Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Lesson 6- Types of Amateur Communication

There are a number of types of communication. Here's a few common definitions which you might need to know, for taking the Amateur Radio test, for understanding Amateur Radio laws, or just for general purpose.



  • Telemetry- A one way report of a measurement made at a remote site of a physical value. For instance, temperature sensors, power, pressure, wind speed, all can be telemetry.
  • Telecommand- A message requesting that an action be taken at a distance. This could turn on a repeater, a PL tone, thrust a satellite, request that data be sent down, etc.
  • Amateur Station- A station which is capable of conducting Amateur Radio communication. IE, this is the transmitter, antenna, and other supplies required to communicate.
In addition, there's a number of methods of control. Here's how you can think about i.
  • Control Operator- This is the person who is in control of the station.
  • Control Point- This is where your equipment is, in particular the transmitter. The official definition is "Where you can remove power to the control station". 
Given these two, the rest of them are just a variation of where the control operator is when the equipment is transmitting. Note that there must always be a control operator if the equipment is transmitting.

  • Local Control- The Control Operator is at the Control Point.
  • Remote Control- The Control Operator is not at the Control Point, but is able to control the station indirectly. I talked to a person who was using his radio in Maryland, but was controlling it through the internet from California. This would be an example of Remote Control.
  • Automatic Control- The Control Operator isn't at the Control Point, nor does he have any direct control at that moment of the system. Essentially, the system is running automatically. A repeater is a great example of this, the operator isn't always present when it is transmitting, the station is in basic control itself. However, the operator can manually control things if he has to.

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