[NLRS] HF ALE

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

The ARRL Leter that arrived this afternoon has a segment on HFIE and ALE
operations on 5 MHz only with hams having a special authorization from
the FCC for running ALE. It has links to explanations of the exercise
and ALE.
> Amateur Radio, Federal Government Engaged in Joint 5 MHz
> Communication Exercise
>
> Amateur Radio operators and federal government stations are engaged
> in a 12-day nationwide test of their capability to communicate with
> each other on HF in the event of an emergency or disaster. The High
> Frequency Interoperability Exercise 2014 (HFIE-2014 http://hflink.net/hfie2014/ ) is running
> concurrently with the federal National Exercise Program (NEP http://www.fema.gov/national-exercise-program) 2014.
> Activity is taking place on two of the five 60 meter channels. The
> primary center-frequency channel is 5358.5 kHz, and the secondary
> center-frequency channel is 5373.0 kHz. Amateur Radio is secondary to
> government users on the band. The joint readiness exercise that began
> March 27 will continue through April 7 and include all areas of the
> US. Participants will use Automatic Link Establishment (ALE http://hflink.com/automaticlinkestablishment/), a
> standardized digital selective calling protocol, to establish
> communication between stations.
>
> "The HFIE has been a semi-annual exercise for some years," explained
> HFIE-2014 Coordinator Bonnie Crystal, KQ6XA. "Previously, HFIE has
> been a ham-only exercise. This year, we scheduled HFIE so it
> coincides with the NEP."
>
> Participation in the interoperability exercise is open to all
> ALE-capable federal government radio stations and to all ALE-capable
> US Amateur Radio stations. A Special Temporary Authorization (STA)
> has been granted, giving permission for radio amateurs to communicate
> with federal government stations for the duration of the exercise.
>
> Crystal said ALE signaling "sounds like turkey gobble," adding that
> ALE calls last about 15 seconds. Stations listening "may also hear
> the operators then start talking on USB voice," she said. "The
> signals can be up to about 40 seconds long, if there's texting riding
> on it, using a very rapid type of ARQ [automatic repeat request]
> handshaking."
>
> "Once someone links with another station, they have the choice of
> using SSB voice or sending/receiving up to about 80 characters of
> text," Crystal said. "Or they can switch to some other mode, such as
> CW or PSK or PACTOR."
>
> ARRL Regulatory Information Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, said the
> exercise offers an excellent opportunity for those amateurs with ALE
> capability. "It is a good exercise that highlights one of the key
> elements under which US amateurs were granted secondary status on the
> 60 meter band," he said. "The amateur community's ability to
> participate in an interoperability exercise with governmental
> communications is a great way to assess where things stand in this
> area -- and to explore the next steps to take. We encourage those
> amateurs familiar with the ALE protocols and have the station
> equipment to participate in a meaningful way to do so." Read more.
> http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-federal-government-engaged-in-joint-5-mhz-communication-exercise

Limiting the cross agency operation to two 5 MHz channels isn't exactly 
making full use of the ALE concept. I've not read the links.

73, Jerry, K0CQ


On 3/27/2014 3:23 PM, Doug Reed wrote:
>
>
> I don't know much more about ALE than the fact it operates like an
> HF sounder by continuously monitoring a list of known frequencies to
> track soundings (beacons) by other stations and to listen for
> requests to communicate with its own station. I don't remember what
> the schedule is for how often it will TX its own ALE beacon but the
> idea is that it knows who it has heard, what frequencies they were
> heard on and how strong they were at that time. If you need to talk
> to that station, your radio (or computer) knows where to look for
> them or will at least start sending ALE beacons on a known frequency
> list asking the other station to reply. The radios link and hunt
> around for the frequency with the best signal and then alert the
> operator that connection has been established.
>
> The ham version of the protocol is PC-ALE and links can be found at
> <http://www.n2ckh.com/PC_ALE_FORUM/>. It requires a computer with
> sound card interface, and a supported HF radio with a CAT interface
> for software control. A broadband HF antenna is important since the
> radio is continually hopping bands from 80M to 10M, based on the
> frequency list you have running in the software. If you only have a
> 40M dipole, it wouldn't work very well to test ALE on 80M, 30M, 20M,
> 17M frequencies. But keep in mind that the B&W is generally
> considered to be relatively low efficiency. If you
> check<http://hflink.com/>  and click the HFLINK News button you will
> find enough info to explain the HF Interoperability Exercise (HFIE
> 2014) that Earl was referring to. You can also find results of the
> "What antenna" poll they conducted if you want to see what antennas
> different people are using.
>
> And if you do go looking for a radio with built-in ALE ($$$$$$$$),
> you need to be sure it is the latest-and-greatest version of ALE if
> you want compatibility with current Federal standards, since the ALE
> standard has changed several times and the older ALE boards are NOT
> compatible with the newer versions. It will be far easier to use the
> PC-ALE software to give your current radio ALE capability.
>
> If you have an HF radio with sound-card digital mode interface, a
> broadband antenna or ATU and a spare computer 1GHz or faster, you
> could probably have PC-ALE up and running in an hour or less. It
> might take several hours more if you want to understand what it is
> doing. :-)  They do say they prefer a sound-card interface that
> doesn't use VOX, so that may indicate the Signalink USB will have a
> problem with ALE, I don't know.....
>
> 73, Doug Reed, N0NAS.
> ______________________________________________________________ NLRS
>