Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC)
October 2023

In this issue...

Upcoming Community Deadlines and Notices

  • Applications / Nominations for ARDC Committees: The deadline for submitting an application / nomination for a position on one of our four committees is Tuesday, October 31, 2023. If you’re interested in volunteering on one of our committees, check out this blog post for application instructions. Also, please feel free to reach out to us at hr@ardc.net if you have any questions.
  • wiki.ampr.org Contributors: We’re looking for AMPRNet Wiki contributors in 2024! If you’re a current contributor or are interested in contributing to the AMPRNet Wiki, please email us at contact@ardc.net so we can add you to the ARDC Wiki subgroup on Groups.io.

Check Out Our New Resources Page

We’ve recently added a Resources page to our website! Here, you can find information about our grants program, 44Net, and useful How-Tos. We’ll soon also be adding a section called Curriculum Corner, which will showcase open curricula created by our grantees. If you are a grantee and have a curriculum to share, please drop us a line. We’re also interested to learn about other open source ham radio learning materials. Please send any of the above our way: contact@ardc.net.

ARISS CFP Deadline is November 10

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)Calling all US educators! The deadline to submit a proposal to ARISS to host an amateur radio contact with a crew member on the US ISS is Friday, November 10, 2023. For more information, please visit https://www.ariss.org/ or direct any questions you might have to education@ariss-usa.org.

Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) Update

Jon Kemper (KA6NVY) headshotThe TAC has been working on refining 44Net VPN server technology as part of the ARDC PoP project. This resource will allow a ham to quickly request a static IPv4 or IPv6 address and automatically generate Wireguard VPN keys to use with an OpenWRT router. This can be useful for remotely accessing equipment such as a repeater controller, SDR, or RaPi when connected through CGNAT Internet networks. The PoPs are currently set up in Atlanta, Frankfurt, and coming soon to Los Angeles. For more information or to become a beta tester, please email contact@ardc.net.

What ARDC Has Been Up To

Jon Kemper (KA6NVY), John Hays (K7VE), and Tim Tim Požár (KC6GNJ) at the Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) booth at Pacificon 2023This month, Jon Kemper (KA6NVY), John Hays (K7VE), Tim Požár (KC6GNJ), and Board member Phil Karn (KA9Q) attended Pacificon 2023 in San Ramon, CA. Local GAC members Judi Clark (KK6ZCU) and Don Prosnitz (N6PRZ) also dropped by. They were all able to interact with our community at our booth, where many of our grantees – including MMDVM, M17, FreeDV, and Bay Area Mesh – came by to visit. Visitors to the booth also got to see our demo of a 44Net VPN router, which was a hit! At the ARDC Forum, John gave an overview of the ARDC Grants Program, and Jon provided a report on the recent advancements of 44Net, which include improved access and management tools. Grantees and 44Net users that attended the Forum were invited to share their respective experiences. This was a fantastic event: the Pacificon organizers did a great job of ensuring that our needs were met as exhibitors, and we look forward to attending Pacificon 2024.

ARDC Team Spotlight

This month’s spotlight will be highlighting GAC Chair Bob Witte (K0NR) and TAC member Zach Seguin (VA3ZTS).

Bob Witte (K0NR)

Bob Witte K0NR headshotBob has been on the GAC for three years, with two of those years serving as Chair, and his term comes to a close at the end of this year. Regarding the grant proposals that have come through ARDC, Bob says “I have really enjoyed looking at all of the great ideas that have been proposed and being part of funding a large portion of them.” Outside of ARDC, Bob is also a contributor to hamradioschool.com, a site dedicated to helping people get their amateur radio license and enhance their operating skills. In addition to his volunteer work, Bob is either at home in the mountains, establishing a VHF/UHF ham station or enjoying the outdoors with his wife Joyce (K0JJW), summiting mountains in Colorado or traveling to parks in North America while completing SOTA or POTA activations along the way! You can learn more about Bob by checking out his personal website, k0nr.com, where he makes many posts about him and Joyce’s SOTA and POTA operations while enjoying the outdoors.

Zach Seguin (VA3ZTS)

Zach Seguin VA3ZTS headshotZach has been on the TAC for two years and enjoys learning and experimenting with new technologies. While on the TAC, Zach has contributed to the development of the Requirements Document for the 44Net Portal and also to the development of the Point-of-Presence (PoP) Proof of Concept, projects he cites as the work that he is the most proud of. In addition to volunteering at ARDC, Zach volunteers with the Canadian Stuttering Association and the Computer Science Club of the University of Waterloo. Outside of his volunteering roles, Zach enjoys spending time with his fiancée, family, friends, and his two cats (see photo!). To learn more about Zach, check out his personal website, zacharyseguin.ca, where you can find links to both his projects and his social media pages.

Thank you both for your contributions toward carrying out our mission at ARDC!

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ARDC's Mission

The mission of Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is to support, promote, and enhance digital communication and broader communication science and technology, to promote amateur radio, scientific research, experimentation, education, development, open access, and innovation in information and communication technology.

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