The group has also organised a course for people wishing to take the Radio Amateurs Examination. The first group of about 30 students sat the exam in early May '95.
An associated experiment using commercial transmission technology is planned around the Lancaster area. This will connect the local schools to the university and its networks.
Packet radio networks work in a similar way to cable based computer networks, in fact the ethernet system used throughout campus was based on a radio network in Hawaii! Computers send and receive small chunks of data carried in packets. Relay machines are needed for long distance communication as the signals become too weak once you're far away from the transmitter. A relay simply receives data on one channel or frequency and retransmits it on another. Each piece of data therefore hops from the source to the destination via a set of relays.
Direct access is available to all university computers, including cent1, from computers as far away as the Fylde coast and southern lakes even if they're in the middle of a field! Another advantage is that unlike present systems based on the telephone network there will be no nasty bill at the end of the quarter as use of the system will be free, 24 hours a day.
As well as providing a link to the university computers the radio network will be the basis for research into multimedia radio communications by Engineering's Communications Group, Computing's Distributed Multimedia Systems Group and members of Information System Services. The aim is to investigate how the notebook and pocket computers of the future could send and receive audio, data, images and even video using the rapidly improving technologies currently enabling the growing use of mobile phones.
The groups already have an international reputation for work in their respective fields of data compression and distributed multimedia systems.
The experimental system, and the possibility of a link to the universities Charlotte Mason campus in the lake district, is already of interest to members of RAYNET - the Radio Amateurs' Emergency Network.
RAYNET often provides important communications facilities in times of emergency or disaster. The most recent large scale disaster supported by RAYNET was the Lockerbie tragedy where a terrorist bomb destroyed a passenger plane flying over Scotland.
The resulting devastation covered a 14 mile wide strip of moorland and the town of Lockerbie itself. The emergency services carrying out the painstaking moorland search were linked together by mobile hilltop repeaters and personnel provided by RAYNET.
Initially the system installed at Lancaster will be using equipment that requires a radio amateurs licence to operate but if successful it will provide valuable experience possibly leading to a limited service open to all.
In order to obtain a licence you must first pass the City & Guild's Radio Amateurs Examination and then pay a small fee to the Department of Trade and Industry each year. The licence shows you understand the way radio equipment works - so as not to cause interference to other radio users - and to know the relevant regulations governing frequency allocations and types of emission.
Radio amateurs include people involved professionally with radio and electronics, such as Merchant Navy Radio Officers or University Staff, doctors, garage mechanics, policemen, businessmen, actors including Lord Rix (better known Brian Rix), TV Weathermen such as Jim Bacon, and even King Hussein of Jordan.
Gone are the days when you had to learn morse code. Radio amateurs who have not passed the 12 words per minute morse test are just not allowed to use the long distance frequencies but they can communicate over similar distances by using packet radio and an Internet gateway as provided by the university.
If there is sufficient interest LURPAC will offer an evening course leading to the City & Guild's Radio Amateurs Examination next October.
If you are interested in the work of the LURPAC Group contact, in the first instance, Paul C Mullineaux G3XEN (Engineering Department) on 0524-65201 ext 3105, or email ega030@cent1.lancs.ac.uk.
Further information can also be obtained from Andrew Scott (email: acs@comp.lancs.ac.uk)