Use It or Lose It : Google makes a play for part of the 3.3 GHz amateur band

I've presented several times at Pacificon on the topic of spectrum auctions and the threat to amateur radio's allocations.  In my talk Ham Radio Must Die (So It Can Live) at Pacificon 2010, I specifically talked about the threat to the 3300 - 3500 MHz band.  The threat increased exponentially when the FCC converted the 3500 MHz band to the Citizen's Broadband Radio Service for use in heterogenous networks and densified mobile data systems, and now Google is asking the FCC for permission to test a wireless last-yard technology for delivering Google Fiber service in the upper half of the 3300 MHz band.

In my Pacificon talk I pointed out that the 3300 MHz band is almost never used, and the possible auction valuation to commercial users is very high.  If we presume a $2 per MHz-POP auction price (which is about what the AWS-3 commercial carrier spectrum went for) and a US population of 320 million, the value of the 3300 MHz band is $128 billion.  The AWS-3 auction, record-setting though it was, only raised $47 billion.  For a government $19 trillion in debt, $128 billion isn't much but it's a start.  Google could afford to buy that spectrum, and with the unprecedented access it enjoys due to the revolving door between itself and the White House, it has the political clout to make this happen.

There are just over 800,000 licensed amateur operators in the USA.  $128 billion puts the value of our 3300 MHz band at $160,000 PER OPERATOR.  For something we never use.  I'd be willing to say (and I'm being very charitable in this estimation) that 0.1% of all US operators make use of the 3300 MHz band.  That's $160 MILLION PER ACTIVE OPERATOR.

I'm not saying what Google's doing is right.  If you think it's wrong, file comments with the FCC.  I'm saying what they're doing is not surprising, and that I predicted this would happen six years ago.

HamRadio360 Bling

Came home today to find a package.  Inside was a HamRadio360 sticker and a hat - and the hat is personalized my callsign!

Want a hat for yourself?  Shop now

Talking Maker Faire and IMS2016 w/ George KJ6VU

This week's HamRadio360 podcast contains a segment where +Beric Dunn K6BEZ and I were interviewed by George KJ6VU about the Bay-Net amateur radio project at +Maker Faire and continues with discussion about the panel I moderated for the +IEEE International Microwave Symposium.  The audio for the panelist presentations is in the podcast, and the presentation PDFs are available online in my previous blog post.

Special thanks to Cale at HR360 (nee the +Fo Time Podcast) for covering this.

How To Remove a Flow Lock Without a Key

During the drought I bought a Flow Lock to prevent people from helping themselves to my water.  They have an interesting magnetic key system and seemed like a good idea.  However I found that over time the tumbler mechanism gets corroded and then it won't unlock - even with a key.

The first time it happened I was able to unlock it by spraying WD-40 and tapping it with a small hammer.  The next time it got stuck nothing worked.  My option was to replace the entire faucet, or find a hack.

The Flow Lock tumbler mechanism, when engaged, couples the outer green metal shell to an inner metal fitting.  When the key isn't inserted. the outer shell spins freely, preventing removal.

My solution was to drill through the outer shell to the inner fitting, and then run a deck screw through the two holes.  This couples the shell to the inner fitting and it came off easily.  Side note: I was amused by the product video for this which claimed that a Flow Lock (also known as a "Spinsecure Faucet Lock II") is "virtually impossible to remove without the key" - I did it in two minutes with basic tools and a 5 cent deck screw.

Tips for doing this:

1. Use a 5/64" drill bit designed for metal work.
2. Drill into the center of an indent on the outer shell.  It doesn't seem to matter which indent you choose.  
3. Maintain steady pressure on the drill.
4. Stop periodically and cool the drill bit with spray lubricant or machine oil.

Disclaimer: Stealing water is illegal.  Destroying private property is illegal.  This hack is intended for people who own Flow Locks but can't get them off using their key.  

Field Day is here!

Every year the amateur radio community conducts Field Day - one part contest, one part public outreach event, one part campout & BBQ, and four parts awesome.  Bay-Net hosts a Field Day each year, operating as K6SRA.  For the past few years we've been setting up in a parking lot of the Almaden Quicksilver Park in San Jose CA - and this year is no exception.

For some Field Day is serious stuff - massive operations running 24 hours through the day and night, generators and amplifiers and stacked Yagi antennas, with operation coordinators whose sole purpose is to encourage the radio ops to work stations and log faster.  This does not sound like fun to me.  K6SRA Field Day often devolves into an impromptu technical session where the radios sit idle while we pore over the details of some homebrew project.  Our Field Day operation has jokingly been called "Hot Dogs and Radio - in that order".  For many of our members, busy as they are with work in the always-hectic Silicon Valley, Field Day is a chance to relax and catch up.

This year we plan to shift one of our HF stations from phone to digital on a station created via the excellent Raspberry Pi hacking skills of +Beric Dunn.  I figure the kids will like this better, since it's a keyboard and not a microphone they'll probably be less reluctant to get on the air.

Using Amateur Radio to Enhance Engineering Education @ IMS2016

On Tuesday May 24th I moderated the panel "Using Amateur Radio to Enhance Engineering Education" at the 2016 International Microwave Symposium, hosted by the IEEE.  My panelists were all university professors who have integrated amateur radio into their engineering courses.  As discussed in my article "Amateur Radio in Education" (IEEE Microwaves, April 2016) the panel discussion centered around the value of hands-on understanding that amateur radio brings to engineering students.

Each school has its own implementation of amateur radio into their curricula.  UC Davis uses amateur radio for projects that need transmission i.e. to control drones.  Tribhuvan University uses amateur radio as a tool to teach RF principles, and for humanitarian purposes during earthquakes.  Carnegie Mellon University (both the Pittsburgh and Silicon Valley campuses) have active repeaters and host Field Day sites.  Cal Poly SLO also has a repeater, but they also use amateur radio so much in their courses that freshmen EE undergraduates are required to get Technician licenses - and I'm told that in the coming school year they'll begin requiring graduate students to get their General Class licenses.  I've named this policy the "Derickson Doctrine".

Presentations from each of my panelists are available for download:

Dr. Dennis Derickson AC0P, Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo (download)
Dr. Bob Iannucci W6EI, Carnegie Mellon University - Silicon Valley (download)
Dr. Xiaoguang Liu AI6DW, University of California - Davis (download)
Dr. Sanjeeb Panday 9N1SP, Tribhuvan University - Kathmandu Nepal (download)

Note: This panel was reported by ARRL news release thanks to Ward Silver's help.

Bay-Net at Maker Faire 2016

Maker Faire 2016 in San Mateo CA is complete.  We got a lot of very interested visitors to the booth, and a good portion of them were either not hams or were "ham-curious".

This year's focus for Bay-Net at Maker Faire was Software-Defined Radio and our projects are loosely grouped into three subtopics:

• Show use of low-cost SDR hardware with microcontroller platforms, primarily Raspberry Pi.  These projects are primarily focused on doing basic tasks like filter analysis, receiving FM radio, etc.  We're also showing use of low-cost SDR hardware running with inexpensive Android tablets such as Amazon's 7" Fire which often sells for only $39.99 and can be used to build a basic spectrum analyzer.
• Show applications of SDR hardware running on microcontrollers to do things like build APRS trackers, run azimuth/elevation rotors for tracking satellites, receive ADS-B info from commercial aircraft, and more.
• Show higher-end commercial SDRs for performance applications such as monitoring LTE.

Special thanks to the team that worked hard on this event: +Beric Dunn, +Bernard Van Haecke, +Derek Kozel, +Marcel Stieber, +Kenneth Finnegan, +Maria Pikusova, and Bob Somers.  In the days to come I'll be posting links to info about these projects, so follow and keep watching this blog.

Presentations
Beric K6BEZ : "Getting Started With SDR"
Pieter KK6VXV : "Receiving WX Satellite Signals w/ SDR"

Software/Apps
SDRTouch - Spectrum Analyzer app for Android on Google Play
GQRX - Spectrum Analyzer app for Linux on gqrx.dk
GNU Radio Companion on gnuradio.org

Hardware
SDR dongles (RTL-SDR, NooElec, etc.) on Amazon
Raspberry Pi 3 on Amazon
Raspberry Pi Touchscreens on Amazon

Update 22-May - Added presentation from Pieter and link to SDRTouch.  
Update 23-May - Added team roster, hardware and software/app sources

Amateur Radio in Education

This article references a panel session and amateur radio social that will occur on May 24th at IEEE's International Microwave Symposium (IMS2016) in San Francisco CA.  Tickets for IMS2016 may be purchased online: www.ims2016.org

Copyright notice: This article originally appeared in IEEE Microwaves Magazine, April 2016.  Authors: David Witkowski (W6DTW) and Suresh Ojha (W6KTM).  Download a PDF copy of the original.

Much has been said in recent years about the need for increased focus on scientific, technical, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States.  It’s argued that compared with students from other countries, U.S. students perform less well on tests; moreover, they often don’t fare well when competing with foreign students and immigrants for college admissions and jobs.

While there are counter arguments that a hyper-disciplined focus on math and science isn’t healthy, the obvious increase in foreign STEM students at major universities has led to calls for a shift in focus in U.S. primary and secondary education from trades and general education to college prep – specifically, prep for STEM degrees.

International student admission to University of California increased by 33% from 2013 to 2015
(Source: University of California & LA Times)

Shifting Educational Values

In making the shift from trades and general education, secondary schools in the United States have stopped offering practical electives and replaced them with advanced placement courses.  Auto shop, home economics, and sometimes even physical education are no longer required – and, in some schools, they’re not even offered as electives.  Electronics shop, a practical elective which for many older engineers was where we got our first exposure to amateur radio, has been swept away along with many other subjects not focused on the “college track”.

It can be argued that this is a good thing: it’s now increasingly difficult in the US to make a living with only a secondary-school diploma; obtaining a college ungraduated degree is now the minimal requirement for a majority of entry-level technical jobs.  In fact, most job postings in engineering now list a master’s degree in engineering or an M.B.A. as a basic requirement, with a Ph.D. often added as a preferred requirement.

The Value of Practical Skills

Given these trends in job requirements, many may suggest that we not allow our young people to waste school time on trade skills and focus instead on getting them into a trajectory which leads to advanced degrees.  Many undergraduate programs focus heavily on equipping students with the latest knowledge base of a rapidly changing electronics field – in a sense, the undergraduate program has replaced the trade skills aspect of secondary education.  Most advanced degree programs focus on theory and are taught using simulations and theoretical constructs – a course of study that often ignores the challenges of building real-world systems and fails to teach the practical troubleshooting and system-integration skills that form the basis of the technology on which our economy increasingly depends.

An internationally known Silicon Valley company, famous for having a very young employee demographic, has begun hiring older engineers as they expand their efforts beyond web apps and the cloud into smartphones, wearable devices, and semiconductors.  The reason is simple: making wireless systems and semiconductors requires practical skills in troubleshooting, system integration, and real-world design that can only be learned by a repeated doing-failing-redoing cycle.  And these aren’t skills that are taught in many master’s and Ph.D. degree programs.

Amateur Radio as a Hands-On Educational Tool

Practical experience building real-world systems is critical to a meaningful post-secondary education.  Private industry is also demanding engineers skilled in troubleshooting and system integration.  This is why amateur radio has increasingly become a popular tool for professors seeking to compliment theoretical understanding with practical circuit-building and system integration skills.  Amateur radio (or ham radio, as it is popularly called) offers postsecondary students a direct opportunity to apply the theory they learn in engineering courses.  Additionally, it gives them an appreciation for system-integration concepts as well as troubleshooting techniques.

These advantages are especially acute for RF and microwave engineering.  Many universities may not have spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, and other expensive test and measurement instruments available to supplement RF and microwave theory courses.  However amateur radio gives them a low-cost opportunity to engage students in building circuits and systems operating in the RF realm – and to teach them how to get things done with improvised equipment and minimal resources.

There are very few post-secondary curricula that allow universities and students to have the comprehensive “audio to antenna” experience – an approach which is possible with amateur radio.

Real World Examples

A number of universities, however, have noted this demand for graduates well versed in comprehensive electronics skills.  The following schools have responded to this demand by incorporating amateur radio into their curricula.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Known widely for its hands-on approach to technical education, Cal Poly Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) at San Luis Obispo – under the leadership of Dr. Dennis Derickson, chair of the school’s electrical engineering department – is notable for its work in designing and building satellites: they’ve launched eight and are currently building two more.  Because these satellites use amateur radio frequencies for uplink/downlink, students in the Cal Poly satellite project are required to have amateur radio licenses.  Other programs at Cal Poly are similarly practical and require students to be licensed.

University of California, Davis
The University of California (UC) campus at Davis has always had a practical electrical engineering program with a number of RF and microwave courses.  In 2009 Dr. Linda Katehi, well-known for her work in RF and microwave design, became chancellor of UC Davis, and the electrical engineering department has since become a recognized leader in millimeter-wave and THz research.  Undergraduates who participate in the Senior Design Project build a working Doppler radar, and professors like Dr. Xiaoguang (Leo) Liu have begun integrating amateur radio into their undergraduate and graduate project curricula.

Carnegie Mellon University
Amateur radio has been a constant aspect of student life at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.  The school’s amateur radio club was created in 1914, and the students on campus there today operate and maintain the W3VC repeater.  CMU’s satellite campus at Moffett Field in Silicon Valley offers a very hands-on, graduate-level engineering program; under the leadership of Dr. Robert Iannucci and Dr. Martin Griss, the students at CMU Silicon Valley with amateur radio licenses are given an opportunity to participate in unique research projects that focus on solving practical, real-world wireless engineering challenges.

Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu Nepal
Dr. Sanjeeb Panday and his students at Tribhuvan University’s Institute of Engineering have been on the forefront of a unique journey.  Nepal has been recovering from a terrible civil war and making a transition to a constitutional republic, and the country is only now beginning to allow amateur radio within their borders.  Under the leadership of Dr. Panday the number of licensed amateurs in Nepal has increased from only five to nearly one hundred, and his students were able to successfully install the country’s only VHF repeater system in midst of the major aftershock of the huge earthquake that devastated Nepal in April 2015.  Dr. Panday and his students have overcome numerous economic, social, and political obstacles because they recognize amateur radio’s potential as an educational tool.

Real World Value

Each of these universities utilizes distinct and innovative approaches to incorporate theory, design elements, and licensing in amateur radio into their coursework.  Increasing numbers of universities are adopting this approach.  The consequence of this work has been substantial and in the case of the work being done in Nepal, potentially life-saving.

Amateur Radio at IMS2016 – and Beyond

During IMS2016 there will be a moderated panel where professors from the universities described here discuss their experiences using amateur radio as a vehicle for teaching engineering electronics.  These instructors will share their motivations for using amateur radio, the way in which amateur radio is used in their curricula, and the impact this has had on graduates of their programs.  The panel session will be followed by a hosted social event for IMS2016 attendees who are also amateur radio operators.  

For over 100 years amateur radio has been a way for people to make friends and contacts in distant locations.  Increasingly, it is being used by universities to impart requisite skills in hands on troubleshooting, and system design and integration necessary for today’s engineering graduates.

It is increasingly difficult for employers to find talent with hands-on RF experience, and amateur radio experience aids in understanding radio systems and radio construction.  Many engineers in the field are amateur radio operators, and so amateur radio can be a good ice breaker during interviews.  Finally, networking within the amateur radio community can help young job seekers find career openings.

Happy to join the Ham Radio 360 family!

I'm super excited that Cale Nelson K4CDN to has included my updated blog on list of syndicated sites for his new HamRadio360.com community.  I've worked with Cale in the past as a guest of his Fo Time Podcast, and he's a great guy - with content from George KJ6VU and others, I expect Ham Radio 360 to grow quickly, and I'm glad I can be a part of that.

Update; Hoping that the search robots will pick up the fact that http://sparqi.blogspot.com/ is now here - you'd think so since Blogger is Google..?

New name, new look

Hi folks,

It's time for an update.  I've changed the URL of this blog, and given it a new look, in preparation for something which I can't yet talk about.  Suffice to say - it will be awesome.  I also fixed the problem with comments not displaying - beware of that Dynamic Views template.  Unfortunately, it looks like the changes caused all previous comments to disappear.  No matter - we move forward with anticipation of great things!

Kids and Amateur Radio

Did we manage to get a half dozen elementary school kids to pay attention to amateur radio?  Yes, yes we did.  How?

1. We arranged to set up a demo table at their school Science Fair.
2. We arranged to have young hams in nearby areas be on the air at that time, and had two young hams (one who attends the host school) run the radio.  We used a club callsign for the non-ham guests.
3. We booked our local repeater system and set a NO ADULTS policy for the operation.  Kids would only have to talk to kids.  

Myself and another adult ham were nearby monitoring with HTs to ensure Part 97 rules were followed.  Was there silliness?  Yep.  Poop jokes?  Yup.  At one point they all made up tactical callsigns for each other like "Cheeseburger" and "Side Salad".  It was great to see them having fun like this.  I think I'm going to start calling myself "Fish Sandwich" on the air.

Did they sometimes forget to identify w/ callsigns?  Yes, and when they were gently reminded about the rules they towed the line.  And then we backed off and let them continue by themselves.

Result: I now have two 5th graders asking to get their licenses.  One kid came over, initially immersed in his smartphone, and ended up on the air - phone off to the side, forgotten.

Why did this work?  Because instead of trying to entice kids into our adult interpretation of amateur radio, we created an environment where they could encounter amateur radio on their terms.  It's simply not true that kids aren't drawn to amateur radio.  They're just not big on hanging out with adults.

Big thanks to +Beric Dunn for his support with this.

RIP RadioShack

Just a few hours ago I placed what will be my last online order with RadioShack.  Rumors over the past week that the company will declare bankruptcy came true today when news hit that the New York Stock Exchange will delist RadioShack stock,

Some of the stores will be sold to Sprint, to be used as mobile phone retailers.  Other rumors are circulating, such as one in USA Today that Amazon might create "showroom" stores for technology items.

This is particularly sad news for me, and I suspect for many other hams.  As I wrote back in 2010 RadioShack was a big part of my childhood.  I went to the local store every day after school.  My first "consulting" job was delivering catalogs in exchange for store credit, which I used to buy my first real CB radio.  I learned about electronics from being around electronics, absorbing terminology and bits of knowledge from overheard conversations between customers and store employees.

RadioShack hung on for a long time, and tried to rally in the 21st century - they started selling Arduino/RPi/BeagleBone components, and created a set of revamped "concept/flagship" stores and invited Makers to showcase DIY gadgets in those stores.  In the end they couldn't compete with online retailers.  I have to admit that after I spent the day showcasing as a Maker in their Mountain View flagship store they gave me a generous amount of gift cards - which sat unused in my desk until today.  It's not that I haven't bought circuit components since then.  It's just that RadioShack is no longer my go-to source for such things.

There's an irony here.  My first and last transactions with RadioShack - separated by 42 years - were both paid for using store credit, not cash.

Droid Turbo Review: Disappointing

This is how Droid Turbo is marketed

This is what Droid Turbo is

I recently upgraded my Droid Ultra to a Droid Turbo.  There really wasn't a reason aside from Verizon's offer of a minimum $100 trade-in on any older phone - and I happened to have a Droid 2 which I kept purely as a backup phone.  My grand plan was to trade-in the Droid 2, and make the Ultra my backup.

Turns out after a few days getting acquainted I find that the Droid Turbo isn't a great phone, they made a bunch of tweaks and compromises which make little sense, and the mess Verizon made of my account during the transition is astounding.

Let's talk about the positives.  Droid Turbo has a great screen - high pixel density, great color, and a deeper black than the Droid Ultra.  It's only slightly larger than the Ultra, but the display makes it feel more like a tablet than a phone.  Battery life has been great - normally I'm hunting for a refresh charge right before dinner, but the Turbo is still above 50% and I've been on it for almost 12 hours.  It feels good in my hand, and I like the forward-facing speaker.  I also like their tweak of "Active Notifications" called "Moto" which shows multiple icons for notifications, where Active Notifications only showed the most recent.

My biggest complaint is with the Turbo's radios.  First and foremost, Turbo does not support simultaneous Voice + Data!  This is a huge problem in my eyes - apparently the phone does not have a dedicated CDMA radio for voice.  According to various peer/consumer forums Verizon will issue an update in a month or so that enables Advanced Calling 1.0 aka Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) and supposedly this will bring this so-called flagship phone into 2014.  It remains to be seen if the simultaneous Voice + Data will work when the phone doesn't have 4G LTE coverage, or for that matter if AC1.0 can seamlessly hand-off a call to a 3G or 2G site.

I've seen other radio oddities in the Turbo.  I wear a Pebble smartwatch and the Bluetooth connection was so unstable I had to turn off "loss of connection" alerts because I was getting them constantly - even when the phone was in my pocket.  GPS accuracy is notably degraded; in a side-by-side with my Ultra it's clearly off and tends to drift around.

More APs seen by another device

Droid Turbo sees these APs

Wi-Fi is also problematic.  I did a side-by-side comparison in the 2.4 GHz band and the Droid Turbo clearly sees fewer access points.  From what I can tell the Wi-Fi radio is almost 10 dB weaker on receive than other devices I tested.  I did not have an opportunity to test the 5 GHz band.  I will say on a positive note that Speedtest.net measurements were faster on the Droid Turbo versus the Ultra.

Looking at the GUI (aside from the aforementioned pixel density and clarity - which are great) I've found that some apps (notably Ingress) are having trouble registering screen taps.  It's not that the screen or the OS is lagged - it's just that certain actions such as tapping on a portal in Ingress just don't register.  I'm guessing that this may be fixable on the app development side, not the phone, but for now it's really annoying.

Turbo has a proximity/environment sensor feature which supposedly allows me to dismiss alerts/rings with a wave of my hand, however I find that it only works in ideal situations like when the display is facing up, and I'm in a well-lit room.  It doesn't dismiss if the phone is mounted in my dashboard holder, or in a dark room.  This wouldn't normally be a problem except that the default alert and ring are an amazingly loud and annoying musical tones - the first time I got a call was during dinner with my wife and I'd forgot to silence the ringer.  I sat there waving at the Turbo like an idiot while people at other tables (and my wife) glared at me.  For some reason the nearly universal trick of "tap the volume control to silence the phone" doesn't silence the alerts or the ringer.

Droid Turbo's "Command Center" widget is another disappointment.  It's a neat idea: weather, time, date, and battery level all in one, with pop-out drawers for weather forecast and upcoming calendar events.  Problem is that the widget is a 4x2 size so it consumes half the screen, and when the screen is off the drawers automatically retract.  Given that the widget takes up 4x2 regardless of whether the drawers are extended or not, this quickly went from "neat" to "annoying" - why not just leave the drawers extended?

On the business side Verizon managed to really screw up my account while processing this upgrade.  I was on a 2 GB plan with a 2 GB complimentary bump-up, and a 10% reduction on the monthly line charge.  The plan I had came with a Hotspot subscription.  I was assured by the corporate store rep that the upgrade would have no effect on my plan.  After the upgrade I got bumped down to 2 GB, my complimentary 2 GB bump-up disappeared, my 10% reduction disappeared, and I haven't been able to get my Hotspot reactivated despite calls to both Customer and Tech Support.  I've been so disappointed with the Droid Turbo that I tried to switch my service back to my Ultra - but Verizon's website states that I have a "pending order" which prevents changes to my account so I'm stuck with the Turbo for now.

I really wanted the Droid Turbo to be a great phone.  I suffered through the early Motorola models like the Droid and the slightly-better Droid 2, was mostly pleased with the RAZR Maxx, and was very happy with the Droid Ultra.  Droid Turbo is several steps backwards for the Motorola product line, and I think indicates that the transition to Lenovo leadership is having negative short-term effects.

AT&T - The Adventure Continues

Last weekend we had two visits from two AT&T techs, and another today.  The first visit was from a premises tech who concluded that our internal wiring was sub-standard, so he and I climbed around and drilled holes to run a length of CAT5e cable from the DMARC (aka MPOE) box to a new isolated jack.  He put a line filter into the DMARC itself, which makes the install very clean.  Afterwards he found that our feed line had a couple of bridge taps which would need to be removed, so he submitted a service request ticket for that.

Observation: The premises tech was a younger guy, and in the usual banter of running wire he told me he'd been in the US Marines where he did communications and technology work.  During the clean-up phase of the wire install the tech managed to staple into the CAT5e itself.  It happens, and it's not usually a big deal since you have four pairs to work with - you just pick another pair.  I suggested that we "ohm out" the wires since we still had easy access to the ends, and that way we could avoid a debug session later.  He didn't have an ohmmeter with him, which I thought was odd.  Checking the wire pairs is fairly easy - you strip the insulation from the ends, twist one end of each pair together, and then measure resistance of each pair.  If any are obviously higher than the others, that's your problem pair and you avoid it.  Turns out he had no experience with things like this!  His military technology education had been along the lines of "If this box goes bad, remove it and install a new box."  When I went through US Coast Guard electronics school in the early 80's we were taught basic electronics, Ohm's Law, circuit-level troubleshooting, and even vacuum tube circuits before moving on to systems-level work.  Clearly a major shift in military training has occurred since then, and not for the better.

On Sunday the line tech showed up.  He removed two bridge taps from our line, and also cleared out a rodent nest from the pole-top splice boot.  He declared the line clean, although the signal level seemed a bit marginal (about 10 - 11 dBm).  As the day went on I monitored the modem's diagnostic page and noted that we were getting a LOT of forward error correction (FEC) errors.  FEC errors are considered correctable errors (unlike CRC errors which are uncorrectable) but they still cause lower performance and indicate something is wrong.  Tuesday night the network went offline - the logged FEC count in 48 hours had reached almost 100,000 and the connection speed was below 1 Mbps.  I tested using the modem's diagnostics and saw IP errors, IPv6 errors, and a lot of DNS failures.  Back on the phone with AT&T...

By now I've been on the phone with AT&T enough (almost every day) that they've given me a special Tier 2 support number and a passcode for it.  This gets me straight into their domestic tech support line, which is nice.  Another call to Tier 2, more tests from their end, another tech visit scheduled.  Today's tech agreed that the FEC errors indicated a problem, and was about to call in an order to have my DSL line card swapped at the central office.  I asked him if he had seen a lot of problems with the NVG510 modem.  (He thought I'd already had a modem swap, but I hadn't.)  I asked him if he considered the NVG589 more stable.  The NVG589 is only for VDSL installs, but he said "Hold on." and came back with a new 5168NV modem.  From what I've read, these are the "go forward" modems which AT&T will standardize on since they support everything from ADSL up through VDSL2.  The 5168NV (datasheet) also offers 802.11n 2x2 MIMO, 400 mW Wi-Fi power, and has a dual-core processor which speeds up recovery from retrains and allows faster adaptation to spectral interference.  One side benefit of the 5168NV is that the downlink receiver has much better performance than the NVG510 - I'm seeing +18 dBm on the downlink versus the previous 10 - 11 dBm.  So far the performance has been very good, Netflix picture quality is a lot better, websites are more responsive, etc.

Thoughts on GoTenna

[Update Nov 30th 2016: The ARRL has asked Bay-Net to attempt a modification of the GoTenna for use in the amateur radio bands.  Also I should note that since I wrote this article, GoTenna has backed off on their performance claims to levels which are more in line with reality.  I'm looking forward to seeing the inside of these units and doing some real world testing.]

[Original Article posted July 20th 2014] GoTenna seems to be doing a good job of generating "buzz" for this proposed product - a cursory search of Google+ and Facebook turned up a HUGE number of posts.  Many people have forwarded this to me via email or social tagging.  The proles are calling it "Text messaging for CB radio".  facepalm

GoTenna's radio works in the MURS band - three channels at 151 MHz and two channels at 154 MHz.  Given what I know about their product, MURS rules will require them to operate on the two 154 MHz channels.  They say the product emits 2 watts, which with a 3 dB antenna would be 4 watts effective radiated power (ERP).  At that level they're going to have to undergo safety exposure testing, which is expensive - I guess this is why they're crowd-funding the project.

To be fair - GoTenna has an engineering advantage in that they're not dealing with large data streams - they send GPS coordinates, text messages (< 200 characters), and it's not real-time.  They claim 20 - 30 mile range in a "typical" urban environment - I'm struggling with the idea that something which emits 4 watts ERP can give you 20 - 30 mile urban range.

Coding gain from a forward error correction engine could help, but I can't imagine an effective coding gain of more than 10 dB.  (The device is battery-powered, and claims a 30 hours continuous on time - processors which could give them > 10 dB coding gain are going to wipe out a battery fairly fast.)  Let's be generous and say their coding gain 10 dB - this gives effectively 40 watts.  I suppose depending on your definition of "urban" this might be enough to cover 20 - 30 miles.  A more reasonable coding gain will be in the 6 dB range, which means effectively 16 watts - and I don't see 16 watts covering urban areas very well.

Here's a post on Make.com from Raphael Abrams, the GoTenna RF designer: http://goo.gl/L5rZ2e

GoTenna claims that the device can be used in-flight on commercial airliners.  This is a Bad Idea™, and I don't see the FAA signing off on this any time soon.

Lots of speculation on GoTenna right now in the radio community, but not many answers to the head-scratcher questions.

Sigh...

Recently I switched our DSL from Earthlink to AT&T U-Verse, and bundled the plan with a U-Verse Voice line.  I was somewhat reluctant to do so, given how for years I've believed that in a major emergency a copper POTS line with 48 VDC sourced from the central office is a better idea than a VOIP line with a four-hour battery backup.  However the cost savings were too good to pass up, E-911 is finally deploying, and 75% of the family have their amateur radio licenses.  If the poo-poo hits the rotating blade, I think we'll be OK - So bye-bye POTS line.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the service I've received.  The install went very well, and when the tech realized I used to work in telecom he even offered to double-bond my pairs so I now have a nice low-resistance line.  45 Mbps possible to a local fiber loop, I'm seeing about 30 Mbps effective with higher rates during the night.  Every customer service agent I've spoken to has been polite and knowledgable, and they seemed genuinely interested in making sure I'm happy with U-Verse.

Of course, I don't believe for a second that the Death Star has been magically transformed into a chirpy little startup full of love, compassion, and (with apologies to +Sandra Meow and +Paul Lannuier) cute cat GIFs.  The tiger can't change its stripes.  They're just hiding their megacorporate stupidity under a veneer of "We Wuv U" until I'm past my 30 day no-risk trial.  Which is why I'm not very surprised by today's incident.

Our U-Verse service was installed on 7-July.  Our old POTS service billing date was the 13th of each month.  I should have received a pro-rated refund on the extra five days, but I wasn't going to sweat that.  Then the 13th rolls around and I get a bill for my old POTS line.  I call the 800 number, wait on hold for 15 minutes, they quack at me for 10 minutes, and then tell me I need to speak with the other people in the POTS line department.  Call is transferred, gets lost in transit, call drops.  I call back, get through to someone, but their system starts sending DTMF tone sequences over and over again, so I have to hang up.  Call back again.  This time I get a human, and I explain the situation.  The following conversation occurs after I ask why I'm being billed for a month of my old POTS line:

• Agent: "That's just the way AT&T billing works."  
• Me: "I'm sorry, but I'm confused.  I switched to U-Verse on July 7th.  This bill is for services from July 13th through August 12th.  I'm already paying for U-Verse as of July 7th.  Why would I also pay for my old line?"
• Agent: "Let me see what I can do..."  [Much typing in background ensues]
• Agent: "Since you're a valued customer, I can offer you a credit of 50% on your bill."
• Me: "Well, I appreciate your offer, but you haven't really answered my question.  I'm paying for U-Verse now.  And I'm happy with it, by the way.  Why are you asking me to pay for my old service too?"
• Agent: "That's just the way AT&T works."
• Me: "You seem like a nice guy.  Let me ask you this...  Just between you and me.  Does this bill make sense?  I understand that you're just following company guidelines given to you by your boss.  If our roles were reversed, would this make sense to you?  Let's set aside the idea that this is quote-unquote "the way AT&T works."  Would you think this bill is fair?"
• Agent: [Pause] "Since I see that you switched to U-Verse, I can credit you for the entire bill."

I realize this is a naive notion, but wouldn't it be better if I didn't have to spend 30 minutes on the phone arguing for fairness in billing?  Clearly it's within their power to NOT try to double bill me.  This wasn't a mistake; the agent said clearly it's "the way AT&T works".  Had he said "Sorry, this is a mistake, I'll credit you in full right now." I would have accepted it as a mistake.  Did they think I wouldn't notice?  Why try to double bill me in the first place?  Why risk making me angry?  Why offer me 50% credit, then cave to 100% credit when it's clear I'm not going to back down?  I've been happy with U-Verse so far, even telling friends that I'm pleased so far with the equipment performance and the customer service.  That's gone out the window now.  I'm not sure if the agent realized I was still within my 30 day no-risk trial, or if maybe I got through to him on a personal level.  (The negotiator in me would like to believe it was the latter, of course.)  Regardless of what happened with the agent, the fact remains - this was a deliberate attempt by AT&T to take my money under false pretenses, and I'm unlikely to trust them again.

Workaround: Mac OSX Mavericks and Verizon UML290

I'm not a Mac guy (used to be, back in the 90's) but lately I've been using a MacBook Pro pending what I hope will be some interesting Chromebook releases after Google I/O.  Verizon's UML290VW 4G USB modem doesn't like to play well with the OSX VZAccess Manager.  If you're having trouble, here are some tricks to resolving this.

The problem shows up during the second connection, after being connected successfully once.  The VZAccess Manager app either doesn't recognize the modem, or it won't connect.  Unplugging and reinserting the modem doesn't help.  Nor does unplugging the modem, shutting down VZAccess Manager, and then launching VZAccess Manager and reinserting the modem.

The trick to resolving is in the process table, what OSX calls "Activity Monitor"  Steps to resolve:

1. Unplug the modem
2. Shut down VZAccess Manager
3. Open the Activity Monitor
4. Look for the process "vzwwirelessd"
5. Double-click on the process, click "Quit", then click "Force Quit"
6. Launch VZAccess Manager
7. Insert the modem

Apparently the Verizon daemon is unstable and needs to be kill -9'd before it can work again.  It's a fiddly and annoying fix, but it works.

Update 1-Dec-2014: OSX Yosemite breaks VZAccess Manager so it doesn't work with the UML290 at all.  No word on when (or if) Verizon will release an update to VZAM that resolves this issue. 

Net Neutrality?

Now that I'm restarting Oku Solutions (my consulting business) one of the things which has become painfully obvious is that my current broadband isn't up to the task.  Four years ago it worked fairly well, save for the occasional need for a modem reboot.  Now it locks up and/or slows down a few times a day.  Not good given that a lot of what I'm doing now uses cloud-based apps which don't always offer offline mode.  God help me if the kids decide to start streaming something.  I've given Earthlink an ultimatum - fix the problem or be replaced.  They promised a new modem (for which I've yet to receive the UPS tracking number) but I'm not hopeful.

So today when an AT&T U-verse reseller showed up at my door I actually went outside to speak with them.  After a lot of discussion it seemed like a reasonable deal; free installation, $50 gift card, 30-day trial, etc.  I figured I'd order, test it out in parallel with the new Earthlink modem, make my decision in the next 30 days.  Since U-verse uses a wireless link from the fiber hub, I could have both at the same time, right?  No conflict, right?

Nope.

Turns out that AT&T and Earthlink have some kind of arrangement which dates back to the early days of DSL.  Since Earthlink uses AT&T's wire to my house, they've agreed to some kind of "no poaching" agreement.  I would have to cancel Earthlink, wait ten days, order U-verse and wait for that to install.  Time offline = about 14 days.

Nope.  Since when do I not have free market choice?  Because 40 years ago Ma Bell ran a chunk of copper wire to my house, I'm not able to buy what I want?