From Ether to Ethernet

was the last night in December of 2002. Stations in many different time zones were being worked from North America, while amateurs worldwide were bringing in the New Year. Tony, VK3JED, in Melbourne, Australia was celebrating on the air at 6 o’clock in the morning (my time). As midnight approached in India, Sam, VU2SBB, was busy talking to North America, followed by South Africa; then Belgium and the UK. It was a thrill to talk to the world from home on a hand-held radio. Yes, talk to the world with a battery-powered VHF/ UHF FM transceiver! Amateur Radio has seen many technological changes in the last 85 years. First, the shift from spark to CW in the ’20s; next, AM in the early ’30s; followed by SSB in the ’50s. In the ’60s, when hams started to convert discarded taxi and police radios to 2 meters, VHF-FM became the rage, with repeaters following. Change does not occur without controversy. “Spark Forever!” was heard in the ’20s as crystal control and CW ushered in the then-new wireless technology. When AM first appeared, “brass pounders” felt their frequencies were being pirated by the new “upstart.” Now that Internet linking of VHF/UHF Amateur Radio repeaters is becoming popular, change is again occurring, but not without controversy. Early experiments linking FM repeaters using the Internet with Voice Over IP (VoIP) were, for the most part, unsuccessful and none (iPhone was one example) ever became popular. Then, in 1998, a ham in Vancouver, Canada designed a better, more reliable way to do that and it has rapidly embraced a worldwide following. Dave Cameron, VE7LTD, of Vancouver, British Columbia began experimenting with what he called the Internet Radio Linking Project or simply IRLP. Dave and Michael Illingby, VE7TFD, of Vernon, British Columbia, became frustrated with the unreliable operation of Windows-based iPhone, VoIP software. At that time, all Windows-based Amateur From Ether to Ethernet