Opportunities This Week at ORI

Greetings all!

What do you need help with this week?

Here’s some opportunities at ORI.

1) Pierre and Ahmet are looking for people to help with mobile app design on Ribbit.

The Ribbit Radio app is in both Android and Apple testing. The updates to Rattlegram are incorporated and the app is functional on both platforms. We have had excellent response for test teams and things are moving forward.

To make the app as great as it can be, we could use some additional human resources for UX/UI/code development. If this sounds like something you are interested in, please join #ribbit on our Slack or write to me directly and I’ll get you in touch with the team leads.

2) DEFCON volunteers for the booth/exhibit. We’ve got just enough people to cover it. It’s a great event. We have solid support from RF Village and we advertise to Ham Radio Village. If you have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a chance to do something for ORI, this is the best event of the year.

https://defcon.org/ for details about DEFCON 10-13 August 2023
https://wirelessvillage.ninja/ for details about our Village, RF Hackers Sanctuary.

3) FPGA designs for Haifuraiya and Neptune. Want to use MATLAB/Simulink, VHDL, and Verilog to make open source digital communications designs for aerospace, terrestrial, and drones? These designs run on updated FPGA stations in ORI Remote Labs, and everything is on the microwave amateur radio bands. When you see microwave frequencies mentioned, then it’s good to also say that “we use these bands or lose them”. We’ve got plenty to do. Get in touch on #haifuraiya or #neptune on Slack or to any ORI director.

4) Meander Dipole construction phase. Project Dumbbell explores an overlooked HF antenna design. There’s been strong interest in these designs from multiple people (some of which are on this list), clubs, and organizations. We need to build the designs that MATLAB says look pretty good. Time to make it work over the air and write up some construction and measured performance articles.
As always, there’s plenty more going on, but these projects have some specific needs, today.

Thank you to everyone that supports our work. I’d like to especially thank the IEEE and ARRL for being excellent partners to ORI.

-Michelle Thompson

April 27, 2023

Open Source Digital Radio IEEE Group Announcement

A new #opensource group for #digital #communications has formed in #IEEE. This looks to be the first dedicated Open Source #hamradio friendly group in largest engineering professional society in the world. ORI will be sponsoring activities and supporting volunteers.

You do not need to be a member of #IEEE to join the Collabratec workspace linked below.

https://ieee-collabratec.ieee.org/app/workspaces/8637/IEEE-Open-Source-Digital-Radio-Group-San-Diego-Section/todos

April 25, 2023

Project Neptune

Neptune is an open source implementation of an open protocol for high-throughput multimedia drone communications from Open Research Institute. This protocol directly competes against the proprietary designs from DJI.

Implementation prototypes use the Xilinx Ultrascale+ and Analog Devices 9002 RFSOC. These development boards are accessible at no cost through ORI Remote Labs West. Amateur radio bands will be used to the fullest extent. Full Vivado and MATLAB licenses are included.

A review of the OFDM-based physical layer draft specification will happen shortly and invitations are going out now. Participants must be proficient with the design review process, understand OFDM, accept our developer and participant code of conduct, and support open source work.

To join as a participant please visit https://openresearch.institute/getting-started

Join the #neptune channel on ORI Slack.

To keep informed about our work you should know about our newsletter at https://www.openresearch.institute/newsletter-subscription/

Thank you to everyone that has made this innovative and groundbreaking project possible. We deeply appreciate your support and we will be successful with this design.

April 11, 2023April 11, 2023

Inner Circle Newsletter April 2023

Welcome to our newsletter for April 2023!

Inner Circle is your update on what’s happening at and adjacent to Open Research Institute. We’re a non-profit dedicated to open source digital radio work. We support technical and regulatory efforts. A major beneficiary of this work is the amateur radio services. Sign up at this link http://eepurl.com/h_hYzL

Amaranth in practice: a case study with Maia SDR

Maia SDR is a new open-source FPGA-based SDR project focusing on the ADALM Pluto. The longer term goals of the project are to foster open-source development of SDR applications on FPGA and to promote the collaboration between the open-source SDR and FPGA communities. For the time being, focusing on developing a firmware image for the ADALM Pluto that uses the FPGA for most of the signal processing provides realistic goals and a product based on readily available hardware that people can already try and use during early stages of development.

The first version of Maia SDR was released on Februrary 2023, though its development started in September 2022. This version has a WebSDR-like web interface that displays a realtime waterfall with a sample rate of up to 61.44Msps and is able to make IQ recordings at that rate to the Pluto DDR (up to a maximum size of 400MiB per recording). These recordings can then be downloaded in SigMF format.

Exploring the RF world in the field with a portable device is one of the goals of Maia SDR, so its web UI is developed having in mind the usage from a smartphone and fully supports touch gestures to zoom and scroll the waterfall. A Pluto connected by USB Ethernet to a smartphone already give a quite capable and portable tool to discover and record signals.

The following figure shows a screenshot of the Maia SDR web user interface. More information about the project can be found in https://maia-sdr.net

Amaranth

Amaranth is an open-source HDL based in Python. The project is led by Catherine “whitequark”, who is one of the most active and prolific developers in the open-source FPGA community. Amaranth was previously called nMigen, as it was initially developed as an evolution of the Migen FHDL by M-Labs.

I cannot introduce Amaranth any better than Catherine, so I will just cite her words from the README and documentation.

The Amaranth project provides an open-source toolchain for developing hardware based on synchronous digital logic using the Python programming language, as well as evaluation board definitions, a System on Chip toolkit, and more. It aims to be easy to learn and use, reduce or eliminate common coding mistakes, and simplify the design of complex hardware with reusable components.

The Amaranth toolchain consists of the Amaranth hardware definition language, the standard library, the simulator, and the build system, covering all steps of a typical FPGA development workflow. At the same time, it does not restrict the designer’s choice of tools: existing industry-standard (System)Verilog or VHDL code can be integrated into an Amaranth-based design flow, or, conversely, Amaranth code can be integrated into an existing Verilog-based design flow.

The Amaranth documentation gives a tutorial for the language and includes as a first example the following counter with a fixed limit.

from amaranth import *

class UpCounter(Elaboratable):
    """
    A 16-bit up counter with a fixed limit.

    Parameters
    ----------
    limit : int
        The value at which the counter overflows.

    Attributes
    ----------

    en : Signal, in
        The counter is incremented if ``en`` is asserted, and retains
        its value otherwise.
    ovf : Signal, out
        ``ovf`` is asserted when the counter reaches its limit.
    """
    def __init__(self, limit):
        self.limit = limit

        # Ports
        self.en  = Signal()
        self.ovf = Signal()

        # State
        self.count = Signal(16)

    def elaborate(self, platform):
        m = Module()

        m.d.comb += self.ovf.eq(self.count == self.limit)

        with m.If(self.en):
            with m.If(self.ovf):
                m.d.sync += self.count.eq(0)
            with m.Else():
                m.d.sync += self.count.eq(self.count + 1)

        return m

Amaranth Elaboratable‘s are akin to Verilog module‘s (and in fact get synthesized to module‘s if we convert Amaranth to Verilog). IO ports for the module are created in the __init__() method. The elaborate() method can create additional logic elements besides those created in __init__() by instantiating more Signal‘s (this example does not do this). It also describes the logical relationships between all these Signals by means of a Module() instance usually called m. Essentially, at some point in time, the value of a Signal changes depending on the values of some Signal‘s and potentially on some conditions. Such point in time can be either continuously, which is described by the m.d.comb combinational domain, or at the next rising clock edge, which is described by the m.d.sync synchronous domain (which is, roughly speaking, the “default” or “main” clock domain of the module), or by another clock domain. Conditions are expressed using with statements, such as with m.If(self.en), in a way that feels quite similar to writing Python code.

For me, one of the fundamental concepts of Amaranth is the division between what gets run by Python at synthesis time, and what gets run by the hardware when our design eventually comes to life in an FPGA. In the elaborate() method we have a combination of “regular” Python code, which will get run in our machine when we convert the Amaranth design to Verilog or generate a bitstream directly from it, as well as code that describes what the hardware does. The latter is also Python code, but we should think that the effects of running it are only injecting that description into the list of things that Amaranth knows about our hardware design.

Code describing the hardware appears mainly in two cases: First, when we operate with the values of signals. For instance, self.count + 1 does not take the value of self.count and add one to it when the Python code is run. It merely describes that the hardware should somehow obtain the sum of the value of the register corresponding to self.count and the constant one. This expression is in effect describing a hardware adder, and it will cause an adder to appear in our FPGA design. This behaviour is reminiscent of how Dask and other packages based on lazy evaluation work (in Dask, operations with dataframes only describe computations; the actual work is only done eventually, when the compute() method is called). I want to stress that the expression self.count + 1 might as well appear in elaborate() only after a series of fairly complicated if and else statements using regular Python code. These statements will be evaluated at synthesis time, and our hardware design will end up having an adder or not depending on these conditions. Similarly, instead of the constant 1 in the + 1 operation, we could have a Python variable that is evaluated in synthesis time, perhaps as the result of running fairly complicated code. This will also affect what constant the hardware adder that we have in our design adds to the value of the self.count register.

Secondly, we have the control structures: m.If, m.Else, and a few more. These also describe hardware. Whether the condition is satisfied is not evaluated when the Python script runs. What these conditionals do is to modify the hardware description formed by the assignments to m.d.sync and m.d.comb that they enclose so that these assignments are only effective (or active) in the moments in which the condition is satisfied. In practice, these statements do two things in the resulting hardware: They multiplex between several intermediate results depending on some conditions, in a way that is usually more readable than using the Mux() operator that Amaranth also provides. They also control what logic function gets wired to the clock enable of flip-flops. Indeed, in some conditions a synchronous Signal() may have no active statements, in which case it should hold its current value. This behaviour can be implemented in hardware either by deasserting the clock enable of the flip-flops or by feeding back the output of the flip-flops to their input through a multiplexer. What is done depends mainly on choices done by the synthesis tool when mapping the RTL to FPGA elements. As before, we can have “regular” Python code that is run at synthesis time modifying how these m.If control structures look like, or even whether they appear in the design at all.

In a sense, the regular Python code that gets run at synthesis time is similar to Verilog and VHDL generate blocks. However, this is extremely more powerful, because we have all the expressiveness and power of Python at our disposal to influence how we build our design at synthesis time. Hopefully the following examples from Maia SDR can illustrate how useful this can be.

maia-hdl

maia-hdl is the FPGA design of Maia SDR. It is bundled as a Python package, with the intention to make easy to reuse the modules in third party designs. The top level of the design is an Amaranth Elaboratable that gets synthesized to Verilog and packaged as a Vivado IP core. As shown below, the IP core has re_in and im_in ports for the IQ data of the ADC, an AXI4-Lite subordinate interface to allow the ARM processor to control the core through memory-mapped registers, AXI3 manager interfaces for the DMAs of the spectrometer (waterfall) and IQ recorder, and ports for clocking and reset.

The IP core is instantiated in the block design of a Vivado project that gets created and implemented using a TCL script. This is based on the build system used by Analog Devices for the default Pluto FPGA bitstream. In this respect, Maia SDR gives a good example of how Amaranth can be integrated in a typical flow using the Xilinx tools.

There are two classes of unit tests in maia-hdl. The first are Amaranth simulations. These use the Amaranth simulator, which is a Python simulator than can only simulate Amaranth designs. These tests give a simple but efficient and powerful way of testing Amaranth-only modules. The second are cocotb simulations. Cocotb is an open-source cosimulation testbench environment for verifying VHDL and Verilog designs using Python. Briefly speaking, it drives an HDL simulator using Python to control the inputs and check the outputs of the device under test. Cocotb has rich environment that includes Python classes that implement AXI devices. In maia-hdl, cocotb is used together with Icarus Verilog for the simulation of designs that involve Verilog modules (which happens in the cases in which we are instantiating from Amaranth a Xilinx primitive that is simulated with the Unisim library), and for those simulations in which the cocotb library is specially useful (such as for example, when using the cocotb AXI4-Lite Manager class to test our AXI4-Lite registers).

One of the driving features of Maia SDR is to optimize the FPGA resource utilization. This is important, because the Pluto Zynq-7010 FPGA is not so large, specially compared with other Xilinx FPGAs. To this end, Amaranth gives a good control about how the FPGA design will look like in terms of LUTs, registers, etc. The example with the counter has perhaps already shown that Amaranth is a low-level language, in the same sense that Verilog and VHDL are, and nothing comparable to HLS (where regular C code is translated to an FPGA design).

FFT

The main protagonist of the Maia SDR FPGA design is a custom pipelined FFT core that focuses on low resource utilization. In the Maia SDR Pluto firmware it is used as a radix-2² single-delay-feedback decimation-in-frequency 4096-point FFT with a Blackman-harris window. It can run at up to 62.5 Msps and uses only around 2.2 kLUTs, 1.4 kregisters, 9.5 BRAMs, and 6 DSPs. One of the tricks that allows to save a lot of DSPs is to use a single DSP for each complex multiplication, by performing the three required real products sequentially with a 187.5 MHz clock. A description of the design of the FFT core is out of the scope of this article, but I want to show a few features that showcase the strengths of Amaranth.

The first is the FFTControl module. The job of this module is to generate the control signals for all the elements of the FFT pipeline. In each clock cycle, it selects which operation each butterfly should do, which twiddle factor should be used by each multiplier, as well as the read and write addresses to use for the delay lines that are implemented with BRAMs (these are used for the first stages of the pipeline, which require large delay lines). As one can imagine, these control outputs are greatly dependent on the synchronization of all the elements. For example, if we introduce an extra delay of one cycle in one of the elements, perhaps because we register the data to satisfy timing constraints, all the elements following this in the pipeline will need their control inputs to be offset in time by one cycle.

It is really difficult to implement something like this in Verilog or VHDL. Changing these aspects of the synchronization of the design usually requires rethinking and rewriting parts of the control logic. In Amaranth, our modules are Python classes. We can have them “talk to each other” at synthesis time and agree on how the control should be set up, in such a way that the result will still work if we change the synchronization parameters.

For example, all the classes that are FFT pipeline elements implement a delay Python @property that states what is the input to output delay of the module measured in clock cycles. For some simple modules this is always the same constant, but for a single-delay-feedback butterfly it depends on the length of the delay line of the butterfly, and for a twiddle factor multiplier it depends on whether the multiplier is implemented with one or three DSPs. These are choices that are done at synthesis time based on parameters that are passed to the __init__() method of these modules.

The FFTControl module can ask at synthesis time to all the elements that form the FFT pipeline what are their delays, and figure out the reset values of some counters and the lengths of some delay lines accordingly. This makes the control logic work correctly, regardless what these delays are. For instance, the following method of FFTControl computes the delay between the input of the FFT and the input of each butterfly by summing up the delays of all the preceding elements.

def delay_butterflies_input(self):
    """Gives the delay from the FFT input to the input of each of the
    butterflies"""
    return [
        self.delay_window
        + sum([butterfly.delay for butterfly in self.butterflies[:j]])
        + sum([twiddle.delay for twiddle in self.twiddles[:j]])
        for j in range(self.stages)
    ]

This is then used in the calculation of the length of some delay lines that supply the control signals to the butterflies. The code is slightly convoluted, but accounts for all possible cases. I don’t think it would be reasonable to do this kind of thing in Verilog or VHDL.

mux_bfly_delay = [
    [Signal(2 if isinstance(self.butterflies[j], R22SDF) else 1,
            name=f'mux_bfly{j}_delay{k}', reset_less=True)
     for k in range(0,
                    delay_butterflies_input[j]
                    - delay_twiddles_input[j-1]
                    + self.twiddles[j-1].twiddle_index_advance)]
     for j in range(1, self.stages)]

Another important aspect facilitated by Amaranth is the construction of a model. We need a bit-exact model of our FFT core in order to be able to test it in different situations and to validate simulations of the Amaranth design against the model. Each of the modules that form the pipeline has a model() method that uses NumPy to calculate the output of that module given some inputs expressed as NumPy arrays. Here is the model for a radix-2 decimation-in-frequency single-delay-feedback butterfly. Perhaps it looks somewhat reasonable if we remember that such a butterfly basically computes first x[n] + x[n+v//2], for n = 0, 1, ..., v//2-1, and then x[n] - x[n+v//2] for n = 0, 1, ..., v//2-1.

[class R2SDF(Elaboratable):]
[...]
def model(self, re_in, im_in):
    v = self.model_vlen
    re_in, im_in = (np.array(x, 'int').reshape(-1, 2, v // 2)
                    for x in [re_in, im_in])
    re_out, im_out = [
        clamp_nbits(
            np.concatenate(
                (x[:, 0] + x[:, 1], x[:, 0] - x[:, 1]),
                axis=-1).ravel() >> self.trunc,
            self.w_out)
        for x in [re_in, im_in]]
    return re_out, im_out

The interesting thing is that, since each of the FFT pipeline modules has its individual model, it is easy to verify the simulation of each module against its model separately. The model of the FFT module, which represents the whole FFT core, simply puts everything together by calling the model() methods of each of the elements in the pipeline in sequence. An important detail here is that the arrays self._butterflies and self._twiddles are the same ones that are used to instantiate and connect together the pipeline modules, in terms of the hardware design. By having these synergies between the model and the hardware design, we reduce the chances of them getting out of sync due to code changes.

[class FFT(Elaboratable):]
[...]
def model(self, re_in, im_in):
    v = self.model_vlen
    re = re_in
    im = im_in
    if self._window is not None:
        re, im = self._window.model(re, im)
    for j in range(self.nstages):
        re, im = self._butterflies[j].model(re, im)
        if j != self.nstages - 1:
            re, im = self._twiddles[j].model(re, im)
    return re, im

Instantiating Verilog modules and primitives

A question that often comes up is how to instantiate Verilog modules, VHDL entities or FPGA primitives in an Amaranth design. Kate Temkin has a short blog post about it. In maia-hdl this is used in in several cases, such as to implement clock domain crossing with the Xilinx FIFO18E1 primitive. The most interesting example is however the Cmult3x module, which implements complex multiplication with a single DSP48E1 that runs at three clock cycles per input sample (some simple algebra shows that a complex multiplication can be written with only three real multiplications).

When designing modules with DSPs, I prefer to write HDL code that will make Vivado infer the DSPs I want. This is possible in simple cases, but in more complicated situations it is not possible to make Vivado understand exactly what we want, so we need to instantiate the DSP48 primitives by hand.

The drawback of having an Amaranth design that contains instances of Verilog modules, VHDL entities or primitives is that we can no longer simulate our design with the Amaranth simulator. If our instances have a Verilog model (such as is the case with Xilinx primitives via the Unisim library), we can still convert the Amaranth design to Verilog and use a Verilog simulator. This is done in maia-hdl using Icarus Verilog and cocotb. However, this can be somewhat inconvenient.

There is another possibility, which is to write different implementations of the same Amaranth module. One of them can be pure Amaranth code, which we will use for simulation, and another can use Verilog modules or primitives. The two implementations need to be functionally equivalent, but we can check this through testing.

The way to acomplish this is through Amaranth’s concept of platform. The platform is a Python object that gets passed to the elaborate() methods of the modules in the design. The elaborate methods can then ask the platform for some objects that are usually dependent on the FPGA family, such as flip-flop synchronizers. This is a way of building designs that are more portable to different families. The platform objects are also instrumental in the process of building the bitstream completely within Amaranth, which is possible for some FPGA families that have an open-source toolchain.

In the case of the maia-hdl Cmult3x we simply check whether the platform we’ve been passed is an instance of XilinxPlatform and depending on this we have the elaborate() method either describe a pure Amaranth design that models the DSP48 functionality that we need, or instantiate a DSP48E1 primitive. Note that in the case of the pure Amaranth design we do not model the full functionality of the DSP48. Only that which is applicable to this use case.

[class Cmult3x(Elaboratable):]
[...]
def elaborate(self, platform):
    if isinstance(platform, XilinxPlatform):
        return self.elaborate_xilinx(platform)

    # Amaranth design. Vivado doesn't infer a single DSP48E1 as we want.
    [ ... here a pure amaranth design follows ... ]

def elaborate_xilinx(self, platform):
    # Design with an instantiated DSP48E1
    [...]
    m.submodules.dsp = dsp = Instance(
        'DSP48E1',
    [...]

Registers

Another aspect where the flexibility of Amaranth shines is in the creation of register banks. In maia-hdl, the module Register corresponds to a single 32-bit wide register and the module Registers forms a register bank by putting together several of these registers, each with their corresponding address. The registers support a simple bus for reads and writes, and an Axi4LiteRegisterBridge module is provided to translate between AXI4-Lite and this bus, allowing the ARM CPU to access the registers.

Registers and register banks are created with Python code that describes the fields of the registers. The basic ingredient is the Field named tuple:

Field = collections.namedtuple('RegisterField',
                               ['name', 'access', 'width', 'reset'])

We describe a register by giving it a name, an access mode (which can be read-only, write-only, read-write, or some other more specialized modes that we will describe below), a width, and a reset or default value.

The best way to understand how to work with these registers is to see how they are used in the Maia SDR top-level design.

self.control_registers = Registers(
    'control',
    {
        0b00: Register(
            'product_id', [
                Field('product_id', Access.R, 32, 0x6169616d)
            ]),
        0b01: Register('version', [
            Field('bugfix', Access.R, 8,
                  int(_version.split('.')[2])),
            Field('minor', Access.R, 8,
                  int(_version.split('.')[1])),
            Field('major', Access.R, 8,
                  int(_version.split('.')[0])),
            Field('platform', Access.R, 8, 0),
        ]),
        0b10: Register('control', [
            Field('sdr_reset', Access.RW, 1, 1),
        ]),
        0b11: Register('interrupts', [
            Field('spectrometer', Access.Rsticky, 1, 0),
            Field('recorder', Access.Rsticky, 1, 0),
        ], interrupt=True),
    },
    2)
self.recorder_registers = Registers(
    'recorder',
    {
        0b0: Register('recorder_control', [
            Field('start', Access.Wpulse, 1, 0),
            Field('stop', Access.Wpulse, 1, 0),
            Field('mode_8bit', Access.RW, 1, 0),
            Field('dropped_samples', Access.R, 1, 0),
        ]),
        0b1: Register('recorder_next_address', [
            Field('next_address', Access.R, 32, 0),
        ]),
    },
    1)

Here we show two register banks: one for the control of the IP core and another for the control of the IQ recorder. There is a similar third register bank for the control of the spectrometer (waterfall).

The parameters of the Registers constructor are a name, a dictionary that contains the registers in the bank (the keys of the dictionary are the addresses, and the values are the Register objects), and the width of the address bus. Note that these addresses correspond to the addressing of the native register bus. When we convert to AXI4-Lite, the addresses get shifted by two bits to the left because each register is 4 bytes wide.

The parameters of the Register constructor are a name and a list of Field‘s describing the fields of the register. Fields are allocated into the 32-bit register according to their order in the list, starting by the LSB. For instance, in the interrupts register, the spectrometer field occupies the LSB and the recorder field occupies the next bit.

If we look at the control registers, we can see that the registers for product_id and version have access type R, which means read-only. These registers are never wired in the design to other signals that would override their default values, so they are in fact constants that the CPU can read to check that the IP core is present and find its version number.

Next we have a control register, which has an sdr_reset field. This is wired internally to a bunch of reset signals in the IP core. It has a default value of 1, which means that most of the IP core starts in reset. The CPU can write a 0 to this field to take the IP core out of reset before using it. Accessing this sdr_reset field within the design is very simple, because the Registers and Register implement __getitem__(), allowing us to access them as if they were dictionaries. This example shows how it works. Here we are connecting the field sdr_reset to the reset input of something called rxiq_cdc (which implements clock domain crossing between the ADC sampling clock and the internal clock used in the IP core).

m.d.comb += rxiq_cdc.reset.eq(
    self.control_registers['control']['sdr_reset'])

If we look at the interrupts register, we can see an example of the Rsticky access mode. This means read-only sticky. A field of this type will be set to 1 when its input (which is wired internally in the IP core) has the value 1. It will keep the value 1 even if the input goes back to 0. The field is cleared and set to 0 when it is read. The intended use for this access mode is interrupts. A module can pulse the input of the field to notify an interrupt, and the field will hold a 1 until the CPU reads the register, clearing the interrupts. The interrupts register even has an interrupt=True option that provides an interrupt output that can be connected directly to the F2P interrupt port of the Zynq. This interrupt output will be high whenever any Rsticky field in the register is non-zero.

Finally, the recorder_control field gives some examples of the Wpulse access type. This is a write-only field with pulsed output. Writing a 1 to this field causes a one-cycle pulse at its output. This is ideal for controlling modules that require a pulse to indicate some event or command. For example, this is the case with the start and stop commands of the IQ recorder.

The Amaranth code that makes all of this work is not so complicated. You can take a look at the register.py file in maia-hdl to see for yourself.

Another interesting feature of this register system is that it can write an SVD file describing the register map. CMSIS-SVD is an XML format that is often used to describe the register maps of microcontrollers and SoCs. Maia SDR uses svd2rust to generate a nice Rust API for register access.

The Registers and Register classes have svd() methods that generate the SVD XML using Python’s xml.etree.ElementTree. This is relatively simple, because the classes already have all the information about these registers. It is, after all, the same information that they use to describe the hardware implementation of the registers. This is another example of how by using synergies between the code that describes the hardware design and code that does something related to that hardware design (in this case, writing SVD), we make it harder for changes in the code base to cause inconsistencies.

Conclusions

In this article we have gone from a “hello world” type counter in Amaranth to some rather intricate code from the inner workings of an FFT core. My intention with giving these code examples is not to expect the reader to understand all the code, but rather to give a feeling for how using Amaranth in complex projects can look like. Perhaps by now I have managed to convince you that Amaranth is a powerful and flexible alternative to HDLs such as Verilog and VHDL, or at least to get you interested in learning more about Amaranth and the world of open-source FPGA and silicon design.

Federal Communications Commission Technological Advisory Council resumes!

Want someone on your side at the FCC? We have good news. The FCC TAC is going to resume work. The previous term ended in December 2022 with an in-person meeting in Washington, DC. ORI was a member of the AI/ML Working Group and served as a co-chair of the “Safe Uses of AI/ML” sub-working group. The next term will be for two years. The appointment will require another round of nominations and vetting. An invitation to ORI has been made. ORI will speak up for open source digital radio work and the amateur radio services. Thank you to everyone that made the 2022 FCC TAC term productive and beneficial. Join the #ai channel on ORI Slack to get more involved. Not part of Slack? Visit https://openresearch.institute/getting-started to Get Started.

HDL Coder for Software Defined Radio Class May 2023

Sign-ups are live at https://us.commitchange.com/ca/san-diego/open-research-institute/campaigns/hdl-coder-for-software-defined-radio

Advanced training for Digital Communications, Software Defined Radio, and FPGAs will be held 1-5 May 2023. Do you know someone that can benefit from customized and focused training? Please forward this email to them. Designed to benefit open source digital radio, this course also benefits the amateur radio services.

Presented by ORI and taught by Mathworks, this class will cover the following topics.

COURSE OUTLINE

Day 1 – Generating HDL Code from Simulink & DSP for FPGAs

Preparing Simulink Models for HDL Code Generation (1.0 hrs)

Prepare a Simulink model for HDL code generation. Generate HDL code and testbench for simple models requiring no optimization.

Preparing Simulink models for HDL code generation
Generating HDL code
Generating a test bench
Verifying generated HDL code with an HDL simulator

Fixed-Point Precision Control (2.0 hrs)

Establish correspondence between generated HDL code and specific Simulink blocks in the model. Use Fixed-Point Tool to finalize fixed point architecture of the model.

Fixed-point scaling and inheritance
Fixed-Point Designer workflow
Fixed-Point Tool
Fundamental adders and multiplier arrays
Division and square root arrays
Wordlength issues and Fixed-point arithmetic
Saturate and wraparound.
Overflow and underflow

Optimizing Generated HDL Code (4 hrs)

Use pipelines to meet design timing requirements. Use specific hardware implementations and share resources for area optimization.

Generating HDL code with the HDL Workflow Advisor
Meeting timing requirements via pipelining
Choosing specific hardware implementations for compatible Simulink blocks
Sharing FPGA/ASIC resources in subsystems
Verifying that the optimized HDL code is bit-true cycle-accurate
Mapping Simulink blocks to dedicated hardware resources on FPGA

Day 2 – DSP for FPGAs

Signal Flow Graph (SFG) Techniques (SFG) Techniques and high-speed FIR design (2.0 hrs)

Review the representation of DSP algorithms using signal flow graph. Use the Cut Set method to improve timing performance. Implement parallel and serial FIR filters.

DSP/Digital Filter Signal Flow Graphs
Latency, delays and “anti-delays”!
Re-timing: Cut-set and delay scaling
The transpose FIR
Pipelining and multichannel architectures
SFG topologies for FPGAs
FIR filter structures for FPGAs

Multirate Signal Processing for FPGAs (4.0 hrs)

Develop polyphase structure for efficient implementation of multirate filters. Use CIC filter for interpolation and decimation.

Upsampling and interpolation filters
Downsampling and decimation filters
Efficient arithmetic for FIR implementation
Integrators and differentiators
Half-band, moving average and comb filters
Cascade Integrator Comb (CIC) Filters (Hogenauer)
Efficient arithmetic for IIR Filtering

CORDIC Techniques AND channelizers (2.0 hrs)

Introduce CORDIC algorithm for calculation of various trigonometric functions.

CORDIC rotation mode and vector mode
Compute cosine and sine function
Compute vector magnitude and angle
Architecture for FPGA implementation
Channelizer

Day 3 – Programming Xilinx Zynq SoCs with MATLAB and Simulink & Software-Defined Radio with Zynq using Simulink

IP Core Generation and Deployment (2.0 hrs)

Use HDL Workflow Advisor to configure a Simulink model, generate and build both HDL and C code, and deploy to Zynq platform.

Configuring a subsystem for programmable logic
Configuring the target interface and peripherals
Generating the IP core and integrating with SDK
Building and deploying the FPGA bitstream
Generating and deploying a software interface model
Tuning parameters with External Mode

Model Communications System using Simulink (1.5 hrs)

Model and simulate RF signal chain and communications algorithms.

Overview of software-defined radio concepts and workflows
Model and understand AD9361 RF Agile Transceiver using Simulink
Simulate a communications system that includes a transmitter, AD9361 Transceiver, channel and Receiver (RF test environment)

Implement Radio I/O with ADI RF SOM and Simulink (1.5 hrs)

Verify the operation of baseband transceiver algorithm using real data streamed from the AD9361 into MATLAB and Simulink.

Overview of System object and hardware platform
Set up ADI RF SOM as RF front-end for over-the-air signal capture or transmission
Perform baseband processing in MATLAB and Simulink on captured receive signal
Configure AD9361 registers and filters via System object
Verify algorithm performance for real data versus simulated data

Prototype Deployment with Real-Time Data via HW/SW Co-Design (2.0 hrs)

Generate HDL and C code targeting the programmable logic (PL) and processing system (PS) on the Zynq SoC to implement TX/RX.

Overview of Zynq HW/SW co-design workflow
Implement Transmitter and Receiver on PL/PS using HW/SW co-design workflow
Configure software interface model
Download generated code to the ARM processor and tune system parameters in real-time operation via Simulink
Deploy a stand-alone system

FPGA Workshop Cruise with ORI?

Want to learn more about open source FPGA development from experts in the field? Ready to capitalize on the HDL Coder for Software Defined Radio Class happening in May 2023? Want to get away? How about something that can give you both? We are looking at organizing an FPGA Workshop Adventure Cruise. Be part of the planning and write fpga@openresearch.institute

Are you interested in supporting work at ORI?

Consider being part of the board. We’d like to expand from 5 to 7 members in order to better serve our projects and community.

We’ve got lots going on with Opulent Voice, Haifuraiya, AmbaSat Respin, and regulatory work.

Thank you from everyone at ORI for your continued support and interest!

Want to be a part of the fun? Get in touch at ori@openresearch.institute

April 11, 2023April 11, 2023

Class Announcement: HDL Coder for Software Defined Radio

Open Research Institute (https://openresearch.institute) has negotiated a customized class for advanced digital radio work. Content was chosen to directly benefit open source workers in the amateur radio service.

Registration link is below. A heavily subsidized link is offered. Class runs 1-5 May 2023 and is entirely virtual. Theoretical and practical content is offered. Class is taught by Mathworks instructors and uses their training platform.

https://us.commitchange.com/ca/san-diego/open-research-institute/campaigns/hdl-coder-for-software-defined-radio

The goal of this class is to expand the technical volunteer corps in amateur radio and amateur satellite services. Radio work accomplished on FPGAs and complex RFICs is the primary focus.

March 13, 2023March 13, 2023

Updating the Opulent Voice Interleaver

The interleaver for Opulent Voice needs to be updated because the frame size has increased. We are incorporating RTP, UDP, and IP layers into the existing OPUS and 4-ary MFSK layers and now have what we think may be the final frame size.

Since convolutional encoding is used for Opulent Voice payload, an interleaver is necessary to get the best bit error rate performance out of the convolutional encoder. The interleaver is used over both the physical layer header (Golay encoded) and the data payload (a 1/2 rate Convolutional code). Opulent Voice is an open protocol that we use for our HEO/GEO uplink. It can also be used terrestrially on the #hamradio bands at 70cm and above. Find out more at https://www.openresearch.institute/2022/07/30/opulent-voice-digital-voice-and-data-protocol-update/

The distance that an interleaver spreads out bits in a frame is the most familiar performance measurement. It’s commonly called “spread” or “minimum interleaved distance”. However, we learned about another metric that is important in Turbo codes. Several papers refer to the measure of randomness of the mixture of bit position reassignments as “dispersion” (for example, see https://cgi.tu-harburg.de/~c00e8lit/cgi-bin/ivpub/download.php?file=kb-wpmc2008.pdf). That particular paper cited another paper (reference [6]) as defining dispersion.

Following that citation lead to a paper but this paper didn’t mention dispersion or explain the equation. Going back to the original paper, we started working with the definition for dispersion that we had. This used the cardinality of the set of indices of original bit positions vs. permuted bit positions. This seemed straightforward enough. But, after trying this in MATLAB, we always got the minimum dispersion value, so there must be something wrong with our interpretation.

Volunteers then spent time trying to figure out if dispersion is important enough metric for a single convolutional code, like we have in #OpulentVoice. In other words, should we simply not simply choose the polynomials that result in the largest minimum interleaved distance? Selecting the right interleaver based on a balance between how far apart it spreads the bits vs. how randomly the bits are distributed is a useful selection methodology for Turbo codes, but may not be strictly necessary for a single convolutional code used with 40 mS frames.

Everyone is welcome to join in the discussion and work to create quality #OpenSource work for #digital communications at ORI. Please see https://openresearch.institute/getting-started to be welcomed to our community.

March 6, 2023March 6, 2023

Inner Circle Newsletter March 2023

March 2023 Inner Circle
Welcome to our newsletter for March 2023!

Inner Circle is a non-technical update on everything that is happening at ORI. Sign up at this link http://eepurl.com/h_hYzL

Contents:
FPGA Workshop Cruise with ORI?
ORI’s Birthday 6 March – Celebrate With Pins!
RFBitBanger Prototypes
Announcing the ORI App Stores
QSO Today Ham Expo Spotlight
Jay Francis in QEX
Pierre W4CKX Declares Candidacy for ORI Board of Directors

FPGA Workshop Cruise with ORI?
Want to learn more about open source FPGA development from experts in the field? Want to get away? How about something that can give you both? We are looking at organizing an FPGA Workshop Adventure Cruise. Be part of the planning and write fpga@openresearch.institute

ORI’s Birthday – Celebrate With Pins!
We celebrate our 4th birthday on 6 March 2023. Thank you to everyone that has helped ORI grow and succeed in so many different ways. To commemorate our anniversary, we have a limited edition acrylic logo pin. They will be available for a small donation at all upcoming in-person events. Where will be be? We’ll be at DEFCON 31 and IEEE IWRC in Little Rock, AR, USA 13-14 September 2023. Want to include us at your event before then? Let us know at hello@openresearch.institute

RFBitBanger Prototypes
Interested in high frequency amateur (HF) bands? Want to learn about Class E amplification? Excited about open HF digital protocols that aren’t just signal reports? Well, we have a kit for you. Here’s a walk-through by Paul KB5MU of all RFBitBanger modes. This project is lead by Dr. Daniel Marks, is enthusiastically supported by ORI, and will be demonstrated at DEFCON in August 2023. We are doing all we can to have kits available for sale by DEFCON, or sooner.

Announcing the ORI App Stores
Open Research Institute can be found in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. That’s right – we are in both app stores delivering open source mobile apps. Thank you to everyone that has helped make this possible. The Ribbit app will be available on both platforms as our initial release. Do you know of an open source application that needs a home? Get in touch at hello@openresearch.institute and let’s talk. We want to share our platform and support applications that help open source and amateur radio.

QSO Today Ham Expo Spotlight
We hope to see you again at QSO Today Ham Expo, 25-26 March 2023. If you haven’t gotten a ticket yet, please visit https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/
This is a wonderful event that showcases the best parts of amateur radio. The theme for this Ham Expo is “New License – Now What?” Recordings will be available on the Ham Expo platform for a month, and then will be available on YouTube for anyone to view. ORI will volunteer at the March 2023 QSO Ham Expo session and will have technical presentations, a booth, and poster sessions at the Autumn 2023 QSO Today Ham Expo.

Jay Francis in QEX
Please see page 20 of the March/April 2023 issue of QEX magazine for an article co-authored by Jay Francis, our AmbaSat Re-Spin team lead. Excellent job, Jay!

Pierre W4CKX has declared his candidacy for ORI Board of Directors
We welcome Pierre’s interest in being a member of the board. Pierre is the Ribbit project lead. He brings broad industry knowledge, experience in Agile project management, a commitment to ethical leadership, and innovative energy. Learn about all our directors at https://www.openresearch.institute/board-of-directors/

Are you interested in supporting work at ORI? Consider being part of the board. We’d like to expand from 5 to 7 members in order to better serve our projects and community.

We’ve got lots going on with Opulent Voice, Haifuraiya, AmbaSat Respin, and regulatory work. We support IEEE in many ways, one of which is logistics support with technical presentations such as “Advances in AI for Web Integrity, Ethics, and Well Being” by Srijan Kumar PhD. Video recording of his talk can be found here.

Thank you from everyone at ORI for your continued support and interest!

Whatever will be do for our April 1st newsletter?

Want to be a part of the fun? Get in touch at ori@openresearch.institute

February 11, 2023February 11, 2023

Inner Circle Newsletter February 2023

Greetings all! Welcome to the February 2023 issue of the Inner Circle Newsletter from Open Research Institute.

Join the Inner Circle

Thank you so much for your time, attention, and support. We appreciate you, we welcome your feedback, and we are dedicated to serving the community to the best of our abilities. You can get in touch with the ORI board of directors directly at hello@operesearch.institute.

A Puzzle Just For Fun

Here’s a puzzle. Chicken Nuggets have been on the menu at the international fast food chain McDonald’s since 1983.

If Chicken McNuggets are sold in packs of 6, 9, or 20, then what is the largest number of nuggets that cannot be ordered?

Answer is at the end of this newsletter!

Projects

Our volunteer teams have been busy and successful, and our project lineup has grown.

Regulatory Efforts: ORI works hard to promote and defend open source digital radio work. We do all we can to help move technology from proprietary and controlled to open and free. Our work on ITAR, EAR, Debris Mitigation, and AI/ML are where we have spent most of our time over the past two years. We were a member of the Technological Advisory Committee for the US Federal Communications Commission in 2022, and co-chaired the Safe Uses of AI/ML Subworking Group. We have received consistently positive reviews for all of our work, and there has been increasing use of the results.

Ribbit: this open source communications protocol uses the highest performance error correction and modern techniques available to turn any analog radio into an efficient and useful digital text terminal. No wires, no extra equipment. The only thing you’ll need to use it is the free open source Android or IoS app on your phone. Learn how to use this communications system and get involved in building a truly innovative open source tactical radio service by visiting https://ribbitradio.org

Join Ribbit mailing lists at: https://www.openresearch.institute/mailing-lists/

Amateur Satellite: ORI has the world’s first and only open source HEO/GEO communications satellite program, called Haifuraiya. We will demonstrate all working parts of the transponder project at DEFCON 31, where broadband digital communications and open source electric propulsion will be featured. Find out how to support or join this and other teams at https://openresearch.institute/getting-started

AmbaSat for 70 cm: We’ve redesigned the AmbaSat board to move it from 915 MHz to 70 cm and it will be flown on a sounding rocket this year. With increasing interest in LoRa for both space and terrestrial use, this has proven to be a popular and useful project. The design has been adapted for applications in India and Japan.

Opulent Voice: a digital protocol that seamlessly combines high fidelity voice and data, using modern forward error correction, authentication and authorization, and efficient minimum frequency shift keying modulation. Opulent Voice will be flown on a sounding rocket this year and it is the native digital uplink protocol for Haifuraiya. Completely open with the high quality voice we deserve to hear. Due to the bandwidth requirements of the 16kHz OPUS codec, Opulent Voice can be used on 70cm and above ham bands, or anywhere else where the modest bandwidth requirements can be met.

Remote Labs: We have two remotely accessible workbenches for FPGA development, with Xilinx 7000 and Xilinx Ultrascale+ development boards as the focus. We also have several SDRs and radio utility devices available through virtual machine access. The 7000 series development board has an Analog Devices ADRV9371 radio system attached, and that has enabled a number of open source FPGA products to be published. This is a unique resource that has produced a lot of good work and is constantly being improved and updated. In addition to the development boards, the laboratory has a network accessible spectrum analyzer, an oscilloscope with logic analyzer extension, power supplies, frequency and power counters, and dedicated human resources available to help students, volunteers, or professionals contribute to open source work. Help it be more useful by spreading the word about ORI Remote Labs.

Equipment available: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Remote_Labs/Test_Equipment
How to get an account: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/blob/master/Remote_Labs/ORI-New-User-Setup.md
Using FPGA Development Stations: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/blob/master/Remote_Labs/Working-With-FPGAs.md

Versatune: amateur digital television next generation hardware and software product. It is open source and affordable. We have committed engineering resources to support Versatune and are very excited about how things are going. Some of the Versatune team will be at Hamvention 2023 in Xenia, OH, USA, and it will be represented at DEFCON in August 2023.

HF antennas: We have a novel foldable antenna design for space and terrestrial use. The hardware prototype will be demonstrated at DEFCON. This design manipulates radiation resistance to produce best-of-class results. Think you can’t do 160m without an enormous antenna? Think again.

HF QRP: Coming soon, an exciting HF QRP digital radio board and protocol. The hardware prototypes will be demonstrated at DEFCON. What might happen when we combine the HF digital radio with the novel foldable antenna? We think you’ll be delighted.

Battery Matching Curves: are you available to mentor a college student interested in learning how to match up charge and discharge curves from NiCd cells in order to create battery packs? These packs would then be tested and/or deployed in the field. Our student volunteer has collected the data and is looking to learn how to use Jupyter Notebooks to select the cells to create battery packs.

Logistics

We’re growing and adapting!

We will be changing our GitHub project name from Phase4Ground to Open Research Institute very soon. Phase4Space GitHub project will change to Haifuraiya, which is the program name for our HEO/GEO design. These changes better reflect the content and purpose of the 64 repositories that span everything from important historical archives to open source music to the most modern open source encoders available.

We have a very well-qualified applicant for our open board of directors position. We would like to invite interested community members to consider applying to ORI in order to expand the board beyond this filled position in order to take us from our current five members to seven. Given our continuing growth, a larger leadership team would ensure continued smooth operations. These positions are unpaid, engaging, and can be demanding. The most important skill set is a strong sense of ethics and service.

Fundraising and Grants

We’ve applied for the GitHub Accelerator Program (Remote Labs) and the IEEE Innovation Fund (Polar Codes in Ribbit). If you have a recommendation for ORI in terms of partnerships or collaboration, please let us know at hello@openresearch.institute

Support ORI financially directly through the website https://openresearch.institute. There is a PayPal donation widget at the bottom of almost every page. Donations can be directed to any project, or to general operations. ORI has a very low overhead, with most projects coming in under 5%.

Support our open source propulsion work and get a cool desk toy at https://us.commitchange.com/ca/san-diego/open-research-institute/campaigns/where-will-we-go-next

We’ve raised enough money to cover materials for machining the engine parts. The next step is to raise enough money to pay for the electronics. Please help spread the word!

Thanks to our wonderful community, we have employee matching in place at Microsoft and Qualcomm. If you have an employee matching program at your work, and you think ORI would fit in, please consider nominating us. Our EIN is EIN: 82-3945232

Events

Where can you meet up with ORI people?

QSO Today Ham Expo

We support and attend QSO Today Ham Expo, held online 25-26 March 2023. The theme of this event is “New License, Now What?” and focuses on people new to amateur radio.

Our page for QSO Today Ham Expo content is https://www.openresearch.institute/qso-today-ham-expo-technical-demonstrations/

IMS2023

Join us at the amateur radio social at the International Microwave Symposium (IMS2023) on Tuesday 13 June 2023 in San Diego, CA, USA at 6pm. It will be held in a beautiful outdoor venue with food and drink provided. The easiest way to register for this event is to purchase an exhibition badge and then sign up for the social. https://ims-ieee.org/ is the event website.

DEFCON

We are getting ready for our biggest event of the year. We have proposed an in-person Open Source Showcase to RF Village for DEFCON 31 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA from 10 – 13 August 2023.

Our page for the event, with all the latest and greatest details, can be found at https://www.openresearch.institute/defcon/

Want to help at DEFCON? Please visit https://openresearch.institute/getting-started and let us know!

IWRC 2023

IEEE wants to bring together all participants to take full advantage of CHIPS Act funding. IEEE will have an Innovative Workforce Resources Conference in Little Rock, AR 13-14 September. There will be a reception at the Clinton Presidential Library, and attendees will enjoy the best BBQ in the country. The National Science Foundation requires that a certain percentage of funding has to be spent in states that don’t get their fair share of research money. The goal of this conference is to pull together small researchers from small business like ORI and do research, with Arkansas as a focus.

We couldn’t agree more. After all, we are putting a lot of time and energy into Remote Labs South, located just outside Little Rock, AR. Bringing innovative open source digital radio work to students, workers, and volunteers that need it the most simply makes sense. If you can attend IWRC 2023 and help represent ORI please get in touch. We will be reaching out to IEEE chapters in Arkansas as well.

Read about the CHIPS and Science Act here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIPS_and_Science_Act

Puzzle Solution

43 is the largest number of nuggets that cannot be ordered.

What is the largest number of McNuggets that you can’t buy with packs of 6, 9 and 20? After putting in their blood, sweat, and tears, the mathematicians found that the answer is 43. You cannot buy 43 nuggets with packs of 6, 9 and 20, but you can buy any amount larger than 43.

Please see Mike Beneshan’s excellent blog about this type of problem at https://mikebeneschan.medium.com/the-chicken-mcnugget-theorem-explained-2daca6fbbe1e

The other Non-McNugget numbers are 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,10,11,13,14,16,17,19,22,23,25,28,31,34, and 37.

Trivia: You can get 47 in two ways: 36+19+120 or 06+39+120.

We’ve used the McDonald’s version of the chicken nugget to present and frame this mathematical puzzle. Here’s a link about the history of this menu item: https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/history-of-chicken-mcnuggets

Robert C. Baker invented the chicken nugget, among many other things. He was a true innovator of what can be fairly called “modern foods”. A brief wikipedia article about him can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Baker

A song written about this remarkable inventor can be enjoyed at this link: https://youtu.be/OEa8wqv4QM0

Do you have an idea for an interdisciplinary puzzle for our next newsletter? We’d love to hear about it. Write ori@openresearch.institute

Until Next Time

Thank you so much for being part of our Inner Circle! You are the motivation for all of this work, provided to the general public for free. We believe it makes the world a better place.

January 5, 2023January 5, 2023

HamCation 2023: Call for Open Research Institute Volunteers (booth/housing provided)

Greetings all!

If you are not familiar with the US amateur radio vendor fair HamCation, then please visit https://www.hamcation.com/

ORI has a booth in a very nice location right in front of the prize drawing area.

We have shown at HamCation for many years. In the past, we’ve collaborated with and supported exhibits and presentations from Society of Amateur Radio Astronomy (SARA), Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR), M17, DEFCON, GNU Radio, SBMS Beacon Project, and more.

We’ve organized four all-day forum sessions, recruited talks from all over the world, and welcomed people and projects that needed space to present their efforts to the large crowd in Orlando, FL. We’ve done a lot of demos, given out thousands of dollars of prizes and swag, and hosted several contests. The organizers have been deeply appreciative and delight to work with.

Aside from ARRL, ORI has fielded the most diverse and successful set of exhibits at HamCation in recent history.

It’s not a bad hamfest, as ham events go. Out of all of the ones in the US, this has been the best one for us.

Our plans were to show the Versatune project, which is a fantastic upgrade to a beloved ham DVB product, show Ribbit and Rattlegram, demonstrate Haifuraiya satellite work, introduce our sounding rocket work, and more.

Ribbit project team members cannot attend due to work and time conflicts. We’ll show through IEEE and potentially at Ham Expo.

Versatune has run into insurmountable delays and supply chain issues with Raspberry Pis. We looked at every possible alternative to get Versatune done faster with alternate parts, including rewriting the codebase for some very different off-the-reel parts that were available. We decided this was not a reasonable or achievable course of action. The original design is excellent and making progress – just not fast enough to show at HamCation in February 2023.

Haifuraiya (Open source HEO/GEO satellite) will show at QSO Today Ham Expo in March and through IEEE.

Sounding Rocket students cannot afford to come to HamCation, and we have similar supply chain problems there with Opulent Voice.

So – What do we have at HamCation?

We have a four-bedroom AirBNB very close to the fairgrounds reserved. Each room has a king sized bed. It has a large kitchen and very nice living room.

We have a booth at HamCation that is now completely open for anyone from ORI to use. I will do anything I can to help you showcase our work at HamCation. Do a shift at the booth, enjoy the very nice house, and promote our work.

More about this will be on Slack in the HamCation2023 channel.

Get in touch with me (cell phone number below) to take advantage. Deadline is 1 February.

If we have no staff, then we cancel and attempt to get the money back or donate the housing and booth space to a worthy group.

Please forward to anyone you think might be interested. What sort of work do we support? It’s outlined here:

https://www.openresearch.institute/your-project-is-welcome/

-Michelle Thompson
(858) 229 3399

December 5, 2022December 5, 2022

Open Source COBS Protocol Design Document

Aside from the usual clk and rst signals, the only input to the entity is an AXI-Stream with a width of one byte. The data stream consists of frames encoded according to the rules described in Consistent Overhead Byte Stuffing by Stuart Cheshire and Mary Baker. These rules convert a known-length stream of bytes (a “frame”) with all values 0-255 into a slightly longer stream of bytes containing only values 1-255, allowing a byte with value 0 to be used unambiguously as a separator. It does this by dividing the stream into sequences of bytes. Each sequence must consist of zero to 253 non-zero bytes followed by a 0 byte or the end of stream, or 254 non-zero bytes. It is then encoded as the sequence length (1 to 254) followed by the non-zero bytes.

Read the rest at:

https://github.com/phase4ground/adi_adrv9371_zc706/blob/adrv9371-zc706-dvbs2-integ/design_docs/cobs_decoder/COBS_dec-Entity-Design.md

December 4, 2022December 4, 2022

QoS: Call for Input

We’re moving into the challenge of multiplexing on the transponder with a goal of delivering Quality of Service (QoS) metrics and policies.

This is “how do the uplink packets get properly prioritized on the downlink, to make the most of limited resources”.

These resources are spectrum, power, and time.

QoS doesn’t make any of our communications channels go faster. This is a common misconception about QoS. Here’s some descriptions from conversations this week. I would like to hear more opinions about QoS in general, and any specific requirements that people on this list might have.

Kenneth Finnegan writes,

“In #networking it’s common to forget that QoS is mainly about deciding which packets you’d rather drop first.
If you don’t like that idea, then you just need to pony up and throw more capacity at the problem.”

Adam Thompson continues,

“In the presence of a pizza that’s not big enough for all the hungry people, QoS inhibits less-important pizza eaters. This lets more-important eaters-of-pizza get more pizza than their fair share, at the expense of the less-important eaters.
“In the presence of a pizza that’s not big enough for all the hungry people, QoS inhibits less-important pizza eaters. This lets more-important eaters-of-pizza get more pizza than their fair share, at the expense of the less-important eaters.
QoS never (ever!) makes the pizza bigger – if you need more pizza, you must still bake or buy more, or someone’s going to go hungry!
Complex QoS systems might let you differentiate between e.g. crust and topping and permit cutting the pizza into bizarre topographies/topologies, but still can’t make the pizza any bigger.
Finally, if there is enough pizza for everyone, QoS doesn’t do anything useful.”

If this last part sounds familiar, then you’re not alone. QoS often doesn’t do anything useful… in a resource rich environment. This may be the main reason that we sometimes hear that QoS is a “failure”, that it’s “never used”, or “why bother for hams since hams don’t care about this subject at all”.

It is true that most amateur communications are made with acres and acres of spectrum, with a very generous power limit (although you are supposed to use the minimum required power) and no time limits on how often you can try to make a contact.

When we talk about microwave broadband digital communications, it’s a different situation. And, with space channels, there are constraints. We have less bandwidth to work with because we’re on a sub-band. We have latency, which is non-trivial for GEO or beyond. We have power concerns and pointing requirements.

“Adaptive” QoS that does nothing until congestion forces some decisions, at which time we sort with respect to SNR, has been our baseline.

What we want to do when constraints are hit is what we need to better define. Right now, we have a whiteboard design (summarized above) and a paper about Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM) that was published in AMSAT-DL and AMSAT-UK Journals.

We have the implementation guidelines from GSE as well, which address QoS and show how to set up queues.

With a controllable downlink going out over the air, and a defined uplink protocol, now is the time to work on exactly how to multiplex the traffic. Evariste asked about this exact thing less than a week ago at the FPGA meetup.

Decisions about QOS heavily affect the central part of the design, so let’s get this right.

Do you have experience implementing QoS policies? Do you have experience with bad QoS policies as a consumer? Do you have an idea about what you want to see this design do?

Well, you’re in the right place, and we’d love to hear what you have to say about it.

Participate at https://openresearch.institute/getting-started

December 4, 2022December 4, 2022

Will I Lose my Programming Job to AI/ML?

2022-12-03 Paul Williamson

There has been some fretting lately among programmers about the future of their jobs in a world where AI/ML seems capable of writing code automatically. To think about this, we need a realistic model of AI/ML capabilities. If we just assume that AI/ML can be as smart as a human programmer, maybe smarter, definitely faster, and much cheaper to reproduce and operate, then the whole game is over. In that world, humans are outcompeted by machines in every important way, and programmers will have lots of company in the unemployment lines. Humans will have bigger things to worry about than jobs. That scenario is so far “out there” that even the SF writers haven’t found a way to understand it without artificially crippling the AIs in some way. If we really believe that is coming to pass, we (humans) ought to seriously consider getting started on the Butlerian jihad against AI.

Instead, let’s think about the consequences of AI/ML as it is currently starting to exist in the programming world: as a sophisticated search engine and an improved method of facilitating code re-use. AI/ML applications like ChatGPT are (starting to be) able to find some existing code that seems responsive to a query. That’s the search engine part. Let’s assume that they are then (getting better at) combining multiple pre-existing examples in a “smart” way that seems likely to preserve the good parts of each example in such a way as to solve the requested problem. That’s the code re-use part.

Today’s programmer is very familiar with the efficiency of solving coding problems by searching Stack Overflow for related solutions. With a bit of luck, the search will yield something close enough to the required solution to be re-used in solving the problem at hand. For common well-defined problems, it might be a complete drop-in solution. For less common problems, it might just have some of the parts worked out, and we have to pick and choose and maybe write a bit of new logic to glue it all together. Only when nothing similar is found will we have to write something entirely from scratch. To programmers, this feels a lot like what we imagine that the AI does when it coughs up some mutated open-source code in response to a simple query. Because we systematically underestimate how hard it is for a computer to do the kind of logical reasoning that comes easily to human programmers, we imagine that computers are on the edge of surpassing human programmers.

Searching and code re-use have been around for a long time. A lot of computer science research has gone into looking for ways to make code re-use easier. That’s why we have high level languages, and extensive libraries of built-in functions, and Stack Overflow. These things have made it possible for humans to create more and more complex software systems, by reducing the number of details that have to be thought about all at once. So far, this has not resulted in any net loss of programming jobs. Rather the opposite, in fact.

Some kinds of jobs do seem less important now. When we think about programming jobs today, we probably aren’t thinking much about people who are skilled in writing assembly language. Those jobs still exist, though, albeit in specialized fields, such as writing compilers for higher-level languages. They are just embedded in a much larger ecosystem of programming jobs that no longer require thinking at such a low level on a routine basis.

It might be instructive to go back to one of the earliest ideas computer scientists used to think about reaching higher levels of abstraction: that computer programs are like electronic circuit designs. Computer scientists noticed that EE productivity went through the roof with the advent of the integrated circuit. That’s a module that only has to be designed once, with a well-defined documented function and well-defined documented interfaces, easy to mass produce in whatever quantity is required, all functionally identical, and relatively easy to glue together into more complex circuits. Maybe if software could be like that, it would also realize huge increases in productivity. That worked out pretty well, though a true “software IC” technology still seems elusive, and probably always will.

If you look at the job market for electrical engineers today, decades after the successful introduction of the integrated circuit, what do you see? On the digital side, you see a lot fewer listings for people who can design logic circuits out of transistors, or ALUs out of gates, or even CPUs out of ALUs and gates. The common board-level digital design engineer is more involved in picking existing devices and combining them than in actually designing circuits. Likewise, the FPGA or ASIC designer will often be able to get pretty far by integrating existing cores. The work is mostly at a higher level of abstraction. The engineer ideally needs to be aware of exactly how far they can trust the abstractions to hold, and what to do about it when the abstractions leak. Lots of adequate designs can be churned out with imperfect understanding of these issues.

If you look at the market for RF engineers, you see what’s perhaps a later stage of the same evolution. Not only are most RF designs done by using off-the-shelf RF modules, but it is getting very hard to find qualified RF designers at all. As the cohort of RF engineers who had to learn component-level design age out and retire, they are followed by a group of engineers who were mostly able to avoid worrying about that. Only relatively few picked up the lowest-level circuit design skills. Those that did are highly sought-after by companies with RF design requirements.

This trajectory for hardware engineers corresponds to the trend in software engineering toward use of higher level languages and environments and away from programming down to the metal. We can expect this trend to continue. Programmers with deep expertise at any level of abstraction will still be needed and employable. The fraction of jobs at the lower layers of abstraction will decrease, but so will the fraction of programmers with extensive lower layer skills.

This is a problem for the companies that need to hire engineers to work on projects requiring lower-layer expertise, but it’s a boon for those who are able to use higher-layer skills to turn reusable code into useful applications for the growing market in high-complexity systems. As the scope of the software we can re-use without much thought grows to include bigger chunks of functionality, our power to create highly functional systems increases. When the job is to deploy a system that would have been unthinkably complex just a few years ago, the availability of larger re-usable components can make it possible.

These new higher-layer jobs are not easier. They may be a better match for the kind of intelligence that human programmers have, so that they seem easy and pleasant to work on. That probably makes them a worse match for AI/ML capabilities. There’s no current reason to believe that AI/ML technology is on the verge of making a bot that’s able to understand how things need to fit together in the same way as a human. It seems clear that the current generation of AI/ML experiments is not a giant step in that direction. As an improvement over simple search-engine technology, they have potential to make it easier to collect the background knowledge we need to have at our fingertips. To the extent they’re able to turn a vague query into concrete code, they have potential to reduce the amount of rote typing we have to do.

But these robots are not on the verge of being able to do the whole job, working as a programmer without human intervention. As a programmer, you are not about to lose your job creating computer programs. Instead, your job is about to get easier and more fun, as the AI/ML takes on the more tedious parts. The main thing you have to worry about today is that this transformation is still going to take a long time to arrive.

Paul Williamson

December 3, 2022December 3, 2022

AI vs. Human: ChatGPT vs. ORI Open Source Designers

Greetings all,

You know that ORI has been active in a variety of regulatory work for several years now. One of those areas has been in AI/ML and the effect on communications. We served on the US FCC TAC in 2022, have presented and written on the subject, and are working towards an AI/ML Handbook for Amateur Radio.

You may have seen news about OpenAI GPT, or ChatGPT.

https://openai.com/api/

There’s a lot of people testing this chatbot out for reverse engineering and in writing software. There’s been some successes in cases where the model would have had access to code or documentation about protocols, observations, or technical behavior in order to train, and requests match up well with the models.

For example, a friend asked the chatbot to create a Python script to access the webcam on their computer, and they shared a still image from the resulting feed. Another example from another friend resulted in better reverse engineering results than they had gotten with either IDA or Ghidra over many weeks.

So, how does ChatGPT handle VHDL?

We have something specific to compare against, since we just completed a COBS decoder in VHDL for our open source HEO/GEO transponder work for #Haifuraiya.

Let’s start off simple. Here’s the first dialogue with the chatbot, and the results.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Abraxas3d: Design a COBS decoder in VHDL
Sure, here’s an example of a COBS decoder in VHDL:
library IEEE;
use IEEE.STD_LOGIC_1164.ALL;
entity COBS_decoder is
Port (
input_data : in std_logic_vector;
decoded_data : out std_logic_vector
);
end COBS_decoder;
architecture Behavioral of COBS_decoder is
— Declare a variable to keep track of the current index
— in the input and output data streams
variable current_index : integer := 1;

— Declare a variable to store the length of the
— run of zeros in the input data
variable zero_run_length : integer := 0;
begin
— Iterate over the input data
for i in input_data’range loop
— If the current input value is a zero, increment
— the zero run length variable
if input_data(i) = ‘0’ then
zero_run_length := zero_run_length + 1;
— Otherwise, the current input value is not a zero,
— so we’ve reached the end of the zero run
else
— Set the decoded value at the current index to
— the length of the zero run
decoded_data(current_index) := conv_std_logic_vector(zero_run_length, 8);

— Increment the current index and reset the zero
— run length for the next iteration
current_index := current_index + 1;
zero_run_length := 0;
end if;
end loop;
end Behavioral;

This code decodes the input data using the COBS (Consistent Overhead Byte Stuffing) algorithm, which involves replacing runs of zeros in the input data with a single byte that indicates the length of the zero run. For example, the input ‘101001000’ would be decoded as ‘103101’.
This decoder iterates over the input data and maintains a variable zero_run_length that is incremented for each zero in the input data. When a non-zero value is encountered, the length of the zero run is written to the output data and the zero_run_length variable is reset.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It knew what COBS meant. It produced code, with comments, and a brief “design document”, with examples.

The code produced is not licensed or cited.

Our open source HEO transponder project uses AXI-based blocks in the FPGA. So, let’s add AXI to the request.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Abraxas3d: Design a COBS decoder with AXI interface in VHDL

Sure, here’s an example of a COBS decoder with an AXI interface in VHDL:

library IEEE;
use IEEE.STD_LOGIC_1164.ALL;
use IEEE.NUMERIC_STD.ALL;
— AXI interface definitions
library unisim;
use unisim.vcomponents.all;
entity COBS_decoder is
Port (
AXI_IN : in AXI4Stream;
AXI_OUT : out AXI4Stream
);
end COBS_decoder;
architecture Behavioral of COBS_decoder is
— Declare a variable to keep track of the current index
— in the input and output data streams
variable current_index : integer := 1;

— Declare a variable to store the length of the
— run of zeros in the input data
variable zero_run_length : integer := 0;
begin
— Iterate over the input data
for i in AXI_IN.data’range loop
— If the current input value is a zero, increment
— the zero run length variable
if AXI_IN.data(i) = ‘0’ then
zero_run_length := zero_run_length + 1;
— Otherwise, the current input value is not a zero,
— so we’ve reached the end of the zero run
else
— Set the decoded value at the current index to
— the length of the zero run
AXI_OUT.data(current_index) := conv_std_logic_vector(zero_run_length, 8);

— Increment the current index and reset the zero
— run length for the next iteration
current_index := current_index + 1;
zero_run_length := 0;
end if;
end loop;

— Set the valid and last flags in the output AXI stream
AXI_OUT.valid <= ‘1’;
AXI_OUT.last <= ‘1’;
end Behavioral;

This code is similar to the previous example, but it uses an AXI (Advanced eXtensible Interface) interface for the input and output data. The AXI interface is a standard interface used in many FPGA designs, and it provides a way to stream data into and out of the decoder.

In this code, the input data is read from the AXI_IN.data port, and the decoded output is written to the AXI_OUT.data port. The valid and last flags are also set in the output AXI stream to indicate that the data is valid and that it is the last data in the stream.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It knows about the previous request and updated the design. No license.

Here’s a review of the COBS implementation from Paul Williamson KB5MU.

“I don’t know what this is, but it isn’t a COBS decoder with AXI interfaces.

It does seem at first glance to be some sort of thing with AXI interfaces, but it does not implement an AXI interface at all. It just relies on a (possibly imaginary) library type called AXI4Stream that somehow magically does AXI interfaces, in a way that’s both implausibly smart and inexplicably dumb. I think the classic phrase “not even wrong” applies here.

The AXI4Stream object apparently has a member .data that is an array of bytes, which might make sense if the entire AXI transfer is being treated as a single entity here. The code iterates through the input .data using the ’range attribute, as if the AXI4Stream object has a defined fixed transfer length.

Which it can’t have, if it’s a general purpose AXI stream implementation.

So, if this was ever anything real, it must have been a special purpose AXI implementation with a fixed transfer length. Assuming that the AXI4Stream .data actually works that way, the entity does
do some sort of transformation on the input data to create the output data.

We asked for that to be a COBS decoder, but the function that it actually implements bears only the slightest resemblance to a COBS decoder. What it actually does is output a stream of words that are the lengths of the runs of zeroes in the input data. Nonzero data does not get passed through at all.

Instead, a run of nonzero bytes gets translated into a run of zeroes, as if two adjacent nonzero bytes meant nothing but a zero-length run of zeroes.

Here’s an example of what this code seems to do:

  Input  .data:  1 2 3 4 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 4
  Output .data:  0 0 0 0         4 0 0 0

That’s certainly not a COBS decoder, or even anything useful at all.

Note that the output is variable length, but never longer than the input.
We had to assume that the AXI4Stream object had a fixed .data size to get this far, but now it has to have a variable data size for the output.

Supposing we had successfully suspended disbelief up to here, we now examine the final two lines of code in the Behavioral architecture. It sets the .valid and .last members of the AXI_OUT port to ‘1’.

That makes absolutely no sense if it’s supposed to encapsulate an entire AXI stream transfer. Those signals only make sense if we’re treating one word at a time, as you’d expect to see in a normal, general-purpose AXI stream object.

The extremely verbose commenting style in this code suggests that the original source material was from an introductory tutorial. Maybe the AI has been tuned to favor heavily commented code, and ends up picking up partially completed junk from the middle of tutorials?
Anyhow, this is not an example of automated programming in response to a high-level query. This is gibberish that succeeds only in having a superficial resemblance to the code requested.”

So, does this work?

Let’s try it out in the lab!

The first thing we notice is that there is an obvious syntax error with a missing semicolon. Aside from that, there is no AXI4Stream port type. It’s not recognized. Vivado appears to be disappointed in this file, and wants little to do with this code. This is where we should stop, but I spent some time looking to see if the ports were at least close to being declared correctly.

The model appears to have taken some custom or maybe enumerated type from somewhere, and come up with a custom AXI4Stream type. This is not recognized by the unisim library right off the bat, and that’s the sort of thing that automated code writing needs to get right.

Let’s look at the code written by humans from ORI. The decoder can be found here:

https://github.com/Abraxas3d/fpga_cores/blob/master/src/decoder.vhd

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

— Company: Open Research Institute, Inc.
— Engineer: Skunkwrx, Abraxas3d
— Design Name: COBS protocol decoder
— Module Name: decoder – Behavioral
— Project Name: Phase 4 “Haifuraiya”
— Target Devices: 7000 Zynq
— Tool Versions: 2021.1
— Description: COBS protocol decoder.

— Additional Comments: This work is Open Source and licensed using CERN OHL v2.0

library IEEE;
use IEEE.STD_LOGIC_1164.ALL;

use IEEE.NUMERIC_STD.ALL;

–Entity Declaration
entity decoder is
Port ( rst : in STD_LOGIC;
clk : in STD_LOGIC;
s_tdata : in STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (7 downto 0);
s_tlast : in STD_LOGIC;
s_tvalid : in STD_LOGIC;
s_tready : out STD_LOGIC;
m_tdata : out STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (7 downto 0);
m_tlast : out STD_LOGIC;
m_tvalid : out STD_LOGIC;
m_tready : in STD_LOGIC);
end decoder;

–Architecture
architecture Behavioral of decoder is

— internal copy of s_tdata
signal input_data : STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (7 downto 0);

— s_tdata delayed by one clk where s_tvalid is high
signal input_data_d : STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (7 downto 0);

— internal version of s_tlast
— not used for anything
— We create our own m_tlast from the COBS framing instead
signal s_tlast_i : STD_LOGIC;

— internal version of input handshaking signal s_tvalid
signal s_tvalid_i : STD_LOGIC;

— s_tvalid delayed by one clk
— thus, a version of s_tvalid aligned with input_data_d
signal s_tvalid_i_d : STD_LOGIC;

— s_tvalid delayed by two clks
— thus, a version of s_tvalid aligned with output_data
signal s_tvalid_i_d_d : STD_LOGIC;

— countdown of bytes in this sequence
— loads from input_data_d when it represents the frame count
— as determined by signal counter_load
— contains the count while m_tdata contains the implied 0 at
— the end of a sequence, or the next count that replaced it
— counts down thereafter, to contain 1 when the last non-zero
— byte of the sequence is on m_tdata
— allowed to count down to 0, but not beyond
signal count : STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (7 downto 0);

— enable to load count from input_data_d on this clk edge
— two cases detected:
— * first valid non-zero byte after a frame separator
— * first valid byte after count is exhausted
— allowed to be high for multiple cycles
signal counter_load : STD_LOGIC;

— counter_load delayed by one clk where s_tvalid is high
— used to identify the first valid data byte of any sequence,
— for purposes of computing m_tvalid (via pre_tvalid)
signal counter_load_d : STD_LOGIC;

— detection of a valid frame separator (zero) byte in input_data_d
signal frame_sep : STD_LOGIC;

— frame_sep delayed by one clk where s_tvalid is high
— used to compute counter_load
— used to compute rising edge of pre_tvalid
signal frame_sep_d : STD_LOGIC;

— frame_sep_d delayed by an additional clk (not depending on s_tvalid)
— used to find the first non-zero byte of the new frame
signal frame_sep_d_d : STD_LOGIC;

— move the frame_sep signal that occurred during m_tready low
— out to the first cycle when m_tready is high again
signal use_saved_frame_sep : STD_LOGIC;

— flag to remember that the frame count for this sequence was 255,
— to handle the special case that such a sequence does not have
— an implied zero byte at the end.
— set when loading count with 255
— cleared when the counter is reloaded with anything else
signal case_255 : STD_LOGIC;

— internal version of m_tdata output
signal output_data : STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (7 downto 0);

— internal version of m_tlast output
— high when the last byte of a frame is valid on m_tdata
signal m_tlast_i : STD_LOGIC;

— delayed versions of m_tlast
signal m_tlast_i_d : STD_LOGIC;
signal m_tlast_i_d_d : STD_LOGIC;

— intermediate result for m_tvalid.
— high across all data bytes of each sequence on m_tdata
— does not go low for bytes on m_tdata corresponding to
— bytes invalidated by s_tvalid.
signal pre_tvalid : STD_LOGIC;

— internal version of m_tvalid output.
— pre_tvalid with periods of low s_tvalid_d_d punched out
signal m_tvalid_i : STD_LOGIC;

— internal version of m_tready input
— also the internal version of s_tready output
— passes through m_tready to s_tready with no clk delays
signal m_tready_i : STD_LOGIC;

— constant byte value 0xFF, for comparison purposes
signal all_ones : STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(input_data’range) := (others => ‘1’);

— constant byte value 0x00, for comparison purposes
signal all_zeros : STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(input_data’range) := (others => ‘0’);

begin

— asynchronous assignments

frame_sep <= ‘1’ when input_data_d = all_zeros and s_tvalid_i_d = ‘1’
else ‘0’;

m_tlast_i <= ‘1’ when ((frame_sep = ‘1’ and m_tvalid_i = ‘1’ and m_tready = ‘1’))
else ‘0’;

counter_load <= ‘1’ when (input_data_d /= all_zeros and frame_sep_d = ‘1’ and s_tvalid_i_d = ‘1’) — start of frame
or (to_integer(unsigned(count)) = 1 and s_tvalid_i_d = ‘1’) — start of next sequence in frame
else ‘0’;

m_tvalid_i <= ‘1’ when ((pre_tvalid = ‘1’ and s_tvalid_i_d_d = ‘1’ — usual case, if input_data was valid
and not (to_integer(unsigned(count)) = 1 and s_tvalid_i_d = ‘0’)) — defer last byte; might be m_tlast
or (pre_tvalid = ‘1’ and to_integer(unsigned(count)) = 1
and s_tvalid_i_d = ‘1’ and s_tvalid_i_d_d = ‘0’)) — pick up that deferred last byte
else ‘0’;

s_tready <= m_tready_i;
m_tdata <= output_data;
input_data <= s_tdata;
s_tvalid_i <= s_tvalid;
m_tready_i <= m_tready;
m_tvalid <= m_tvalid_i;
m_tlast <= m_tlast_i;

— processes

set_case_255 : process (rst, clk)
begin
if rst = ‘1’ then
case_255 <= ‘0’;
elsif rising_edge(clk) and m_tready_i = ‘1’ then
if counter_load = ‘1’ and input_data_d = all_ones then
case_255 <= ‘1’;
elsif counter_load = ‘1’ and input_data_d /= all_ones then
case_255 <= ‘0’;
end if;
end if;
end process set_case_255;

delay_s_tvalid : process (rst, clk)
begin
if rst = ‘1’ then
s_tvalid_i_d <= ‘0’;
s_tvalid_i_d_d <= ‘0’;
elsif rising_edge(clk) and m_tready_i = ‘1’ then
s_tvalid_i_d <= s_tvalid_i;
s_tvalid_i_d_d <= s_tvalid_i_d;
end if;
end process delay_s_tvalid;

create_pre_tvalid : process (rst, clk)
begin
if rst = ‘1’ then
counter_load_d <= ‘0’;
pre_tvalid <= ‘0’;
elsif rising_edge(clk) and m_tready_i = ‘1’ then
if s_tvalid_i_d = ‘1’ then
counter_load_d <= counter_load;
if (frame_sep_d_d = ‘1’ and frame_sep_d = ‘0’) — normal last byte of frame
or (counter_load_d = ‘1’ and frame_sep_d = ‘0’) — normal first byte of a sequence
then
pre_tvalid <= ‘1’;
end if;
end if;
if frame_sep = ‘1’
then
pre_tvalid <= ‘0’;
end if;
if counter_load = ‘1’ and case_255 = ‘1’ then
pre_tvalid <= ‘0’;
end if;
end if;
end process create_pre_tvalid;

delay_m_tlast_i : process (rst, clk)
begin
if rst = ‘1’ then
m_tlast_i_d <= ‘0’;
m_tlast_i_d_d <= ‘0’;
elsif rising_edge(clk) and m_tready_i = ‘1’ then
m_tlast_i_d <= m_tlast_i;
m_tlast_i_d_d <= m_tlast_i_d;
end if;
end process delay_m_tlast_i;

set_counter : process (rst,clk)
begin
if rst = ‘1’ then
count <= (others => ‘0’);
frame_sep_d <= ‘0’; frame_sep_d_d <= ‘0’; elsif rising_edge(clk) and m_tready_i = ‘1’ then frame_sep_d_d <= frame_sep_d; if s_tvalid_i_d = ‘1’ then frame_sep_d <= frame_sep; if counter_load = ‘1’ then count <= input_data_d; elsif count /= all_zeros then count <= STD_LOGIC_VECTOR(unsigned(count) – 1); end if; end if; end if; end process set_counter; create_output : process (rst, clk) begin if rst = ‘1’ then output_data <= (others => ‘0’);
elsif rising_edge(clk) and m_tready_i = ‘1’ then
if counter_load = ‘1’
then
output_data <= all_zeros;
elsif s_tvalid_i_d = ‘1’ then
output_data <= input_data_d;
end if;
end if;
end process create_output;

selective_delay_of_input_data : process (rst,clk)
begin
if rst = ‘1’ then
input_data_d <= all_zeros;
elsif rising_edge(clk) and m_tready_i = ‘1’ then
if s_tvalid_i = ‘1’ then
input_data_d <= input_data;
end if;
end if;
end process selective_delay_of_input_data;

end Behavioral;

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

This codebase doesn’t include just the source code, but also a testbench file, a design document, timing diagrams, a Python notebook that creates test vectors, and Python code that compares results produced by the testbench that uses the test vectors.

None of this sort of thing is produced by ChatGPT.

There is code in some languages for some functions that can be correctly written by AI at this point.

This is a situation similar to algorithmic musical composition. Algorithms can come up with useful ideas, motifs, sketches, or traverse a search space more quickly than a human. They can help a composer, but do not replace one. Algorithms can produce some sparkling gems of ideas. These are fresh cuts and views. This is mixed in with a lot of music that is just plain wrong.

If your programming job happens to be in a well-defined area that is easily automated, then you do have something to worry about today.

All jobs are a target for eventual automation with AI/ML. Yes, all of them. As AI/ML becomes more capable, it will automate even things like testbench writing (HDL Coder already does something like this) and support code (like a Python notebook that creates a solid set of test vectors for a testbench) and design documents. All of us should be aware of what we do being replaced by an algorithm some number of tomorrows in the future.

That day is not yet “today” with Chat GPT, when it comes to writing #VHDL.

What do you think? We’re interested in your experience and opinions with AI/ML writing code.

November 29, 2022November 29, 2022

Federal Communications Commission Technological Advisory Committee Meeting 8 December 2022

Greetings all,

The final Technological Advisory Committee Meeting of 2022 for the Federal Communications Commission will be held 8 December.

ORI was a member of the TAC for 2022, contributed to several reports, and will be represented in person at the closing meeting.

I’ve represented Open Source and Amateur Radio concerns over the past year on the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) working group of TAC. I co-chaired the sub-working group about “Safe Uses of AI/ML” with Paul Steinberg of Motorola, invited and organized a variety of speakers to present to the working groups, and had the opportunity to work on “how AI/ML is affecting bandwidth and throughput” paper with excellent FCC staffers. The amateur radio service is highlighted in this report.

The work consisted of two meetings a week and a lot of time in between to prepare, organize speakers, and manage deliberative discussions.

The final meeting in DC summarizes work for the year and sets out an agenda for next year. This year was a very difficult “rebuilding” year for TAC, as it had been shut down at the beginning of COVID. I am honored to be a part of getting TAC back up and running.

Thank you to everyone that has supported ORI participating at this level of US government. It’s been very successful.

Karen Rucker (ORI Secretary Emeritus) was instrumental in the application process, and I’d like to recognize her service to ORI and the FCC.

Paul Williamson, with experience on standards committees, has been invaluable in terms of providing advice for deliberations and decisions.

A special thanks to Marty Woll of YASME Foundation for his guidance and advice, and to ARRL counsel for coordinating and cooperating with ORI on a wide variety of issues we’ve taken to the FCC over the past year. ARRL is ably represented at FCC TAC by Greg Lapin.

If you are interested in “sticking up for amateur radio and open source at the FCC”, then you can make a positive difference in the US regulatory process. This is much more involved than filing a comment or complaining on social media. It is a significant commitment of time and effort.

Please get in touch and I will do all I can to support your application to groups like the FCC TAC. There are many ways to participate, and all of them affect the future success of open source and the amateur radio services that we care so much about.

-Michelle Thompson CEO ORI

October 19, 2022October 19, 2022

Inner Circle – September 2022

Greetings from Open Research Institute!

We hope to see you again at QSO Today Ham Expo this weekend, 17-18 September 2022. We have a booth, five talks, three project exhibits, and a lounge space for meet and greet.

To find out more about Ham Expo, visit https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/

Since the last Ham Expo, we’ve integrated the DVB-S2/X encoder into the downlink reference design for our open source broadband microwave transponder. We have started on the uplink receiver. We have published a specification for our high bitrate digital voice and data uplink protocol. It’s called Opulent Voice and it will be introduced and described at the Expo. Find the source code for a C++ implementation at https://github.com/phase4ground/opv-cxx-demod

We have two sounding rocket projects, an open source propulsion project, successful regulatory work, and we represent open source and amateur radio interests on the US FCC Technological Advisory Committee. We co-chair the “Safe Uses of AI/ML” subworking group.

Our open source HEO proposal Haifuraiya will be presented at the Expo this weekend and details will be in an upcoming JAMSAT Journal.

We do terrestrial communications as well! Ribbit is a digital emergency communications mode for VHF/UHF. No extra equipment or cables required. We have a poster about the project in the exhibit hall and a presentation. Get the free Android application at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aicodix.rattlegram

All video presentations will be available at our YouTube channel after the Ham Expo platform has closed in 30 days.

We have a mailing list for updates and discussion, a Slack account for engineering work, and all work is published as it is created to our GitHub account.

To join any of these resources at ORI, please visit https://www.openresearch.institute/getting-started/

If you’d like to get monthly newsletters like this one, then do nothing. You’re already part of the inner circle!

Our volunteers could not accomplish all of this wonderful work without your interest and support.

Thank you from everyone at ORI. We value your comment, critique, and feedback, and look forward to hearing from you. If you use social media, then a lot of what we do is published through the channels linked below.

Thank you from all of us at ORI!

October 16, 2022October 16, 2022

September 2022 QSO Today Ham Expo – ORI’s Open Source Technical Presentations

These are our technical talks from the September 2022 QSO Today Ham Expo.

Thank you to everyone that supports our work ❤️

October 5, 2022October 5, 2022

Deviation Limits of the MD-380

Not enough deviation for Opulent Voice

We measured the deviation limits on the MD-380 with firmware from OpenRTX. Thank you to Redman for help with modifying the firmware to make this test as easy as possible.

The transmitted signal is about 10 dB down at 3000 Hz and almost gone at 4200 Hz. Therefore, there is not enough deviation for Opulent Voice.

The part of the radio under test was the HR_C5000. This is a part from Hong Rui and is a DMR digital communications chip. The chip handles 4FSK modulation and demodulation, among other functions.

According to a translated datasheet for the HR C5000, adjustment of the frequency offset range not possible. It appears to be designed only for +/- 3 kHz. Unless there’s an undocumented feature, or gain is added after the HR C5000, then +/- 3 kHz is the maximum deviation for this radio.

The HR C5000 puts out two analog signals MOD1 and MOD2, which are combined and then drive a varactor diode. The varactor might well have more range. Or it could be replaced with one that has more range.

Below is a photo essay of the testing and screenshots of results.

30 AWG wire soldered to pin 5 of the HR_C5000 on the MD-380. This is one of two audio inputs to the modulator. It’s the one used for signaling tones, and not the one used for microphone audio, in the original design. Ground wire attached as well and brought out. Firmware modifications disabled M17 baseband output when PTT pressed. Pre-emphasis and filters disabled by putting radio in M17 mode. The red wire is part of the standard M17 mod for the MD-380.

Ground wire attached to point on board and brought out. Modifications inspected by KB5MU in Remote Lab.

The black rubbery weather seal gasket around the perimeter of the cast heatsink means there’s no way for wires, even very skinny ones, to come out through the seam in the case.

Hole was drilled in the side of the case and the wires brought out. Radio was put back together. Battery, display, etc. all working after modifications. Notice the 20 dB attenuator on the output of the HT. Its lowest output power is 1W nominal, which matches the maximum rated input of the spectrum analyzer, so the attenuator was added to protect the spectrum analyzer’s front end.

Test Results

Transmitted signal before modified firmware.

Transmitted signal after modified firmware. Notice no modulation because the baseband signal has been disabled.

1kHz sine wave at 100 mV injected to pin 5 of the HR C5000.

1kHz sine wave at 220 mV injected to pin 5 of the HR C5000.

3 kHz sine wave at 220 mV injected to pin 5 of the HR C5000. Signal is about 10dB down at 3 kHz

4200 Hz sine wave at 220 mV injected to pin 5 of the HR C5000. Signal is approximately 45 dB down.

Looking at the low end, this is one half a Hz at 220 mV injected to pin 5 of the HR C5000.

Two tenths of a Hz at 220 mV injected to pin 5 of the HR C5000. Notice the discontinuities. These were not seen when the signal generator was connected to an oscilloscope. It could be that when the modulating frequency is too low, it interacts with a PLL or other frequency stabilization loop in the radio.
It would not be an issue in the original design, with all audio coupled through capacitors. No way anything that close to DC would get to the audio chip.

September 26, 2022September 26, 2022

Subscribe to ORI’s “Inner Circle” Newsletter

Join the Inner Circle at ORI.

ORI publishes a lot of technical reports. There’s over 30 repositories, 10 projects, and well – that’s a lot to digest. People asked for something easier to read that came less often so we did just that.

The link is http://eepurl.com/h_hYzL and the QR Code is below.

The response to the newsletter has been really nice with over 2000 subscribers in the first two weeks. Please consider yourself invited!

ORI is a non-profit all-volunteer group that donates all of its work to the amateur radio and amateur radio satellite services. Subscriber information is private and will not ever be sold.

September 25, 2022September 25, 2022

How Can Open Research Institute Help You?

Thank you so much for visiting with us at QSO Today Ham Expo! We hope you found it as enjoyable, vibrant, and inspiring as we did.

We presented five talks, had three project exhibits, and a booth. You can find a summary below.

Your interest in our work is appreciated. We want you to enjoy open source non-profit digital radio and amateur radio to the fullest. How can we help?

Here is how to get involved with what we do:

https://www.openresearch.institute/getting-started/

Here’s a roundup of what we brought to Ham Expo. All of what we do is published as it is created. Our work is free to the general public at no cost.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Ribbit, a new digital text messaging mode for UHF/VHF emergency communications

Presentors: Pierre Deliou W4CKX, Ahmet Inan

Level: General Audience Category: Emergency Communications Time:

PDT: September 18, 2022, 10:00 am UTC: September 18, 2022, 5:00 pm

Ribbit is a novel digital text messaging mode for VHF/UHF communications for recreational and emergency use which radically increases the density of information transmitted by spectrum used. It leverages the computing power of the modern smartphone to increase the capabilities of any Handy Talkie without requiring any additional hardware. Its redundant distributed nature allows it to function even when connectivity to the internet is lost during emergencies. Ribbit is open source and currently in its early stages of development. Get the free Android app here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aicodix.rattlegram

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and the Future of Amateur Radio

Level: Intermediate Category: DSP and Software Design, Future of Amateur Radio, SDR Software Defined Radio, Software and Services Time:

PDT: September 17, 2022, 1:00 pm UTC: September 17, 2022, 8:00 pm

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are all over the news, taking over academia, getting billions of dollars of commercial investment, and will change both computer networking and wireless communications in fundamental ways. What does the future of amateur radio look like when radios use machine learning to operate? How does our relationship to the bands change with cognitive radio? Where are we in this transformation? What will happen next?A working group to produce an AI/ML Handbook for Amateur Radio is forming now. Register your interest here: https://forms.gle/4dZsLkmyxCkp8JiF6

Truly Excellent Digital Voice Quality: Opulent Voice

Presentors: Paul Williamson KB5MU

Level: General Audience Category: Digital Voice Mode, DSP and Software Design, Software and Satellites, Space and Satellites Time:

PDT: September 17, 2022, 9:00 am UTC: September 17, 2022, 4:00 pm

Digital voice on amateur radio to date has generally had terrible voice quality, due to both a perception of limited available bandwidth and the convenience (to manufacturers) of repurposing commercial protocols with their older, proprietary, low-bitrate voice codecs. We present and demonstrate a modern digital voice design that can be used on 222 MHz and above with truly excellent voice quality. Source code here: https://github.com/phase4ground/opv-cxx-demod

Haifuraiya – Open Source HEO Satellite Project Proposal

Presentors: Michelle Thompson W5NYV

Level: General Audience Category: Space and Satellites Time:

PDT: September 18, 2022, 9:00 am UTC: September 18, 2022, 4:00 pm

Haifuraiya is an open source highly elliptical orbit amateur satellite project proposal. This presentation will walk through the high-level project proposal. The project features a digital microwave multiplexing transceiver with a failover transponder mode, has an international volunteer team open to community participants, and complies with debris mitigation guidance from the United States Federal Communications Commission. Repository here: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/blob/master/Papers_Articles_Presentations/Slide_Presentations/haifuraiya/README.md

User Authentication for Amateur Satellites

Presentors: Paul Williamson KB5MU

Level: General Audience Category: DSP and Software Design, Software and Satellites, Space and Satellites Time:

PDT: September 17, 2022, 8:00 am UTC: September 17, 2022, 3:00 pm

After a brief discussion of the reasons why user authentication is needed on an amateur satellite service system, we’ll cover a proposed system to implement reasonably secure user authentication on a P4XT digital multiplexing satellite transponder, within the bounds of the (United States) rules.

We had three project showcases in the Project Gallery

Each Gallery had a Q&A tab, a poster or document, links to any papers, and a link to any associated video presentations.

1) Ribbit, a distributed digital messaging platform

2) Opulent Voice – High Bitrate Digital Voice and Data

3) Open Source Satellite Work is Free of ITAR/EAR

Kumospace Lounge

Thank you to Ham Expo for providing fun and effective Lounges for interaction at the conference. We truly enjoyed visiting with everyone that dropped by! We hope you enjoyed our themed events and the extended Q&A in the Lounges.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

September 15, 2022September 15, 2022

Open Source represented at the Quarterly FCC TAC Meeting

https://www.fcc.gov/news-events/events/2022/09/technological-advisory-council-meeting-september-15-2022

Open Research Institute is a member of the AI/ML Working Group and co-chairs the “Safe Uses” of AI/ML Sub-working Group.

ORI advocates for open source and amateur radio on the TAC.

September 5, 2022September 5, 2022

ORI Brochure

Please take one.

ORI-flyer-September-2022-inner Download

August 17, 2022September 8, 2022

DEFCON 30 Activity Report

Open Research Institute’s amateur radio open source showcase at the annual hacker convention DEFCON was located in RF Village (RF Hackers Sanctuary) in The Flamingo Hotel. A volunteer crew of seven people from three US states staffed the exhibit that ran from Friday 12 August to Sunday 14 August 2022.

RF Village hosts a very popular wireless Capture the Flag (CTF) event. It is a top tier contest at DEFCON and the winners are recognized at closing ceremonies. RF Village also has a peer-reviewed speaking track. See previous talks in the YouTube playlists here: https://www.youtube.com/c/RFHackersSanctuary

RF Village generously offers space for exhibits from the community. For 2022, the exhibits included Open Research Institute, Kent Britain PCB Antennas, Alexander Zakharov (ALFTEL Systems Ltd.), and Starlink (SpaceX). Starlink brought two stations and allowed visitors to experiment with network and physical security.

Total attendance at DEFCON 30 was estimated at 27,000. Conference events were held in the new Caesar’s Forum + Flamingo, Harrah’s, and Linq convention centers.

Open Research Institute’s exhibit had multiple parts. The entry to the exhibit was a poster session. Posters presented were ITAR/EAR Regulatory Relief for Amateur Satellite Service, Libre Space Foundation’s Manifesto, Authentication and Authorization Protocol for Amateur Satellites, and the Ribbit Project Introduction and Architecture. Ribbit allows an amateur operator to type in SMS messages on an Android app. Each SMS message is converted to digital audio tones. The tones are played out the phone’s speaker into the microphone of an amateur radio handheld or mobile rig. This can turn any analog HT into part of a digital messaging network. The app can do point-to-point communications and also has a repeater mode. More open source implementations are planned.

All posters were enthusiastically well-received. Specific technical feedback was received on the Authorization protocol that will improve the design. There will be a presentation about the Authorization and Authentication protocol at the September 2022 QSO Today Ham Expo.

Visitors understood the purpose and potential of Ribbit and could download the free open source Android app from a QR code on the poster. The code was also on the Ribbit stickers handed out at the booth. All 300 of the Ribbit stickers were handed out by Sunday morning.

Find the Ribbit “Rattlegram” application here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aicodix.rattlegram

There will be a Ribbit presentation at the September 2022 QSO Today Ham Expo.

The ITAR/EAR Open Source amateur satellite regulatory relief poster garnered a lot of attention. A very large fraction of DEFCON attendees are familiar with ITAR/EAR, which are a set of regulations that govern the way we design communications satellites in the USA. People that read the poster at DEFCON understood and appreciated the value of the work, which provides long-awaited regulatory relief for the amateur satellite service. The poster presentation led to an invitation to Policy Village Sunday afternoon for a panel session hosted by the Office of the National Cyber Director. Summary of that session can be found in ORI’s 19 August 2022 project report. The ITAR/EAR poster will be part of the Projects Exhibits at the September 2022 QSO Today Ham Expo.

Foot traffic flowed past the posters and into the live demonstrations.

The first live demonstration visitors encountered was from OpenRTX (https://openrtx.org). This demonstration used a tablet computer running OpenWebRX to display modified MD-380 transmissions. Visitors could use headphones to hear live transmitted signals. Posters at the table explained the modifications required to implement the M17 protocol on the MD-380 and described the motivation and value of the work, with an emphasis on the use of the free and open CODEC2 voice codec. The use of CODEC2 in M17 replaces the proprietary AMBE codec found in every other digital voice protocol for VHF/UHF ham radio. There was strong interest in both the M17 and the DMR work from OpenRTX, broad understanding of why proprietary codecs are not ideal, and consistently positive feedback. 500 OpenRTX business cards were printed with QR codes for the OpenRTX website and nearly all of them were handed out.

The second demonstration was Opulent Voice. This is a high bitrate open source voice and data protocol. It’s designed as the uplink protocol for ORI’s amateur satellite program. The Authentication and Authorization fields are built in and sending data does not require a separate packet mode. The baseline voice codec for Opulent Voice is OPUS at 16 kbps. Higher bitrates are a build-time option. For the DEFCON demonstration, Opulent Voice was transmitted from an Analog Devices PLUTO SDR and received on an RTL-SDR/Raspberry Pi. Visitors could use headphones to listen to the received audio. The modulator and demodulator code can be found at https://github.com/phase4ground/opv-cxx-demod. 300 custom art stickers for Opulent Voice were ordered and all were handed out.

The two demonstrations compared and contrasted voice quality (3.2 kbps vs 16+ kbps), regulatory limitations (VHF/UHF vs. microwave), and approach to framing (P25 style vs. COBS/UDP/RTP).

The next station had stickers, buttons, patches, ORI’s Tiny CTF, Haifuraiya proposal printouts, and a Trans-Ionospheric badge display.

ORI’s “Tiny CTF” was a hidden web server, accessible from the wifi access point located at the OpenRTX demonstration. The access point allowed people to view the OpenWebRX display directly on their connected devices. Participants that found the hidden web server and then blinked the LEDs on a certain piece of equipment at the booth received a prize.

Haifuraiya (High Flyer) is an open source highly elliptical orbit communications satellite proposal. Microwave amateur band digital communications at 5, 10, and 24 GHz are proposed. Transmissions are frequency division multiple access Opulent Voice up, and DVB-S2/X time division multiplexed down. A presentation about this proposal will be at the September 2022 QSO Today Ham Expo.

Based on the feedback about the amateur radio themed Trans-Ionospheric badge, ORI will update and build another round of these badges. Round one of the Trans-Ionospheric badge was a very successful open source project fundraiser. The badges have been enduringly popular in the community, and they can serve as radio peripherals that display radio link and payload health over bluetooth. The artistic design of the badge is based on the front panel of the Zenith Trans-Oceanic radio. Find out more about the Trans-Ionospheric badge here: https://www.openresearch.institute/badge/

There were very high levels of interest, enthusiasm, and positive feedback throughout the weekend. Friends from Ham Radio Village and Aerospace Village visited the exhibit and shared their experiences. The organizational support from RF Village leads was excellent. ORI will return to DEFCON in 2023 with another round of open source digital radio demonstrations.

Amateur radio experimenters and their projects are welcome at Open Research Institute. Individuals can join for free at https://www.openresearch.institute/getting-started/. Projects can apply at https://www.openresearch.institute/your-project-is-welcome/

August 7, 2022August 7, 2022

AquaPhage Lab at Remote Lab South

Bacteriophage work will be carried out at Remote Lab South, where an existing building is being converted to house laboratory space. Roof and interior work was required.

August 5, 2022August 5, 2022

Spring 2022 Meeting Minutes

Recent Business:

Opulent Voice educational effort w/ University of Puerto Rico and University of San Diego
Goal is to develop curriculum using open source protocols

Rocket Desk Toy Fundraiser campaign via CommitChange
Supports open source electric engine synchronization that benefits high-speed digital communications mission integration

Morehead State University ASTROBi “Cost Sensitive KA-band LNA using COTS MMIC devices and novel coding” proposal

Deep space project that is interested in leveraging ORI’s work

AmbaSat sounding rocket work ongoing

Aeva Black of Open Source Initiative (OSI) nominated to the FCC Technological Advisory Board

FCC working group activity and participation continues with sub-working group “Safe Uses” co-chair service provided by ORI for 2022.

P4DX downlink encoder demonstration and code release at Ham Radio

Friedrichshafen 2022.
Report received

Code published (Pluto SDR with DVB-S2/X Encoder)

OpenRTX+M17 visit to Ham Radio Friedrichshafen 2022
Report received

Fiscal Sponsorship of Project Skylark

2021 tax return completed and filed

Grant proposals to ARDC for #104 “Douglas Qugaliana Contract Proposal” project and #106 “Transition from Remote Labs East to Remote Labs South”, both rewritten by ARDC, then declined by ARDC.
Both projects funded from alternate sources

Legal consult regarding a variety of ARDC behavior completed

Grant proposal to ARDC for “#272 A Low-Cost Open-Source Universal Radio Test Instrument” with Great Scott Gadgets deleted before the ARDC review committee saw it.

Government grants pursued as an alternative

Ongoing Issues:
M17 Project discussion of communication, expectations, and reimbursement

Items to Discuss:
Defcon “Retail Hacking Village” request to join Open Research Institute

July 30, 2022August 3, 2022

Opulent Voice – digital voice and data protocol update

This Opulent Voice sticker is available from ORI at events around the world.

Opulent Voice is an open source high bitrate digital voice (and data) protocol. It’s what we are using for our native digital uplink protocol for ORI’s transponder project. Opulent Voice is also looking pretty darn good for terrestrial.

Here is an audible example of the Opulent Voice audio quality under ideal conditions. Each file is about 37 seconds long. It starts with a short musical intro, and the rest is the beginning of the audio track from one of Michelle’s conference talks. These were originally recorded with mid-range podcasting studio gear. The recording was converted to a signed 16-bit PCM raw file, which has been re-converted to a standard WAV file so you can play it easily, MDT-short.wav

Original recording

This file was then run through opv-mod to create a file of baseband samples, which was then piped to opv-demod, which created an output file of signed 16-bit PCM. That file was converted to WAV file MDT-short.demod.wav

Original recording modulated and then demodulated through Opulent Voice.

We expect to present a nice demo at DEFCON in August 2022 and at the QSO Today Ham Expo in September 2022.

We’ll be using COBS protocol within Opulent Voice. If you’re unfamiliar with COBS, please read about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consistent_Overhead_Byte_Stuffing

Authentication and authorization is built in and optional. There is no separate “packet mode”. Things are designed to “just work” and get out of your way whether or not you’re sending voice or data.

Opulent Voice is designed to where you can use even higher bitrate OPUS codecs if you wish. This will most likely be a build option and not a run-time option, but if a run-time option is something you want to work on, speak up! Let’s see what we can accomplish.

Originally based on Mobilinkd codebase that implements M17, the Opulent Voice development implementation can be found here:

https://github.com/phase4ground/opv-cxx-demod

Initial demos will be on a HackRF/PortaPack on the 1.2 GHz ham bands.

Thank you to OpenRTX for help with troubleshooting the audio quality on the PortaPack. In order to have a good demo, basic FM transmit from the microphone needs to work. The audio quality is pretty bad (this was a surprise) with the stock application, so we’ve been spending some time with the Mayhem codebase, the microphone transmit app, and the driver for the audio codec in order to get it sounding like it should. This needs to happen before we publish an app for the PortaPack.

Synthesized audio from the HackRF/PortaPack sounds clear and wonderful. It’s just the microphone that is splattery and overdriven.

ORI’s Slack channel can be found at https://phase4ground.slack.com/

The authentication and authorization work is in #aaaaa
Opulent Voice work is in #opulent-voice

Thank you to everyone supporting the work!

-Michelle Thompson

June 23, 2022June 23, 2022

Summer Fundraising: Rocket Desk Toys Available Now

Help spread the word about our summer fundraiser. These are cute mini-puzzle desk toys in custom packaging. They are shaped like a rocket ship and are made out of laser-cut orange acrylic. Campaign runs through 1 September 2022. More items will be added throughout the summer.

https://us.commitchange.com/ca/san-diego/open-research-institute/campaigns/where-will-we-go-next

Orange laser-cut acrylic rocket desk toy

May 20, 2022May 20, 2022

Countdown to NASA SBIR/STTR Solicitations Announcement

It is 5 days until the next SBIR/STTR NASA solicitation round.

Let’s take some time and sort through the solicitations and see what we qualify for.

We have a fantastic community and volunteers that would like to do meaningful work.

Applying for SBIR/STTRs as the research institute or non-profit is one way to accomplish this goal.

I’ll post the announced solicitations, but if you want to keep track, then the webpage to go to is here:

https://sbir.nasa.gov/solicitations

If you would like to be part of ORI, please visit:

https://www.openresearch.institute/getting-started/

April 2, 2022April 2, 2022

Poster Presentation ITAR/EAR

ITAR-EAR-poster-2022 Download

April 2, 2022April 2, 2022

Video of Working Meeting on Higher Bitrate M17

Specification of M17:

https://spec.m17project.org/

P4DX architecture document:

https://github.com/phase4ground/docum…

M17 is P4DX native digital uplink protocol.

There are at least three use cases of M17.

One, 9600 bps voice for VHF/UHF.

Two, the idea of 9600 bps data or packet mode, also VHF/UHF.

Three, higher bitrate mode for microwave.

There is a data type specifier in the current specification. Reserved protocol types are RAW, AX.25, APRS, 6LoWPAN, IPv4, SMS, and Winlink.

What we’re talking about today is what, if anything, needs to be added to the specification in order to enable high bitrate operation for microwave, and also to figure out if anything needs to be done for IP over M17 or M17 over IP.

From Slack:

Ron

What needs to be defined is how to do IP over M17. In the M17 specification, there’s a protocol identifier for IPv4, but that’s it.

And here is a review of the conversation from 2021. This was the starting point for the conversation in this video recording.

Ron

M17 supports IPv4, but I’m not exactly sure how. The M17 specification seems pretty vague on that particular point

Howie

Assume we consider M17 stream mode operating in an FDM manner with a receiver for each uplink channel. Each channel can be given a GSE label that could map to an uplink center freq. The 4FSK modulated data is demodulated but not decoded. Instead, the data streams are clocked into individual buffers and used to generate the GRE frames. The idea is to keep the M17 frames intact so that on the ground earth station the demodulated data is identical to the uplinked frame which can be processed by the existing M17 decoder software. You listen to a channel by selecting the label for the stream you want to listen to. The limiting factor becomes how fast you can assemble the uplink channels into GRE frames.

I don’t think there is any need or desire to use anything other than native M17 on the uplink. While GSE is normally used for IP transport I think we could put the M17 frames into the GSE data field. At that point the only overhead is on the downlink with the addition of the GSE headers and LSF management. I have not looked closely at the sizes of the required fields are or how much processing it would take to multiplex multiple uplink streams into a composite downlink. At this point I am just brainstorming.

Anshul

looks like we don’t need IP as an intermediate step. I agree with @ab2s that there is no need to use anything other than native M17 on the uplink. GSE should encapsulate M17 frames and produce BBFRAME as it normally does for IP packet.

It implies we will be not using any IP stream/packets on uplink. Everything uplink will be M17 based.

Do you see any concerns here . Else, I will proceed with implementation of GSE block in firmware keeping this decision in mind.

Consensus on:

Validity of use case for higher bitrate M17 for P4DX uplink.
IP over M17 could use an example (as could all the types in this field), but the type field indicating IPv4 is sufficient for carrying IPv4 within M17. M17 packet is small enough to where IP fragmentation will probably occur.
M17 over IP is defined in the appendix, it works as implemented in the reflector network, and did not appear to need any additional work.
P4DX could provide a spigot of M17 uplinks over IP, using the protocol in the appendix, as a Groundsat feature. This would not affect the air interface.
We discussed the XOR with random data aspect (covert SPARROW channel here? Yes/maybe if there’s a known message)
Discussed asking for a P4 Type Field Indicator. Smart receivers won’t need this, but it would allow people to move between 9600 bps M17 and higher bitrate M17.

March 9, 2022March 9, 2022

17 March 2022: International Standardization of the M17 Protocol

Interested in M17 Project? IEEE and ORI are co-hosting a presentation about International Standardization of the M17 Protocol.

Even if you can’t make the live meeting, please register. Registrants get a link to the recording sent to them after the event. And, good attendance numbers will help get future amateur radio events cross-listed with IEEE.

https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/307302

March 2, 2022March 2, 2022

Have You Heard The Good News?

Updated one-sheet and brochure for 2022.

Take one today!

ORI_one_sheet_March_2022 Download

ORI-flyer-March-2022-inner Download

February 19, 2022February 19, 2022

HamCation 2022 Report

Paul Williamson (Remote Labs), Douglas Quagliana (P4DX), Michelle Thompson (ORI), Ed Wilson (M17), and Steve Miller (M17) represented the breadth of projects from Open Research Institute at HamCation 2022.

ORI’s “Tonight’s The Night: SDRs are HOT” booth made its first appearance in nearly two years. Available at the booth were stickers, pins, patches, shirts, consulting, and project updates. ORI’s “extra chair” seating area was appreciated by volunteers and visitors alike. Booth visitors heard about the successful DVB-S2X modem work from ORI and progress on the end-to-end demo of the entire satellite transponder chain. At Open Research Institute, it doesn’t work until it works over the air. Due to the efforts of a truly wonderful international open source team, the custom FPGA code is coming together very well, and Remote Labs continues to evolve. The Phase 4 Digital Multiplexing Transceiver project is on budget, on track, and highly likely to succeed. The return on investment is high. The team isn’t anywhere near done innovating, publishing, and enabling high-tech space aand terrestrial amateur radio work. If you want to be a part of this, or just follow along, visit https://openresearch.institute, go to “Getting Started”, and sign up for the Phase 4 Ground mailing list. This is “home base” for announcements from ORI.

Right beside ORI’s booth was the “future of amateur radio”, the M17 Project. Ed and Steve from M17 brought working hardware, firmware updates, and also demonstrated several different software implementations throughout the weekend. M17 held their weekly net on Friday live from the booth, gave away stickers, magnets, and pins, and captured the hearts of all who visited. You can get involved with this project at https://m17project.org

AmbaSat re-spin was a frequent topic of conversation. The five AmbaSat boards from ORI, which operate at 70cm, have been distributed to the firmware team, and they have begun development and are seeing success in university and hobbyist labs. The goal is to create a compelling application, put the hardware on a sounding rocket, apply for a launch license, and send this project to space in a way that makes the amateur community proud. While “AmbaSat Inspired Sensors” is ORI’s smallest received grant, it has by far the highest capability return on investment of any ORI project.

ORI and M17 booths were located in the North Hall. While the other buildings are larger and many consider them to be higher profile, booths in the North building are what you must walk by to get to the Information Booth and Prize Booth. Since the vast majority of participants visit this part of the show, it is, in our humble opinion, the best possible location.

Michelle Thompson (W5NYV) presented about Digital Communications Technology at the ARRL Expo Technology Track held on Thursday at a conference center near Seaworld. There were four tracks of presentations at the Expo: Contesting, Handbook, Technology, and Emergency Communications.

Michelle reported a positive, enthusiastic, and engaged audience for her ARRL Technology Track talk, and has high hopes that ARRL will continue doing events like this moving forward. She discussed ORI’s Polar Code initiative, successful regulatory and legal work, why open source LDPC work is so important to amateur radio, the four fundamental components to digital communications, and why the M17 protocol was selected as ORI’s satellite uplink protocol for the P4DX transponder project. Michelle invited M17 principals to speak about their work, and opened the floor for questions and comments from the many highly competent and curious technical hams that were in attendance. Subjects covered ranged from asynchronous computing to concatenated coding. The rumors about toilet paper being a fundamentally important part of this presentation are entirely true.

ORI organized a Friday forum track for Clearspan Tent #1 that ran from 11:15am until closing. HamCation was extremely generous in giving us time to present work from a wide variety of people. Here’s our lineup for 2022.

11:15 am
Understanding and Changing Amateur Radio Regulation / Open Source Digital HTs are Real! by Bruce Perens (K6BP)

12:30 pm TAPR – TangerineSDR Update, or How to build an SDR without any parts by

Scotty Cowling (WA2DFI)

1:45 pm M17 Project by Ed Wilson, Steve Miller (N2XDD, KC1AWV)

3:00 pm GNU Radio work at ORI / FreeDV HF Voice Update 2022 by Douglas Quagliana, Mel Whitten (KA2UPW, K0PFX)

3:00 pm Society of Amateur Radio Astronomy SARA by Tom Crowley (KT4XN)

At both the Expo and HamCation, ARRL set the pace this year for satellite talks and satellite demonstrations, with a video (please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhyUbC_o1JM&ab_channel=ARRLHQ) providing practical examples of amateur satellite operations. Patrick Stoddard (WD9EWK) gave a tutorial on satellite operations at the ARRL Expo in the Handbook Track. Amateur satellite was very well supported from ARRL this year, and we have heard this will continue to strengthen going forward.

With some optimism, ORI looks forward to returning to in-person events. The next planned in-person event is DEFCON (https://defcon.org/). Last year, DEFCON was held in person. Proof of vaccination was required. Masks were required. It was a highly successful and enjoyable event. This year, for 2022, ORI will be represented in DEFCON villages and activities. We are looking at applying for M17 to be part of Demo Labs, multiple radio links between villages to demonstrate a wide variety of technology, and presentations about the R&D that we do.

If you would like to be a part of this, and we do need you, then please join the Slack channel for DEFCON planning. Quite a bit of work is underway already. The goal for DEFCON 2022 is over the air demonstrations, outreach, fun, swag, and supporting our friends at all the villages we’ve been involved with over the years.

DEFCON is run very differently from traditional amateur radio conventions. The most significant practical difference is that DEFCON has a written code of conduct, and those written community standards and policies are enforced. It has a very diverse and very interdisciplinary attendance. Unlike many technical or hobby conferences, participation in the DEFCON community is possible year-round through participation in local groups that meet monthly.

DEFCON is a very large event, with attendance of over 30,000.

DEFCON is devoted to a very broad spectrum of experimental, commercial, and open source work. Participation by the government, industrial, information security, hacker, hobbyist, and scientific communities has steadily grown over the past 30 years.

The next virtual event for Open Research Institute is Ham Expo, 12-13 March 2022. Andre Suoto will have an excellent talk about our open source LDPC encoder for FPGAs and ASICs. This is in the main track. We will have a wide variety of work and projects represented at our booth, which is in the vendor hall. Open Research Institute is a non-profit sponsor of Ham Expo. We’ll have friendly and accessible “office hours” during the event.

December 29, 2021December 29, 2021

Quarterly Technical Advisory Committee Meeting 5 February 2022

Open Research Institute’s Quarterly Technical Advisory Committee

December 27, 2021December 27, 2021

HamCation 2022

This post will be updated with information leading up to and throughout the event. Thank you to HamCation for the support and opportunity.

Tucson Amateur Packet Radio

Booth, prototypes, forum presentation, give-aways, and more!

Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

Forum presentation.

M17 Project

Booth, forum presentations, give-aways, and more!

Open Research Institute

Booth, demonstration reports, give-aways, sales, and more!

ARRL Technology Track

Talk by Michelle Thompson W5NYV.

Abstract:

Digital communications technology is large interdisciplinary field that incorporates some of the most fundamental scientific advancements of the past 120 years.

From the first spark gap transmitters, to telegraph, to the transistor, to the fast fourier transform, to the tape drive, to telnet, to touchscreens and trace routes, trackballs and telecommunications of all sorts, digital transmission of everyday information has revolutionized the way we communicate with each other, the way we store data, and the way we process that data to create things of greater and greater value.

This talk is about how information travels over the air in ways relevant to motivated amateur radio enthusiasts.

Digital communications is a difficult subject. This talk is simplified, but definitely not dumbed down. You will leave this session with a greater intuitive understanding of how digital communications works.

There’s a vibrant community and growing body of work in open source amateur radio digital communications for space and terrestrial work. The talk will close with a brief summary of open source digital communications work at Open Research Institute, Inc., a 501(c)(3) dedicated to open source work for amateur radio and beyond.

December 18, 2021December 18, 2021

2021 Retrospective

Greeting all, and welcome to the close of 2021 at ORI.

For a high-level summary of what Open Research Institute is and what we have been up to, please watch the very short video presented at Open Source Cubesat Workshop 2021. The recording of the talk is here: https://youtu.be/VG9-Mc1Hn4A

If you would like to keep up with what we do, then subscribing to our mailing list and YouTube channel helps in several ways. More people find out about what we do because our work will get recommended more often to new people, and you get notifications of new content when it’s published.

Please visit https://www.youtube.com/c/OpenResearchInstituteInc /featured and subscribe to YouTube.

Please visit https://www.openresearch.institute/getting-started/ for information on joining the mailing list and Slack.

Join Phase 4 Ground Trello board:
https://trello.com/invite/b/REasyYiZ/8de4c059e252c7c435a1dafa25f655a8/phase-4-ground

Join Phase 4 Space Trello board:
https://trello.com/invite/b/GRBWasqW/1336a1fa5b88b380c27ccf95d21fec79/phase-4-space

We have other social media accounts as well (Twitter, Instagram, FaceBook) and we gratefully accept help and support there too. Want to be part of the social media team? Write ori at openresearch dot institute to apply.

https://twitter.com/OpenResearchIns
https://www.facebook.com/openresearchinstitute
https://www.instagram.com/open_research_institute/

Here are our challenges and successes from the past year and what we’re looking forward to in 2022. There’s a lot going on here and some of the things we are facing are not fun. Some of the discussion is political and tedious. We have some decisions that have been made and some big ones to make for 2022 and beyond. Your opinions matter. Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.

First and foremost, we thank the individuals and organizations that have made our work possible. Funding comes from YASME Foundation, ARRL Foundation, ARDC Foundation, Free Software Foundation, our Trans-Ionospheric and JoCo Badge projects, proceeds from the Gold Medal Ideas ORI store, and people like you.

2021 Retrospective

We are a research institution. We are not a ham radio club. Our primary focus is to carry out open source work for the amateur radio space and terrestrial bands. We expect this work to be used by amateur radio groups that execute and operate designs in space and on earth. This expectation has not been met in some of the ways we anticipated, but we have a broad path forward, a lot of things going very well, and we are going to take full advantage of all the positive developments over the past year in every way we can.

This next part is not the most fun story to write or read, but there’s a lot of very good lessons learned here, and it needs to be put in one place so that our amateur satellite volunteers know about it and can find it.

One can skip ahead (by clicking here) to “Successes in 2021” further down the page to get straight to technical progress.

When we say we expected our work to be used by amateur satellite groups, we assumed this meant AMSAT. Primarily AMSAT-NA, but we are also here to serve AMSAT-DL, AMSAT-UK, and so on. ORI is an AMSAT Member Society, and has showed preparation, enthusiasm, and experience through continued contributions to the amateur satellite community. ORI volunteers have professional, academic, and amateur experience with collectively at least a couple dozen payloads in orbit, ranging from GEO commercial to LEO amateur. A very large fraction of our volunteers are new to amateur radio. They have never volunteered for AMSAT or any other legacy satellite group before. Other volunteers have experience with AMSAT but no current role because of the politics of AMSAT-NA GOLF. I can say without any reservation that there is no loss of capability to any AMSAT organization from ORI activity. We have always encouraged volunteering for and membership within whatever AMSAT organization is nearest to you. It’s not just supportive words, but actions as well. We have sold AMSAT-NA memberships at numerous events over the years. We have actively promoted TAPR, AMSAT, ARRL, and other amateur groups at every opportunity. We’ve happily worked with TAPR and ARRL to great positive effect.

We have achieved some truly significant wins in the regulatory sphere with ITAR/EAR and Debris Mitigation, have groundbreaking success in P4DX comms development, and have one of the very few functional advanced communications research remote access lab benches in existence. We have expanded the AmbaSat Inspired Sensors project to move the AmbaSat to 70cm in anticipation of sounding rocket and space tests, have fully supported M17 Development and Deployment, and have proposed an employment program to ARDC to directly confront the problem with open source burnout in DSP/FPGA open source amateur designs.

We really do not suck.

However, despite all this good work, AMSAT-NA leadership, including senior officers, have consistently and publicly described ORI as “grifters” and “thieves” and “frauds”. Officers of AMSAT-NA have said we are “undeserving of any community support” and have taken actions to try and make this opinion a reality. It hasn’t worked, but these aggressively provocative and negative public posts from AMSAT-NA officers and members about ORI are clearly intended to harm. The attacks date back to 2018. ORI has not responded to any of this. However, ignoring it doesn’t make it go away, and participants in ORI need to know what’s being said and done.

ORI has had work censored from AMSAT publications and events. An ITAR/EAR update article submitted in October 2021 was removed before publication. According to the editor, this was the first time ever an article had been censored in the AMSAT Journal. The article had been requested by the editor and is in the draft of that issue of the Journal. It was personally squashed by the AMSAT President after the draft Journal was sent out. Several presentations and some papers were ordered to be eliminated at the last minute from 2020 AMSAT Symposium. The work had been welcomed by the submissions chair. This exclusion was unprecedented as well.

This sort of bizarre censorship has no place in amateur radio. Our disappointment with these decisions has been communicated to the editor of AMSAT Journal and the submissions chair for AMSAT Symposium.

For 2021, ORI co-hosted a half-day conference in collaboration with IEEE. This Information Theory Space and Satellite Symposium was successful, got great reviews, and IEEE has asked several times if ORI would be willing to organize something like this again. This gave us a chance to present some of the sort of work that we think should be part of AMSAT Symposium.

You can find the event recordings here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSfJ4B57S8DnhlrRya50IxGP90_uGpiho

Why do we care about any of this grumpy opposition? Why be concerned about censorship from a relatively small event or newsletter?

Because AMSAT-NA is presumed to be the primary advocacy group for amateur satellite activity in the United States. Because we want all AMSAT organizations to be successful. Because AMSAT and ARISS-USA have claimed that they are gatekeepers for amateur radio access to NASA. Because AMSAT-NA currently controls access to things like IARU committees for Region 2. Because AMSAT-NA gets irate when anyone else meets with the FCC on behalf of the amateur satellite service, but will not present anything outside of internal AMSAT-NA interests.

We care about this because ORI showed up and contributed within the AMSAT framework in good faith.

AMSAT-NA is, to be blunt, supposed to help us do exactly what we are doing. We are not a “threat”. We are not “thieves”. We are not “grifters”. We are not “frauds”. We don’t “siphon technical members away”. We are not “an embarrassment”. We deserve absolutely none of this sort of thing. We have invited AMSAT-NA to participate in every single major endeavor that we have carried out and accomplished. This inclusive and cooperative spirit has not been reciprocated.

Tacit acceptance of this sort of behavior is the real embarrassment.

For 2022, we will (of course) continue to utilize the amateur radio bands. All radio work will directly benefit amateur radio terrestrial and space. There will be no loss of opportunities or restrictions of goals for technical work. However, our associations and attention moving forward will focus on communities and organizations that share basic values with ORI. There will be some changes as we adapt, evolve, and grow. We can’t afford to spend time trying to work with organizations completely out of step with open source amateur satellite work, no matter how famous, wealthy, or historical they happen to be.

Successes in 2021

There is a lot of good news here.

Both the San Diego Microwave Group and the San Bernardino Microwave Society have been actively supportive and provided material assistance, volunteer time, and expert advice that we simply would not have received anywhere else. We would not have had a successful meeting with the FCC about Debris Mitigation without the support from members of these two radio clubs. Members generously offered their time, input, and guidance. All the regulatory work can be found here: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Regulatory

Based on this meeting, we had a series of Orbit Workshops in November 2021. Recordings posted to the debris mitigation channel on our Slack.

The ITAR CJ Request work was funded through a grant from ARDC. The EAR Classification, successful Advisory Opinion Letter from Commerce, FAQ, and “How to use this work” flow graph were paid for with a loan to ORI. The process to fundraise to pay back this loan is underway. The final amount for EAR/Advisory Opinion/FAQ/Flowgraph is $14,425.00 Similar to the ITAR CJ Request work, this amount is substantially less than initial estimates. Credit goes to excellent counsel at Thomsen and Burke LLP and a motivated volunteer team at ORI that handled as many of the preparations as possible. Active sustained involvement reduced costs and increased competence and awareness of the many legal issues we were dealing with.

For 2022, we have two legal efforts that we are considering becoming involved with. Fundraising for those efforts will happen in advance of the work. This is a change from how we did the ITAR/EAR legal work, where fundraising was done after the legal work was completed.

We would not have had a successful multi-media beacon demonstration without support and advice from Kerry Banke and Ron Economos. A video presentation of this work can be found at https://youtu.be/vjfRI1w_dSs?t=609 and documentation can be found here: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Engineering/Transmitters/DVB-S2-Multimedia-Beacon

This work is presented as a terrestrial beacon, but is also the default digital download for the P4DX transponder payload.

The payload work is currently focused on producing an FGPA-based end-to-end over-the-air demonstration. There are multiple repositories. The best way to get an overview of this work is either through the README.md files in the repos at https://github.com/phase4ground and https://github.com/phase4space.

If reviewing source code and block diagrams is not your thing, then watch the introduction of this video: https://youtu.be/fCmzS6jBhHg followed by the most recent Technical Advisory Committee meeting here: https://youtu.be/V2BlIp7XYMM

Thomas Parry is the Primary Investigator and lead the TAC meeting. Wally Ritchie (SK) was the previous and founding Primary Investigator, and he presented the overview in the design review linked above.

P4DX is our digital multiplexing microwave amateur band transverter. The native digital uplink is M17 FDMA and the downlink is TDM DVB-S2/X. A high-level architectural paper can be found here: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Engineering/Requirements/Architecture

One of the current roadblocks with the end-to-end demo is a necessary expansion of capability in Remote Labs West. In order to use the Analog Devices ADRV9371 RFIC development board, we can get by with using an SD card image in the FPGA development station. However, this requires a lot of manual intervention, so booting the filesystem over NFS is an obvious improvement. This turned out to be impossible because the kernel from Analog Devices does not appear to support NFS. So, we’re fixing it and will (assuming success) submit whatever capabilities we add to the kernel back to Analog Devices. In the meantime, integration of the various bodies of FGPA code continues. Immediately following the NFS boot addition is DVB-S2/X verification station bring-up, in anticipation of being able to test what comes out of the ADRV9371. That’s just one example of the type of work that has had to happen all year in order to get things done.

Remote Labs have become much more than a “wear item” along the way. Once it became clear that the internet-accessible lab benches had potential to support a much wider variety of projects than just P4DX, volunteers started putting time into making sure they were as easy to use as possible. You can find out more about what Remote Labs are and how they work by going here: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Remote_Labs

Remote Labs East (Florida) equipment has been moved to Remote Labs South (Arkansas). The move was necessary due to the untimely death of Wally Ritchie in July 2021. The new site will need additional funding to complete that Florida did not require. A grant application was made to ARDC in late August 2021 for this work. Remote Labs South will also have additional capabilities for bacteriophage and interferometry work. Both are open source efforts.

There is a backup bridge funding plan to get the lab bench at Remote Lab South operational. We can temporarily divert funds allocated to P4DX for FPGA software licenses, as the floating license approach has worked out well for us. The original budget planned for 10 node-locked licenses as those were the type of licenses we have received as an organization in the past. With only 1 floating license required for work so far, this leaves some margin in the budget. This is enough margin to develop Remote Labs South infrastructure while waiting for a response about funding from ARDC, without further delaying deployment of this lab.

Remote Labs are a good example of the frugality, public science orientation, and opportunistic spirit of ORI volunteers. We look forward to many years of making the equipment available to the open source community. We could use your help in spreading the word about this asset.

HamCation and Ham Expo have been invaluable. The staff and volunteers have been friendly, supportive, and creative. We are looking forward to HamCation 2022. If all goes well this will be our first in-person event most of us have been able to attend in quite a while. We have a booth in our usual spot. M17 Project and TAPR are on either side, and the large Society for Amateur Radio Astronomy booth is on the other side of TAPR. DATV is in the same row. ARRL will have a large presence. We have a lot of forum time and plenty to talk about. Returning to in-person events is a big step and there is extra stress, risk, and planning involved. If you are willing to be part of HamCation, please get in touch and we will add you to the planning spreadsheet and discussions.

IEEE Computer Society, Information Theory Society, and Signals and Systems have been incredibly supportive. As mentioned above, in 2021, ORI co-hosted a half-day conference in collaboration with IEEE. This Information Theory Space and Satellite Symposium was successful, got great reviews, and IEEE has asked several times if ORI would be willing to organize something like this again.

You can find the event recordings here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSfJ4B57S8DnhlrRya50IxGP90_uGpiho

We have received a lot of positive feedback from IEEE section, region, and national executive teams. The biggest challenge with IEEE is that they are not the best or easiest way to publish open source or open access work. They are honestly not set up for public access papers. IEEE is split between academia and industry members, and that’s the constituencies more or less served. Despite the big differences between a tiny open source non-profit and a gigantic professional development organization, there is a substantial amount of interaction and genuine mutual support. IEEE does not exist without volunteers. Therefore, what we are doing is recognizable as a thing of value by everyone in any role any of us comes into contact with. We also benefited from having access to the salary survey results, anonymized membership statistics, and a targeted member survey in order to help construct the Engineers General grant proposals to ARDC. Is there a possibility of funding through IEEE? Yes, although there are a lot of limitations.

We have solid relationships with a number of Universities. Working with academic institutions is not simple as a non-profit, but we have transcended these difficulties several times and are part of the process of getting space “done better” for students wherever we can. Our most recent involvement is getting AmbaSat at 70cm, the DVB-S2/X microwave band work, and M17 equipment on board sounding rockets and in the running on several LEO platforms. Is there a possibility of funding through Universities? Honestly, no. They expect funding from us, in order to do anything with us. That is just the way the current engineering academy operates. Students are not “free labor” now and never really have been in the past.

We have brought a small grant to a University, with the professor as the Primary Investigator (AmbaSat Inspired Sensors). We would be willing to do that again, if we were fortunate enough to get a professor of the same motivation, experience, and availability, and fortunate enough to get enough grant money to ensure student time. In general, the overhead customarily demanded at a University, and the costs of getting significant seat time from enough students, require much larger grants than we have pursued to date. If you know of an opportunity or have an idea, get in touch with ORI board and let’s see what we can achieve.

AmbaSat Inspired Sensors has redesigned the AmbaSat board to move from 915 MHz ISM LoRaWan to 70cm amateur radio satellite band. Thank you to Vidya Gopalakrishna and Jay Francis for making this happen. LoRa with integration to both SatNOGS and The Things Network through bridging is prototyping now. The first hardware with the 70cm part has been received and works. There were other changes to improve power and ground and routing. All of the details can be found in the kicad-conversion branch at https://github.com/phase4space/AmbaSat-1/tree/kicad_conversion/Release

This past year has been a significant step forward for the M17 Project. The protocol has been strengthened, the number of development boards in the community has increased, the amount of hardware that M17 can work on has increased, and the lab on the East Coast of the US is moving forward. There have been numerous successful public outreach efforts resulting in a steady increase in name recognition, awareness of the communications mode, and participation on the M17 Discord. A large amount of lab equipment has been earmarked by ORI for M17. This purchase opportunity came from Open Lunar Foundation and will put M17 lab into a highly capable category from the start. All of us associated with M17 would like to recognize the OpenRTX project. This team is a vital part of the M17 ecosystem and has done a significant amount of highly technical work to enable M17 on the MD-380 HT. OpenRTX has contributed a lot of engineering work, verification, validation, and lab tests for M17.

https://m17project .org/

https://openrtx .org/#/

Open Lunar Foundation and ORI collaborated on an SBIR grant application for funding targeting LunaNet in January 2021. While our application for funding was not successful, the feedback from the reviewers was positive and very constructive. The process for applying was clear, the technical work in preparing the application lined up with all of ORI’s goals for P4DX, and the teamwork with OLF was excellent.

https://www .openlunar.org/

We attempted to apply for a STTR with Tek Terrain LLC for opportunistic positioning and ranging using LEO signals in mid-October 2021, but we were not able to complete the application in time. We look forward to the next opportunity to work with a for-profit on something like this, as there are dozens of opportunities through a variety of government agencies for research and development. This particular project would have put some significant work into the public domain during Phase 1 of the grant.

We have an opening on our board of directors. Our co-founder Ben Hilburn has stepped down from the board. Thank you very much to Ben for helping found and build ORI. We welcome you to a (much less demanding) senior advisor role.

If you have a recommendation for someone to invite, or you would like to volunteer for this role, then get in touch to start the process. There are a few IRS limitations on who can be on the board to prevent conflicts of interest. No relatives of current board members, for example.

Current board is listed at: https://www.openresearch.institute/board-of-directors/

Our open source workers/employment initiative is called Engineers General. Two grant proposals were made to ARDC after a series of productive meetings with their staff. The initiative got a lot of positive feedback. All of ARDC’s feedback was incorporated into a set of revised grant requests that were re-submitted in October 2021.

We have 6 additional resumes that have been submitted to us. We have received a very large amount of interest in this initiative. Information from IEEE salary surveys, informational interviews with open source workers, and combing through peer reviewed papers resulted in the hypothesis of Engineers General, and all of this information was communicated to ARDC in support of the grant requests.

ORI board has the capacity, capability, and experience to manage contracted workers, and there is a population of highly qualified people that want to work in open source.

We do not have a timeline on when we will hear back from ARDC. P4DX took 11 months to approve. The ITAR legal work funding wasn’t pressing since the funding application followed completion of the work. The AmbaSat Inspired Sensors grant application was folded into P4DX at some point during its review process.

Rent-a-GEO was submitted in October 2019, and there has not been a final answer from ARDC about that proposal as of today. Rent-a-GEO is now down to ~2.5 years left on the offer of 5 years discounted rental of the transponder. This is closer to 2 because the team assembled for Rent-a-GEO would have to be rebuilt.

For those unfamiliar with this project proposal, it would enable a variety of GEO development work over useful space channels with a footprint that covers the continental United States. We did obtain a private pledge of funding for the rental due to the urgency with the lifetime of the resource coming to an end, and we have communicated this pledge of funding to the vendor handling the transponder rental. However, there are substantial contingencies with this funding source, and the vendor has a lot of challenges that they are dealing with. Negotiations are slow. I’ll keep working on this until EchoStar9 is turned off. In the meantime, we have had a series of successful experiments in Europe.

We are headquartered in California, USA. According to Cal Non-Profits, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to helping California 501(c)(3)s, they really do not know of any other organizations like ORI (or Open Lunar Foundation). We are quite rare. The vast majority of non-profits in CA (and across the US) are devoted to health and human services. Non-profits heavily dominate “last mile” services delivery in the US, and there’s a wealth of information about them and advice on how to operate. We have taken advantage of as much as we can all the advice given by Cal Non-Profits, and will continue to rely upon them for guidelines and checklists and statistics about the non-profit sector.

Almost all of the science and technology non-profits are private foundations. Almost all of the research institutes in this category have a single very large source of money, have paid staff, and are clearly dedicated to a mutually beneficial relationship with commercial consumers. This is a very different way of operating from ORI, which is registered as a public charity.

And, the way we have been funded directly impacts this status as a public charity. 501(c)(3)s like ORI are required to have diverse funding. We have to comply with what’s called a “public support test” that kicks in after our fifth year of operation. We’ve been around three years and have two more to go before this test is applied. While we did come very close to passing this test in 2020, we will not pass it for 2021. The specific test is that 33.3% of our funding must come from what are called public sources. Technically this means at least 33.3% of donations must be given by donors who give less than 2% of the nonprofit’s overall receipts. That 2% test means that each non-profit’s donation numbers will be different, depending on the overall receipts.

With ARDC being our primary funding source, all of the other sources amounted to at most 30% in 2020. In 2021, the vast majority of funding came from ARDC, putting the percentage from other sources down much further. A quick calculation today shows other sources of funding coming in at most 24%. Given the 2% rule, that number is in reality lower.

If we had just one unusually large grant from ARDC in our financial history, then that would be ok. The IRS lets you ignore one unusually large grant. You can punch that one out of your public support test calculations.

One can argue that all of the money from ARDC should count as unusually large, and all recipients out there doing tower trailers and buying equipment for mesh networks and university club shacks shouldn’t have to worry about this at all.

The amateur community has never sourced or sunk large amounts of money like this. Hams have a reputation for being tight-fisted with money. Frugality is a virtue that we ourselves value and employ, as described earlier in this letter in the way we’ve extracted several “extra” features from the P4DX grant money that a less motivated organization would not bother to do.

A step function of money of the magnitude that ARDC has, showing up in the amateur radio community, cannot easily be matched or diluted. ARDC principals have heard this from community members with philanthropic experience from the get go.

For almost any amateur radio organization, outside of the very largest, diverse sources of money on the order of an ARDC grant simply do not exist. This means that ham non-profits can take one large grant from ARDC without much trouble or effect on their status, but that’s it. The vast majority of ham clubs and organizations file nothing more than a postcard with the IRS every year. Above $50,000 in gross receipts and then they have to file the full 990. A large influx of money on an ecosystem of organizations that have never had access to it before includes both negative and positive effects.

For organizations like ORI that fully intended to work with ARDC for the long haul, this puts a huge additional fundraising burden on the leadership. Since ORI has ruled out selling memberships, the fundraising alternatives are even more challenging in an environment where a highly successful ham club auction raises $400.

So what happens when your public charity fails the public support test? Well, actually, nothing too horrible, but only if you are prepared for it. You are, after a process that does have a subjective component, converted from a public charity to a private foundation. The downside is that you have to re-file all your taxes as a private foundation going back all five years. There are some upsides. Private foundations do not have to follow some of the rules that public charities are required to comply with.

As soon as we figured out we were well on our way to being converted into a private foundation, which was mid-May 2021, we told ARDC. This was “news to them”. After talking it over with ARDC staff, we then hired a non-profit law specialist for advice (at ORI expense), wrote everything down, and came up with a plan. ARDC could either fund ARDC service programs that ORI would execute, and it would not “count against us”, or ORI could simply plan on becoming a Private Operating Foundation associated with ARDC. These options were proposed to ARDC staff. There was email back and forth and several zoom calls. The answer was eventually “no” on ARDC running Service Programs, but “yes” on ORI becoming a Private Operating Foundation associated with ARDC.

Problem solved! We had a party to celebrate. The feelings of IRS doom are kind of a big deal for a relatively new non-profit. We viewed this as being “hired”, in a way, by ARDC.

This solution held until October 2021. It was no longer clear that ARDC wanted this type of relationship. Both the “run Service Programs that ORI executes” approach and the “Private Operating Foundation associated with ARDC” approaches require a lot of communication and work. ARDC was not set up for either of these solutions. ARDC operates very differently from ORI. It does not have the same management structure or style, and it does not communicate like we do. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t “impedance match” to make up for these differences. It’s unreasonable to expect them to change.

So, in November of 2021, the board of ORI and other senior advisers with non-profit and foundation experience recommended reversing the “conversion plan”. This means raising enough money to bring the ratio back up above the public support test limit to stay a 501(c)(3). The fundraising goal, as of today, is $150,000. This money has to come from diverse and much smaller sources. This must be raised over the next two years. It will be substantially more administrative and executive work to remain independent, but it’s how we were founded and how we have operated all along. The path forward is clear enough. The series of decisions during this process took a large amount of time and energy from May until November, but it was well worth the effort. Decisions about what type of non-profit organization ORI is or becomes have enormous impact on what we do and how well we are able to do it.

$150,000 (or more) is a large amount of money to raise in small amounts, especially within the amateur radio community. Have some advice? Want to get involved raising the money? Have another solution? Welcome aboard.

The fact that we exist and are successful in amateur radio communications R&D is very unusual. This means that we are vulnerable and it means we have more work to do, every year, to remain operational. Your support is vital for success.

Thank you to everyone that is pulling for us to succeed! We are looking forward to 2022 and welcome your ideas, time, talent, treasure, and advice.

-Michelle W5NYV
CEO ORI

December 8, 2021December 8, 2021

ORI participation at OSCW 2021

Recording, transcript, and slides of Open Research Institute’s presentation at Open Source Cubesat Workshop 2021.

Hello everybody! I’m Michelle Thompson W5NYV and I’m here to tell you all about what Open Research Institute is and what we have been doing.

Open Research Institute (ORI) is a non-profit research and development organization which provides all of its work to the general public under the principles of Open Source and Open Access to Research. As we all know, these mean particular things, and those things have to be defined and they have to be defended.

Open Source is type of intellectual property management where everything you need to recreate or modify a design is freely available. As a baseline, we use GPL v3.0 for software and the CERN Open Hardware License version 2.0 for hardware. All we do is open source work, primarily for amateur radio space and terrestrial, but also some other fields, as you will see.

So who are we?

Here is our current board, and our immediate past CEO Bruce Perens. We have one opening on the board, as Ben Hilburn, one of our founders, very recently retired from being an active Director at ORI. He remains as one of our senior advisors. We are looking for someone to join ORI board that supports what we do and wants to help make it happen. It’s an active role in a flat management structure. Board members are are experienced in management, engineering, operations, and technology, and three out of the current number of four are from underrepresented groups in STEM.

As a board, it is our mission to serve our participants, developers, and community members. We now have at least 535 that participate in what we call the Open Source Triad: our mailing list, Slack, and GitHub. All work is organized in independent projects or initiatives.

We have some affiliations and we proudly ascribe to the Open Space Manifesto from Libre Space Foundation. We work with radio organizations, several universities, and have worked with a variety of for-profits.

What do we do?

Here’s a visual summary of top level projects and initiatives. The vertical axis is risk. Higher risk projects are at the top, lower risk projects are at the bottom. Maturity increases left to right. Maturity may indicate schedule, but the score is also influenced by complexity or difficulty. The color of the shape indicates how much stress that project is under or what the risk level is at this time. The size of the shape is the budget estimate. By far, the largest budget, riskiest, and least mature work is in the AquaPhage project, which is open source bacteriophage research and development. Bacteriophage are viruses that attack and destroy bacteria. This is biomedical and not amateur radio. This project was halted by COVID and has not yet resumed.

Our digital multiplexing payload project is called P4DX, and it’s in the middle in green. This is a multiple access microwave digital regenerating repeater for space and terrestrial deployment.

Channels divided in frequency are the uplink. The uplink is on 5 GHz. The processor on the payload digitizes and multiplexes these signals and uses DVB-S2/X as a single time-division downlink. The downlink is on 10 GHz. The system adapts to channel conditions and handles things like quality of service decisions. For example, low and high latency digital content. The uplink is divided up using a polyphase channelizer, based on the open source work done by Theseus Cores.

For the current prototype, we are only using MPEG transport stream, but generic data is the goal. The prototype beacon signal is 5 MHz wide and we are using one modulation and one error coding (yet). We are not yet rotating through all the allowed combinations in DVB-S2 (yet).

Our prototype work can also serve as a terrestrial multimedia beacon. Work was demonstrated to groups with mountaintop spaces in October 2021, and deployment will be as soon as possible.

M17 project is an open source VHF/UHF radio protocol. Think open source digital mode HTs and repeaters. This project is only slightly more stressed than P4DX, but it’s further along in maturity because it’s narrower in scope. We believe M17 Project will be very successful from current development to scaling up to commercial product launch. The M17 protocol is the native digital uplink protocol, with some modifications for 5GHz, for P4DX. We are working hard to get M17 on and through more satellites and more sounding rocket tests today.

Engineers General is our initiative to hire highly competent open source workers to reduce burnout and increase quality in open source work important to amateur radio. We have one contractor currently, eight resumes, and have applied for funding for two more. We are actively looking for funding for the remaining five.

The “birdbath” is a large dish antenna at the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center. This was used in the past, but has been parked for decades. It took two years of negotiation, but ORI has the support of the museum and permission to begin work renovating this dish for citizen science and amateur radio educational use. Work parties from earlier this year were rescheduled due to COVID.

Upper right there are two completed projects. One is ITAR/EAR Regulatory Work. It took over a year, but we received a determination from the State Department that open source satellite work is free of ITAR, from Commerce that it is free of EAR, and we obtained an advisory opinion that publishing on the internet counts as publishing under the regulations. This is a huge step forward for not just amateur radio, but anyone that wants to contribute to open source space work.

Debris Mitigation Regulatory Work took 10 months to complete. The process culminated in a highly successful meeting with the FCC Wireless Telecommunications Board, the Office of Engineering Technology, and the Satellite Bureau in late October 2021.

Lower right is Battery Matching, a project that matches NiCd cells for very durable batteries in the style that used to be done in amateur satellites, and puts the methods and documentation in the public domain.

AmbaSat Inspired Sensors used to be on the bottom right but now it’s bumped back a bit in maturity level is higher risk. This was supposed to be a project done by students at Vanderbilt university, but no students materialized, primarily due to COVID. We had one kick-butt professional volunteer who was working on a 10GHz beacon that went into the sensor connector on the main board, but the project was moving slowly, and ORI decided to provide additional operational support. Additional volunteers joined the team, we reviewed the finances, and then took some actions. We updated the main board to move it from the illegal ISM band it was in to the legal 70cm ham band. We improved power and ground and addressed some other design concerns. The boards are back as of last week and software and firmware development is underway. The 10 GHz sensor “beacon” work is proceeding quickly as well. AmbaSat is an excellent educational platform, but the ISM band decision isn’t the only problem with it. It’s very small.

We decided to look at combining the 70cm AmbaSat with another open source satellite board to make a combined spacecraft design. I reached out to Pierros Pappadeus at Libre Space, and we are moving forward with using the SatNOGS Comms project. We look forward to contributing to the FPGA codebase and flying both AmbaSat and SatNOGS Comms designs as early and as often as possible, starting with sounding rockets and ending up in space.

All of these projects are open source and all work is published as it is created.

When?

We have timelines! We were incorporated in February of 2018, got our 501c3 in March of 2019, and we hit the ground running and haven’t stopped since.

We’ll distribute a copy of the slides so you can see our wins and losses along the along the way. There’s a lot going on in here.

Here’s what’s been going on since March, and the future plans we know about.

We use Agile framework for management, and most of us have some sort of formal certification either completed, or in process. This is the Agile manifesto and it is the foundation of how our board decides things and how it supports project leads and volunteers. Note the second item, and put in the word hardware instead of software, and that’s one of the reasons we demonstrate early and often and incorporate the feedback quickly.

Where are we?

Here’s the locations of the concentrations of current major contributors and participants. When we say international, we mean it. Our participants have a wide range of ages, are generally educated in engineering, come from a variety of backgrounds, but do tend to be relatively young and male.

We have some physical locations that are important for carrying out the work we do. Remote Labs are lab benches connected to the internet that allow direct access to advanced lab equipment and two different large Xilinx development boards and DVB-S2/X gear. We have relocated our second Remote Lab equipment from Florida to Arkansas, and have added a three-dish interferometry site for amateur radio and public science use. Remote Labs are here for you all to use. If you need large FPGA resources and test equipment up to 6 GHz, then we have your back.

We bought Open Lunar Foundation’s satellite lab. It’s in storage waiting for the M17 project lab construction to conclude, and then the equipment will go there to pack that lab full of wonderful test equipment, materials, and supplies.

Why do this?

We believe that an open source approach to things like amateur digital communications, bacteriophage research, and sticking up for the non-commercial use of space will result in the best possible outcomes for the good of humanity.

We have a lightweight agile approach to doing things. We keep our overhead very low, we are radically participant-focused, and the work must be internationally accessible.

You can see that public demonstrations and regulatory work are given a high priority. Working code and working hardware are highly valued. Working means working over the air.

Thank you to everyone at Libre Space for the support and opportunity to present here today.

https://www.openresearch.institute/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/OSCW-2021-W5NYV-ORI-1.pdf

November 23, 2021November 23, 2021

FPGA Meeting 23 November 2021

November 2, 2021November 2, 2021

Space and Satellite Symposium 2021 Transcript and Video Links

Welcome to the IEEE Space and Satellite Symposium: Information Theory, Amateur Radio, and Amateur Satellites.

This event is co-sponsored by the IEEE San Diego Computer Society Chapter, lead by Naveed Qazi. Please welcome him to the stage as explains what the Computer Society is all about. Naveed you have the floor.

(Naveed shared a live update with the audience about the Computer Society meetings, events, and areas of concentration.)

This event is also co-sponsored by the IEEE San Diego Information Theory Society, lead by Dr. Orlitsky and Michelle Thompson, W5NYV.

Logistics sponsor is Open Research Institute. A special thank you to Vidya Gopalakrishna, Jayala_29, Jim Tittsler, Navid Qazi, Charlie Bird, the IEEE review committee, IEEE-USA, and all our speakers.

All talks have already been published on YouTube, so if there’s something in particular you want to see and you have limited time, then please feel free to go straight to the playlist. Our goal for this event is high-tech and low-stress.

If you have questions for the speakers, please put them in chat. If the speaker is present, then they will answer there. All questions will be anonymized and sent to the speakers. A Q&A will be added to the YouTube playlist.

Information Theory is an intensely interdisciplinary field. This collection of talks demonstrates that to great effect.

The talks span a variety of subjects and are from people with a range of experience and backgrounds.

All talks will be available for free going forward and we look forward to working with IEEE on future events and workshops.

In November, Open Research Institute will have a series about mission planning for non-traditional amateur satellite orbits and we will be at HamCation in Florida in February of 2022. If you are there, please visit our booth. We’ll have a forum with TAPR and will be hosting a contest for the hamlets attendees.

We will begin with our keynote, Ugly Modern Music: An Information Theoretic View by Frank Brickle. Talks will play live from here with a brief intermission at 10am US Pacific.

It has been a great honor to work with Frank Brickle. It’s often said that music and mathematics are closely related, but relatively little published accessible and practical work. We hope this presentation is a step forward towards a goal of Information Theory Applications in Music.

Our next talk is about amateur radio as a testbed for science and high technology. Courtney Duncan has a unique viewpoint here, as he recently retired from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was a lead on the Mars Helicopter.

Thank you to Courtney for continuing service to both the scientific and amateur communities and for describing an interpretation of the amateur radio service, for both space and terrestrial, that provides both a practical and a theoretical role.

I think we can see how amateur radio values and practice assisted in the success of the Mars Helicopter.

Please share your questions for Courtney in the chat. He is here and can answer. If you want to send in your questions later, then send them in to the address in the Symposium email, or at w5nyv@arrl.net.

Next, is Anshul Makkar, who will speak about specific very technical work for the amateur radio satellite service. He is working on Low Density Parity Check implementation on Field Programmable Gate Arrays for any amateur satellite project that sees the value in open source work.

Thank you to Anshul Makkar. If you have questions for him please share them in chat, as he is here and can answer them live, or send them to the contact addresses in the Symposium registration email, and we will follow up.

Bringing multiple implementations of LDPC to the open source community is one of the things that Open Research institute does, and it is something that you can find an enormous number of IEEE resources about.

Next is Dr. Estevez who will be speaking about his work on a narrowband modem for the QO-100 GEO amateur radio transponder. For those of you unfamiliar with this satellite, it’s the first geosynchronous amateur radio payload. This is a remarkable achievement and a huge step forward for amateur communications. This physical platform for experimentation will give us opportunities for innovation for years to come. Dr. Estevez work is a big part of that movement. Please welcome him to the stage.

A special note, on October 24th, Dr. Estevez was awarded the G3AAJ Trophy, from AMSAT-UK, in recognition of his contributions to amateur satellite development and activity. In addition to the practical applications seen in this presentation, Dr. Estevez is also the author of GNU Radio satellites block set, which are blocks in gnu radio that allow one to much more easily receive satellite communications using GNU Radio. If you are unfamiliar with GNU Radio, a DSP framework for SDR, then please visit gnu radio dot org to learn more.

Next is a talk about a very practical and scrappy project – figuring out how to characterize channels and make circuits for a very small open source satellite platform called AmbaSat. Part of the mission of IEEE and Open Research Institute is education and professional development. If you see a way to contribute to the success of renovating and improving the AmbaSat platform, please get in touch with Vidya Gopalakrishna and Dr. Alan Johnston, the Primary investigator and advisor for this particular project, which is funded by ARDC.

Please welcome Vidya to the stage.

Thank you to Vidya Gopalakrishna. Please ask your questions for her in the chat, as she is here and can answer them live.

Part of our event was a call for musical compositions related to Space and Satellites. We are proud to premiere some original music today. The first of the two short pieces that we will play today is Space Orchestra, which is categorized as Jazz. A full information theory analysis of this piece will be done for the next San Diego Information Theory Society meeting, later this year.

The theme of this piece, is what the composer felt and decide to write, when focusing on the planets of our solar system, and our place within it. This is Space Orchestra, put into the public domain and available at no cost from Open Research Institute.

Space Orchestra

Our second music premiere is called Risk, and is in the electronic dance music category. The lyrics are from John F. Kennedy’s speech at Rice University, but are from a part of the speech that is not quoted as often as the section that includes “we choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it it hard.” Instead, we highlight the part of the speech that puts space exploration in the context of human history, and recognizes the great risk of exploration into hostile conditions for the benefit of all.

This is Risk, available from Open Research Institute for free.

Risk

Jan King

Our closing talk is from Jan King, a space industry professional and frequent contributor to amateur satellite work. He is speaking today about the very bright future for millimeter wave amateur satellites. Please welcome to the stage Jan King.

Thank you to Jan King.

This event would not be possible without a significant amount of work from our speakers, sponsors, supporters, and volunteers. Thank you all for your time and expertise.

Do you have an idea or talk that you would like to share? All of us at the chapter level in IEEE, like Naveed Qazi, Dr. Orlitzky, myself, and many others, are here to make it as easy as possible for your work to be shared. Get in touch and we’ll get you started and supported.

This transcript with the links to videos will be posted to the YouTube playlist description, and will be sent out to everyone that registered in advance, to make it easy for anyone to replay any part of this event. For this set of presentations, 104 people pre-registered and there’s a large number of views on the content in the playlist as of the close of the conference.

While the half-day conference program has concluded, the floor is open for discussion, questions, comments, and ideas for related or future work.

September 13, 2021September 13, 2021

ITAR/EAR Regulatory Work Background and Summary

September 12, 2021
Michelle Thompson W5NYV

Export regulations divide both technical information and actual hardware into three categories. The most heavily restricted technologies fall under ITAR, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which are administered by the State Department. Technologies subject to more routine restrictions fall under EAR, the Export Administration Regulations, administered by the Department of Commerce. Technologies that are not subject to either set of regulations are not restricted for export.

ITAR and EAR have had a dramatic effect on both commercial and amateur satellite work since at least the mid-1990s. The regulations are blamed for a significant decline in US market share for satellite systems and halted highly successful international amateur collaborations.

There is a public-domain exception in both ITAR and EAR. Open source work that is published as it is created, and is freely available to the general public at no cost, is not subject to ITAR or EAR.

Open Research Institute (ORI) was founded in March 2018 by Bruce Perens in order to provide a formal structure for open source satellite work. Bruce invited Ben Hilburn and myself to be the founding officers. ORI is headquartered in California, USA. Participants come from all over the world.

ORI memberships would not be sold in order to not compete with amateur satellite membership organizations in any way. All work would be freely available to the general public in compliance with ITAR and EAR. ORI was set up as a project-based research institute and not as a member society.

ORI became a 501(c)(3) in March 2019 and began fundraising with the Trans-Ionospheric conference badge project. This was successful and allowed for open source satellite technical and regulatory work to proceed. While all the legal advice so far had affirmed ORIâ€™s interpretation of ITAR and EAR public domain carve-outs, some potential funding sources wanted to see a â€œformalâ€ legal opinion.

Our choices were to continue insisting we were right, or to be effective. ORI chose to be effective.

In July 2019 Bruce Perens interviewed several several law firms that were aligned with ORI goals and values. We selected one recommended by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and began working with Thomsen & Burke LLP to form a legal strategy that would clearly and explicitly solve the â€œITAR/EAR problemâ€ for amateur satellite.

From May – September 2019, I campaigned in a contested election to the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors and won a seat. AMSAT stands for AMateur SATellite, and is composed of a number of organizations around the world that support the amateur satellite service. AMSAT-NA is the North American amateur satellite advocacy organization. The name of the North American organization is frequently shortened to AMSAT.

In November 2019, December 2019, and January 2020, ORI reached out in writing to AMSAT-DL, JAMSAT (AMSAT Japan), AMSAT-UK, AMSAT-NA, EFF, the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Open Source Initiative (OSI), and multiple Universities and individuals active in open source and amateur radio. The communication outlined the legal strategy, invited collaboration, and asked for statements of support.

The legal strategy consisted of three parts. First, a Commodity Jurisdiction Request to the US State Department asking for a Final Determination Letter that said that open source satellite work was free of ITAR. Second, a classification request to the US Commerce Department that would use the Final Determination to synchronize classification under EAR. Third, an Advisory Opinion Request to US Commerce clarifying the result from the US Commerce Department. This final step would provide needed guidance on publishing requirements and make it abundantly clear that open source satellite work was indeed free. Being free to work with others in the open is vastly superior to complying with onerous and punitive regulations designed to insure “national security”.

All organizations responded to or at least acknowledged the letter, except AMSAT.

On 20 February 2020, Open Research Institute filed a Commodity Jurisdiction Request with the US State Department, seeking to establish that key technologies for amateur radio are not subject to State Department jurisdiction. â€œInformation and Software for a Digital Microwave Broadband Communications System for Space and Terrestrial Amateur Radio Useâ€ was assigned the case number CJ0003120.

As encryption is allowed under Part 97 amateur satellite rules, the use of encryption was deliberately included in the request. The inclusion of encryption mandated that the Bureau of Industry and Security would have to review the request, which lengthened the schedule. The Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security also reviewed the work, as both departments have significant interest in regulating communications satellites and communications technology.

On 11 August 2020, The United States Department of State ruled favorably on Open Research Instituteâ€™s commodity jurisdiction request, finding that specified â€œInformation and Software for a Digital Microwave Broadband Communications System for Space and Terrestrial Amateur Radio Useâ€ was definitely not subject to State Department jurisdiction under ITAR.

The technology was not subject to State Department jurisdiction. This was the best possible outcome of a CJ request. The news was publicly announced.

The Final Determination letter, Commodity Jurisdiction cover letter, and the application itself can be found at:
https://github .com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Regulatory

A list of Commodity Jurisdiction request summaries can be found at the State Department website at:
https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=6ea6afdcdbc36300529d368d7c96194b

Under this Final Determination, the technologies were subject to the EAR. The next step was to submit a classification request to the Commerce Department. Work began on the request with Thomsen & Burke LLP.

In October 2020, the classification request was submitted to the US Commerce Department.

During the board meeting at the 2020 Symposium (October), I moved for AMSAT to adopt the regulatory results from ORI as AMSATâ€™s open source policy, using ORIâ€™s participant and developer policies and open source approach as a template that would be customized for AMSAT. The motion also included a companion policy for closed-source/proprietary work, as there was no written policy for ITAR/EAR of either type. We would coordinate with both FD Associates and Thomsen & Burke LLP to write this two-pronged policy. This would completely cover AMSAT for any type of project.

The rest of the board wanted to instead establish an â€œOpen Source Committeeâ€ that would produce a report in 90 days.

The 90 days expired without a report. The committee was renewed for another 90 days. That 90 days also expired without a report. I volunteered to participate on this committee, but was not included.

In January 2021, a classification of all the items, as requested, was received from the US Commerce Department.

Work began with Thomsen & Burke to draft an Advisory Opinion Request asking that openly published work ceases to be subject to the EAR. This established a full chain of documentation for open source amateur radio satellite service work.

On 23 February 2021, the Advisory Opinion Request was sent to the US Commerce Department.

On 2 September 2021, the US Commerce Department confirmed Thomsen & Burke LLPâ€™s advice that posting information on the internet so that it is available to the public means it is not subject to the EAR.

Classification and Advisory Request documents can be found at: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Regulatory

Many organizations have picked up the regulatory results, expressed appreciation, asked questions, and have indicated they are incorporating the results into their own work and policy documents.

The legal costs were fully reimbursed with a generous grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC). See https://www.ampr.org/grants/grant-open-research-institute/

ARDC and ORI share a vision of clearly establishing open source as the best and safest way to accomplish technical volunteer work in amateur radio. The regulatory work provides solid support for that vision. The path is clear for a number of interesting projects facilitating new methods for terrestrial and satellite communications, opening the door to robust global digital amateur communications.

Current work with Thomsen & Burke LLP is to write documents that explain how these results can be best used by others. This has significant relevance in industry and academia. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible to use the results.

The FAQ, optional notice, and training can be found (as soon as they are completed) at https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Regulatory

Will there be additional filings? The goal of any additional filings is to build a body of work that solidly support a wide variety of open source work. This is somewhat similar to the way patent portfolios work in commercial settings. It’s the sort of thing AMSAT could, and honestly should, be helping with.

This effort gives direct and large benefits to a large number of organizations, but it benefits AMSAT in particular. It allows free and open international collaboration, dramatically reduces legal risks, increases the potential volunteer corps, simplifies fundraising, and reduces management burdens.

The work applies to orbits besides GEO and technology besides DVB-S2/X. Those that “insist” on extremely narrow final determinations can write their own Commodity Jurisdictions requests and expect to get the same result because they can use this one in their request as a model and reference. As said before, additional filings would be of great benefit to the community because a population of results strengthens the case for open source work. However, additional filings are not necessary to use the results.

The key to using these regulatory results, or any like it, is that the public domain carve outs in ITAR and EAR are solid and provide a bright path out of a bad place. In order to use them, one has to commit to documented open source policies and follow the law with regard to what constitutes publishing. According to the Advisory Opinion Letter, if it is published, it must be free.

Publishing work as it is created, freely available to the general public, is the way to use the public domain carve-outs in the law. Publishing designs and data that allow the recreation of a work of software or hardware means publishing schematics, Gerber files, bills of materials, source code, tools required, test data, test plans, and the license that that work uses.

This last part is often overlooked but is a necessary part of a compliant open source policy. ORI recommends the CERN open hardware license or the TAPR open hardware license for hardware. ORI recommends GPL version 3.0 for software. Any license recognized by Open Source Initiative is an excellent starting point. Providing regular copies of work to a public library, whether in print or on DVD, is a baseline approach for a publishing policy. Using GitHub or GitLab is another recommended baseline policy.

ORI recommends the CERN Open Hardware License v2 because of the way it enables a useful open source hardware definition in a world dominated by a wide variety of proprietary tools. For example, FPGA design is a large and growing part of our world in advanced open source digital communications, and is the central service provided by ORIâ€™s Remote Labs. Find more information about Remote Labs here: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Remote_Labs

Since open source tools for FPGA are currently not capable of executing some of the required designs, as long as the tool or component meets the definition of â€œavailable componentâ€, then the use of things like proprietary tools are allowed in the production of an open source design.

Following the example of FPGA work, this means that the VHDL source code is available for free to the general public. The FPGA is listed in the bill of materials and can be purchased. The version of Xilinx Vivado is listed, and can be obtained.

ORIâ€™s developer and participant policies can be found here:
https://openresearch.institute/developer-and-participant-policies/

This regulatory work is a significant and positive result for the commercial and industrial world as well as in amateur and academic circles. Goals for the amateur radio satellite service should be the absolute minimum regulatory fear and risk for amateur volunteers, and a maximum amount of free and open international technical cooperation.

Thank you! Contact ORI with questions about the legal work at ori at openresearch dot institute

September 8, 2021September 8, 2021

Wojciech Kaczmarski SP5WWP wins 2021 ARRL Technical Innovation Award

The ARRL Board of Directors, with the recommendation of the Programs and Services Committee, has awarded the 2021 ARRL Technical Innovation Awards to Steve Haynal, KF7O, Wojciech Kaczmarski, SP5WWP (from the M17 Project), and Roger Clark, VK3KYY.

Congratulations SP5WWP!

ORI is the fiscal sponsor for M17 Project. Funding provided by ARDC.

September 3, 2021September 3, 2021

Successful Regulatory Results for Open Source Amateur Satellite Work

On 2 September, 2021, Open Research Institute (ORI) received an advisory opinion from US Commerce Department BIS.

The letter confirmed that posting information on the internet so that it is available to the public means that open source amateur satellite communications work is not subject to the Export Administration Regulation (EAR). Prior work established that open source amateur satellite communications work was free of International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

This is a significant regulatory success for open source amateur satellite work and open source in general.

Work was funded by ARDC and executed by Open Research Institute. Legal assistance was provided by Thomsen and Burke LLP.

All documents and links to presentations about the work are freely available at https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Regulatory

Thank you to those who have supported and assisted ORI during the many stages of this successful regulatory endeavor. Making a successful argument requires competence, persistence, and patience. ORI will build upon this work moving forward in order to advance the aims and purposes of open source amateur radio work.

Visit https://www.openresearch.institute/getting-started/ to get involved.

August 20, 2021August 20, 2021

Executive Board Meeting Minutes August 2021

Attending:

Steve Conklin (CFO), Rose Easton (guest), Keith Wheeler (Director), James Wheeler (Acting Secretary), Michael Easton (guest), Paul Williamson (Master at Arms), Michelle Thompson (CEO)

Location:

Koi Restaurant, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (DEFCON)

Minutes:

-Opening Remarks
–Motion passed to maintain current group of Directors (Bill and Karen in absentia)
-Previous minutes edits approved
-Open Lunar Business lab equipment obtained due to running under budget on equipment
-ARDC and ORI remote lab talks continue
-Plans on movement of Remote Lab East to Remote Lab South
–Motion Passed Remote Lab South to be established on the property of Keith Wheeler, in Little Rock, AR
–Shipping costs of equipment will likely push over grant budget
—Some amount of leeway needed to adjust budgeting to cover shipping
Recess
-ERR request being considered up to $10k
-Discuss to go beyond the budget originally allocated to make up for the sudden need to shut down Remote Lab East
-Additional discussion made to take from the M17 account to make up for additional cost
-Discussion conducted on determining how far over budget lab project can go before additional meetings must be conducted
-Pertinent Budget Information:
–Currently, under budget by $2k
–Lab equipment in bay area costs $500 a month
-Motion Passed: Proposal to allow for a $20k overage on the lab budget, to account for movement of equipment to Remote Lab South, and M17, used at the discretion of M approved. In the event that additional cost beyond this limit is reached, another meeting will be held
-Progress with discussions with M17 and FCC discussed
–Future discussion with International Satellite Bureau and OET planned after meeting with the FCC
-Plans to discuss successes with the FCC and defeating ITAR at upcoming HAM Expo
-Regulatory meddling in Texas successful
–space industry people happy with meddling due to discussing debris mitigation and FCC jurisdiction
-AMSAT maintains that debris mitigation rules should not be enforced on HAM radio, believe it will destroy space based HAM radio
–AMSAT invited to meetings and to be part of the planning committee but declined
-FCC seems to be leaning more towards ORI beliefs on debris mitigation
-Possibility of LEO being one of few exceptions to debris mitigation rules
-End goal of FCC discussion is to allow for ambitious missions, including graveyard orbits
–Possibility of third graveyard orbit
-The meetings will continue until morale improves
-Note of moving of satellite antennas to Remote Lab South, due to increased space
-Discussion of grant being written by Keith to get a salary for engineers on a contract basis from ARDC, and for payment for Lab Director to maintain lab equipment on Remote Lab South, no motion to be made at time, but grant will be applied for
-Closing Remarks
-Motion to adjourn

August 19, 2021August 19, 2021

Space and Satellite Symposium: Information Theory, Amateur Radio, and Amateur Satellite

30 October 2021, 8am – 12pm US Pacific

Space and Satellite Symposium – The Role of Information Theory in Space with Special Emphasis on Amateur Radio and Amateur Satellite

August 12, 2021August 12, 2021

Spirit Wear Store Promotion

Thanks to a generous donor you get a Free Book with your order of Open Research Institute Spirit Wear. Proceeds benefit ORI, an open source 501(c)(3).

Visit https://stores.goldmedalideas.com/ori/shop/home and spend $30 US or more. While supplies last.

August 11, 2021August 11, 2021

Demonstration: FreeRTOS Task Upload

This is a Scheduler for Dynamic Patching of FreeRTOS Tasks. It’s based on FreeRTOS and it helps the user to dynamically update and patch the task without the need for system reboot.

August 11, 2021August 11, 2021

Weekly Engineering Report 10 August 2021

Greetings all!

1) OpenRotor will have a Ham Expo workshop from 12:00pm – 2:00pm in the Chat. Direct link is: https://ori.whereby.com/open-research-institute

Get there by clicking “Chat” in the booth at Ham Expo.

2) Planning spreadsheet for ORI at Ham Expo has been started and the editable version is linked in the Slack.

Please add yourself if you have something to present on any open source amateur radio or amateur radio satellite service subject. Coordinate through Slack. We have excellent resources and support from Ham Expo this year. The goal is to provide a low-stress enjoyable venue to speak with attendees about the things we do and the things we want to see succeed.

I need videos of demos or time commitments for live demos. Don’t be shy – your work is of great interest at the Expo.

3) If you are not on our Slack, or haven’t visited lately, please do – this is where daily engineering and planning happens.

https://phase4ground.slack.com/

If you need an invite, please send me a request directly.

4) FPGA Standup meeting was today and the team will have a lot to show off at Ham Expo and for Google Skywater in October. Most recent recording of the weekly standup is:

5) DEFCON was a big success. We had our first in-person board meeting in nearly two years. A lot of networking and discussion and learning happened. There are several projects that we might want to consider supporting or assisting. More about those projects in the #defcon channel in Slack.

6) ORI Store (https://stores.goldmedalideas.com/ori/shop/home) will have a promotion. We have a supply of the 2019 printed paper versions of the AMSAT Getting Started With Amateur Satellites Guide and will include one in every order over $30 starting at Ham Expo and lasting until supplies are gone.

7) Open Lunar Foundation lab purchase is complete and the lease for storage of that equipment is being transferred from Open Lunar to ORI this week. The lab equipment will move to primarily M17 Lab on the East Coast and some will go to Remote Lab South in Arkansas this autumn. If you can help reduce shipping costs then get in touch.

8) FCC has agreed to meet with us and will arrange for both OET and the International Satellite Bureau to attend. The agenda is how open source can successfully address Debris Mitigation regulatory requirements for the amateur radio satellite service, and specific microwave band spectrum defense for the amateur radio satellite service. A summary of the content for this meeting will be presented at Ham Expo. There will be a breakout session and Q&A.

9) Work session at Huntsville Space and Rocket Center for the Birdbath Big Dish renovation has been postponed due to covid. Originally scheduled for immediately following Huntsville Hamfest, the work session will happen when it’s safe to invite volunteers to work together on site. This project renovates a 20 foot dish for open source amateur and citizen space science use.

-Michelle W5NYV

July 21, 2021July 21, 2021

Weekly Engineering Meeting of FPGA Team

July 14, 2021August 11, 2021

OpenRTX Firmware Measured in Remote Lab West

July 10, 2021July 10, 2021

Wally Ritchie WU1Y – SK

It’s never easy to share bad news about a significant loss.

Wally Ritchie WU1Y passed away in Florida on 1 July 2021 from heart failure.

We have lost a big part of our team. I, and I know many of you, join his friends and family in mourning his passing.

While he defeated cancer with the same energy and style that he overcame so many other daunting challenges in his life, he was unable to recover from a series of setbacks that began in late May and worsened in late June.

Wally was our Primary Investigator for the Phase 4 transponder project, is a primary contributor to the documentation, design, fundraising, and grant process for the transponder, and was responsible for the specification and vision of Remote Labs. He defended, mentored, and supported the team and Open Research Institute work on numerous occasions. He was a true subject matter expert in space and terrestrial digital communications, was an experienced manager, and a talented entrepreneur. He lived and traveled internationally, was well read, and never failed to provide real backbone exactly when and where it was needed.

Professionally, Wally was a Principal Engineer. He had extensive experience in systems engineering and firmware development. He was an expert in Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). He held several high-level manufacturing and management positions during his career, and knew digital signal processing in depth. He was devoted to education and improving student accessibility to high technology.

I met Wally through Jonathan Brandenburg at the 2016 TAPR DCC. We hit it off instantly. We had a lot in common. Wally had repeatedly attempted to volunteer through AMSAT and had not gotten a positive response. He was thrilled to find out that people were working on the problems that he thought were important for amateur satellites, and he dug in and selflessly volunteered from that day forward. Our collaboration extended to open source medical devices, regulatory work, a variety of grant applications, and some attempts at some really fun proprietary ventures. I met his wife Debbie and his son Keegan.

He did presentations, volunteered at the HamCation booth, and organized several workshops. He lead design reviews and wrote papers whenever they were needed. He did whatever I asked and always let me know when I was doing a good job, or where I could improve.

I learned so much from him and will miss him very much.

While it’s not possible to “replace” someone like Wally, we will keep going with the same spirit. He had great confidence in our ability to achieve our goals. I’m not inclined to let him down.

-Michelle W5NYV

May 16, 2021May 16, 2021

NiCd Battery Analysis: Historical and Modern

Greetings all!

I’d like to tell you all about a project going on to revive/document Larry Keyser’s engineering on matched NiCd cells that made up the batteries for UO-11 and other amateur payloads from that era. This would be up to four of the AO-teens payloads, and at least one other smallsat. The batteries were very reliable, exceeding amateur and professional expectations.

Selecting cells for a battery takes testing and an understanding of the basics of the underlying chemistry and physics. Early amateur payloads got a great deal here with some surplus cells from avionics and/or medical surplus. These cells were high quality to begin with, but that’s not enough by itself to ensure a lengthy lifespan in space.

Larry Keyser knew how to match the cells to make batteries that would last a long time. The overall strategy was to select batteries that were similar. Not necessarily the best performers in the batch, but the best matched cells.

Temperature performance and curve matching were both considered critical. Furthermore, the batteries were scanned to eliminate those with internal structural anomalies and faults.

Several of us at ORI are preserving, publishing, and extending this work. We have some advantages, in that modern battery analysis equipment is much easier to use and more capable than what previous volunteers had to work with. ORI has a modern battery analyzer, capable of working up to 44 volts, available for community use.

Modern test equipment produces much higher resolution charge/discharge curves, and temperature monitoring is incorporated automatically. Measurements can be automated in ways that Larry didn’t really have available at the time he was working on this for AMSAT and other missions.

We have software tools and languages (Python, MATLAB) that make curve matching easier. There’s never been a better time to save and publish a summary article about Larry’s achievements and what we, as modern hams, can do to improve upon it.

This is all open source work through Open Research Institute. It’s offered for free to anyone or any organization that wants to use it. NiCd batteries aren’t as hip or cool as Lithium Ion, but they are reliable in space, and this ongoing battery project will produce both data and actual physical battery packs that amateur/educational missions may want to consider using.

The battery analysis equipment is capable of doing any battery chemistry, so if you have an open source amateur satellite project in mind that needs battery analysis support, ORI is here to help out with that.

Want to get involved?

Getting Started

May 14, 2021May 14, 2021

Ground-based DVB-S2 Repeater for GEO Satellites by Wally Ritchie.

In case you missed it when it was published by AMSAT-UK, you can download the paper here.

April 1, 2021April 1, 2021

Radio-Free RFC Podcast – All Episodes

Please visit https://www.openresearch.institute/radio-free-rfc-podcast/ for the episodes of the Radio-Free RFC Podcast.

The revival of this collection came about due to some Twitter banter on 1 April 2021.

This podcast was originally published beginning in January 2005. It’s a light-hearted and humorous view of Internet “Request for Comments” or RFCs.

March 30, 2021July 11, 2022

Dual-Band Feeds Update

My background is baseband and algorithm development, but the RF side is where the signals meet and exceed the sky. I have only the deepest respect for those that are talented here and give generously of their time for amateur satellite project success. We owe so much to Kent Britain, Paul Wade, and many others.

There are two designs for Phase 4 dual band feeds in the repository linked here. They are dual-band feeds, best used in dishes.

https://github.com/phase4ground /documents/tree/master/Engineering/Antennas_and_Feeds

The first one I want to introduce you to is the 5 GHz up, 10 GHz down. This feed was designed by Paul Wade W1GHZ, has lab results, has been manufactured in amateur machine shops, and has been 3d printed/metallized. This feed was demonstrated at amateur and IEEE conferences.

The second is 10 GHz up, 24 GHz down. Paul fabricated a number of feeds for us to distribute. The design is by Gary K6MG and Lars AD6IW. Their paper can be found at https://dokumen.tips/documents/dual-band-1024-ghz-feedhorns-for-shallow-ad6fp-aa6iw-dualfinalpdfdual-band-1024.html?page=1.

Preliminary lab results are in progress and published in the repository. More to come! ORI bought 15 of them and is interested in putting them into the hands of amateurs that will use them and report back. Three have been sent out so far, and we are looking to send out more.

While the baseline Phase 4 design is “five and dime”, the goal of ORI is to use any and all microwave bands that we can. I think we are all aware of how much pressure our microwave bands are under from commercial interests.

The system design is extensible to 10/24, so we needed a feed for this.

If you want to contribute or participate, then please visit

https://www.openresearch.institute/getting-started/

Thank you to all that have helped make this possible!

-Michelle W5NYV

March 25, 2021March 25, 2021

26 March 2021 Engineering Report

Here is a visual walkthrough of the features on the TEBF0808 UltraITX+ Baseboard for Trenz Electronic TE080X UltraSOM+, presented by Paul KB5MU and Michelle W5NYV.

These stations are available to the community from Open Research Institute’s Remote Labs. We currently have two sets of gear and are procuring two more.

The Trenz platform allows for full access to the FPGA, power reduction work, and thermal modeling. All are extremely important for space applications.

We also have the Xilinx development board for the Ultrascale, for preliminary work.

The FPGA module goes in the lower left empty square with the high-density connectors.

The FPGA module has a heat sink, called a heatspreader, that is a machined metal plate. It attaches to the FPGA module with screws. However, it needs an intermediate layer to conduct the heat from the FPGA to the metal plate. The plate is designed to fit many different modules, and there’s a gap between the metal plate and the top of the components on the FPGA module.

This gap is usually filled with a specific gap-filling thermal paste.

Which happens to be out of stock, all over the world.

So, of the four stations we’re settting up, one will be fitted with a thermal adhesive film. This comes in sheets and can be cut to size. It can be used for space, so as we dial down the power consumption with code adjustments, we can measure the thermal results with something that is appropriate for the space mission.

The other three will get gap-filling goo directly from Trenz. This is the only way to preserve the warranty on these expensive modules, so it’s not a bad choice. And, this gives us something to compare the sheet against. We’ll test both in thermal modeling and chamber.

-Michelle W5NYV

March 22, 2021March 22, 2021

How To Leverage Amateur Radio In Space

How-to-Leverage-Amateur-Radio-in-Space Download

Compiled by Michelle Thompson W5NYV, Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK, Douglas Quagliana KA2UPW, and Pierros Papadeas SV1QVE Director of Operations at Libre Space. Please contact any of us with questions, comments, additions, and corrections.

w5nyv@arrl.net
wd9ewk@amsat.org
dquagliana@gmail.com
pierros@libre.space

Version: March 22, 2021

Introduction

Who is this document for? You may belong to one or more of the following categories.

You want to deploy an amateur radio spacecraft.
You want to include amateur radio operators.
You want to use amateur radio frequencies.
You are interested in using SatNOGS.

Amateur radio is about the operators. The licensees in the amateur radio satellite service are individual people. They have a license not just to use communications resources in space, but they are also licensed to control spacecraft, with the permission of the spacecraft license holder.

The Amateur Radio Satellite Service is a non-commercial communications service available worldwide. It is dedicated to education, experimentation, and the amateur use of space.

The VHF international amateur satellite frequency allocation is 144.000 MHz – 146.000 MHz with 145.800 MHz – 146.000 MHz being recommended and preferred. The UHF international amateur satellite frequency allocation is 435.000 MHz – 438.000 MHz. There are other allocations on other bands, but these are the most heavily used at this time.

Providing a spacecraft that is useful to the amateur radio satellite service is not difficult, but there are aspects that may be non-intuitive coming from a commercial or academic background. There are expectations from the amateur radio community of spacecraft that operate on amateur radio bands.

The starting point is https://www.iaru.org/reference/satellites/

This site contains a wealth of information about Amateur Radio in Space. Carefully reviewing the entire site will put your project and your team in the best possible place to leverage the global amateur radio satellite service.

Once this set of documentation has been read, then community standards can be adopted.

Community Standards

The advice following about community standards is hard-won. If this advice is followed, the amateur radio aspects of your project have a much better chance of being successful.

1) Use forward error correction for digital downlinks. Use open protocols and open source.

2) Test over the air, as soon as possible, in the lab, on the ground, well before launch.

3) Clearly describe how amateur radio operators will receive your signal. Operators of satellites in the amateur-satellite service must publish full details of their modulation, encoding and telemetry formats and equations before launch. Publish details long enough in advance so that amateur radio operators can implement and test receiver designs. Use Science-Technology-Engineering-Math (STEM) educational organizations to get the word out. Use your local AMSAT Societies and related groups to get the word out. Describe the air interface as early as possible, even if this is before any software is ready.

4) Make and publish a recording of your telemetry signal to allow amateurs to test demodulation and decoding of your signal.

5) What’s in this for amateur radio operators? What is the added value of the project for the ham radio community? Is there an amateur radio transponder available for general use? If not, then support from the amateur community may be very low.

6) Incorporate SatNOGS.

SatNOGS has a very useful guide for satellite builders that want to use amateur radio.

https://wiki.satnogs.org/Satellite_Operator_Guide?fbclid=IwAR2gE0q8XlWN3HatnLPuVIo9-Y3TFq2uzAqgWN2O7ErjWCYymTrbS6cEbD0

Thank You

If you are reading this, you know that forward error correction or changing frequencies canâ€™t be done at the last minute. The amateur satellite community can be highly valuable active participants in your satellite mission, if they have the information they need about the project.

If the project provides useful communications services and engaging opportunities to amateur operators, then the benefits are plentiful and powerful. Announcing amateur radio plans early enough to get engagement and quality feedback, and publishing all the details, are the key concepts.

Do you know of a team that is starting to look at using amateur radio on their spacecraft? Please pass this along to them.

March 10, 2021March 10, 2021

Amateur Space Radio Exhibit to host ORI Technical Demos at Ham Expo March 2021

Please visit the Amateur Space Radio exhibit at the upcoming Ham Expo, 12-14 March 2021.

https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/

Amateur Space Radio is any amateur radio activity that has to do with space. It could be satellites, ionospheric sounding, ground stations, any AMSAT activity, schools, citizen science, radio astronomy, and more.

Exhibit support website is located at https://amateurspace.radio/

Space Radio is fun and accessible. There is room for people that want to operate satellites. There is room for advanced experimenters improving the technology. There is room for people that buy commercial equipment. There is room for DIY and open source. And, there is room for you!

Saturdayâ€™s Space and Satellite Track features eight talks that cover all aspects of Space Radio. How to get started with equipment you already own, an introductory talk that opens up all of the magic of satellite operations, a deep dive into current microwave band digital transponder technology, a history of GEO projects at AMSAT, an explanation of what is required to support an international volunteer team working on FPGA development for amateur satellite work, some very good regulatory news for the United States, how we are engaging students in amateur satellite, and what we need to do about space junk.

All of the talks will be available after Ham Expo, but at the event you will get to interact with the presenters directly, asking them questions, live. Many of these speakers will be at the Amateur Space Radio booth for breakout sessions.

The breakout session schedule includes Getting Started, Roving Operations, JAMSAT, Tech Talk, Tech Demos with Open Research Institute and others, ARDC, Space Weather with TAPR, and an Antenna Session with Kent Britain. We have a couple of open tables and if you want to see something discussed, then please come by and we will set something up.

The Amateur Space Radio exhibit in the Expo doesnâ€™t just have breakout sessions with subject matter experts. It also has nine hours of video content from around the world. These videos include highlight reels, tutorials, and presentations. They cover activity ranging from FM satellite operations to antenna design to advanced propulsion experiments and more. We are playing the world class GNU Radio workshop from Dr. Estevez about decoding satellite transmissions on Sunday with all of the resources needed to participate, linked at the booth.

Our video playlist is available on YouTube from a link at front of the booth. This allows on demand viewing. The schedule for when they will be shown during the Expo is at the booth.

We have two social events this year. Friday night is a custom electronic dance set from John Brier. The recording will also be available through a link at the booth. John Brier is an active satellite operator and educator and is also an electronic dance music musician.

Our second social event is an online scavenger hunt with an Around the World Theme. The event starts at 7pm US Pacific tonight, Saturday, the 13 of March, and will be conducted through Zoom by Watsonâ€™s Adventures. If you want a ticket, come to Amateur Space Radio and find the Watson table. First come first serve. If you cannot use your ticket please return it or find someone who can. The adventure will start at 7pm US Pacific time sharp, so make sure to join ahead of time so you wonâ€™t be left out. We will close the table when we have given all tickets out.

If you want to learn more about Amateur Space Radio, and stay in touch, please use the Register Interest on our main banner at Ham Expo. We think space is the most exciting part of the amateur radio hobby and we want to hear from you on how to best support it moving forward.

Thank you to Ham Expo and the satellite community for making this exhibit such a success. Please welcome our speakers, and see you at the booth!

March 9, 2021March 9, 2021

Open Research Institute “Spirit Wear” Store

US shipping only at this time.

Store will premier on 12 March 2021 at Ham Expo.

10% of every purchase goes towards ORI!

https://stores.goldmedalideas.com/ori/

February 22, 2021March 4, 2021

Welcome to Ham Expo March 2021

Here is the Schedule for the Space and Satellite PresentationTrack in Space Radio Auditorium. ORI is proud to have such good representation at this event. Please visit the Amateur Space Radio booth at QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo for our technical demonstrations, watch video presentations, and to visit with other amateur satellite enthusiasts. This event will be a big highlight of the year for amateur radio!

Watch the Track Intro Video below:

Please visit the Ham Expo website to register for the event.

February 11, 2021February 11, 2021

Space and Satellite Content from ORI at HamCation 2021

Want to hear the rest? Come to the TAPR/ORI forum at HamCation 2021! https://www.hamcation.com/

January 27, 2021January 27, 2021

Excess Equipment For Sale

We have excess lab equipment that is now for sale!

All proceeds go directly back to the Phase 4 project. Learn more about that at https://t.co/ReSTT6mOfT

Analog Devices ADRV9371-W/PCBZ evaluation board listing is here:https://t.co/rI2Et3pnqv
— OpenResearchInstitute (@OpenResearchIns) January 27, 2021

January 15, 2021January 15, 2021

Remote Labs Report for January 2021

January 11, 2021January 11, 2021

HamCation 2021 – Special Edition

TAPR and ORI will have a joint forum at HamCation Special Edition 2021.

Attending HamCation Is Now Easier Than Ever!

At this virtual event, you can attend from anywhere you have an internet connection. Attend great webinars, join the HamCation QSO party, and put in your ticket for some truly great prizes.

At this year’s forum, ORI and TAPR focus on use cases for our open source hardware projects, celebrate the very bright present and future of amateur radio, and explain why open source is such a powerfully positive concept for the Amateur Radio Service as well as the Amateur Radio Satellite Service.

Join us Saturday February 13, 2021 at 12:00 PM US Eastern Time. Here’s what ORI and TAPR have in store for you!

12:00 – 12:05 The Spirit of Amateur Radio Experimentation
An inspiring and accessible introduction to the state of the art in amateur radio, this short video showcases the heart and soul of open source amateur radio hardware design, featuring TAPR and ORI. Exciting developments are happening in terrestrial microwave, aerospace, machine learning, contesting, education, and much more. There has never been a better time to be involved in amateur radio. You belong, no matter your level of technical expertise.
12:05 – 12:25 TAPR
Please join us as Scotty Cowling explains the TangerineSDR ecosystem, describes how much fun it will be to use this innovative software-defined radio, and how it stacks up against other radio systems. Then, learn about the Clock Module (CKM) from John Ackermann. This flexible module provides high-accuracy clock signals to your future favorite radio, the TangerineSDR. It can also be used in its own carrier board to provide a GPS Disciplined Oscillator (GPSDO) instrument, permitting near-laboratory grade time and frequency standard measurements in your ham shack. The modular and useful approach guides all of TAPR’s work.
TAPR is central to amateur radio culture. TAPR hosts the annual Digital Communications Conference, publishes a widely-read technical conference proceeding, and sends out an informative newsletter to members. TAPR sustains an enduring community of volunteers that consistently produce fast, flexible, and truly useful open source designs for the discerning amateur experimenter.
Panelists are Scotty Cowling and John Ackermann.
12:25-12:45 Open Research Institute
Space is beautiful, dangerous, challenging, and rewarding. Best of all, amateur radio operators worldwide have access to it! Open Research Institute (ORI) builds digital multiplexing transponders in the microwave bands. Intended for spacecraft at HEO, GEO, and beyond, these powerful transponders use state-of-the art error correction to provide world class reliability that adapts to the signal environment.
But, all statistics and no play makes for a dull radio. This system lets you send any data type you want, even through extremely difficult signal-to-noise conditions. Want to leave someone a voice message? No problem. Impromptu voice meetup? Yes! Set an alert for when a friend is on the air? Sure. Post a photo album of your antenna project with a voice memo to answer another ham’s question? You bet. All over the air and independent of the Internet. These systems can also be deployed terrestrially to provide modern amateur digital communications networks.
Open Research Institute is a 501(c)(3) that does open source research and development for amateur radio and beyond. ORI provides a wealth of community resources and learning opportunities for the experimental amateur radio community. Two well-stocked Remotely Accessible Lab Benches for advanced digital communications work, a full floating Vivado license, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) stations, and most crucially, ORI offers community, expert advice, and support to go from “curious” to “crack shot” in a wide variety of high-tech skillsets. Ready to take advantage of the rapidly growing world of open source hardware? Bring your time and attention and become part of it.
Participants are Michelle Thompson, Paul Williamson, Wally Ritchie, Anshul Makkar, and more.

December 27, 2020January 13, 2021

Engineering Report 11 December 2020

Direct link: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/blob/master/Management/Weekly_Engineering_Reports/20201211_Weekly_Engineering_Report.md

Content:

## Phase 4 Weekly Report for 11 December 2020

#### Architecture 9 December 2020

Progress this week on detailed architecture for the exciter. The short term goal is to be able to write base-band frames (BBFRAMES) to the buffer and send them out. BBFRAMES are connected to ethernet on the A53 side. This will achieve our original Phase I goals. Wally Ritchie leading efforts on the modulator and the interfaces so we can integrate the existing FEC code.

#### Remote Labs 9 December 2020

Video report from Remote Lab West available here: https://youtu.be/z0d1vvbX_LU

Video shows unpacking and deployment of the logic analyzer accessory for the mixed-signal oscilloscope. Device under test is an RC2014 and the signal inspected was RS232. Some concern here because we can get single characters and short bursts perfectly, but longer bursts of RS232 are not successfully decoded. Nick and others have given advice and it will be followed up on.

Signal generator for Remote Lab West expected Friday 11 December 2020. Remote Lab East has their signal generator with the upgraded clock already.

Trenz gear delayed, date TBD.

#### 9 December 2020 Meeting Notes – Open Lunar Foundation Use of ORI Radio Designs

Participated in a working meeting on how to use ORI’s transponder work in the NASA grant ecosystem. Answered questions, shared documents, and took some action items from Open Lunar Foundation.

#### 8 December 2020 Meeting Notes – Open Lunar Foundation Donor Summit

Attended a donor summit held by Open Lunar Foundation. Answered questions about ORI, P4XT, open source licensing, and how best to use the ORI transponder and ground equipment as a base design for Open Lunar Foundation’s efforts to provide solutions for LunaNet and beyond.

Learn more about Open Lunar Foundation at:

https://www.openlunar.org/

#### 8 December 2020 Meeting Notes – Debris Mitigation, GMAT, and Orbits

Wally Ritchie
Anshul Makkar
Michelle Thompson

**AI:** = Action Items

GMAT stands for General Mission Analysis Tool. This is an open source framework from NASA that allows high-fidelity mission planning. Find more information about this tool here:

https://opensource.gsfc.nasa.gov/projects/GMAT/index.php

Our LEO-to-GEO GMAT models by Achim Vollhardt can be found here:

https://github.com/phase4space/p4xt/wiki/General-Mission-Analysis-Tool-%28GMAT%29-Scripts-and-Explanations

The LEO-to-GEO GMAT models shows what we need to do to get to GEO on our own. They allow us to do a trade study between motoring to GEO from LEO vs. paying for a launch to GEO. In both cases, we need to model the GEO-to-disposal orbit, which is one of the things Anshul Makkar is working on.

There are multiple variables to consider when comparing LEO-to-GEO against straight-to-GEO, including:

1) debris mitigation concerns because spiraling up through what may be very large LEO constellation may raise objections, where straight-to-GEO does not, at increased launch expense.

2) the capability cost to LEO-to-GEO due to the larger amount of space required for fuel.

3) increased radiation exposure of a LEO-to-GEO spiral, which drives up cost and potentially capability.

Anshul is creating a GMAT mission to model desired orbits for P4XT. He had some questions about Debris Mitigation, GMAT, and the impact on orbits. Here is a summary of the discussion and the resulting action items and goals.

Anshul has been working through some examples to learn GMAT and has had success. He came to the point where he needed to know more about the parameters.

For Anshul’s initial round of work, we will model from GEO delivery to disposal orbit.

We currently refer to this as “Straight to Graveyard”.

The disposal orbits are 250 km above and below GEO.

The upper stage of the launches we expect to be able to take advantage of deliver payloads 50 km above or below GEO. The final maneuvering is typically done by the primary payload after separation from the final stage. This orbit, 50 km out, is called the “maneuvering zone”.

While we would like an equatorial disposal orbit, we can handle inclinations.

Wally shared some paper about some stable orbits available in disposal.

**AI:** Wally to send Anshul an edition of a good book resource on orbital mechanics.

With this GMAT mission creation, we will have three line elements (TLEs) that will enable ground station tracking modeling in currently available software.

**AI:** GMAT animations will be created to show a train of 4 payloads for global coverage.

The advantages to Straight to Graveyard are significant.

1) With a GEO-to-dispoal, we do not have to have the estimated 2 lbs of Iodine thruster fuel for a LEO to GEO orbit, modeled previously by Achim.

2) We do not suffer the wear and tear a LEO to GEO mission incurs.

3) We can use the saved space for more and better batteries, which increases mission life.

Given the reduced stationkeeping requirements of disposal orbits, we may be able to use open source thruster technology such as AIS work to maintain attitude.

The disposal orbit does require some tracking. However, it is slow. It also provides additional DX opportunities for operators. Path loss will vary more. Anything below 20 to 15 degrees elevation is challenging.

**AI:** Anshul to use existing GEO orbits and modify this mission with a burn to disposal to achieve the simplest Straight to Graveyard mission presentation.

**AI:** Anshul to present his work.

debris_mitigation Slack channel created for discussion, and relevant foundational documents have been shared there.

#### Virginia Tech Industrial Advisory Board Meeting Report
Open Research Institute attended our first Virginia Tech Industrial Advisory Board Meeting on 20 November 2020. The meeting was attended by over 40 representatives from industrial, academic, amateur, and open source communities. The goal of the Industrial Advisory Board is to improve Virginia Tech’s ability to educate students for roles in space exploration, science, technology, regulation, and management.

**Action items:** prepare 2-3 slides about ORI and our mission on the Industrial Advisory Board. Open source regulatory advancements, positive effect on commerce when used appropriately, and the improvement in educational outcomes are the communications goals for the slide deck.

#### High-Level Discussion on Thermal and Radiation

Action Item closed: Thermal Desktop license successfully installed on a FlexLM server donated to the cause by the power of KN6NK.

Current status: having trouble getting the license from the server to the local installation.

**New Action Item:** Tutorials completed using this software.

Mike Murphree requested a mission plan and expectations on the radiation environment as soon as possible.

Mike Murpree requested resource utilization of the Xilinx parts in order to compare against other potentially more radiation tolerant families of parts.

Michelle to provide documentation on the block diagrams and architecture documentation.

#### Trello Boards up and running
We are using Trello for task management. Plenty going on!

Join Phase 4 Ground Trello board:
https://trello.com/invite/b/REasyYiZ/8de4c059e252c7c435a1dafa25f655a8/phase-4-ground

Join Phase 4 Space Trello board:
https://trello.com/invite/b/GRBWasqW/1336a1fa5b88b380c27ccf95d21fec79/phase-4-space

#### AmbaSat Inspired Sensors

Account at Wells Fargo set up and dedicated funds from ARDC deposited.

#### Ham Expo 2021 Participation
ORI will present at and be part of an exhibit at the Ham Expo 2021. Details about the event here: https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/
**We will be using this event as a deadline for transponder work.** We will demonstrate functionality complete by March 2021 at the show.

#### HamCation 2021 Participation
We will participate in HamCation 2021. This is a virtual event. We have 45 minutes available for presentations. HamCation wants unique, fun, engaging, interactive events. This is a wonderful opportunity for us. Message from organizers after we committed: “We don’t have a schedule yet. Plan on 45 minutes for the webinar with a 15 minute break between. Please provide a topic for the presentation with short description that will be posted. Thank you for offering.”

Topics for presentation and short descriptions need to be drawn up. We could do a competition, quiz bowl, live demo, technical presentation, contest, or anything of the sort.

#### Regulatory Presentation
The report is called “Minimum Viable Product” and the Debris Mitigation activities fold into this presentation. Version 1.2 received from Jan King on 7 December 2020.

December 2, 2020January 13, 2021

Engineering Report 20 November 2020

## Phase 4 Weekly Report for 20 November 2020

The first part of the meeting was a description and orientation of the re-dedication of the Industrial Advisory Board lead by Scott Bailey. The second part of the meeting was a curriculum review lead by Dr. Jonathan Black. The next meeting will be in the Spring.

#### High-Level Discussion on Thermal and Radiation
We had a high-level discussion about thermal and radiation requirements and work on 19 November 2020. The goals of the meeting were to introduce volunteers with experience in these areas to each other, and to generate any action items necessary to clear roadblocks for future work. Initial list of action items:

Screen Shot 2020-11-20 at 2 44 34 PM

**Meeting Minutes**

Attending were Michelle Thompson, Mike Murphree, Thomas Savarino, Alan Rich, and Nick KN6NK.

We use FlexLM for our Vivado license server, generously donated by KN6NK, and we will be able to use this server for Thermal Desktop. This is limited to one user, Thomas Savarino, but we are satisfied with this work plan. Thomas will also need Parallels and Autodesk. Invoices requested.

Alan Rich provided valuable advice about thermal engineering. Junction temperature and thermal cycling are of primary interest. We need to expect to do a layer analysis and treat the board like a structure. Concerns for radiation were discussed which align with previous work by Wally Ritchie, Thomas Parry, and Suoto.

Mike Murphree requested a mission plan and expectations on the radiation environment as soon as possible.

Mike Murpree requested resource utilization of the Xilinx parts in order to compare against other potentially more radiation tolerant families of parts.

Michelle to provide documentation on the block diagrams and architecture documentation.

*Priorities? Get the Thermal Desktop software up and running so Thomas Savarino can train on it and then start characterizing the 1U circuit cards for the communications payload.*

###### Open Research Institute sponsors the M17 Project
Open Research Institute is proud to sponsor M17, an open source digital radio protocol, code, voice codec, and hardware project.
Learn about and get involved at

https://m17project.org/

M17 has been added to the list of Open Research Institute Projects at

Projects

#### Trello Boards up and running
We are using Trello for task management. Plenty going on!

Join Phase 4 Ground Trello board:
https://trello.com/invite/b/REasyYiZ/8de4c059e252c7c435a1dafa25f655a8/phase-4-ground

Join Phase 4 Space Trello board:
https://trello.com/invite/b/GRBWasqW/1336a1fa5b88b380c27ccf95d21fec79/phase-4-space

#### AmbaSat Inspired Sensors
Phone conference with Dr. Alan Johnston on 2 November 2020 to answer questions and set up a tentative schedule. Work is expected to commence December 2020 through May 2021. This work is funded by an ORI grant. Project kickoff report here: https://www.openresearch.institute/2020/11/12/ambasat-inspired-sensors-project-kick-off-in-december-2020/

#### Remote Labs
Equipment has begun to arrive for the Remote Labs project. Access protocols have been drafted and tested. Feedback has been received and incorporated. Report and link to overview video here: https://www.openresearch.institute/2020/10/24/remote-labs-equipment-review/

Tracking document will be moved to the GitHub Wiki, but the current draft is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EG_anaUNWxluriktrDBUa1MnIdIlOe9_hMCkNFj3Tc4/edit?usp=sharing

Topics for presentation and short descriptions need to be drawn up. We could do a competition, quiz bowl, live demo, technical presentation, contest, or anything of the sort.

#### Regulatory Presentation
We will present to the FCC, accompanied by ARRL counsel, in the next small number of months. This presentation will emphasize how open source technologies and policies strengthen the Amateur Radio Satellite Service. The presentation will show how the Amateur Radio Satellite Service can fully comply with Debris Mitigation, how it can and will continue a rich history of providing quality public service communications, and how it will be a full participant in the New Space Age.

#### Ed Friesma Needs Help
One of our volunteers, Ed Friesma, writes

“We’re submitting a proposal here at UNLV to get a Cubesat off the ground and I’m in charge of the communications team (both hardware and software) We are submitting our base proposal for review but I will have to get a team of students together. A mentor would really help here. Especially when it comes to building the ground station. but also testing the comms link and the ground station software.

Do you know anyone

a) with some good experience setting up communications with Satellites and also boradcasting to satellites over UHF.

b) who would be interested in occasionally speaking with and answering questions from our team.

They don’t necessarily have to be in the area but at least be open to using Zoom or Discord to chat with us.”

Ed has the right experience to put this team together, but would like to run things by someone that’s been there before. It would really help to sort out what must happen over the next few months.

Are you willing and able to mentor Ed’s team? Get in touch with me at w5nyv@arrl.net and I’ll get you in touch with Ed if you don’t already have his email.

December 2, 2020December 8, 2020

As published in The AMSAT Journal, Volume 43, Number 5

[Published under the US doctrine of fair use. This is an excerpt of a publication, used for commentary to advance public discourse regarding a subject of great interest and importance to the amateur radio satellite community.]

September/October 2020

Engineering Update

Jerry Buxton, N0JY

Vice President, Engineering

Open source, Open mind

â€œOpen-Sourceâ€ is a hot topic for many in discussions about AMSAT, as you may well know. While my go-to, good old fat Websterâ€™s Third New International Dictionary does not have an entry for â€œopen-source,â€ it does have an entry for â€œopen-mind.â€ You can find any number of definitions for open-source in an online search. I will go with what turned up first on my search, annotated â€œDefinitions from Oxford Languagesâ€:

adjective [COMPUTING] â€œdenoting software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified.

A handful of others I looked at to be somewhat certain in what I say here were all essentially the same, and specified software as part of the definition of open-source. That is interesting in that some comments directed at me in the argument for open-source seemed to use the term to include not just software, but hardware as well.

â€œYou cannot reason someone out of something he or she was not reasoned intoâ€ (Jonathan Swift, 1721). The quote of Jonathan Swift seems to apply to the current situation because of discussions calling for AMSAT to adopt â€œopen-sourceâ€ as our means of doing business with satellite projects, lest AMSAT die off as an ineffective organization. Hence, the subtitle refers to what seems to be rare in the age of polarized tweets and blogs and unfortunately, amateur radio email lists, having an â€œopen mind.â€

My trusty old Websterâ€™s says about â€œopen mindâ€ (actual entry is â€œopen-mindedâ€):

adjective: â€œreceptive of arguments or ideas: free from rigidly fixed preconceptions: UNPREJUDICED (an open-minded curiosity that made him receptive to new ideas â€“ V.L.Parrington)

To me, being open-minded is a natural part of the general fraternity of amateur radio, and it takes place every day in everything from tower parties to satellite QSOs. I’m baffled that the concept seems to be left behind as you look at leadership levels of amateur radio affinity groups where one might think being open-minded is a required â€œskill.â€ Yet here we have some of the most highly polarized and divided groups of hams who are the functioning antithesis of the openminded definition, especially â€œfree from rigidly fixed preconceptions.â€ There appears to be no reasoning behind the highly polarized championing of a dire need for AMSAT to â€œbeâ€ open-source. On the flip side, there is no apparent reasoning by anyone who summarily says â€œno.â€

Fear not. My subject here is not who said what or how AMSAT is run. My director hat is on the tree, and I wear my â€œVPE MAGAâ€ hat (Moving AMSAT GOLF Ahead) for this. With the scenario set, I will look at how open-source may already exist in AMSAT Engineering, and share some open-minded questions and curiosity in how open-source fits what we do.

There are surely high levels of disagreement already with what I have written this far. Whatever your opinion on my being openminded, please do the same, and perhaps we can think beyond the existing â€œmustâ€ and â€œno,â€ which donâ€™t really facilitate any discussion.

To my knowledge, which only goes back just shy of a decade as far as being in a position to know, AMSAT Engineering has never had a policy that specifically ruled out open-source. Obviously, some things would need to be carefully considered before a change is made. I cannot speak for my predecessor as far as the choice to handle documents the way we do right now. It was in place and would make no sense to have tried to change it in the middle of the Fox program.

When I â€œwent to workâ€ for AMSAT in August (or so) 2011 as Systems Engineer, I was tasked with putting together all of the Fox-1 engineering documents that we had at that point for publication in the 2011 Proceedings of the AMSAT Space Symposium. That was the first AMSAT Space Symposium I attended in my then 37 years of fun using amateur radio satellites. I believe, from looking at the 2010 Proceedings, book that 2011 was the first year that Fox-1 was fully documented in that way. In writing the introduction used in those Proceedings, Tony Monteiro (AA2TX), who was VPE at the time, wanted to include the following:

We would also like to be able to discuss our satellite projects with our own members, [emphasis added] some of whom are not “US-persons” per ITAR. These AMSAT Space Symposium proceedings provide a convenient mechanism for the needed publication to make this information public domain and allow us to communicate with our members. The engineering documents published in these proceedings are what was available at the time needed for inclusion, and we hope you find them interesting and informative. AMSAT intends to continue to make the majority of the final technical documents, exclusive of satellite control information, available in future publications.

Those same points were included in what became the yearly publication and sharing of the development of the Fox-1 satellites, and I carried that on when I was voted VPE upon Tonyâ€™s passing in 2014. Especially as the Fox-1 platform quickly became popular with partners and prospective partners in flying on our â€œexperiment bayâ€ platform, I took a bit different view of the reason for publication in the Proceedings. I reworded the introduction to better reflect the popularity and the intent of making the designs for Fox-1 CubeSats available to any interested parties, including foreign organizations interested in building their first CubeSats. It stated in part:

AMSAT, in consideration of the educational component of our organization, would like to release the majority of our design documentation to the public as a learning tool to anyone interested in satellite development. [emphasis added]

Since hardware and hardware designs are not included in the definitions of open-source that I mentioned, could you still call our publication of documents â€œopen-source?â€ It is certainly intended to be accessible to all (purchasing a copy of the proceedings book was not a requirement, as I shared directly as well). It allowed changes for your own use without restriction. In fact, it was about as open as you might get as far as giving stuff to the public.

Incidentally, in the open-source sense, we recently entered into an agreement for an educational program in which students will rework the LTM design to require only two PCBs instead of our design of three. We will benefit from that as the re-design is shared back with us to help improve the LTM package.

The point in the Proceedings introduction that â€œa majority of the final technical documentsâ€ was made available refers to the omission of command and control hardware, and includes software functions regarding such. That point in the sense of â€œopen-nessâ€ is just reasonable security in the operation of the satellites because of licensing, certain government authorizations, and to keep from having the whistler and jammer crowd from also maliciously commanding a bird and ruining the fun for the users. In that, I do not include that omitted piece in this discussion. I expect to make it available after the Fox-1 satellites are no longer operational so it is shall we say, â€œpending open-ness.”

Letâ€™s look at some of the things that I believe would need to be considered and clarified in â€œtaking Engineering open-source.” One of the points would be whether there is any requirement to put everything on GitHub.com. That is consistently stated or implied in the argument for open-source, but I honestly do not know if that is simply because of general usage or there is something about it in the â€œcomplianceâ€ with open-source. The answer to that leads to the obvious question of how doing so makes anything more opensource or officially open-source.

Another point of discussion that flows from that would be the control of information that is restricted by export regulations. Whether you believe that there is no need for concern because the fact that something is open-source makes it impossible for it to be a weapon, what really counts is the government and how the corporation sees it best to comply with those regulations. Certain things that are deemed exports cannot be shared with â€œnon-US Persons,â€ so how might one secure that information yet still allow some to see it, and all to see whatever other bits are not restricted? There is also the issue of certain blacklisted countries that cannot have access to even something that has an export license, and the internet generally makes it difficult to determine where any interested individuals are from if they hit our GitHub.com page.

For a third point, we do have some volunteers who do not wish to share some or all of the details of their work and that is their right, which is addressed in our IP policy. That work is shared with AMSAT to use in any projects we have, but AMSAT cannot share it, and rightfully so. Do we then have to exclude any volunteers, no matter their capability or desire, if they do not wish to make all that they do open-source? That may be easily dismissed as it has been in some arguments I have seen, but it is an interesting contrast to our current policy that lets anyone participate, whether or not you wish your work to be open-source. In the specific terms of that argument, what we do now is certainly inclusive of all volunteers.

My fourth point in this exploration of the suitability of open-source is something that probably comes only from experience as a volunteer in our all-volunteer organization. It is my understanding that the point of opensource is to allow creativity and input from a larger number of volunteers with the ultimate outcome of essentially, â€œbuilding better satellites, faster.” In that, I see a situation that we encounter all of the time and for all of the 6+ years I have been VPE.

With any new project, many wish to contribute their ideas in the design and execution of the project, and that is of course a good thing, to some extent. It does present some challenges in areas such as involving numbers of individuals in discussion and demonstration of ideas through documents or prototypes, even existing widgets. I wonder how that would be structured to play out in a reasonable timeframe without the time creep that inevitably comes with lots of individuals pitching lots of ideas.

Also, a pattern of unbridled enthusiasm appears at the start of something new that tends to die rapidly once ideas are pitched and production of those ideas begins. Many are not quite as willing to spend further time making the idea a reality, properly so in some cases, but unfortunately somewhat easily passed on as â€œand somebody can build it.â€ If the originator goes silent as is often the case in terms of percentage (recall that this is said from experience), then whoever might have taken up the reins to start making the idea a reality is often put in a position of finding the need for changes in prototyping or further down with PDR and so forth. If they did not originate the idea, while they have done their part of open-source in making the prototype happen, the widget now relies on input from the originator or others in the open-source world to solve the issues found and advance the project.

This is where things get tougher, and while this exists to an extent in our current process, it is more easily solved because it is likely that the originator of the idea is the one pursuing their dream and therefore has the ability (as well as desire) to see it completed. What might be expected in an open-source execution of a project in this regard, if the ideas and designs come from those other than the â€œconstruction crewâ€ (for lack of a better term)? I do not necessarily doubt that people will not jump in on GitHub some of the time but you again have the situation of viable contribution if they are not intimately familiar with the stage of the development and willing to spend time with the team working on that widget to find a solution and move forward. Anything less creates delay, and, believe me, we can create that just fine already â€” and that is the nature of all volunteer projects.

My last thought for this article is that of who is in charge of such a project. Again, I have not contributed to any open-source projects other than AMSATâ€™s own, so I do not have any idea how they are organized in terms of responsibility. You have to have a boss and some sub-bosses I would think, else you wind up with chaos? At the very least, the systems engineering of any satellite project on GitHub as open-source would be a must and perhaps, a nightmare. That is one more of the items that would need discussion and clarification in consideration of â€œgoing open-sourceâ€ that has not been touched upon in the â€œon/off â€ arguments.

My point is not to list all of these things I think of, I simply believe that if there is any serious intent in the arguments regarding open-source I do not see a simple turnkey solution. Whether commercial (do they use open-source?) or amateur radio satellites, some processes are similar and some, perhaps many, are different because of the extreme difference between a paid workforce and a team of enthusiasts who share a common interest. I also do not expect that the arguments being made are with a full understanding of how AMSAT does satellites.

In my tenure, we have seen opportunities and ideas come out from our Engineering Team that can be at least related to open-source, such as standardizing on KiCad. This was an idea put forth and convincingly shown through documentation and use as a great idea, and it is, by a couple of kids who designed and built the Fox-1 MPPT as well as keeping me up late at night for â€œ10 PM Pacific Timeâ€ meetings about the MPPT. Bryce and Brent Salmi were all in and one would regularly call or we would meet (canâ€™t remember which, they kinda start to look alike on GTM at 1 AM) which led to the suggestion. With some frustration from the variety of a few other â€œfreeâ€ versions of schematic software that had been used by whoever liked which best at the start of the Fox-1 project, they made the push for KiCad. They also turned me on to Kerbal Space Program through which I got my not-a-real Aerospace Engineer Degree usually after one of their calls since I was no longer sleepy.

I do not recall any suggestions about doing our work as open-source, perhaps it has been mentioned but there has been no momentum behind it, so one might take that as an indication that the team is happy with what we have now (SVN complaints aside). Nonetheless, I do believe that I am 98.9% open-minded and the team might support that statement although most people usually only remember the 1.1% of the times I told them no. All of our satellites are testament though, since I neither designed nor created any of it (that I recall) and always give credit to our Engineering Team for their hard work. They are also my real teachers and tutors by which I earned my status as a Real Engineer. (Who needs a piece of paper nobody sees anyway.) I appreciate your reading this with an open mind and ask you to consider the points not as a rejection of open-source, but as valid points of discussion in the consideration of implementing open-source in AMSAT Engineering. Next Journal issue: NDAs and open-source. Exciting!

November 12, 2020November 12, 2020

AmbaSat Inspired Sensors Project Kick-Off In December 2020

We are pleased to announce AmbaSat Inspired Sensors as a formal ORI project.

Please visit https://www.openresearch.institute/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Ambasat-Inspired-Custom-Sensors.pdf to read the proposal document.

Unboxing photographs of flight and lab hardware, with UV sensor included, can be seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/w5nyv/albums/72157716833127913

First work session expected December 2020 â€“ May 2021 centered at Villanova University. Principal Investigator is Dr. Alan Johnston.

November 11, 2020

Autumn Schedule

Open Research Institute will be open for the autumn and winter holidays with a reduced schedule through 6 January 2021.

October 30, 2020October 30, 2020

Happy Halloween!

October 24, 2020January 13, 2021

Remote Labs Equipment Review

Transcript of Introductory Remarks

Greetings all,

Welcome to the Open Research Institute Remote Labs Equipment Review.

Remote Labs are two physical lab benches. They have equipment for advanced digital communications design work. This equipment will be accessible online to anyone, anywhere that wants to work on open source amateur radio satellite service or open source amateur radio terrestrial engineering development.

The primary focus of the equipment list reviewed today is to support the design, verification, and test of the DVB family of links. DVB-S2, S2X, and T2 are all commonly found in amateur radio. DVB-S2X is the protocol family used by Phase 4 Ground and Space.

Remote Labs is a part of an extremely important process of re-establishing free and open international collaboration with groups such as AMSAT-DL, JAMSAT, and AMSAT-UK, and to increase and amplify collaboration with Libre Space and other open source groups. This is possible for ORI to do by using the open source carve-outs in the US export control regulatory framework. These controls have impeded international cooperation on amateur satellite work for a long time.

A significant amount of regulatory relief was achieved over the summer by ORI for amateur radio satellite work, and more work is going on right now to build upon this success. Please see the Open Research Website news section for more details on that. Today’s discussion is not about satellite technology, but about the equipment and resources required.

We are fortunate to have the advice and input of people that make a living by using remote labs at work. The advice received so far has been heard and acted upon. Python, HTML5 plus Javascript, and command line access will be the initial methods upon to provide secure access to the equipment.

We will not be writing or using a heavy or complex software framework for the Remote Lab. We will be authorizing and authenticating users. It is highly likely that we will use the same authentication and authorization approach that we intend to use for payload communications access, in order to get more experience with that design. In other words, you may be authenticated and authorized for Remote Labs the same way that you will be authenticated and authorized for the payload communications system.

We will definitely be documenting how to use the lab. We will be responsive to feedback about accessibility and ease of use.

There will be someone physically present at the Remote Labs. The equipment is not installed in racks at an unattended site. If a function needs on-site setup, or a test plan can only be done with someone physically at the bench, then that’s how the work will be done.

Remote Labs is offered as a community resource. Therefore, the review process must include community feedback. Thank you for your time here today to discuss and review the equipment list.

As an example, Thomas Parry has provided the following feedback.

1) The initial list had no power supply listed.

2) A computer controlled coax switch matrix would be very useful to control where the signals are going between test gear, DUT, etc. without physical intervention

3) Some form of general purpose digital/low frequency IO device like an analog discovery would be pretty useful for controlling things remotely

4) A way to get arbitrary RF in and out of the PC, ie. an SDR, would be very useful

5) And please remember cabling.

Wally Ritchie responded with an updated list that includes coax relays controlled from a USB relay board(s), and the other items.

Our practice will be validate and measure any cables we make in-house, buy, or obtain as surplus or donations.

I can answer your questions about budget, operation, and policy at the close of the review, or via email.

Please welcome Wally Ritchie who will lead todays Remote Labs Equipment Review.

October 15, 2020October 15, 2020

AMSAT Symposium 2020 Video Submission and Paper

Open Source Satellite Work Has Been Determined to be Free of ITAR by the US State Department.

Free and open international collaboration can be restored.

Commodity_Jurisdiction_Request_Final_Determination_Letter_Implementation_Guildelines_Paper Download

October 7, 2020October 7, 2020

FCC Comments Filed

Open Research Institute Comments on Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Mitigation of Orbital Debris in the New Space Age, IB Docket No. 18-313

September 20, 2020August 20, 2021

Executive Board Meeting Minutes September 2020

Attendees: Michelle Thompson, Karen Rucker, Ben Hilburn, Steve Conklin, Keith Wheeler
Date: 9/24/2020, 9 AM PT/10 AM MT

Approved minutes from last meeting in February – unanimous

Status on grants and fundraising:

Received grant money of $511,220,000 – deposited by Michelle at Wells Fargo
Took 14 months to obtain
Budget and proposal is still good
Actually 2 grants won in a single payment

3rd grant still in front of ARDC $140,000 (rent-a-geo)
Vision was to get more people to build microwave rx equipment for space

Board decided to hold on future fundraising efforts and concentrate on technical deliverables

Discussion of D&O insurance and legal considerations as a non-profit; might need to consider the legalities of having minor participants

Regulatory Updates:

ITAR/EAR:
Major win this summer with ITAR restrictions

Michelle has commissioned CCR for under EAR
Request board to authorize amount for commission and lawyers

Got a grant from ARDC to pay for CJ request (ITAR)

Ben made a motion to approve up to $10k for Dept of Commerce, Steve seconds, motion passes

Debris mitigation rules proposed to FCC
Rules will affect ORIâ€™s spacecraft and potentially up cost of rideshares
Michelle proposes that we should file a comment – will send drafts ASAP
Expectation that we will indemnify

Other:
Paid for a booth at hamcation in Florida in February 2021
Steve proposes a motion to withdraw and ask for a refund due to ongoing COVID-19 complications, Karen seconds, motion passes

The technical meeting for FPGA team went well

Discussion of ORI board membersâ€™ involvement in GR Con 2020

Michelle proposes discussion on how we can improve our code of conduct

Action Items:

Need to update participant policies to reflect final determination with ITAR

Michelle to look into transferring the website over

August 18, 2020January 13, 2021

CJ Determination: Open Source Satellite Work is Free of ITAR

CJ Determination: Open Source Satellite Work is Free of ITAR

The United States Department of State has ruled favorably on Open Research Institute’s commodity jurisdiction request, finding that specified “Information and Software for a Digital Microwave Broadband Communications System for Space and Terrestrial Amateur Radio Use” is definitely not subject to State Department jurisdiction under ITAR, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. This is an important step toward reducing the burden of regulations restricting international cooperation on amateur satellite projects, which have impeded engineering work by amateurs in the United States for decades.

Export regulations divide both technical information and actual hardware into three categories. The most heavily restricted technologies fall under ITAR, which is administered by the State Department. Technologies subject to more routine restrictions fall under EAR, the Export Administration Regulations, administered by the Department of Commerce. Technologies that are not subject to either set of regulations are not restricted for export.

On 20 February 2020, Open Research Institute (ORI) filed a Commodity Jurisdiction (CJ) Request with the US State Department, seeking to establish that key technologies for amateur radio are not subject to State Department jurisdiction. “Information and Software for a Digital Microwave Broadband Communications System for Space and Terrestrial Amateur Radio Use” was assigned the case number CJ0003120. On 11 August 2020, the case received a successful final determination: the technology is not subject to State Department jurisdiction. This is the best possible outcome of a CJ request.

The Final Determination letter can be found at
https://www.openresearch.institute/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/CJ-0003120-Final-Determination-Letter.pdf

Under this determination, the technologies are subject to the EAR. The next step is to submit a classification request to the Commerce Department. ORI anticipates that the Commerce Department will find that these technologies are unrestricted under the carve-out for open source in the EAR.

This work was accomplished by a team of dedicated and competent open source volunteers. The effort was initiated by Bruce Perens K6BP and lead by Michelle Thompson W5NYV.

Open Research Institute developed the ideas behind the Commodity Jurisdiction request, hired Thomsen and Burke LLP (https://t-b.com/) for expert legal advice, organized the revisions of the document, and invited organizations and individuals with amateur satellite service interests to join or support the request.

ORI thanks Libre Space Foundation and Dr. Daniel Estevez for providing their subject matter expertise and written testimony, and JAMSAT for helpful encouragement and support.

The legal costs were fully reimbursed with a generous grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC). See https://www.ampr.org/grants/grant-open-research-institute/.

ARDC and ORI share a vision of clearly establishing open source as the best and safest way to accomplish technical volunteer work in amateur radio. This final determination letter provides solid support for that vision. The determination enables the development of implementation guidelines that will allow free international collaboration.

This clears the path for a number of interesting projects facilitating new methods for terrestrial and satellite communications, opening the door to robust global digital amateur communications.

Questions and inquiries to ori at open research dot institute.

August 14, 2020August 23, 2020

P4XT (Phase One) Workshop Design Review

Learn about our work on the digital microwave broadband transponder for amateur radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXiWCgo10lg

All work is donated to the general public as open source.

This digital multiplexing transponder is a regenerative design, taking full advantage of a wide variety of cutting edge technology, intended for amateur radio use in space and terrestrial deployments.

This review focuses on decisions made for the prototype board set that implements the transmitter side of the payload.

Comment and critique welcome and encouraged.

June 30, 2020August 23, 2020

Floating Vivado License for FPGA Work Purchased – Will be Available for Community Use

Thanks to the generous support of Yasme Foundation, ARRL Foundation, and many individual Open Research Institute supporters, ORI has purchased a full floating Vivado license for FPGA work. This includes the System Generator for DSP.

We are testing a setup that will make team and community use of this license possible. This is a big step forward from our current situation and will greatly accelerate FGPA design and test.

The first step was setting up a license server at a donated data center. Many thanks to Nick KN6NK for offering the time, resources, and expertise to get this working.

The second step, being tested right now, is using GitHub as a directory service for adding users and keys.

The goal is for users of the license to be able to add themselves with minimal admin overhead while asserting some reasonable control over access.

GitHub provides a way for users to get public keys. The work required of us is to script user management and periodically sync key management.

Thank you to EJ Kreiner for helping test and refine this community asset. We anticipate being able to support as many amateur technical communities and projects as possible, to get the greatest possible use from the license.

Special thanks to ARRL and Yasme. We would not be able to afford this investment without their support.

June 10, 2020August 23, 2020

Yasme Foundation Generously Awards Grant to ORI

Yasme Foundation Generously Awards a $30,000 Grant to Support the Open Research Institute (ORI) Amateur Radio Satellite Service Research and Development Program

ORI, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to open source research and development in amateur radio, has been awarded a $30,000 grant from the Yasme Foundation. This grant completes the Phase 1 fundraising campaign and allows ORI’s communications prototype work for geosynchronous and interplanetary amateur radio satellites to proceed.

Combined with the ARRL Foundation’s recent maximum grant of $3,000, the $14,000 in proceeds from ORI’s successful Trans-Ionospheric electronic badge fundraiser, and many deeply appreciated individual donations, a total of $51,490 was raised for Phase 1 of the Digital Multiplex Transponder research and development program.

A project that will directly and immediately benefit from this work includes the Amateur Radio Exploration (AREx) project, brought to you by Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS).

AREx is devoted to designing and building amateur radio equipment for the Lunar Orbiting Platform Gateway project. This lunar orbiting station will have open source broadband microwave amateur equipment and affordable open source ground stations. AREx is not limited to Gateway, as there are many other opportunities under consideration that can re-use all of the work.

All work completed by ORI is made available to the general public at no cost.

The Yasme Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation organized to support scientific and educational projects related to amateur radio, including DXing (long distance communication) and the introduction and promotion of amateur radio in developing countries. Yasme supports various projects relating to amateur radio, with an emphasis on developing amateur radio in emerging countries and encouraging youth participation in amateur radio.

The Yasme Foundation makes supporting grants to individuals and organizations providing or creating useful services for the amateur radio community. Regardless of originality or novelty, Yasme supports these programs in order to further the development of amateur radio around the world.

The global perspective and commitment to authentic, accessible, and sustainable amateur radio training and experience puts Yasme Foundation into the rare category of organizations that provide true and broad public benefit.

Find out more about the Yasme Foundation here:
https://www.yasme.org/

ARISS is the home for AREx. ARISS can be found on the web at
https://www.ariss.org/

JAMSAT supports AREx and has partnered with ORI to work on the Gateway Ground Station, which also directly benefits from this grant. JAMSAT can be found on the web at
https://www.jamsat.or.jp

Open Research Institute supports AREx and open source amateur radio research & development, primarily microwave.

Find ORI on the web at
https://openresearch.institute

Documentation about the Phase 1 transponder program can be found on the ORI website at the following links:

Overview:
https://openresearch.institute/2019/09/27/open-research-institute-phase-4-space-grant-application-overview/

Technical proposal:
https://openresearch.institute/2020/01/10/p4xt-digital-multiplexing-transponder-project-program-proposal/

Phase 1 statement of work can be found at the summary document linked below.

Summary:
https://openresearch.institute/2020/02/21/summary-proposal-open-research-institute-phase-1-p4xt/

June 6, 2020August 23, 2020

Digital Multiplexing Transponder Workshop Guide and Link to Audio

DMT-workshop-mp3-guide

The document linked above is a Guide to navigating the Audio Recording of the P4XT Digital Multiplexing Transponder Workshop.

The workshop was held Sunday 9 February 2020 (3PM – 7PM) at Starter Studio’s Conference room in downtown Orlando, 4.5 milesÂ from the HamCation venue.

A full audio recording (330MB MP3) is available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/9k065i5kqj3i49w/200209_1316.mp3?dl=0.

May 19, 2020August 23, 2020

American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Awards Grant to ORI

Good news!

American Radio Relay League (ARRL) has Generously Awarded a $3,000 Grant to Support the Open Research Institute (ORI) Amateur Radio Satellite Service Research and Development Program

ORI, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to open source research and development in amateur radio, has been awarded a $3,000 grant from the ARRL Foundation. This grant, the maximum amount, will be immediately applied to Phase 1 of the Digital Multiplex Transponder research and development program. This grant allows hardware prototypes for broadband microwave digital payloads to proceed much more quickly. All work completed by ORI is made available to the general public at no cost.

A project that will directly and immediately benefit from this work is the Amateur Radio Exploration (AREx) project, brought to you by Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). ARISS is a project sponsored by the Amateur Radio Satellite Corporation (AMSAT).

Documentation about the transponder program that this award supports can be found on the ORI website at the following links.

Overview:
https://openresearch.institute/2019/09/27/open-research-institute-phase-4-space-grant-application-overview/

Technical proposal:
https://openresearch.institute/2020/01/10/p4xt-digital-multiplexing-transponder-project-program-proposal/

Phase 1 statement of work can be found at the summary document linked below.

Summary:
https://openresearch.institute/2020/02/21/summary-proposal-open-research-institute-phase-1-p4xt/

Established in 1973 by the American Radio Relay League, Inc. (ARRL) as an independent and separate 501(c)(3) organization, the ARRL Foundation administers programs to support the Amateur Radio community.

Funded entirely by the generous contributions of radio amateurs and friends, ARRL Foundation administers programs for Amateur Radio award scholarships for higher education, award grants for Amateur Radio projects, and award special Amateur Radio program grants for The Victor C. Clark Youth Incentive Program and The Jesse A. Bieberman Meritorious Membership Program.

Find out more about the ARRL Foundation here: http://www.arrl.org/the-arrl-foundation

Here are some of the organizations that will appreciate your time, energy, effort, and enthusiasm.

ARISS is the home for AREx. ARISS can be found on the web at
https://www.ariss.org/

AMSAT North American is the home for ARISS. AMSAT is active in AREx in multiple roles and can be found on the web at
https://amsat.org

JAMSAT supports AREx and has partnered with ORI to work on the Gateway Ground Station. JAMSAT can be found on the web at
https://www.jamsat.or.jp

Open Research Institute supports AREx and open source amateur radio research & development, primarily microwave.

Find ORI on the web at
https://openresearch.institute

April 19, 2020August 23, 2020

Current Brochure Available Now

Updated for May 2020! Click the link below to download the PDF. Thank you to all our supporters and donors.

ORI-flyer-May-2020-inner

March 4, 2020August 23, 2020

One Year Anniversary of Open Research Institute 501(c)(3)

March 6th is Open Research Institute’s 501(c)(3) anniversary. As it’s our first birthday, we are going to celebrate!

ORI is incorporated in California, USA. There are a lot of statistics available for CA non-profits from https://calnonprofits.org/ which is an organization that provides support to directors and officers and the general public about the non-profit landscape. Here’s the highlights from their recent report that are relevant to what we are doing, followed by how we fit in and where we can go next.

There are 27,317 nonprofits with paid staff in California, and another 65,250 (70%) that are all-volunteer organizations, for a total of 92,567 active nonprofits.

We are all volunteer, with no paid staff, so that puts us into the larger of the two categories.

11.7% of non-profits are categorized as “public benefit”, which is what we do and is how we are set up. Specifically, we are a scientific and technology research institute. We’re part of a very small group of non-profits that fall into the public benefit category. Definition in the paragraph below:

“In this report, three common nonprofit organizational classifications (mutual benefit, public societal benefit, and otherwise uncategorized nonprofits) have been merged to create this category. Organizations include those working with civil rights and community development, advocacy groups, neighborhood associations, business leagues, civic and service clubs, science and technology organizations, credit unions, and public grantmaking foundations.”

So, how many other non-profits are like us? I don’t know yet, but I’m asking calnonprofits.org how to find out! Maybe we could all help each other better if we knew about each other and what we were doing.

California nonprofits employ a significantly higher percentage of women and a slightly higher percentage of people of color than the overall civilian workforce.

Contrary to common perception, the largest sources of nonprofit revenue are fees for service and government grants and contracts. We are different here, since 100% of our revenue to date is individual donations. We now have $18,875. I’m working as hard as I can to grow our finances.

Volunteerism in CA has undergone some changes since 2014, the last time that this particular study was completed. The percentage of adult volunteers has risen slightly, from 24% to 25%, but the number of hours per volunteer is down by 25%. What are the underlying reasons for this? Volunteerism is difficult when it’s crowded out by so many other demands on time. Activity in organizations and associations has been in decline since the 1950s. There’s whole books written about the theories as to why.

A lot of what we do requires skills that are earned through years of education, training, workplace, self-training, or avocational effort. While our mission is to demystify and make accessible advanced engineering concepts, we don’t dumb it down. We break it down. Regardless, it’s still hard work and requires real commitment and a willingness to fail along the way. That’s a lot to ask of volunteers, but our community has delivered. The number of hours donated to the effort is deeply appreciated, especially given the context of the statistics in this particular and admittedly geographically limited report. California trends don’t necessarily mirror the rest of the world, but I do hear a lot of the same sort of thing from a wide variety of volunteer driven organizations. Everyone seems to be doing more with less and under harder conditions.

That’s why it’s so important to make it easy to volunteer, reduce as many risks as possible from regulatory and legal points of view, and take on things worth doing that are ambitious and rewarding. We have done our best to do exactly this – especially over the past year! We have written clear developer and participant policies, we have a code of conduct, and we filed a Commodity Jurisdiction request to clarify how we fit into ITAR and EAR. Our technical progress has been steady and we are at the point where we can build functional prototypes.

If you have feedback or suggestions on how we have chosen to support, protect, and enable volunteers then please share.

The report states that non-profits with large budgets have more access to government funding and rely on it as a significant source of revenue. The findings suggest that non-profits can not “grow large” without government funding. There is a big difference between small non-profits, like us, and larger non-profits, like many healthcare organizations. Healthcare is by far the largest category of non-profits in CA, and they get their money from different places.

How big do we need to be to succeed? Do we have to go after government money to achieve that goal, given the realities of other non-profits?

Foundations were not the focus of the study, but the report talks about them for several reasons. First, CA is a net exporter of foundation grant money, and the report lists the top 25 foundations. The total assets of all ~7,000 CA foundations are $137.5 billion and they gave away a total of $9.5 billion. These numbers are for 2019. The single largest foundation is Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which gave away nearly a billion dollars *alone*. San Francisco is far and away the hot spot in CA in terms of foundation dollars generated and many other categories in the study.

For 90% of nonprofits, foundation funds represent 50% or less of their revenue. For the “bottom” 50% of non-profits, foundations fund less than 10% of revenue. Only 5% of non-profits get more than 75% of their revenue from foundations. The perception that foundations fund non-profits is widespread, but the statistics in CA do not bear that out. Where is all the foundation money going? Like we see with a lot of other resource allocation patterns, most of the money goes to a few organizations.

What does all of this mean for us going forward?

If we can’t raise additional funds for the *products* that we want to build, then those things won’t happen. The financial needs are greater for the open source payload part than ground. However, without a payload or groundsat, the ground station design simply doesn’t work. We have a product envisioned. It’s the right time to step up and deliver. This the “development” part of “research and development”.

Yes, we’ve done very well building ORI from scratch and raising significant amount of money in a short amount of time. We’ve also had fun in the process, with very successful outreach events and the Trans-Ionospheric badges.

Fundraising was not at all what I thought I would be doing when I agreed to come aboard as a technical volunteer for Round Two of “build a GEO for amateur radio” several years ago, but addressing it like any other challenge, building a team, and tackling it with optimism and a willingness to learn has had good results.

Other organizations related to us generate revenue in other ways. It’s important to talk about what those strategies are and whether we should adopt the same methods. For example, a lot of amateur radio technical and advocacy organizations have member fees and generate income that way. We don’t do this, and have not since the very beginning of ORI, for several reasons.

First, the amount of time required to manage and account for paid memberships is non-trivial.

Second, paid members have expectations that must be met. Members expect services that must be delivered. We are not a member service organization, we’re a research institute. Our “members” are projects, and the expectation is that we help with scientific and technical goals. Member services, newsletters, trinkets, swag, books, producing social events, contests, and conferences are wonderful things that we love to see happen. ORI doesn’t *regularly* do those things because scientific and technical work is the very firm focus. This doesn’t mean we won’t have a conference, if it serves the research institute mission. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have a t-shirt, another badge project, or a newsletter, if that serves the research institute mission. The functions and benefits of a membership organization were what I thought we would be getting when the Phase 4 Ground project was part of AMSAT-NA. Now that we are a Member Society of AMSAT, over time, we should start seeing support, promotion, and cooperation. We are also associated with Open Source Initiative as a Member Affiliate of OSI.

Third, I believe that ORI must remain open to all, without the “us” and “them” that often arises when memberships are purchased. Individuals are “members” of ORI as soon as they show up and participate in the community at any level. There is no process of “joining”. Associate Membership, the only explicit membership status, is free for the asking and will stay that way. The way we’re organized and the practice of radical inclusion should be very familiar to anyone looking at open source technical projects and how they are commonly structured.

This structure (completely open, collaborative flat leadership structure, no membership dues) is common and highly effective, but it also opens us up to significant risks. Burnout of leaders, no easily distributed tokens or artifacts of membership to build pack bonding or loyalty, we give up “easy” financial income, and the repercussions of the intermittent nature of volunteering. These are the facts on the ground and we do whatever it takes to deal with them.

If we converted to a membership organization, we would gain some reliable revenue, but would give up a large part of what makes us extremely successful, adaptable, agile, and accessible. We’re here to supercharge organizations that don’t have a pure technical focus. Over time, I expect organizations that benefit from our work to help us in places where we need assistance, such as fundraising, marketing, promotion, and publishing.

Research and Development will always be a sink for money and will always be higher risk than delivering customary or traditional member services. Research and Development needs fearless funding.

In our first year, we have applied for several grants that would financially support the first phase of the transponder build. The foundations approached are in the amateur radio space and their values and conditions seem to align almost perfectly with us. You can read the proposal documents on the website.

We have early indications of valuable in-kind contributions from companies that want us to succeed. We have excellent relationships with universities and engineering firms. We’ve made a dramatic contribution to testing the regulatory process as well as enumerating ambitious yet achievable technical goals. We have the ingredients for success. Our second year will be as crucial as the first in terms of deciding our long-term trajectory.

Thank you all for a fantastic first year!

-Michelle W5NYV

February 21, 2020

Summary Proposal – Open Research Institute Phase 1 P4XT

Summary Proposal Open Research Institute Phase 1 P4XT

February 20, 2020August 23, 2020

Google Summer of Code 2020 Application Results

Today is the day for Google Summer of Code “Accepted Organizations”, and I got the extremely kindly written rejection notice for Open Research Institute’s application a few minutes ago. There are a *lot* more organizations applying than spots, this was our first year, and we will 100% try again.

Also, there are also designated “umbrella” groups that we can potentially move underneath and still participate. I’m going to reach out and see if we can’t get that rolling! If you know of one that would be a good match, let me know.

This is the first year applying, and it resulted in the creation of a much more publicly accessible list of project content than we had with the task board on GitHub.

So, we are going to fully use this list and tackle all the jobs! The content will go straight over the The Ham Calling, a new site designed specifically for connecting high-tech ham work with high-tech hams!

Here’s the current lineup:
https://openresearch.institute/google-summer-of-code-2020/

I’m writing up an article for the Journal as well.

What other projects do you think should be added? This list best serves as a “base” of potential work to advance the radio arts in the community.

Thank you very much to those that volunteered to be mentors! Several of you volunteered to be mentors for the first time, ever. That is a big step and greatly appreciated.

In several cases, hams contacted me with anxiety over being “technical enough” to mentor students. Yes, some of these projects are complex, but mentorship is much much more than being able to answer a student’s technical questions. Being supported while taking risks, learning about amateur satellite operation, learning about the amateur “code”, and how to fail and start over or roll back to what most recently worked – these are foundational things.

Encouragement and steady support are, in the long run, of greater value than being able to substitute in for a Wikipedia article on FEC.

Next year, assuming things continue to improve, TAPR, AMSAT, and ARRL will all apply to be mentoring organizations along with ORI and GNU Radio and others. Amateur radio is uniquely qualified to serve a meaningful and significant role in open source technical advancement, and I cannot wait to see the future results.

-Michelle W5NYV

February 19, 2020

Executive Board Meeting Minutes September 2019

ORI-BoD-2019-Minutes

February 19, 2020

Executive Board Meeting Minutes September 2018

ORI-BoD-2018-Minutes

February 14, 2020August 23, 2020

Open Research Institute Sponsors GNU Radio Conference

Open Research Institute is proud to be a logistics sponsor for GNU Radio Conference 2020. It is an honor to serve the GNU Radio community and provide critical support for this premier event.

GNU Radio is an open source digital signal processing framework for software-defined radio. Used across the government, academia, industry, and by hobbyists and researchers worldwide, GNU Radio Conference 2020 will focus on speed, performance, and latency.

https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon20/

Tucson Amateur Packet Radio will hold their Digital Communications Conference the weekend immediately before GNU Radio Conference at the same venue. This is a highlight of the year for amateur radio digital communications theory and practice.

https://tapr.org/dcc.html

Come enjoy one or both conferences with minimal difficulty and no additional travel!

Open Research Institute is a non-profit 501(c)(3) research and development organization which provides all of its work to the general public under the principles of Open Source and Open Access to Research.

https://openresearch.institute/

TAPR is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization of amateur radio (“ham”) operators who are interested in advancing the state of the radio art. The initials stand for “Tucson Amateur Packet Radio” but today the organization is much broader than that: we long ago became an international organization, and while we still support packet radio our areas of interest have expanded to include software defined radio, advanced digital modulation methods, and precise time and frequency measurement.

TAPR’s main activities are education and knowledge sharing through conferences, publications, and Internet resources; and research, development, and sales of unique products that assist amateurs and other experimenters. TAPR strongly endorses technology sharing, and in 2007 released one of the first licenses designed for open hardware projects, the TAPR Open Hardware License. With rare exceptions, all hardware and software developed with TAPR support is licensed under open source or open hardware terms.

https://tapr.org/

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Renaissance Charlotte Suites Hotel
11-13 September TAPR DCC
14-18 GNU Radio Conference

Charlotte, South Carolina is the epicenter for technology and finance in the southeastern US – and as such, is blessed with many attractions and a breathtaking skyline.

Find out more to do in Charlotte at
https://www.charlottesgotalot.com/

January 10, 2020August 23, 2020

P4XT Digital Multiplexing Transponder Project Program Proposal

Greetings all,

This is our P4XT Digital Multiplexing Transponder Project Program Proposal. It’s the result of multiple revisions and a lot of work.

We recognize Wally Ritchie WU1Y for taking on the majority of the writing duties. He has crafted quality work from a wide variety of input, commentary, argument, and critique. He has clarified our intentions and ambitions into a quality proposal.

It is ready for publication and distribution.

Current version can be found at:
p4xt_proposal

January 7, 2020August 23, 2020

Invitation – Digital Multiplexing Transponder Working Meeting at HamCation 2020

Open Research Institute is planning a working project kickoff session for the P4XT Digital Multiplexing Transponder Project, and you are invited!

This will be a half-day session to be held just after the closing of HamCation in Orlando on Sunday afternoon, February 9, 2020.

The goal of the P4XT project is to produce open source Digital Multiplexing Transponders (DMTs) for the Amateur Radio Service Microwave Bands, including fully tested and verified hardware, hardware descriptive language, and firmware. These DMTs will be suitable for deployment in Geostationary Orbit.

This will be a working session by the participants. The first half of the session will be technical. The second half will focus on project planning and budget issues.

During the HamCation, there will be a public one-hour high-level presentation of the project. There will also be another one hour presentation by ORI on GEO amateur satellites and a presentation about open source projects across amateur radio.

The written project proposal and the agenda for the meeting will be published in advance of the session.

The session will be held near the HamCation venue. The session will be from 3PM – 7PM on Sunday, February 9, 2020.

3PM – 3:30 PM will be a meet and greet. The formal agenda will be 3:30PM – 7PM.

As this is a working session, attendance is limited. It is not intended to be an open public event but rather a working session of key potential contributors and advisors. Therefore, an RSVP is required.

RSVP to w5nyv@arrl.net or 858 229 3399 (leave a message, texts are welcome)

We will hold this session in accordance with Open Research Institute Developer and Participant Policies. These can be found at https://openresearch.institute/developer-and-participant-policies/

See you there!

-Michelle Thompson W5NYV

December 20, 2019August 23, 2020

Open Research Institute ITAR/EAR policy work – 2019 Update

Open Research Institute has a significant update to our ongoing amateur radio satellite communications policy work. This letter describes the work and includes a request for assistance.

The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) are two United States export control laws that affect the manufacturing, sales and distribution of technology.

Open Research Institute (ORI) operates using the public domain carve-outs in ITAR and EAR.

Our current policy is documented on our website. Here’s the direct links:
https://openresearch.institute/itar-and-ear-strategy/ and https://openresearch.institute/developer-and-participant-policies/

We believe these policies are sufficient.

However,

1) Some potential funding sources want to see a formal legal opinion.

2) Some organizations have made allegations that everything we do is illegal (and unethical, fattening, stupid, etc.).

Our choices were to continue insisting we are right, or to be effective.

I chose to be effective.

Therefore, in July 2019 Bruce Perens went out and found several law firms that were aligned with our goals and values. We selected one recommended by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and began work.

After the first round of conversation in August 2019, we had decided to 1) pay for a formal legal opinion and 2) apply for EAR certification with the US Department of Commerce. This would certify that the open source work we were doing was A-ok with the US government.

There was a delay in beginning this work. I stepped up to lead the effort and initiated another round of conversation with the law firm.

This second round of conversation refined the goal.

My highest priority is ensuring risk reduction to our amazing volunteers. The open source and public domain carve outs deliver enormous risk reduction and offer wonderful international opportunities for meaningful collaboration. But, just like with proprietary ITAR/EAR work, you have to know what you’re doing in order to unlock all the benefits.

A formal legal opinion was still desired and will be obtained. That has not changed. But, instead of going for EAR Certification, which we considered to be an easier application process, we decided we would go for the top tier, and apply for ITAR Commodity Jurisdiction from the US Department of State.

If successful, then this finding solves EAR certification and also better defines a relationship with the Department of Defense, which is the third major entity involved in regulating the amateur radio satellite work we are doing. A Commodity Jurisdiction is widely considered to be the gold standard for work related to ITAR.

ORI is asking that our programs of work be found explicitly *not* subject to ITAR.

This application is appropriately lengthy and complex. This effort is not without risk. Instead of just continuing to happily do what we’ve been doing, which we believe to be entirely legal and above-board, we are instead deliberately attracting attention, scrutiny, and judgement.

Why do this? Because others have not. The trinity of fear-uncertainty-doubt must be confronted and defeated. Open source is the way forward for amateur radio satellite work.

The cover letter from the law firm has been delivered to us. This cover letter contains the draft of the source material for the application. We also have a copy of ITAR Category XV (Spacecraft and Related Articles), DDTC CJ Determinations list (to study the list of successful applications) and a copy of the Commerce Control List.

We will review and if necessary revise the cover letter, until it accurately and completely represents our work. Then we will prepare our application and then we will file it.

Let’s talk about expenses. In August, we estimated the effort would cost $50,000. Current estimates, to get us up to the point of being able to apply, are much less than that at $5,000. I can pay for this.

ORI currently has $13,041 in the bank. These funds are intended for hardware development and boards, and not for legal. If the expenses end up exceeding my ability to pay, then I will ask for help. ORI hardware funds will not be diverted to cover legal costs.

What do we need?

There is a section in the application where supporting organizations can contribute supportive comments.

I ask all AMSAT organizations to seriously consider providing a statement of strong support for Open Research Institute’s Commodity Jurisdiction request. Describing the work that would be enabled by safe, sane, and legal legal open source collaboration would be of great benefit to this application.

I humbly ask ARRL, ARISS, Libre Space Foundation, and any other group that has an interest in this work to consider formally supporting this effort with a statement that can be included with the request.

Our law firm can provide some guidance on statements if necessary. We deeply appreciate any assistance provided.

Thank you all for the support, encouragement, comment, critique, questions, and motivation.

-Michelle Thompson W5NYV
w5nyv@arrl.net 858 229 3399

December 11, 2019August 23, 2020

Open Research Institute, Incorporated Comment on FCC Docket WT 19-348

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filing/1211716424260

November 7, 2019

Ambasat-inspired Custom Sensors for Amateur Radio

Ambasat-Inspired-Custom-Sensors

September 28, 2019August 23, 2020

Open Research Institute – Phase 4 Space Rent-a-GEO

Here is our grant proposal for Rent-a-GEO. The intended audience for this proposal is ARDC, ARRL, and FEMA.

Rent-a-GEO-Phase-4-Space

This project provides a way for amateur radio operators to communicate through a geosynchronous satellite over the continental US, parts of Canada, and parts of Mexico.

There are two main purposes served by this communications project. First is enhanced emergency communications support from amateur radio. Second is research and development of open source hardware that implements advanced digital communications functions.

Functions include field-configurable polyphase filterbank channelizers, queueing and multiplexing functions, digital signal processing, open source implementations of current communications protocols, and geosynchronous satellite communications best practices.

September 27, 2019August 23, 2020

Open Research Institute – Phase 4 Space – Grant Application – Overview

Here is the overview document submitted to ARDC, at their invitation, on 22 August 2019 for the Open Research Institute Phase 4 Space project.

This project unites the global amateur radio community with an advanced microwave digital satellite system. Four geosynchronous amateur radio payloads, and four flight spares, are the product of the work that would be funded by this grant. All work is open source and open access and in full compliance with all developer and participant policies. Satellites to be placed 90 degrees apart for global coverage. All amateur satellite and amateur radio organizations will be invited to fully participate.

Detailed documentation of the communications payload development process is under review and will be published as soon as the review process is complete.

Open_Research_Institute_Phase_4_Space

August 18, 2019

Open Research Institute DEFCON 27 Financial Report

Open Research Institute DEFCON 27 Report

August 3, 2019August 23, 2020

FPGA iCEBreaker Workshop – digital communications for amateur satellites

Greetings all!

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are one of three fundamental types of digital architectures used for communications R&D.

The others are general purpose processors and graphical processing units (GPUs).

This fall, in San Diego, California, there will be an FPGA course sponsored by Open Research Institute. There are 10 spots with amateur communications as the focus of the work.

FPGAs are a primary technology in satellite communications. They’re used in R&D and in deployment. It is difficult to get started with FPGA design for several reasons. The tools have traditionally been proprietary. The companies that make the tools price them for large corporations to buy. Coursework for FPGA design is rare.

This is where iCEBreaker makes a difference.

An iCEBreaker Workshop 10 pack has been made available. They are described at this link https://www.crowdsupply.com/1bitsquared/icebreaker-fpga

I will use this hardware to put on a course for anyone interested in amateur radio satellite and terrestrial development. All course materials will be published.

The first course will be in San Diego. If you’re in the area, please get in touch! MakerPlace and CoLab are the likely sites.

Later workshops could be at places like Symposium, Xenia, or Hamcation. The full course cannot be accomplished in a day, but a workshop could get the basics across and provide a substantial boost to motivated amateur satellite engineering volunteers. Let me know what you think.

more soon!
-Michelle W5NYV

July 13, 2019August 23, 2020

Video Report – Trans-Ionospheric Badge Update

https://youtu.be/TgJ7m0OETMw

Badge report! Brag Tape, Radio Peripheral update, and our ESP32 development board. It’s from hacker boxes and has a TFT display, programmable RGB LEDs, an SD card for storage, up down left right select user interface input, and some circuitry for charging a lithium ion battery. It’s a good platform for building up the executive function code for Phase 4 Ground radios.

What do we have working?

A high resolution display, SD card access, and bluetooth advertising that sends commands to the trans ionospheric badge.

ESP32 development can be done with the Arduino IDE, but this is very limited and hogs memory. For Phase 4 Ground we use the ESP IDF. This means command line, but Visual Studio Code works with some setup. This gives you context colors and build and run functions.

We highly recommend the ESP32 check it out at the links below. Our next report will be about multicast IP SDR work. See you then!

ESP32 info!

Overview:
https://www.espressif.com/en/products/hardware/esp32/overview

Programming Guide:
https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/

Trans-Ionospheric is a successful fundraiser for our open source amateur radio satellite communications work.

Thank you so much for the support! Buy one here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/123328684692

June 8, 2019August 23, 2020

Phase 4 Ground and Theseus Cores – Video Report

Phase 4 Ground has had some good results with the RFNoC polyphase filterbank from Theseus Cores. Here’s our update on this week’s work!

https://youtu.be/iR6CJCCg_mw

May 31, 2019August 23, 2020

$2,449.44 Donated to Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

Palomar Amateur Radio Club and Open Research InstituteÂ DonateÂ $2,449.44 to Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

Palomar Amateur Radio Club (PARC)Â was founded in February of 1936 and serves the San Diego, CA, USA amateur radio community. PARC hosts monthly membership meetingsÂ and hostsÂ several annual events.Â PARCÂ repeaterÂ systemÂ servesÂ individuals and groups and provides opportunities for recreation, emergency preparation, and technical experimentation.

http://palomararc.org/

Contact board@palomararc.org

https://openresearch.institute/

Contact Michelle Thompson w5nyv@arrl.net

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)Â lets students worldwide experience the excitement of talking directly with crew members of the International Space Station, inspiring them to pursue interests in careers in science, technology, engineering and math, and engaging them with radio science technology through amateur radio.

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students in classrooms or public forms. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities learn about space, space technologies, and amateur radio.

For more information, seeÂ www.ariss.org.

This donation is given to support theÂ Multi-Voltage Power Supply (MVPS). ARISSÂ needs toÂ replace the current aging ISS amateur radio station power supply.Â ARISSÂ has aÂ fund-raising campaignÂ throughout 2019Â to help with the expensive space-rated parts required to finish building the MVPS units.

Kerry Banke N6IZW has beenÂ a core volunteerÂ inÂ the effort to design, build, and testÂ theÂ flight, training, and spare models of the MVPS. Inspired by his commitment, expertise,Â andÂ mentoring throughout this project,Â individuals organized a fundraiserÂ throughÂ the Amateur Radio Satellite Service Facebook group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/amateurradiosatelliteservice

Palomar Amateur Radio Club agreed to be the 501(c)(3) of record. Open Research Institute handled logistics, publicity, and secured a corporate match from Qualcomm Incorporated.

TheÂ $2,449.44Â donation was made to ARISS from PARC on 28 May 2019.Â

A substantial amount of additional fundingÂ isÂ needed to replace the amateur radio power supplies on theÂ ISS.Â This donation is a small part of aÂ muchÂ largerÂ effort to keep amateur radio in space, upgrade and update equipmentÂ on the space station, and promote peaceful international cooperation and the unparalleled educational opportunitiesÂ enabled by ARISS.

May 11, 2019

Phase 4 Ground Video Report 10 May 2019

Got two minutes? Then we have a Phase 4 Ground video report for you! :+)

April 10, 2019August 23, 2020

March 2019 Report: JAMSAT Symposium, Phase 4 Ground, and GNU Radio Companion Localization!

Phase 4 Ground and GNU Radio

My daughter Geneva and I had a wonderful time at JAMSAT Symposium in March 2019! There was a wide variety of talks about so many different payloads, a very special banquet dinner, adventures in Kyoto and Osaka, visits to ham radio stores, getting to see a new ICOM radio up close, lots of Pokemon, a Fire Festival, and making so many new friends. We were welcomed and will never forget the hospitality. A big part of Symposium was the GNU Radio Workshop by Imamura-san. It was an honor to share how we on Phase 4 Ground use GNU Radio in our presentation on Sunday morning.

GNU Radio is a digital signal processing framework for software-defined radio. It’s the software that tells the hardware in your radio what to do. We need to be able to quickly and easily set up a software-defined radio to do whatever modulation and coding we want, and GNU Radio Companion can help us do this. GNU Radio Companion is a Graphical User Interface that allows us to drag and drop functions onto a canvas. We click block outputs to connect to block inputs. When we do this, it creates a directed graph that implements radio functions. The signals flow from beginning to end. Each block modifies the signal, as if it was part of a circuit. The flow graph looks something like a block diagram combined with a software flowchart. GNU Radio has software variables. It can adapt to signal conditions and user input.

The workshop was held after the last talk on Sunday. It was several hours of hands-on training. Participants brought their own computers, installed GNU Radio, and created useful radio flow graphs that worked with real hardware. Several experiments were done in order. Imamura-san kept everything organized through a set of projected slides that had clear instructions. Optimizations and customizations were made so that participants could see how they can use GNU Radio to achieve their goals. The hardware included RTL-SDRs and Plutos. Imamura-san also demonstrated a live video transmission from the podium.

GNU Radio comes with a very large number blocks included. When you install GNU Radio, these blocks come for free! The first type of block is a source block. This brings the digital samples, from the radio hardware attached to the computer, into the GNU Radio flow graph. The second type of block is a sink block, which consumes signals. Sink blocks include things like saving a signal to disk, an audio output, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, time sequences, or video. In between the sources and the sinks are all the radio functions that we need to make our radios work. Filters, amplifiers, decoders, demodulators, counters, constellations, costas loops, synchronizers, and more! You can make your own custom blocks or modify an existing block.

If you install GNU Radio using PYBOMBs, then you can add additional blocks from outside GNU Radio very easily. PYBOMBS works on Linux.

One of the most useful GNU Radio Recipes for our community is gr-satellites, by Dr. Daniel EstÃ©vez. There are a lot of satellites supported in this module. For an introduction, please see the source code repository here: https://github.com/daniestevez/gr-satellites.

The introduction also covers how to submit telemetry to the projects that have requested this.

Other great open source satellite communications projects include Dan Cajacob’s base station network, Alexandru Csete’s gqrx and gpredict programs, Libre Space Foundation’s SatNOGs (satellite network on the ground) with RTL-SDR and GNU Radio, and PE4WJ Es’Hail2 (QO-100) uplink, beacon tracker and LNB drift correction flowgraphs.

Phase 4 Ground is a broadband digital microwave system for both terrestrial and space use. It complies with both ITAR and EAR open source and public domain carve-outs, so it’s open to participation worldwide. All engineering is published as it’s created. All are welcome to participate.

Phase 4 Ground is best suited for GEO and HEO satellite missions. The uplink is frequency division multiple access. We use a 5GHz uplink. The regenerative repeater payload receives the uplink signals, digitizes them, multiplexes them, and processes them into DVB-S2 and DVB-S2X frames. The downlink is 10GHz. DVB-S2 is Digital Video Broadcasting Satellite 2nd edition. The X stands for extensions down in to Very Low SNR modulation and codings. Very Low SNR is of interest to hams, so we include the extension to the main standard DVB-S2.

We use both pilots and short frame lengths in order to make the receiver implementation as easy as possible. Pilot tones are optional, and there are medium and long frames available in the standard.

There is a recommended order to receive DVB-S2/X frames. The first stage of the demodulator is symbol timing recovery. We have to figure out the best possible time to measure the received signal. We don?t know what the transmitter clock is doing! We will not be coordinated with it. We may even be off a bit in terms of the period of the clocks, or we might have jitter, or we might have drift. We have to analyze the received waveform and synchronize our receiver clock to the transmitter clock that is ?hidden? in the received signal. Then, once we are synchronized, we sample that symbol and report the results. Doing this gives us a reliable value for the received symbol. Now that we have a series of received symbols, we have to figure out the start of the frame. This is done in DVB-S2 (and many other protocols) by sending a fixed well-known pattern at the start of every frame. For DVB-S2, this is called a Physical Layer Start of Frame sequence. It?s 26 symbols long. This is what we look for. Once we see it, we know where the start of the frame is! Frame synchronization can be done in several ways. There are two different methods described in the implementation guidelines for DVB-S2/X. One is relatively simple, using shift registers. The other is bit more complex, using state machines. There are advantages to using the state machine method, but it?s more complicated and expensive. The shift registers is simple and cheap, but gives up a bit of performance. This is the constant balance in digital communications. Performance comes at a cost!

Right after frame synchronization, we correct for carrier frequency error. First we do a coarse correction. This can be done with a delay-and-multiply frequency error detector. Then we do a fine correction. This can be done with something like a feed-forward estimation algorithm. Coarse correction is in the MHz, and fine correction is the hundreds of kHz.

Next, we do phase recovery. This is to fix any residual frequency offset from the coarse and fine frequency offsets. Phase 4 Ground will support all the modulation and codings of DVB-S2/X, but we expect lower order modulations to be more heavily used. This means that a pilot-assisted maximum-likelihood (ML) feed-forward estimator will be the most useful. If you compute the average phase of each pilot field, then you can subtract this out and improve the signal. Higher-order modulations will need another feedback loop.

Automatic gain control is next. AGC can be done in many ways. One way to do it depends on the pilot symbols in DVB-S2/X standard. These symbols are sent at regular intervals to provide a known easy-to-receive signal. We use these known pilot symbols in order to determine the amplitude multiplication factor for the rest of the signal. Pilot symbols are optional in the DVB standard, but Phase 4 Ground requires them. When the pilot symbols are on, the AGC is listening. When the pilot symbols are off, the AGC turns off, and the information from the AGC is used.

After AGC, the constellation is decoded. DVB-S2 has a lot of them! There are many techniques to get the bits from the constellations. GNU Radio has a very versatile and powerful constellation block.

Instead of the usual MPEG transport stream (DVB-S2 is for satellite TV, so the content is usually broadcast television signals), we use the more flexible Generic Stream Encapsulation standard from DVB.org. This means we have less overhead and complexity, and can handle any digital traffic that the amateur operator wants to transmit. It?s just a digital pipe.

Phase 4 Ground uses GNU Radio extensively in research and development as well as for archiving and publishing our work. GNU Radio is not just a tool to figure things out, but is also a way to define a reference design for the radio.

Because Phase 4 Ground is not a bent pipe, the payload is more complex. This complexity needs to be fully tested on the ground before risking large digital circuits in space.
All the uplink channels are received with a polyphase filter bank. The current polyphase filter bank implementation in GNU Radio needs some updates in order to achieve the speeds and performance that we want. This is an active area of research and development. There have been three efforts over the past three years by various groups that have attempted to update and improve the existing working polyphase filter bank in GNU Radio.

Ron Economos and Paul Williamson successfully implemented GSE in GNU Radio and in Wireshark. This made it possible to do transport layer testing. Ron Economos is the lead author of the DVB blocks in GNU Radio. Improvements to GSE continue today. The current focus is improving internetworking functions so that large amounts of data can be more easily handled. We intend to use multicast IP as much as possible, and making sure GSE integrates well with multicast IP is important.

The error correction in DVB-S2/X is state of the art. There are not many other error correcting codes that are better than Low Density Parity Check + BCH. This is a concatenated digital code specified by the DVB standard for S2 and T2 transmissions. We have two open source implementations of LDPC decode for DVB-S2/X. The first one is for graphical processing units and was written by Charles Brain. It was demonstrated at 2017 AMSAT-NA Symposium and at several events following. The second open source implementation is in C by Ahmet Inan and can be found here: https://github.com/xdsopl/LDPC

This version has been incorporated into GNU Radio by Ron Economos. This can be found here: https://github.com/drmpeg/gr-dvbs2rx

The next step for LDPC is to implement and publish an open source version for FPGA.

GNU Radio is very important for our voice codec work, uplink modulation experiments, and trying out authentication and authorization schemes. GNU Radio allows us to use a wide variety of off the shelf hardware to achieve things that were not possible only a few short years ago. The GNU Radio community has been welcoming, helpful, supportive, friendly, and a source of continually amazing software-defined radio advancements.

GNU Radio has an annual conference. In 2018, we held a week-long “Block Party” for DVB-S2/X. We had fun, set up multiple demos, explained DVB-S2/X, made the case for open source LDPC, and made progress on DVB-S2 correlates and GSE. Phase 4 Ground made significant progress due to the generous support of the conference organizers and the community.

Learn more about the conference here: https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon19/

Registration for 2019 is open. The conference will be held September 16-20, 2019 in Huntsville, AL, USA. There is a poster session, proceedings, talks, workshops, contests, and social activities. The theme for 2019 is Space Communications! There are special gifts for space themed content. If you have a GNU Radio project that you want to share, consider making a presentation at or sending a poster to GNU Radio Conference 2019.

One of the proposals coming out of JAMSAT 2019 was localization of GNU Radio Companion for the Japanese language. Work has begun. The first step is to make sure that all Japanese characters can be displayed in GNU Radio Companion. This means going through the codebase and removing anything that prevents Japanese characters from being freely displayed. GNU Radio project leadership is very supportive of the project. We will do our best on this! We will need help reviewing and perfecting the language support in GNU Radio Companion.

The collaboration between Phase 4 Ground and JAMSAT has been absolutely stellar and we all look forward to continued enjoyment and success. Next generation payloads will be more complicated with multiplexing and advanced digital techniques. We all need to be able to work together, internationally. Open source and public domain is the best way. Phase 4 Ground and Open Research Institute are entirely dedicated to making this happen. We will be keeping the momentum and progress going. ORI is proud to be an affiliate member of Open Source Initiative https://opensource.org/

Join the Phase 4 Ground team! Our mailing list can be found at our website https://openresearch.institute/ Write Michelle Thompson w5nyv@arrl.net to join our Slack account. This is where daily engineering discussions take place.

More soon!
-W5NYV

February 24, 2019August 23, 2020

GNU Radio Conference 2019 – Call for All! – Submit your presentations, posters, papers, and more

Dear friends and fans of GNU Radio,

GNU Radio Conference celebrates and showcases the substantial and remarkable progress of the world’s best open source digital signal processing framework for software-defined radios. In addition to presenting GNU Radio’s vibrant theoretical and practical presence in academia, industry, the military, and among amateurs and hobbyists, GNU Radio Conference 2019 will have a very special focus.

Summer 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first humans on the Moon. GNU Radio Conference selected Huntsville, AL, USA as the site for GNU Radio Conference 2019 in order to highlight and celebrate space exploration, astronomical research, and communication.

Space communications are challenging and mission critical. Research and development from space exploration has had and continues to have far-reaching effect on our communications gear and protocols.

Please join us September 16-20, 2019 at the “Huntsville Marriott at the Space & Rocket Center” hotel for the best technical conference of the year.

Registration and an online and mobile-friendly schedule will be posted at the conference web site:
https://www.gnuradio.org/grcon/grcon19/

Call for All!

We invite developers and users from the GNU Radio Community to present your projects, presentations, papers, posters, and problems at GNU Radio Conference 2019. Submit your talks, demos, and code! Please share this Call for All with anyone you think needs to read it.

To submit your content for the conference, visit our dedicated conference submission site at:
https://openconf.org/GRCon19/openconf.php

If you have questions or need assistance with OpenConf, or have content that doesn’t quite fit and you want to talk it over, please write grcon@gnuradio.org

Topics may include but are not limited to:

Space (including ground stations)*
Radio astronomy
Atmospheric research
Theoretical work
Practical applications
Aviation
Biomedical
Citizen Science
Digital Signal Processing
Education
Interface
Machine Learning
Security
Transportation
Wireless security
Amateur radio

*special focus awards given to all accepted work with Space as a topic.