Satgen234   21st Century Amateur Radio ?  by GM4IHJ            18 Sept 93
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Where is Amateur Radio going ? One place where the path seems clear is
Canada. There , Government good sense and Amateur Radio enterprise have
produced a very exciting combination.
IPARN the Inter Provincial Amateur Radio Network , is giving " hand talkie
" VHF and other low power communications, coast to coast coverage across
Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and, the Temperate to the Arctic.
The system uses the Anik E2 geosat which covers all Canada. Radio amateurs
have the use of a transponder on it which permits wide band repeater and
simplex working. Links to Anik are on 14 GHz and connections are made from
amateur built ground station gateways , which are gradualy being
introduced across the country. Users simply access their local gateway and
get links nation wide, through Anik. 
So far , VE7CQ and his associates have designed and built ground station
terminals for the Western Provinces. These use commercial RF heads and
converters, but all other hardware is constructed by VE amateurs. The
gateways can be accessed on 144 and 440 MHz low power.
Ground stations in Eastern Canada will come on line by next year. IPARN is
therefore up and running. There is an information magazine and they are
already relaying , news and interesting topics gleaned from other Amateur
sources such as terrestrial HF, VHF packet.

Most Radio Amateurs outside Canada, will probably hear of this
developement and, fit into one of two groups. The " Over My Dead Body
Brigade" who would probably prefer to go back to "Spark Transmitters" if
they could, and , the " Lets Do it Here Enthusiasts". Where ever you are
,if you want one, it will require benevolent intelligent government
cooperation - a somewhat rare commodity . But one should not lose sight of
the fact that government benevolence is counter balanced by sensible
government self interest , and good political returns - whereby they get a
very useful national tool in emergency, and, a trained set of users
available any time. How far the service will work in Canada will be
interesting to watch. The country is enormous , centres of population are
well separated and it has always seemed a problem as to how one could
build a sense of "Nationhood". This satellite network will help enormously
in this respect, and, congratulations are due to VE7CGL, VE7CQ et al (
plus the Canadian Government ).
Doubtless there will be those who would hate to have it on their patch ,
though how it would hurt them , I do not know. Equally obvious , this sort
of initiative is unlikely to emerge from RSGB Potters Bar. But why not -
lets start now pursuing the possibility of a European equivalent.
All brickbats and bouquets will be gratefully received by GM4IHJ @ GB7SAN