This isn't really new, except for the sophistication. Hams have used
similar, but less precise approaches for a number of years.
Remember LightSquared and their frequency grab up in the satellite
frequencies, but this is in the HF bands. Fortunately the HF bands are
allocated via an international treaty and I hear no threat to the HF
bands... so far.
My point is, that Regardless of where we operate, our access to those
bands is not guaranteed. I believe, were it not for the ARRL's efforts,
(continuing efforts) we would not enjoy the privileges we currently
enjoy and could easily lose what we have. Our access and maintaining
that access to the ham bands is fragile and without someone with the
expertise and ability to justify our existence to agencies and
politicians we could easily lose those privileges.
If commercial interests have a strong desire for areas of the spectrum,
they are willing to spend millions, or more and employ lobbyists to hawk
those interests via various means. The ARRL maintains an A-political
approach, but the agencies that have control over our interests do not,
nor do those businesses in competition for spectrum.
Amateurs can do the same auto frequency selection and with prediction,
although with apparently less complexity. Multiple receivers and
antennas allow automatic selection of the best antenna, best height, or
even best band. Adding the reverse beacon network results and forecasts
sounds as if it takes us pretty close in practice to what they are
doing. The RBN shows us what's happening now. How it's trending, the
time of day, and solar activity add the predictive aspect. The only
real unknown is how much weight to give each input, how far ahead we
wish to predict (minutes, hours, days, etc), and the percent certainty
we require. For contesters and DXers these abilities can easily
determine their standings. For long haul health and welfare traffic
with our harmonically related bands, this could actually come down to
life and death situations.
The algorithms may be different, but I doubt they are complicated, and
their inputs may be different, but it sounds to me that implementing
something similar is well within the reach of many contest stations, or
even DXers. The most difficult part would be determining the
uncertainty permissible.
73
Roger (K8RI)
On 9/4/2015 9:28 PM, Gary K9GS wrote:
Interesting article. HF communications isn't dead yet.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-radio-system-taking-connectivity-to-the-toughest-environments-in-the-world/?tag=nl.e539&s_cid=e539&ttag=e539&ftag=TRE17cfd61
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