My name is Doug and I’ve been interested in radio and electronics since I was little. I listened to shortwave radio starting in junior high. In April 1985 I got my amateur radio license. I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada which means long, cold winters that are conducive to spending time in the radio room.
I was one of about fifty Canadian hams who obtained the “Amateur Digital Radio Operator’s Certificate”. At the time this was a newer class of license that allowed one to become licensed without any Morse code proficiency. This license gave full operating privileges on the amateur bands at 50 MHz and above.
The idea behind this new license was to foster experimentation with new digital modes of communications. Morse code proficiency was forgone and the emphasis was instead placed on advanced technical knowledge and in particular of digital communications techniques. I recall that an understanding of the ALOHA system (look that up) and it’s variants was a focus of the technical portion of the examination, among other things. In other regards the examination was equivalent to the that of the Advanced Amateur license class.
Privileges were granted on VHF bands and higher as they allowed for greater bandwidth than HF and were limited in their reach. Our local packet radio gang started with the AX.25 protocol over 1200 b/s VHF simplex and progressed to running the NOS software (by Phil Karn, KA9Q) at 9600 b/s on UHF using an old Harris repeater modified for a fast response time. We used Tek KS-900 radios for this connected to modified TNC-2 hardware that contained the 9600 b/s modems.
The NOS software gave us a TCP/IP stack and some basic applications (Telnet, FTP, SMTP) to run over it. At the time this was leading-edge stuff. Phil’s NOS software actually taught me TCP/IP and led me to my internet career which derailed me from ham radio for 25 years. There is some irony there. I did TCP/IP over the air before I ever did it on a wired circuit.
I understand that fewer than fifty of the amateur digital licenses were issued across Canada in all the years that it existed. It was eventually done away with (was that around 1995 or so? does anyone recall?) when the licensing rules were re-worked to allow for a different mechanism for no-code licenses.
In May 1992 I passed my 15 words per minute Morse code examination. With that endorsement added to my digital license I then had full privileges on all bands. By about 2000 I was out of the hobby altogether. Fast forward to the spring of 2022 when I decided it was time to get back into ham radio.
It’s good to be back.
73