The Internet Archive Is Building a Digital Library of Amateur Radio Broadcasts (archive.org) 28
Longtime Slashdot reader and tech historian, Kay Savetz, shares a blog post about the Internet Archive's efforts to build a library of amateur radio broadcasts. Here's an excerpt from the report: Internet Archive has begun gathering content for the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC), which will be a massive online library of materials and collections related to amateur radio and early digital communications. The DLARC is funded by a significant grant from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications Foundation (ARDC) to create a digital library that documents, preserves, and provides open access to the history of this community. The library will be a free online resource that combines archived digitized print materials, born-digital content, websites, oral histories, personal collections, and other related records and publications. The goals of the DLARC are to document the history of amateur radio and to provide freely available educational resources for researchers, students, and the general public. [...]
The DLARC project is looking for partners and contributors with troves of ham radio, amateur radio, and early digital communications related books, magazines, documents, catalogs, manuals, videos, software, personal archives, and other historical records collections, no matter how big or small. In addition to physical material to digitize, we are looking for podcasts, newsletters, video channels, and other digital content that can enrich the DLARC collections. Internet Archive will work directly with groups, publishers, clubs, individuals, and others to ensure the archiving and perpetual access of contributed collections, their physical preservation, their digitization, and their online availability and promotion for use in research, education, and historical documentation. All collections in this digital library will be universally accessible to any user and there will be a customized access and discovery portal with special features for research and educational uses.
The DLARC project is looking for partners and contributors with troves of ham radio, amateur radio, and early digital communications related books, magazines, documents, catalogs, manuals, videos, software, personal archives, and other historical records collections, no matter how big or small. In addition to physical material to digitize, we are looking for podcasts, newsletters, video channels, and other digital content that can enrich the DLARC collections. Internet Archive will work directly with groups, publishers, clubs, individuals, and others to ensure the archiving and perpetual access of contributed collections, their physical preservation, their digitization, and their online availability and promotion for use in research, education, and historical documentation. All collections in this digital library will be universally accessible to any user and there will be a customized access and discovery portal with special features for research and educational uses.
Maybe not a great idea (Score:1)
I occasionally listen to the amateurs on the local repeater, and it seems like a fine social club, if not so much my sort of people. But knowing that yabbering about morning coffee and needing to buy hemorrhoid cream and whatnot might end up on archive.org for eternity and all, not just mostly fellow licensees... I'd stop talking.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There are a few exceptions to that rule, mostly having to do with the ARRL _broadcasting_ Morse code practice sessions over-the-air. They are specifically called out in Part 97, but are very rare IRL.
Even local hams re-transmitting news programs, etc. have to pause during a half-hour screed for station ID by giving their call sign and pausing for any emergency break-in traffic.
Basically, one-way transmissions are illegal with the few exceptions for code practice and radio tuning over-the-air (generally a b
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This is a point that upsets the purists. ARRL should not be permitted to broadcast on RF spectrum allocated to Amateur radio because Amateur radio is not supposed to be for broadcasting. If the people at ARRL want to broadcast something then they can, and should, get a broadcast license like anyone else would be expected to do.
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Basically, one-way transmissions are illegal with the few exceptions
There are a surprising number of exceptions from beacons and controlling RC models to various allowed retransmissions. It's not just code practice. (This happens regularly, btw. It's hardly rare and certainly not limited to the ARRL!) I have no idea where you got that "tuning over-the-air" thing from.
local hams re-transmitting news programs
This is very much not allowed. From 97.113:
(e) No station shall retransmit programs or signals emanating from any type of radio station other than an amateur station, except propagation and weather forecast information intended for use by the general public and originated from United States Government stations.
have to pause during a half-hour screed for station ID by giving their call sign
This is also incorrect. From 97.119:
(a) Each amateur station, except a space station or telecommand station, must transmit its assigned call sign on its transmitting channel at the end of each communication, and at least every 10 minutes during a communication
You should really review the rules.
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I will admit it has been a few years since I last read Part 97, but short duration test transmissions are (or were) definitely one of the exceptions. Some use that exception to net their radio to a repeater by zero-beating or monitoring with a 2nd receiver.
Local hams retransmitting news I specifically said was NOT an exception. Please read my post better. I do know this stuff, I used to be a net control for a large multi-site repeater in a large city so I am speaking from many years of experience.
I am aw
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Your nitpicks are bullshit, and you should have known it.
Like I said. You really need to review the rules. I even quoted and cited the relevant sections for you.
Jesus, you really need to read more carefully
Do I? Let's review that one-sentence paragraph:
Even local hams re-transmitting news programs, etc. have to pause during a half-hour screed for station ID by giving their call sign and pausing for any emergency break-in traffic.
Do you want to double down or just accept that you said something stupid and move on?
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I KNOW the rules, I've been a ham for over 40 years now. YOU need to review your ability to read and understand posts in context and not misquote them. My initial post was quite correct which you misinterpreted, drew an incorrect conclusion about what I was saying, then you starting quoting bits of Part 97 to me after taking what I said out of context - or perhaps simply misunderstanding it.
You know what, let's NOT review my posts, what I said was proper and true. Instead, let's review why you can't seem
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You're way too sensitive. I corrected a few obvious factual errors in your post. You can disagree if you want, but that doesn't make your post any less wrong. They were hardly'nit picks', btw. This is basic stuff here, like the station identification requirements.
You can pretend that your post says something else, but it says what it says. That's all you. I am in no way taking anything you wrote out of context, nor did I misquote you. This can easily be verified. Why pretend otherwise?
I KNOW the rules
The evidence su
Re: Maybe not a great idea (Score:2)
The actual summary doesn't support the title - they are looking for recordings off the air, they want to preserve all the documents and other ephemera from the early days of Amateur Radio thru today.
Now this is (Score:3)
News for Nerds!
As an amateur radio operator for nearly 50 years, I cannot stand the chit-chat that goes on most frequencies. At least in the US, it's mostly old angry farts.
DX is kinda fun, since hams in other countries are often more constrained on what they can talk about and so it tends to be wham-bam-thank you-ma'am quick convos (QSOs) where it might be amazing to get any comms working. Summits on the Air, Islands on the Air, those are pretty cool, just because it's amazing how HF comms just works (well, sometimes %^).
Digital modes can be really cool too especially EME and other satellite stuff.
Cheers and 73 - Jon N7UV
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This is news for nerds, but I'd caution against posting your call. You're doxing yourself.
Ends justifies the means? (Score:4, Informative)
I'd encourage everyone to understand where this money came from and that the Internet Archive had to ask for it with the full knowledge of the corruption of the organization behind it. This makes the Internet Archive complacent in ARDC's fraud.
ARDC sold something it didn't own which was held in trust for amateur radio. Back in the dawn of the early internet 44.0.0.0/8 was reserved to amateur radio with UCSD being the custodian of it. At some point this was spun off into a non-profit corp run by UCSD employee's "Amateur Radio Digital Communications, Inc." (ARDC).
The president of ARDC was a direct employee of UCSD and the only other board members were UCSD employee or affiliated with UCSD. After retiring and waiting two years, and with no notice to the users, ARDC sold off IP space which was in use by amateur radio operators and held in trust but ARDC. Further ARDC failed to consult their limited technical committee for any of this, and caused a 5+ day DNS outage during this due to their misunderstanding of how DNS works.
During this time, no on from ARDC would disclose any details of the sale, and denied how it took place. It was not until the next year that the community would learn any details on if from their IRS returns. This was handled in a very abusive and closed manner to the community. ARDC specifically rejected calls for them to divest their ill-gotten money from the community. Their first "giving" of money was contingent on the recipients acknowledging ARDC's legitimacy.
ARDC doesn't give money out without a grant proposal, and this is proof that the Internet Archive requested this money with the full knowledge of how dirty ARDC is an an organization. I'm no longer going to support the Internet Archive, and encourage others to consider the same.
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That situation sucks, and I had not heard of the malfeasance of the ARDC with that IP block, but face it, this is a fart in the wind as far as the totality of Amateur Radio is concerned. It's a very small facet in a much larger stone, ham radio as a whole. The IP space reserved was mostly used for Packet Radio and that is almost totally dead excepting a small contingent that still uses it for GPRS, but that's about it. Packet activity in the large city I live near is at zero usage except for the couple t
Re: Ends justifies the means? (Score:2)
Wow. Thanks for the clue! Didnâ(TM)t know. Will research
Re: Ends justifies the means? (Score:2)
Submitting a grant proposal does not mean the requester fully understands any/all actions the granting organization every committed, that's just silly.
The ARDV has partnered with the ARRL and awarded $270K in grants this past year, and will do so again in 2023 (and presumably, in to the foreseeable future)..
http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-... [arrl.org]
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> Internet Archive had to ask for it with the full knowledge of the corruption of the organization behind it
It's very sad, but Internet Archive has become political and ends-justify-the-means. They're censoring whole websites when they become a political target (e.g. KiwiFarms), thereby destroying history and sense-making.
Less than a year ago I was saying they were the last bulwark against censorship on an increasingly political Internet. Boy, did I get that one wrong.
NOT digitizing broadcasts (Score:5, Informative)
Read TFA. There is absolutely no mention of digitizing actual broadcasts or OTA communications by hams. This is about materials relating to amateur radio, but not the actual QSOs themselves.
And, BTW, Amateur Radio operators do not "broadcast", and do not use that term to refer to their RF emissions, as broadcasting (IE a one-way communication intended for broad reception by many people) is illegal for hams (excluding propagation beacons).
Re: NOT digitizing broadcasts (Score:3)
This is /., we can't be expected to read, let alone understand The Fine Summaries the editors choose to post under their highly-imaginative and rarely fact-based headlines! Who has time for that?
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Amateur radio operators do not broadcast. (Score:2)
It is illegal for a licensed Amateur radio operator to broadcast. An Amateur radio operator will transmit in ways other people can listen in but the intended audience is going to be another licensed radio operator. Reading the summary it states the archive is seeking printed materials and websites, those are not even radio transmissions that could be confused as a broadcast.
A licensed Amateur will call "CQ" which is an old Morse code-ism for "seek you", as in "calling any station that wishes to respond".
Cool (Score:1)
Pre-cell phones this would be muy interesante (Score:2)
I would love to hear archives of old IMRA traffic. They were a channel of interesting intelligence operations. Thatâ(TM)s all Iâ(TM)ll say on the matter
False headline (Score:2)
Amateur radio is specifically forbidden from broadcasting. In addition, the archive referred to has nothing to do with broadcasts, or even recordings of ham radio transmissions.