Digital Communication on the Amateur Bands

Modes:

• CW

• CW which stands for Continuous Wave is the oldest form of digital communication and still remains popular among Amateur Radio Enthusiasts. It uses a set of codes developed by William Morse in the mid-1800s used to transmit letters of the alphabet over long distances either by wire telegraph or wireless radio. His original version of the code is slightly different than the International Morse Code used today by tens of thousands of Radio Amateurs worldwide.

• RTTY

• RTTY short for Radio TeleTYpe has been around for a few years. It is still very popular on the 20 Meter Band. Listen for the RTTY Signals around 14.082 Mhz.

• The sound of AMTOR
• The sound of PACTOR
• The sound of HF SSTV

• There was some interesting SSTV activity on the 2 Meter VHF Band coming from the Russian Space Station Mir during it's final days of occupancy.

• the sound of 300 Baud HF PACKET
• the sound of HF PSK-31

• This is the newest form of Digital Communication taking place on the HF Amateur Bands. The Protocol was developed in Europe by a Group of Amateur Radio Enthusists. Follow this link to the PSK-31 webpage.

• the sound of 1200 Baud VHF PACKET

• AX.25 Packet Radio was first developed in the late 1970s by a group of Canadian Amateur Radio operators in Vancouver, BC. U.S. Radio amateurs were not allowed this emission type for several months after the Canadian group started experimentation. The protocol is similar to the X.25 computer protocol for error free transmission. Hence, the name AX.25 or (Amateur X.25).

• TCP/IP

• TNOS Author's Website. TNOS is one of the variants of the original NOS (Network Operating System) for Packet Radio written by KA9Q and is available under the LINUX OS platform. There are a few other versions, among them JNOS, and WNOS.

• Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) aboard ISS.

• APRS is a relatively recent form of packet radio that has become popular since handheld GPS (Global Positioning System) units have become affordable to the average Radio Amateur. This system and protocol was developed by Bob Bruninga WB4APR. There are two versions of APRS currently available, Original DOS Version by Bob Bruninga and the Macintosh and Windows Version by Mark and Keith Sproul. The WinAPRS version will be available soon under the LINUX OS for Xwindows.

• JavaAPRS a map showing APRS broadcast stations worldwide. (You must have a JAVA enabled web browser in order to view this website.)
• You can watch raw APRS data as it comes in over the Internet.
• FindU.com Will bring up a maps showing APRS broadcast stations worldwide. Instruction on how to use this website are available there.