WICEN Vic: WICEN Digital Playground Sessions

[John & Bronwyn]

Hi Tony

A lot of work on digital systems has taken place over many years, not 
just in recent months.  You may (or may not) be aware of this work, 
which has tended to be relatively low profile.  Some of this work has 
already had international exposure via the IARU Region 3 conferences.

The problem of suitable systems has occupied many of us for some time.  
They must be reliable (that is, can be relied upon to function), 
error-free, robust (has to tolerate poor propagation etc), secure (must 
be able to pass sensitive information without "leakage"),  and 
deployable (has to be able to be set up and operational at short notice 
in almost any location and situation).   Reasonable cost and 
availability of equipment and software are also important considerations 
in an amateur context, as is the capability of individual members to 
successfully get the system working, while working under duress.

These requirements dramatically narrow the field of candidate digital 
systems for WICEN emcom use.  Open source is not high on the list of 
priorities.  Most "amateur" digital modes are unsuitable for various 
reasons - for example some only cater for pre-defined message formats, 
some are not error-free, they do not provide privacy, and so on.

So far as I know, there are only a couple of applications designed 
specifically for emcom use.  One is Trak, designed by Paul Elvey VK3YYF, 
and the other is  EmcomWin, developed by Donald Patterson VK3BPD.  Both 
are in current use by WICEN.  To the list of essential attributes above, 
these add things like encryption, secure and un-editable storage of all 
throughput for later audit, time synchronisation, and GPS location 
information.

We are always looking for well researched, well-informed comment and 
suggestions as to potential systems for WICEN use.  This necessary and 
important research and analysis work is not timeslot-constrained and 
your contribution would be appreciated.

Re Windows, the issues can be managed.  I have run a HF digital network 
station (gateway) 24/7 for several years with very high up-time. As a 
matter of interest this station was used to relay messages by stations 
in the South Pacific for two recent serious cyclone events.    Many 
others (including myself) have run the same system as a portable / 
mobile system, again without issue (and all on Windows).

Further to this experience several WICEN members run WinLink gateway 
stations operating 24/7, with minimal downtime.  In fact most of the 
issues with Winlink are not with the hardware or software,  it’s how the 
system is used and managed given single channel occupancy.  Which, if 
the issue is understood, can be managed in an emcom situation.

Experimentation is important to confirm that a given system might meet 
our objectives.  But it is no substitute for making informed choices 
about a 'short list' of candidate systems based on sound radio 
engineering.  At the end of the day, our philosophy must be that we 
cannot afford to fail. This requires a professional approach to what we 
do as radio amateurs.  Operational Integrity is a 'Must'.  That is, the 
only thing which matters to those who deploy us, is our ability to be 
given a task, complete it successfully, and accept the next task.

Is this setting the bar too high?  Not at all.  A small group of 
engineers, scientists,  a mathematician, and a software developer 
designed and set up a system using amateur radio which was used by the 
Red Cross for major emergencies all over Australia for the best part of 
15 years.  And it never failed to deliver in over 140 activations.  So 
it can be done.   The support of those members who “turn up”, contribute 
and participate is essential if we are to achieve our objectives.


Cheers,   John VK3ZRX

On 18/09/2021 13:32, Tony Langdon wrote:
> Catching up on emails, looks like a lot of good stuff is going on.  
> VARA is technologically interesting, but all this proprietary stuff 
> has its caveats - in this case, the need to use Windows for things 
> like digipeaters. I'm not a fan of (consumer) versions of Windows 
> running infrastructure - a borked Windows update can bring the system 
> down.
>
> I've had parallels in my playground of VHF/UHF digital voice, where a 
> hardware AMBE dongle is often required to process audio - not the best 
> thing if you're building a server in the cloud! There, M17 (being 100% 
> open source) is a refreshing change - vocoder hardware will never be 
> required, Codec2 is freely available for implementation however one feels.
>
> And I'm seeing history repeat itself with Winlink data modes - we're 
> being forced to use form factors that the vendors are willing to 
> implement.   But still, it's worth exploring these issues in a real 
> world environment, and experimentation is a good thing.
>
> Unfortunately, I'm not available during the evenings, and the 
> concentration of WICEN Vic's activity in the evenings is keeping me 
> out of the loop.
>
>