Ham radio news
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Haifuraiya Flight Hardware Lands in Remote Lab
Information about our terrestrial design progress vs our flight design progress, and why we will have a new development board in Remote Labs West.Haifuraiya is our microwave-band amateur radio satellite and terrestrial transponder design. Up until now, we’ve used the zcu102 FPGA development board from Xilinx, fitted with an Analog Devices ADRV9002 radio card, to … Continue reading "Haifuraiya Flight Hardware Lands in Remote Lab"
Solutions Released for Lunar Descent CTF
Successfully debuted at BSides San Diego 2026, ORI’s Lunar Descent CTF has been updated with additional documentation and example solutions One of the many activities that we do at ORI is to participate in and host contests and puzzles. Capture the Flag competitions (CTFs) are a particular type of competition commonly encountered in the cybersecurity … Continue reading "Solutions Released for Lunar Descent CTF "
ORI futureGEO HAMRADIO 2026 Workshop Report
ORI participated in the futureGEO Community Workshop at HAMRADIO 2026. Held annually in Friedrichshafen, Germany, HAMRADIO is the largest amateur radio event in Europe, attracting 15,000 people from 50 countries. The workshop was 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm on 27 June 2026 and filled the capacity 40 room. The description of the workshop was “ESA, … Continue reading "ORI futureGEO HAMRADIO 2026 Workshop Report"
ORI futureGEO White Paper
OPULENT VOICE AND HAIFURAIYA, AN OPEN-SOURCE TECHNICAL BASELINE FOR THE NEXT GEOSTATIONARY AMATEUR RADIO PAYLOAD A white paper for presentation at the futureGEO Community WorkshopHAM RADIO 2026, FriedrichshafenSaturday, 27 June 2026Hosted by AMSAT-DL e.V. with the ESA Satellite Communications Group Author: Michelle Thompson W5NYV on behalf of ORIA 501(c)(3) all-volunteer open-source nonprofit https://www.openresearch.institute Version 1.0 … Continue reading "ORI futureGEO White Paper"
ORI futureGEO One Page Summary
OPULENT VOICE AND HAIFURAIYAA Working Open-Source Path for the Next GEO Amateur RadioOpen Research Institute (ORI), a 501(c)(3) all-volunteer open-source nonprofit, https://www.openresearch.institute Submitted to the futureGEO Community WorkshopHAM RADIO 2026, FriedrichshafenSaturday, 27 June 2026Michelle Thompson (W5NYV) CEOPaul Williamson (KB5MU) Remote Labs Lead OUR POSITION A digitally regenerative, software-defined GEO amateur radio payload is the right … Continue reading "ORI futureGEO One Page Summary"
Amateur Stewardship of a Historic Radio Observatory
Final version of our article about Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. https://www.openresearch.institute/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/A_Day_at_Dwingeloo_Final.pdf
EVE/EME Update and Call for Participation
For the upcoming inferior conjunction of Venus and Earth, there is a growing community of amateurs that are bound and determined to get a communications signal bounced off Venus and received here on Earth. This is EVE. The inferior conjunction is when Venus and Earth are the closest together.* This is the right time to … Continue reading "EVE/EME Update and Call for Participation"
Arcanum: Phase 1
The NEC input parsing and phase 1 (geometry) are finished and pass unit tests, with the work that the community has done so far. This is an excellent achievement, but it needs to stand up under the sort of testing and expectations that someone exactly like you, a person reading out of interest in open … Continue reading "Arcanum: Phase 1"
Arcanum: ORI’s New Open Source Antenna Simulation Engine
By Michelle Thompson, W5NYV There is a title of software that almost every antenna modeler has heard of. NEC-2, the Numerical Electromagnetics Code, was released into the public domain by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1981. For decades it has been the engine underneath tools like EZNEC, 4NEC2, and xnec2c. It is the mathematical baseline … Continue reading "Arcanum: ORI’s New Open Source Antenna Simulation Engine"
Inner Circle Newsletter March 2026
All the articles from the March 2026 Inner Circle Newsletter in one place. The Case of the Missing Transmit Power How a 4-bit Misalignment Stole 24 dB from the Opulent Voice Modem The Opulent Voice modem for the LibreSDR graduated from the lab to the field in late March 2026. Instead of coaxial cables connecting … Continue reading "Inner Circle Newsletter March 2026"
ORI Invited to Present Open Source Reference Design for IEEE P1954 UAV Communications Standard
Open Research Institute has been invited to present at the IEEE P1954 working group meeting on April 8th. Our topic: how to build an open source reference implementation for the emerging standard on self-organizing, spectrum-agile UAV communications. What is IEEE P1954? IEEE P1954 defines architecture and protocols that allow unmanned aerial vehicles to automatically form … Continue reading "ORI Invited to Present Open Source Reference Design for IEEE P1954 UAV Communications Standard"
Open Research Institute granted Amateur Radio Club Call W6ORI
ORI now has its very own amateur radio club call. Membership in ORI’s amateur radio club is free. Just sign up for the Inner Circle Newsletter. Below is the poster announcing the debut of W6ORI. The announcement was made in RF Village at BSides San Diego, held at SDSU Montezuma Hall on 4 April 2026.
BSides San Diego 2026 RF Village Demonstrations
This is what development looks like! Open Research Institute organized and executed the RF Village at BSides San Diego on 4 April 2026. This highly anticipated sold-out annual event has a focus on cybersecurity and DIY problem solving. Held at Montezuma Hall at San Diego State University, the one-day event had multiple speaking tracks, at … Continue reading "BSides San Diego 2026 RF Village Demonstrations"
Lunar Descent, the BSides San Diego 2026 RF Village Capture the Flag (CTF) from ORI
A capture-the-flag challenge based on a real signal processing problem in a radar altimeter! https://github.com/OpenResearchInstitute/lunar-descent-ctf Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) designed a Ka band radar altimeter (KaRA) that guided Chandrayaan-3 to a soft lunar landing on 23 August 2023. The Radar Altimeter Processor (RAP) computes altitude and velocity from FMCW chirp signals, running on a … Continue reading "Lunar Descent, the BSides San Diego 2026 RF Village Capture the Flag (CTF) from ORI"
The Case of the Missing Transmit Power
How a 4-bit Misalignment Stole 24 dB from the Opulent Voice Modem The Opulent Voice modem for the LibreSDR graduated from the lab to the field in late March 2026. Instead of coaxial cables connecting transmitter to receiver, and receiver to transmitter, we now connected our brave little radios to filters and outdoor antennas. And, … Continue reading "The Case of the Missing Transmit Power"
Inner Circle Newsletter November-December 2025
Contents How to Train Your PLUTOA Picture is Worth a Thousand WordsOpulent Voice Update: Abandon Ship!Opulent Voice Update: From Pluto to LibreOpulent Voice Update: From Boot Failure to RF TransmissionOpulent Voice Update: Correlator UpgradeORI Regulatory Update: FCC Proposes Deleting BPL RulesAugust-November Puzzle Solution How to Train Your Pluto by Paul Williamson KB5MU Have you ever … Continue reading "Inner Circle Newsletter November-December 2025"
Inner Circle Newsletter January-February 2026
Contents Welcome!DVB-S2 Receiver for HaifuraiyaA Picture is Worth a Thousand WordsInner Circle Sphere of ActivityRolling Dice Over RadioFour Dice Bugs and a MicrophoneUpgrading a Hard-Decision Viterbi Decoder to Soft-DecisionRetevis RT86, Hamcation Sponsorship, and 70cm Band ProtectionIs Amateur Radio an Alternative to Age-Restricted Social Media? Welcome to the Debugging Issue! It’s February 2026 and this issue … Continue reading "Inner Circle Newsletter January-February 2026"
Monument Peak Tower Collapse
February 2026 Storm Takes Down Communications Infrastructure on Mount Laguna, CA, USA by Sudoku Ham for ORI At exactly 10:00 AM on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, a communications tower on Monument Peak in the Laguna Mountains was blown over during a powerful wind event, captured in real time by a nearby wildfire camera system. The … Continue reading "Monument Peak Tower Collapse"
Rolling Dice Over Radio: Games, Community, and an Extensible Command System for Interlocutor
Building a framework for shared activities on the Opulent Voice Protocol Michelle Thompson, W5NYV Walk into many repeater nets or tune across the bands and you may find the same small group of regulars having the same conversations. Newcomers often report that the airwaves don’t feel as welcoming as they should. That there’s no obvious … Continue reading "Rolling Dice Over Radio: Games, Community, and an Extensible Command System for Interlocutor"
Four Dice Bugs and a Microphone
Debugging the Interlocutor Command System Michelle Thompson, W5NYV We added a “simple” feature to Interlocutor’s web interface and spent more time fighting the browser than writing the feature. Here is our debugging war story from the Opulent Voice Protocol project. A companion article in this newsletter describes the new slash-command system for Interlocutor. This is … Continue reading "Four Dice Bugs and a Microphone"
Retevis RT86, Hamcation Sponsorship, and 70cm Band Protection
A Technical Analysis This analysis examines concerns regarding Retevis sponsorship of Orlando Hamcation 2026 and the RT86 radio’s potential to facilitate illegal business operations on the 70cm amateur band. The concern is real. The Retevis RT86 holds only FCC Part 15B certification. This certification is for receivers and unintentional radiators. Yet, the radio is marketed … Continue reading "Retevis RT86, Hamcation Sponsorship, and 70cm Band Protection"
Is Amateur Radio an Alternative to Age-Restricted Social Media?
Those of us at Open Research Institute think the answer is overwhelmingly yes. Amateur radio occupies a legally and structurally distinct space that makes it essentially immune to age verification laws as currently written, while providing exactly the kind of meaningful social and technical connection these laws threaten to eliminate. The age verification laws sweeping … Continue reading "Is Amateur Radio an Alternative to Age-Restricted Social Media?"
The Quest for the DVB-S2 Receiver
Calling All Adventurers: Help Us Complete the dvb_fpga Repository Rolling for Initiative Fellow adventurers of the amateur radio realm, we have a quest of legendary proportions before us. The dvb_fpga repository, Open Research Institute’s open-source FPGA implementation of DVB-S2 components, sits at a critical juncture. The transmitter side has been conquered, tested, and proven in … Continue reading "The Quest for the DVB-S2 Receiver"
Upgrading a Hard-Decision Viterbi Decoder to Soft-Decision: A Case Study in FPGA Debugging
This article documents the process of upgrading a working hard-decision Viterbi decoder to soft-decision decoding in an FPGA-based MSK modem implementing the Opulent Voice protocol. Soft-decision decoding provides approximately 2-3 dB of coding gain over hard-decision, which is significant for satellite communications and weak signal work where every dB matters. We describe the architectural changes, … Continue reading "Upgrading a Hard-Decision Viterbi Decoder to Soft-Decision: A Case Study in FPGA Debugging"
ORI Regulatory Update: FCC Proposes Deleting BPL Rules
The FCC’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative proposes removing the entire Access Broadband over Power Line (BPL) regulatory framework (Part 15 Subpart G) from the Code of Federal Regulations. The reasoning: BPL was never successfully commercialized, so the rules are dead letter. This item is scheduled for the December 18, 2025 FCC Open Meeting. For those … Continue reading "ORI Regulatory Update: FCC Proposes Deleting BPL Rules"
Opulent Voice Update: Correlator Upgrade
How we went from theory to gates in optimizing the frame synchronization for Opulent Voice. Finding the beginning of a data frame in a noisy radio channel is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Except, the haystack is constantly shifting, and some of the hay looks suspiciously like needles. For the Opulent Voice … Continue reading "Opulent Voice Update: Correlator Upgrade"
Opulent Voice Update: From Boot Failure to RF Transmission
Porting the Opulent Voice MSK modem from PlutoSDR to LibreSDR hit a hard wall. The PlutoSDR uses a different digital interface internally than the LibreSDR. Part of this new interface (LVDS) is a tuning algorithm. The tuning is needed to get the interface timing calibrated. The transmission tuning algorithm failed consistently during boot. This transmission … Continue reading "Opulent Voice Update: From Boot Failure to RF Transmission"
Opulent Voice Update: From Pluto to Libre
Once the decision was made to find a larger FPGA, we had to decide what development platform we should move to. There are many choices. We have multiple FPGA development boards, ranging from the Basys 3 (33,280 logic units) to the ZCU102 (equivalent to 600,000 logic units). But, in order to continue development, we really … Continue reading "Opulent Voice Update: From Pluto to Libre"