The Exemplar of Open Research and Development
Thank you to our supporters from around the world who will soon be receiving these open source innovative HF digital QRP kits.
Here’s the geographical distribution of the Solstice Special Batch 2 kits.
Find out more about this project at https://www.openresearch.institute/rfbitbanger-project/
Thank you to everyone helping spread the word about the HF QRP digital RFBitBanger kit DEFCON31 Show Special. We sold out the 99 kits with 13 hours to spare.
Here’s the geographical distribution of this version of the RFBitBanger kit. 
Main boards are in process at the manufacturer with final inspection expected today, 31 August 2023.
The bandpass filter boards, which have been upgraded from “three bands included and one spare” to “nine bands included and three spares” at no additional cost, are in process and expected to be complete no earlier than 4 September 2023.
Kitting is well underway with the machining of the heat sinks completed.
This DEFCON31 version of the board is black in color to distinguish it from potential future versions. Here is a rendering of the top side of the board.
The RFBitBanger team is discussing future builds on the #rfbitbanger channel on our Slack account right now.
The next opportunity for a show special is for QSO Today Academy, 9-10 September 2023, where Dr. Daniel Marks is speaking about the RFBitBanger and SCAMP mode. Find out more about this event here: https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/
This project would not be successful with your support, feedback, and advice. Thank you all for making this project, one of many at ORI, a big success. There’s been a lot of interest in this project and some very nice coverage from Hackaday and QRZ blogs, with more articles expected in the future.
Getting the word out about what we do is up to people like you. Do you know of any open source digital radio projects that need a friendly and supportive home? We can help with ethical, professional, and competent research and development support.
https://www.openresearch.institute/your-project-is-welcome/
Three Days Remaining for the RFBitBanger HF Radio Kit DEFCON Show Special
Be a part of the future with a prototype kit build of the RFBitBanger, a low-power high-frequency digital radio by Dr. Daniel Marks KW4TI. Presented by Open Research Institute, this kit is designed to produce 4 watts of power and opens up a new digital protocol called SCAMP. Your donation in exchange for this kit directly enables the development of an innovative Class E amplifier based radio design. It has a display, button menu navigation, and keyboard connection for keyboard modes and keyboard-enabled navigation. This radio can be taken portable or used in a case. If you have a 3d printer, then Dr. Marks has a design ready for you to print.
SCAMP is a new protocol that allows keyboard-to-keyboard contacts with a digital protocol that has excellent connection performance. See Dr. Marks presentation about RFBitBanger at QSO Today Academy in September 2023 to learn more about SCAMP and the RFBitBanger project. Information about that event is here: https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/
All surface mount parts on the main board are pre-installed at the factory. All the through-hole parts you need to complete the radio are provided for you to solder yourself. If you don’t know how to wind toroids or solder surface mount capacitors, this is an excellent kit to learn on. There are just six toroids on the main board, and two on each band pass filter board. You can build just one band pass filter board and operate on a single band, or you can build an assortment. We provide 12 filter boards, enough toroids to build any 9 filters, and a supply of capacitors that will let you build those 9 filters for 9 different HF ham bands. These capacitors are size 1206, which is the largest common size for SMT capacitors and the easiest to solder manually. All you’ll need is a pair of tweezers and your regular soldering iron and solder. We provide detailed instructions on winding the toroids and soldering the capacitors. You get spare filter boards to experiment with.
Support is provided through a dedicated Open Research Institute Slack channel.
Instructions on how to join the ORI community are here:
https://openresearch.institute/getting-started
Delivery is no earlier than late August 2023. Will be posted here and on the ORI website at https://www.openresearch.institute/rfbitbanger-project/
If you missed this sale, check out the upcoming show special at QSO Today Academy.
Want to Learn More About RFBitBanger?
Project lead Dr. Daniel Marks will give a presentation about the RFBitBanger at QSO Today Academy 9 September 2023 1300 PDT, 0800 UTC.
Daniel Marks, KW4TI, is a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, having graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001. His fields of speciality include optical engineering, computed imaging, and signal processing. He has made dozens of open hardware projects including many for amateur radio.
https://wze95h.qsotodayhamexpo.com/sessionInfo/_the_rfbitbanger_an_off_the_grid_emergency
The recent shortage of semiconductors, parts important for electronics, shows us that supply chains can be fragile. What does this mean? It means if we have a big problem for a long time, our advanced radios might be tough to keep working, which could be a problem in an emergency.
To solve this, a new kind of radio called the RFBitBanger has been created. It’s a type of low power, long-distance radio that is easy to build from basic parts using simple tools. It uses a new digital language, called SCAMP, made specifically for this radio.
All the signal work is done by an Arduino processor. What’s cool is that the radio has a small screen and buttons or you can even attach a keyboard. It’s a full text communications system all by itself. SCAMP is pretty special too. Even though it only needs a simple 8-bit microcontroller, it can do lots of things that digital modes like FT8 can do using small bandwidth and something called forward error correction.
The RFBitBanger radio has other helpful features. It can support CW (which is Morse code), RTTY (another way of sending text), and SSB phone (voice communication).
We hope that the RFBitBanger can serve as an easy-to-build and easy-to-maintain emergency radio. It can also be a great educational kit. And, it can be a lifesaver when there’s a big shortage of parts.
Media for RFBitBanger
Thank you to Hackaday and QRZ forums for covering the RFBitBanger project. Here are the links to the articles.
Greetings all! Welcome to the February 2023 issue of the Inner Circle Newsletter from Open Research Institute.
Join the Inner Circle
Sign up for this newsletter at http://eepurl.com/h_hYzL
Thank you so much for your time, attention, and support. We appreciate you, we welcome your feedback, and we are dedicated to serving the community to the best of our abilities. You can get in touch with the ORI board of directors directly at hello@operesearch.institute.
A Puzzle Just For Fun
Here’s a puzzle. Chicken Nuggets have been on the menu at the international fast food chain McDonald’s since 1983.
If Chicken McNuggets are sold in packs of 6, 9, or 20, then what is the largest number of nuggets that cannot be ordered?
Answer is at the end of this newsletter!
Projects
Our volunteer teams have been busy and successful, and our project lineup has grown.
Regulatory Efforts: ORI works hard to promote and defend open source digital radio work. We do all we can to help move technology from proprietary and controlled to open and free. Our work on ITAR, EAR, Debris Mitigation, and AI/ML are where we have spent most of our time over the past two years. We were a member of the Technological Advisory Committee for the US Federal Communications Commission in 2022, and co-chaired the Safe Uses of AI/ML Subworking Group. We have received consistently positive reviews for all of our work, and there has been increasing use of the results.
Ribbit: this open source communications protocol uses the highest performance error correction and modern techniques available to turn any analog radio into an efficient and useful digital text terminal. No wires, no extra equipment. The only thing you’ll need to use it is the free open source Android or IoS app on your phone. Learn how to use this communications system and get involved in building a truly innovative open source tactical radio service by visiting https://ribbitradio.org
Join Ribbit mailing lists at: https://www.openresearch.institute/mailing-lists/
Amateur Satellite: ORI has the world’s first and only open source HEO/GEO communications satellite program, called Haifuraiya. We will demonstrate all working parts of the transponder project at DEFCON 31, where broadband digital communications and open source electric propulsion will be featured. Find out how to support or join this and other teams at https://openresearch.institute/getting-started
AmbaSat for 70 cm: We’ve redesigned the AmbaSat board to move it from 915 MHz to 70 cm and it will be flown on a sounding rocket this year. With increasing interest in LoRa for both space and terrestrial use, this has proven to be a popular and useful project. The design has been adapted for applications in India and Japan.
Opulent Voice: a digital protocol that seamlessly combines high fidelity voice and data, using modern forward error correction, authentication and authorization, and efficient minimum frequency shift keying modulation. Opulent Voice will be flown on a sounding rocket this year and it is the native digital uplink protocol for Haifuraiya. Completely open with the high quality voice we deserve to hear. Due to the bandwidth requirements of the 16kHz OPUS codec, Opulent Voice can be used on 70cm and above ham bands, or anywhere else where the modest bandwidth requirements can be met.
Remote Labs: We have two remotely accessible workbenches for FPGA development, with Xilinx 7000 and Xilinx Ultrascale+ development boards as the focus. We also have several SDRs and radio utility devices available through virtual machine access. The 7000 series development board has an Analog Devices ADRV9371 radio system attached, and that has enabled a number of open source FPGA products to be published. This is a unique resource that has produced a lot of good work and is constantly being improved and updated. In addition to the development boards, the laboratory has a network accessible spectrum analyzer, an oscilloscope with logic analyzer extension, power supplies, frequency and power counters, and dedicated human resources available to help students, volunteers, or professionals contribute to open source work. Help it be more useful by spreading the word about ORI Remote Labs.
Equipment available: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/tree/master/Remote_Labs/Test_Equipment
How to get an account: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/blob/master/Remote_Labs/ORI-New-User-Setup.md
Using FPGA Development Stations: https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/blob/master/Remote_Labs/Working-With-FPGAs.md
Versatune: amateur digital television next generation hardware and software product. It is open source and affordable. We have committed engineering resources to support Versatune and are very excited about how things are going. Some of the Versatune team will be at Hamvention 2023 in Xenia, OH, USA, and it will be represented at DEFCON in August 2023.
HF antennas: We have a novel foldable antenna design for space and terrestrial use. The hardware prototype will be demonstrated at DEFCON. This design manipulates radiation resistance to produce best-of-class results. Think you can’t do 160m without an enormous antenna? Think again.
HF QRP: Coming soon, an exciting HF QRP digital radio board and protocol. The hardware prototypes will be demonstrated at DEFCON. What might happen when we combine the HF digital radio with the novel foldable antenna? We think you’ll be delighted.
Battery Matching Curves: are you available to mentor a college student interested in learning how to match up charge and discharge curves from NiCd cells in order to create battery packs? These packs would then be tested and/or deployed in the field. Our student volunteer has collected the data and is looking to learn how to use Jupyter Notebooks to select the cells to create battery packs.
Logistics
We’re growing and adapting!
We will be changing our GitHub project name from Phase4Ground to Open Research Institute very soon. Phase4Space GitHub project will change to Haifuraiya, which is the program name for our HEO/GEO design. These changes better reflect the content and purpose of the 64 repositories that span everything from important historical archives to open source music to the most modern open source encoders available.
We have a very well-qualified applicant for our open board of directors position. We would like to invite interested community members to consider applying to ORI in order to expand the board beyond this filled position in order to take us from our current five members to seven. Given our continuing growth, a larger leadership team would ensure continued smooth operations. These positions are unpaid, engaging, and can be demanding. The most important skill set is a strong sense of ethics and service.
Fundraising and Grants
We’ve applied for the GitHub Accelerator Program (Remote Labs) and the IEEE Innovation Fund (Polar Codes in Ribbit). If you have a recommendation for ORI in terms of partnerships or collaboration, please let us know at hello@openresearch.institute
Support ORI financially directly through the website https://openresearch.institute. There is a PayPal donation widget at the bottom of almost every page. Donations can be directed to any project, or to general operations. ORI has a very low overhead, with most projects coming in under 5%.
Support our open source propulsion work and get a cool desk toy at https://us.commitchange.com/ca/san-diego/open-research-institute/campaigns/where-will-we-go-next
We’ve raised enough money to cover materials for machining the engine parts. The next step is to raise enough money to pay for the electronics. Please help spread the word!
Thanks to our wonderful community, we have employee matching in place at Microsoft and Qualcomm. If you have an employee matching program at your work, and you think ORI would fit in, please consider nominating us. Our EIN is EIN: 82-3945232
Events
Where can you meet up with ORI people?
QSO Today Ham Expo
We support and attend QSO Today Ham Expo, held online 25-26 March 2023. The theme of this event is “New License, Now What?” and focuses on people new to amateur radio.
Our page for QSO Today Ham Expo content is https://www.openresearch.institute/qso-today-ham-expo-technical-demonstrations/
IMS2023
Join us at the amateur radio social at the International Microwave Symposium (IMS2023) on Tuesday 13 June 2023 in San Diego, CA, USA at 6pm. It will be held in a beautiful outdoor venue with food and drink provided. The easiest way to register for this event is to purchase an exhibition badge and then sign up for the social. https://ims-ieee.org/ is the event website.
DEFCON
We are getting ready for our biggest event of the year. We have proposed an in-person Open Source Showcase to RF Village for DEFCON 31 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA from 10 – 13 August 2023.
Our page for the event, with all the latest and greatest details, can be found at https://www.openresearch.institute/defcon/
Want to help at DEFCON? Please visit https://openresearch.institute/getting-started and let us know!
IWRC 2023
IEEE wants to bring together all participants to take full advantage of CHIPS Act funding. IEEE will have an Innovative Workforce Resources Conference in Little Rock, AR 13-14 September. There will be a reception at the Clinton Presidential Library, and attendees will enjoy the best BBQ in the country. The National Science Foundation requires that a certain percentage of funding has to be spent in states that don’t get their fair share of research money. The goal of this conference is to pull together small researchers from small business like ORI and do research, with Arkansas as a focus.
We couldn’t agree more. After all, we are putting a lot of time and energy into Remote Labs South, located just outside Little Rock, AR. Bringing innovative open source digital radio work to students, workers, and volunteers that need it the most simply makes sense. If you can attend IWRC 2023 and help represent ORI please get in touch. We will be reaching out to IEEE chapters in Arkansas as well.
Read about the CHIPS and Science Act here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIPS_and_Science_Act
Puzzle Solution
43 is the largest number of nuggets that cannot be ordered.
What is the largest number of McNuggets that you can’t buy with packs of 6, 9 and 20? After putting in their blood, sweat, and tears, the mathematicians found that the answer is 43. You cannot buy 43 nuggets with packs of 6, 9 and 20, but you can buy any amount larger than 43.
Please see Mike Beneshan’s excellent blog about this type of problem at https://mikebeneschan.medium.com/the-chicken-mcnugget-theorem-explained-2daca6fbbe1e
The other Non-McNugget numbers are 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,10,11,13,14,16,17,19,22,23,25,28,31,34, and 37.
Trivia: You can get 47 in two ways: 36+19+120 or 06+39+120.
We’ve used the McDonald’s version of the chicken nugget to present and frame this mathematical puzzle. Here’s a link about the history of this menu item: https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/history-of-chicken-mcnuggets
Robert C. Baker invented the chicken nugget, among many other things. He was a true innovator of what can be fairly called “modern foods”. A brief wikipedia article about him can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Baker
A song written about this remarkable inventor can be enjoyed at this link: https://youtu.be/OEa8wqv4QM0
Do you have an idea for an interdisciplinary puzzle for our next newsletter? We’d love to hear about it. Write ori@openresearch.institute
Until Next Time
Thank you so much for being part of our Inner Circle! You are the motivation for all of this work, provided to the general public for free. We believe it makes the world a better place.
Help spread the word about our summer fundraiser. These are cute mini-puzzle desk toys in custom packaging. They are shaped like a rocket ship and are made out of laser-cut orange acrylic. Campaign runs through 1 September 2022. More items will be added throughout the summer.
https://us.commitchange.com/ca/san-diego/open-research-institute/campaigns/where-will-we-go-next
It is 5 days until the next SBIR/STTR NASA solicitation round.
Let’s take some time and sort through the solicitations and see what we qualify for.
We have a fantastic community and volunteers that would like to do meaningful work.
Applying for SBIR/STTRs as the research institute or non-profit is one way to accomplish this goal.
I’ll post the announced solicitations, but if you want to keep track, then the webpage to go to is here:
https://sbir.nasa.gov/solicitations
If you would like to be part of ORI, please visit:
https://www.openresearch.institute/getting-started/
