Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Grants Support Satellite, Propagation, Projects



Two recent foundation grants are helping to support ongoing projects in the fields of amateur radio satellites and propagation reporting. 

According to the ARRL Letter, the ARRL Foundation has donated $3,000 to the Open Research Institute, a group dedicated to open-source research and development in amateur radio. The grant will help speed development of hardware prototypes for broadband digital microwave satellite payloads.
 
In addition, the YASME Foundation is providing grants to national amateur radio organizations in Algeria and Tunisia for building Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) nodes in those countries and in Libya. The stations will be assembled by youth members of the two groups and will increase the presence of RBN reporting nodes in northern Africa. RBN receivers monitor CW, RTTY and FT8 signals on amateur bands and report callsigns and signal strength to an internet database, allowing hams around the world to know where their signals are being heard.