Twitter: Yet Another Web Thing

I was just starting to play around with Twitter, mostly to understand what it does. I have been reading about it in the PC magazines and hearing about it via various tech podcasts. About the same time, I noticed that Jeff KE9V mentioned it on his blog.

Twitter is another form of Internet communication commonly referred to as "social networking." Back before the Internet was invented, our social network consisted of actually talking with people, usually face-to-face or maybe on the telephone. For many amateur radio enthusiasts, we also used wireless radio technology to chat. (Remember when "wireless" meant big iron radios that only qualified experts could use?) Of course, mostly we chat about our radios, so some people question the meaningfulness of that particular social network.

Then the Internet and email came along. Your email address book quickly becomes the definition of your email social network. Email distribution lists popped up for many topics and interests groups ("social networks"). More recently, Yahoo! Groups has attracted hundreds of different ham radio groups to that system. Yahoo! Groups provides file sharing and other features, in addition to the usual email list.

Somewhere along the line, sites such as AOL popularized the Instant Messaging (IM) concept. This was initially just text messaging but more recent versions of IM include voice messaging and file sharing.

Real social networking sites combine a wide range of features such as chat, email, video, file sharing and blogging to allow you to "keep in touch" with people and issues you care about. The most popular social network sites in the US are Facebook and MySpace. These sites let you define who you are connected to and who you want within your inner circle. Like most college-age students, my kids have latched onto Facebook as the way to connect with their friends and share photos and information. (I recently got a Facebook account but my daughters are not sure that this is a good idea....they said something about parents stalking their kids.)

Enter Twitter. Twitter is basically a microblog that lets you spit out the latest thing on your mind....what you are doing, what you are thinking, what you just discovered. It is a random flow of consciousness....or drivel....up to 140 characters at a time. Anyone interested can "follow" you and your comments. It has the flavor of a social network because you define who you want to see comments from (presumably related to people / issues you are interested in). See this video for a quick tutorial on Twitter.

OK, so what does this have to do with ham radio? Every one of these systems, from email to Yahoo! groups to twitter, have ham radio enthusiasts using them. In other words, there are communities, I mean "social networks", that relate to amateur radio. The problem is that most of them are struggling to reach critical mass. Yahoo! Groups, which is fairly limited and has a number of issues, has gotten over this hurdle. The others are a bit hit and miss.

I am not sure where this leads and how useful this stuff is. For me personally....I am overstimulated. There are too many systems, too many emails, too many logins/profiles to create and maintain.

Now let me get back to twittering.
http://twitter.com/robtwitte

73, Bob K0NR

My Twitter Feed - robtwitte

More News on BPL

The Dallas Morning News reported that Broadband Over Power Lines Plan is Dead in Dallas because Current Communications is bailing out of its plan to offer internet service via BPL. However, Oncor is going to buy the equipment from Current and use it to help manage the power grid. This is consistent with recent trends in the BPL industry that are emphasizing using BPL as part of a "smart grid" strategy and deemphasizing operating as an Internet Service Provider.

An ARRL news article points out BPL is not going away in Dallas but (more importantly) the BPL technology from Current is believed to be "ham friendly." The reason for this is that Current uses the Homeplug standard on the power lines that go into a residence, which notches out the HF amateur bands, not including 60 Meters. (By the way, the ARRL lab....which basically means Ed Hare W1RFI....got involved with the Homeplug standard early and influenced them to implement this notching.) Where Current equipment is in use, there have been no amateur radio interference complaints.

An article at itbusinessedge.com poses the question "Is it Lights Out for BPL?" Very likely.

In the mean time, the FCC got its hand slapped by the U.S. Court of Appeals for their mishandling of the BPL rulemaking process.

Closer to home in Colorado, Xcel Energy made this announcement:

Xcel Energy announces intended site of Smart Grid City: Boulder, Colo. to become first fully integrated "smart" city in the nation

The current electric grid has served us well for the last half century. But the future requires a technology revolution.

The next-generation electricity grid will allow our company to better meet growing demands, address environmental challenges, maximize available resources and optimize the entire energy system. Ultimately, a “smarter” grid helps us serve our customers by creating more options for managing personal energy use, habits and costs.

Their list of partners in the Smart Grid Consortium includes Current Group, which seems to imply that BPL may be part of the system deployment. It is not clear from their press release that Xcel will be offering internet service to the general public. However, I have heard from a reliable source that Xcel has been telling customers in Boulder that broadband internet service is part of their plan.

You can see the appeal of a Smart Grid approach with all of the focus on "being green." Managing the power grid and energy demand is one way to get the most out of an electric utility. If a utility can gain some extra revenue by selling broadband internet, that's even better.

The good news is that the Current Group technology seems to be OK from a ham radio point of view. Other users of the HF spectrum may see things differently.

73, Bob K0NR

2008 Colorado QSO Party

The Colorado QSO Party will be back again in 2008, this time a little later in the year (Sept 20-21). This radio contest was re-established in 2007 by the Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Association, with help from a number of clubs and individuals around the state. Complete rules and other information are available at the contest web page.

Make your calendars now for a fun radio event in September.

73, Bob K0NR

Girls, Ham Radio and Diet Dew

I just stumbled onto this video where three of my favorite things come together: girls, ham radio and Diet Mountain Dew.

Let me explain. When I say girls, I mean the three women that have let me live in the same house with them for decades (my wife and two daughters). You know about the ham radio part and Diet Mountain Dew is the low cal version of the sugar-plus-caffeine overload drink.

Anyway, take a look at this video:

73, Bob K0NR

Peanut, Rooster and Steve N0TU Head Up Mt Herman

Mountaintop radio operating is one my favorite ham radio activities. In particular, there is a 9000 foot mountain within a short drive/hike from my house called Mt Herman. It is a great hike in the summer to get a little exercise and some great views. Lately, I have also been hiking or snowshoeing up there in the winter for the ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes. See my blog posting on the 2007 January expedition.

Some time ago, I discovered that Steve N0TU also likes to operate radios from Mt Herman. I lean toward VHF operating while Steve takes along HF QRP. Steve also takes along Peanut and Rooster, his two goats. Lately, he has made a few videos of his adventures with Goat-portable ham radio.

Take a look at the most recent one:

73, Bob K0NR

FCC Rejects Request for Amateur Frequencies

In the Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm department, Miller Motorsports of Utah requested Special Temporary Authority to use a handful of frequencies in the 70 cm amateur radio band for a race to be held at the end of May. I guess they didn't think these frequencies were in use, so they just asked the FCC for authorization to use them: 448.525, 448.650, 448.060, 448.290 and 448.610 MHz.

The ARRL objected and the FCC turned down the request, as reported by the ARRL web site.

This story really had me scratching my head. How could someone put together a proposal like this in one of the more popular ham bands? Then it occurred to me that the Amateur Radio Service is authorized to use the 70 cm band on a secondary basis. The primary user is the Federal radiolocation service. (See FCC Part 97.301) It seems that the ham radio community often forgets this...even though we have lots of repeaters and simplex operation on the 440 MHz band, we have a secondary status on the band.

So maybe they looked around and figured that the radiolocation service wasn't all that active, making these frequencies a good choice for race communciations. Of course, the Miller Motorsports proposal was a poorly formed idea and the FCC made the right call by rejecting it.

73, Bob K0NR