgp key rings, software updates, and station ID wavfiles. IRLP accepts commands from keyboard or via DTMF (dual tone multi frequency, i.e. Touchtones)

IRLP and the GPL

I had released code under the GPL, and it led to nothing but 1000's of emails criticising my code, asking for features, wondering why I built this that way, etc... I got tired of answering questions. There is a strong commercial potential for this product, and I did not want to hand several 1000 hours worth of code to the private sector just to be replicated. Closed code maintains a standard, which open releases would compromise.

VE7LTD

IRLP Admin
FCC regulations prohibit unlicensed people using amateur frequencies. IRLP links are accessible only on amateur radio frequencies within range of a node. No direct Internet access. OpenSSH used for remote administration. Linux packages updated automatically (up2date, autorpm, apt). Cron jobs to automate functions

IRLP Scripting
The IRLP software is composed largely of bash shell scripts. Flexible: easily customized to suit local needs. Almost anything that can be run from the console can be controlled via radio.
Morse Code ID using MIDI or wav (per FCC legal requirements) Node status (link off/on and where linked to) Time of day (talking clock) Weather reports, Amber Alerts Local Announcements Download and play radio news programs from internet Random dialing *69 / Call Waiting

IRLP Advantages
User Flexibility - Custom Scripts Accessible only by radio Security Stability of linux OS Superior audio; COS (not VOX) Cost: linux is free, will run on old PCs Continues to function if servers fail

Two ways to make contacts

Point-to-Point
and

(like chat rooms -- multiple nodes connected together, hearing audio from one node at a time)

Reflectors

IRLP Reflectors
Enable multiple nodes to link together into a network number limited only by bandwidth. Running a reflector requires bandwidth (32 kbps per connected node) to handle the multiple data streams. Most reflectors are hosted by ISPs (like Inflow) who often donate the bandwidth.

Raleigh Reflector
Established for coordinated response to severe weather events and for public service Links NC repeaters beyond the range of conventional RF linking systems During Hurricane Lily, linked stations in Louisiana with the National Hurricane Center in Florida Has linked stations from Georgia to Maryland to track several winter storms

Simulcast a ham radio contact between the International Space Station and Chapel Hill middle school students
Participated in the Boy Scouts JOTA event

Impact of Internet Linking on Amateur Radio

Level of amateur activity has increased dramatically Amateurs who have been inactive for a long time are coming back on the air Amateur Radio is becoming more appealing to todays Internet-oriented youth New opportunities for experimentation.

The Future
Internet linking is already becoming commonplace over 800 IRLP nodes on the air. Advances in technology will improve performance of links. Technology can be ported to high-speed microwave and satellite links. Enhanced global slack.

Listening to IRLP
Live Demonstration Monitoring IRLP Reflector 2 via Live365 streaming audio (linked from www.irlp.net) Recorded conversation with Antarctica, and Recorded school contact with the International Space Station (linked from www.kd4raa.net) local frequencies via radio or scanner

How to Become a Ham Radio Operator

Radio amateurs are licensed by the FCC, after passing examinations in radio theory, electronics, regulations, and optionally, Morse Code. Examinations are conducted locally by individuals or clubs almost every week and cost about $12 (10-year renewals are free) Many radio clubs run study courses. 1-on-1 tutoring, book and online stuyding, and taking mock online exams are other study options.

More Info
IRLP in Raleigh - www.kd4raa.net IRLP in General - www.irlp.net What is Amateur Radio? - www.howstuffworks.com/ham-radio.htm Raleigh Amateur Radio Society - www.rars.org American Radio Relay League - www.arrl.org

Thank You