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I’ll use that as my definition of “digital mode” for the purposes of this article.īut even with that stricter definition, there is still a huge ecosystem of digital modes that have cropped up over the history of ham radio the desire for communications without the need to be a conversationalist goes way back, it seems. Banging out dits and dahs with a straight key is perhaps the original digital mode, if we stretch the meaning of the term just a wee bit from its current modern connotation of transmitting and receiving encoded messages using computers, either built into the radio or attached as a separate component. Welcome to the world of microphone-optional ham radio: weak-signal digital modes.įirst things first, let me make it clear that there are a ton of modes available to amateur radio service licensees that don’t require talking into a microphone, going right back to the beginning of radio with continuous wave (CW) modes. Exploring a few of the more popular ways to leverage the high-frequency (HF) bands and see what can be done on a limited budget, in terms of both cost of equipment as well as the amount of power used, is the focus of this installment of The $50 Ham. But just because that’s the way that most people exercise their ham radio privileges doesn’t mean it’s the only way. With that admittedly iffy analogy in mind, if you’re not the kind of person who would normally strike up a conversation with someone while shopping, you might think that you’d be a poor fit for amateur radio. And pretty much every conversation is about said carts, or about the grocery store itself. Except that the grocery store is the size of the planet, and everyone brings their own shopping cart, some of which are highly modified and really expensive. As it is generally practiced, ham radio is a little like going to the grocery store and striking up a conversation with everyone you bump into as you ply the aisles.