The 30th Annual
ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications
Conference
September 16-18, 2011 - Baltimore, MD
Updates
Keep an eye on this space for the latest updates on the DCC.
- The Sunday Seminar is Announced! Click here for more information
- The Preliminary Speaker Schedule is here
- The Banquet Speaker is David Rowe, VK5DGR more...
DCC Schedule Outline. Typical from year to year
Friday
8:15 AM Conference Registration and
Demonstration Room Open
9:00 AM Welcome and Introductions
9:30 AM Technical Presentations
Noon Lunch
1:00 PM Technical Presentations
6:00 PM Break
7:00 PM Social
11:00 PM Demonstration Room Closed
Saturday
7:15 AM Conference Registration and
Demonstration Room Open
8:00 AM Welcome
8:15 AM Technical Presentations
Noon Lunch
1:00 PM Technical Presentations
3:15 PM TAPR Membership Meeting
6:00 PM Break
7:00 PM Dinner Banquet
11:00 PM Demonstration Room Closed
Sunday
8:00 AM to Noon Sunday Seminar
Introduction
Mark your calendar and start making plans to attend the premier technical conference of the year, the 30th Annual ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference to be held September 16-18, 2011, in Baltimore, MD. The conference location is the Four Points by Sheraton BWI Airport, Baltimore, MD
The ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference is an international forum for radio amateurs to meet, publish their work, and present new ideas and techniques. Presenters and attendees will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about recent hardware and software advances, theories, experimental results, and practical applications.
Topics include, but are not limited to: Software Defined Radio (SDR), digital voice (D-Star, P25, WinDRM, FDMDV, G4GUO), digital satellite communications, Global Position System (GPS), precision timing, Automatic Position Reporting SystemŪ (APRS), short messaging (a mode of APRS), Digital Signal Processing (DSP), HF digital modes, Internet interoperability with Amateur Radio networks, spread spectrum, IEEE 802.11 and other Part 15 license-exempt systems adaptable for Amateur Radio, using TCP/IP networking over Amateur Radio, mesh and peer to peer wireless networking, emergency and Homeland Defense backup digital communications, using Linux in Amateur Radio, updates on AX.25 and other wireless networking protocols.
Call for Papers
Technical papers are solicited for presentation at the 30th Annual ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference to be held September 16-18, 2011 in Baltimore, MD and publication in the Conference Proceedings. Annual conference proceedings are published by the ARRL. Presentation at the conference is not required for publication. Submission of papers are due by July 31st, 2011 and should be submitted to
Maty Weinberg, ARRL
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111
or via the Internet to maty@arrl.org
Register for the Conference
Online registrtion will close at MIDNIGHT (CDT) on Friday, September 9th due to office staff travel to the conference.
-
Tucson Amateur Packet Radio
Phone: (972) 671-TAPR (8277)
Fax: (972) 671-8716
Email: TAPR Office
General Information
- Technical and introductory sessions will be presented all day Friday and Saturday.
- Friday Evening Social. Join others at the conference for a Friday evening social get together.
- Saturday Evening Banquet with an invited speaker that concludes with award presentations and prize drawing.
- The ever-popular Sunday Seminar that focuses on a topic and provides an in-depth four-hour presentation by an expert in the field.
- This year the DCC banquet topic is The Village TELCO
- There are now billions of mobile phones all over the world. However in many developing countries, mobile phones are simply too expensive to use. For example, in a country where people earn $1.50/day, a phone call can cost 21 cents/minute. This is a huge tax on communications.
- David Rowe, VK5DGR, will describe how a community of people from around the world set out to fix this problem, using a mix of Wi-Fi and open source software. The result is the Village Telco - a DIY telephone company that anyone can set up.
- A Village Telco is constructed from a network of "Mesh Potatoes" - small Wi-Fi boxes that are mounted on homes in a village. They form a mesh network, relaying telephone calls for each other. Each Mesh Potato connects to a regular telephone inside village homes. Phone calls on the network are free. A local person in the Village can be trained in a few hours to set up and maintain the network.
- To build the Village Telco we borrowed many ideas from Ham Radio, such as sharing hardware designs and community networks.
- The talk will include real world stories of how Village Telcos are helping people in several developing countries, and explain why a simple phone call that we take for granted can be so important.
Three-Day Conference
(Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Technical Sessions
-
This is a must attend conference for technically inclined amateurs.
Now, more than ever, Amateur Radio needs this great meeting of the minds
to demonstrate a continued need for our current frequency allocations by
pushing forward and documenting our achievements. The ARRL and TAPR
Digital Communications Conference is the best way to record our
accomplishments and challenge each other to do more.
Just review past DCC proceedings to the see the depth of topics presented since 1981.
Introductory Sessions
-
The ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference is for all levels
of technical experience, not just for the expert. Not only is the
conference technically stimulating, it is a weekend of fun for all who
have more than a casual interest in any aspect of amateur digital
electronics and communications.
Introductory sessions are scheduled throughout the conference to introduce new technical topics for beginners and experts alike. Here are some of the introductory seminars scheduled:
Banquet Speaker
-
Each year the conferences invites top amateurs in the field to speak. Past speakers have included Geoff Baehr, N6LXA, Chief Network Officer of Sun Microsystems, Dale Hatfield, W0IFO, Chief of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, Yutaka Sakurai, JF1LZQ, Vice President of Japan's Packet Radio User's Group, and Ken Kaplan, N0GZ, who wrote the OS/9 operating system.
This year's banquet speaker is:
David Rowe, VK5DGR
Sunday Seminar
-
Each year the conference holds a in-depth four-hour seminar on
Sunday. Past seminars have included such topics as Software Defined
Radios, Spread Spectrum Design and Theory, RD Design and Deployment,
PICmicro MCU design and development, Packet Radio Networks with Millions
or Billions of Stations, and others. Seminars are given by experts in
their field.
This year's Sunday seminar is by
Bob Bruninga, WB4APR
Universal Ham Radio Connectivity by Callsign Workshop
With Today's proliferation of wireless electronic devices, we need a transparent means of providing end-to-end ham radio connectivity for both text and voice to any ham anywhere using any device and only his callsign for addressing. Our callsigns are unique in the world. We should be able to use them for placing a call or text using any system in real time. The goal of this workshop is to look at the handful of VOIP and more than 26 different text messaging systems in Ham radio and see where we can provide transparent connectivity. We invite experts on all systems to participate and share ideas towards this goal.
Demonstration Room
-
Each year at the DCC a separate (and lockable) room is
provided for people to bring and show off their latest projects. Tables
and power will be provided. Bring your equipment and display for all to
see, learn, and ask questions about. Be sure to bring a small sign and/or
flyer naming and describing your project.
Meals
Meals are not included in the registration. Two lunches and the banquet are available for purchase at the time of registration. Since numbers must be provided in advance to the hotel, trying to buy meals after arrival at the conference does cause difficulties.
Hotel
-
Conference presentations, meetings, and seminars will be held at the
Four Points by Sheraton BWI Airport, Baltimore, MD.
It is highly recommended that you book your room prior to arriving.
A block of rooms at the special DCC room rate of $90.00 single/double.
This special rate is good until August 25, 2011 after that you will pay the regular room rate..
To book your room, use the reservation link below or call the hotel directly (phone numbers below) and mention the group code DCC (Digital Communications Conference) when making reservations.
Be sure to book your rooms early!
Four Points by Sheraton BWI Airport
7032 Elm Road
Baltimore, Maryland 21240
Reservations: 1-800-368-7764
Phone: 410-859-3300
Hotel Internet Site: Four Points by Sheraton BWI
Transportation
Details on Call for Papers
-
Technical papers are solicited for presentation at the ARRL and TAPR
Digital Communications Conference for publication in the Conference Proceedings.
- Software Defined Radio (SDR)
- Digital voice (D-Star, P25, WinDRM, FDMDV, DRMDV, G4GUO)
- Digital satellite communications
- Global position system
- Precise Timing
- Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS)
- Short messaging (a mode of APRS)
- Digital Signal Processing (DSP)
- HF digital modes
- Internet interoperability with Amateur Radio networks
- Spread spectrum
- IEEE 802.11 and other Part 15 license-exempt systems adaptable for Amateur Radio
- Using TCP/IP networking over Amateur Radio
- Mesh and peer to peer wireless networking
- Emergency and Homeland Defense backup digital communications in Amateur Radio
- Updates on AX.25 and other wireless networking protocols
- Topics that advanced the Amateur Radio art
Annual conference proceedings are published by the ARRL. Presentation at the conference is not required for publication.
The ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference is an international forum for radio amateurs to meet, publish their work, and present new ideas and techniques. Presenters and attendees will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about recent hardware and software advances, theories, experimental results, and practical applications. Topics include, but are not limited to:
Submission Guide Lines
-
Anyone interested in digital communications is invited to submit a paper for publication in the Conference Proceedings. Presentation at the Conference is not required for publication. If you know of someone who is doing great things with digital communications, be sure to personally tell them about this!
- Papers should be on 8-1/2 X 11 inch paper with the following margins: left and right, 0.75 inch; top, 0.8 inch; and bottom, 1 inch (very important).
- Structure of paper should be (see single column example below, two column should follow a similar format):
- Title
- Author(s) with affiliation
- Abstract (200 words or less)
- Key words (3-5)
- Body
- Reference List
- Papers can be in one- or two-column format.
- Use 12-point Times Roman for the main body of text; do not number pages.
- Photos and drawings should have good contrast. Note: a photocopy gives a good indication of print quality.
- Electronic submissions can be made in any of the following formats:
- Adobe Acrobat PDF;
- Microsoft Word
- Reference citations and other topics not explicitly discussed in this list should follow a recognized standard format (APA, IEEE, etc).
- A biographical page is to be included with the manuscript. It should contain Name, Address, Phone, and E-mail for each author as well as a short descriptive paragraph about the first author. The bio page will be used to contact authors concerning the conference and presentation schedule.
See above for deadlines and where to submit your paper.
Some quick guidelines:
-
A formal release form is not required, but indicate that the paper is being sent for use in the Proceedings of the ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference. You are only giving permission for your paper to be printed in the Proceedings.
Example Single Column Page Layout
Two column would be similar in nature, but with two columns.
