Digital Operating in the Near Future (speculative)

Let's imagine a fictional scenario for the near future. It certainly doesn't exist today, may never exist as described, and yet something like it is probable.

You turn on your HF-VHF transceiver and computer, ready for some contacts using your favourite digital modes. It could be FT8, FT4, Q65 or another one yet to be invented. You point your yagi in the appropriate direction and monitoring begins. 

It's all software decoding, so all you do is select the band and channel, and digital mode(s). Even that may not be necessary with an SDR rig. To check propagation you can monitor or you can select the "ping" option and your station rattles off a series a brief transmissions on all selected bands, the software automatically collects reception data from other stations around the world. Of course this will favour the direction the yagi is pointing and the bands it supports. Alternatively, without transmitting at all, you can display a map of the same for stations near you. There is no need to add to the QRM.

Assume a fairly wide digital sub-band. This is to be expected since digital modes have become the most popular modes on HF, and the trend is likely to continue. The rig and computer software are tightly integrated, more so than today. The rig will be SDR, with all signals in the digital sub-band available all at once, possibly for more than one band at a time. Channelization due to the predominant current use of SSB modes will erode, and spectrum usage may come to resemble traditional modes, bound only by widely accepted conventions, and regulations where applicable.

Since you are effectively monitoring all digital activity on the band, and possibly more than one band, there is too much information for one operator to digest. It must be filtered. The software itself will be comfortable with decoding hundreds of signals, which is already possible with existing computer hardware capacity. It is truly impressive how easily today's processors can handle multiple concurrent FFT, digital filters and data base operations.

To limit the information deluge of wide bandwidth reception and decoding the operator needs filtering tools or features. Some already exist. These include inclusive or exclusive filtering by one or more of: region (continent, country, grid field, etc.), frequency range, call sign or prefix, signal strength, award requirements (country, grid, state/RDA, etc.), contest participants (or not) and certainly many more you can image. Custom filters will be supported. Labels (colour, flashing, etc.) are an alternative to exclusionary filters for those who want to see all stations without constantly changing the filters.

Imagine spinning a VFO knob and adjusting a bandwidth knob or software control and watching the list of decoded stations within that spectrum immediately appear on the screen. Since all signals are being decoded all the time there is no need to wait. Digital modes will be auto-detected. Indeed, you can do searches to see all the messages associated with a station, sorted by time and frequency. The data is already there due to the mass decoding performed by the software.

There will be alerting apps that allows an operator to be notified when a wanted station is heard. The alert can be local or remote, such as to a phone. This already exists, and we can expect it to improve.

Transmitting will also have supporting features, whether to CQ or to answer a particular station. The software can find a free frequency for your digital signal that is wide enough and that hasn't been used for a specified time. Time slots can be automatically selected when you set the target region or station you are calling, in accord with operating conventions. Mode will be set to that of the station being called.

Conventions may determine mapping between frequency ranges and digital modes, or you can override when necessary. Select sub-band or mode, and the other will be set accordingly.

Coexistence with non-digital modes will be easier than today. Features can be used to strictly enforce mode use by frequency. Restrictions can be loosened or overridden for contests, DXpeditions and other events when one mode is temporarily more popular and needs expanded bandwidth to fit the activity. Indeed, CW at least may be just one more mode supported by the rig and software since it is compatible with digital modes in most cases, including decoding and automated message transmission.

Although we can continue with this speculative exercise, let's end it here. The reality will eventually go much farther than I've described.

If you dislike or even despise digital modes, you may be aghast at what I've described. It isn't the amateur radio you and I grew up with. Technology makes it possible and the generational tide will bring it to fruition, no matter our personal opinions and operating tastes. It will happen, if not quite as I've described, and we need to think about it to coax the technology and operating behaviour in the most beneficial direction.

Radio will remain the foundation. There will always be a need for the RF, including transceivers, transmission lines and antennas. Of course, there will be remote operation, and it will increase from what currently exists. The better the RF components of your station the better you will do, just as for conventional modes.

Operating skills will also be needed, however some of those skills will be different. Anyone operating both digital and conventional modes will understand. There will also be lids who flout convention or never learn how to properly operate their equipment and software. QRM, DQRM and all the rest will also continue, but so will our tools to deal with them.

I love CW and I will continue to use it, probably for the rest of my ham radio career. After initial trepidation I am now also comfortable operating digital modes. Many hams I know have gone through the same evolution, and many are still standing at the threshold, not yet ready to take the next step. The novelty and potential of the technology are draws to hams, so many of whom are technophiles.

I currently limit my digital operating to VHF and 160 meters. The former due to the advantages for DXing and the fact that almost all activity is digital. Outside of contests and DXpeditions on 160 there is little CW activity, and I do like top band. In time it is likely that my digital activity will increase, since that is where everyone else can be found.

As the transition to digital continues I will look for equipment that supports those modes with innovative and useful features. Most of the restrictions today are limitations of our rigs, forcing us into using SSB and 3 kHz channels, and 20 kHz sound card interfaces to computer software. Those limitations will disappear as SDR technology rises to dominance and the floodgates between rigs and software are thrown wide open.

My speculations about possible and probable digital features is the tip of the iceberg. Hams are inventive and we can be certain that far more interesting and sophisticated features are on the way. With a baseline of SDR rigs and computer intefaces, the features will be determined by software applications and not by the rig manufacturers. In my opinion, that is how it ought to be.

Are you horrified? Don't be. Embrace the change, learn something new and increase your enjoyment of amateur radio. The boundaries you see are self imposed. They really don't exist.