HamShield for Arduino (VHF/UHF transceiver)

HamShield for Arduino (VHF/UHF transceiver)

The HamShield supports a wide range of VHF and UHF frequencies, covering 3 amateur bands. This includes the 1.25 meter or "220" band (220 MHz to 225 MHz), which is notoriously hard to find equipment for! It also can transmit on MARS bands.

Getting your Ham license is easy too! All that is required is a Technician license: http://www.arrl.org/getting-your-technician-license

The HamShield supports both voice and packet radio modes. You could even invent your own digital modes with enough skill. It is compact, lightweight, and works great with any Arduino or Arduino compatible that supports Uno-style shields.

The HamShield is the product of 12 months of design, engineering, and prototyping. This May 2015, we had our final design. We need your support to bring the economies of scale in our favor, fund the final development, part purchasing, and production of our shield, and help bring innovation back to Ham Radio.

With the HamShield, you no longer need a dedicated radio or piece of equipment for each type of operating mode. There is also no need for complicated radio interface cables. The radio is now under your complete control!

Practically no experience is needed to use the HamShield. Unlike other complicated, software defined radio boards, the transceiver core is a proven, commercial grade radio transceiver. There are a growing number of ready-to-use Arduino sketches we are actively developing. They are all ready to be uploaded to your Arduino!

As the community writes more Arduino sketches, this radio toolbox will grow. What will you write?

But the HamShield is even more powerful than just being the utility army knife of existing radio transceiver technology. The HamShield will bring true innovation back to Ham Radio, and yield new concepts and technologies.

Have you ever thought of a new, really cool, dream technology for amateur radio, but simply did not have the time, money or skill to take it to completion? Now, you can write a new program and bring it to life within minutes! We can't wait to see what people invent next with this shield!
The HamShield Transceiver



Final HamShield revision

The HamShield is powered by the Auctus 1846S radio transceiver IC, which features a fully integrated FM radio transceiver. This amazing chip, with a software defined radio core, allows the ability to offer a wide range of features such as sub-audio CTCSS/CDCSS modes, DTMF encoding and decoding, tail noise elimination, RSSI, squelch, VOX, volumes, and even a very powerful tone encoder and decoder (which may be fast enough for some digital modes if you are creative enough!) Both 12.5KHz or 25KHz FM channel bandwidth can be selected. You can also leverage the powerful ADC and filtered PWM output circuitry for digital and audio modes right from your Arduino sketches! There is also no complex software defined radio processing required.



The HamShield is a wide band transceiver and can operate across the following frequency ranges at full power:
134-174 MHz
200-260 MHz
400-520 MHz

Contained within these ranges are three Ham Radio bands: 2 meter (144-148 MHz), 1.25 meter (220-225 MHz), and 70 centimeter (420-450 MHz)

While the HamShield is intended for amateur radio use, the shield can be used for prototyping new, non-amateur radio technologies in a lab setting, or possibly with use with an FCC granted temporary auxiliary license!
The Power Amplifier

The HamShield amplifier is a custom designed 250 milliwatt amplifier. This provides plenty of power for line of sight communications, as well as a high quality output for a variety of linear amplifiers. We felt this was the perfect match for power consumption on a small Arduino shield.
Audio Interfaces

The audio can be accessed two ways, both of which can be configured to operate simultaneously:

Method 1: A built in TRRS jack that is compatible with nearly any hands free cell phone headset. You can also use a TRRS "cross over cable" to interface the audio to a laptop, tablet, or smartphone for on-the-go analog and digital operations.

Method 2: The Arduino can be directly interfaced to the audio. PWM output from the Arduino is smoothed and set to the proper audio level for input into the radio transmitter. Audio from the receiver is filtered and made available on an Arduino ADC line. This allows for interesting applications such as data and DTMF tone detection.
Data Interfaces

The HamShield uses the existing Arduino audio capability to transmit and receive packet radio data, which is featured in our HamShield library. While AFSK 1200 over FM is currently supported, with some ingenuity, new data capabilities can be invented.
Powering Your HamShield

Due to the amount of power required by the HamShield, it must be connected to an external power supply. Care was taken to make sure that the input voltage range was also within the output range of several different types of battery technologies, including 4xAA battery packs and 7.4 volt LiPo battery packs. The HamShield can operate between 5-30 volts DC, and is typically powered by a 12 VDC power adapter.

As an added feature, the HamShield's power supply is also fed into VIN on your Arduino. This means that the HamShield's power supply, including connected batteries, will power your Arduino and any other shields connected. Portable options, such as APRS GPS trackers, hidden transmitter hunting, and laptop APRS and packet radio are now possible.
The HamShield Arduino Library

The HAMShield Arduino library allows the user to control every aspect of the radio. The library handles all communication between the Arduino and the shield, so all you need to do is use our simple API. We have also created functions for common amateur radio modes, such as morse code, packet radio, SSTV, scanning, white space channel seeking, empty channel detection, and more! The capabilities of HamShield Library grow daily as we close in on the HamShield shipping date.

Here is an example Arduino sketch that transmits morse code every 10 minutes, assuming the channel is not busy:


Check out the video to see it in action!


Here is a tour around the features of our HamShield:


Control HamShield with your Laptop!

Our HamShield code also can turn your Arduino into a serial controlled radio. This allows you to download and write new laptop applications that leverage the flexibility of the HamShield, but may need the user interface or special processing power of a laptop computer.

We have also written an application that runs in any Chrome browser and can talk directly to the HamShield. This means that you can also use a low cost, low powered laptop (such as a Chromebook) to control your Ham Radio on the go! Bring HamShield on your next backpacking adventure! New, novel concepts such as "APRS Messenger" can bring multithreaded APRS text messaging anywhere you go!
Specifications

Form Factor: Arduino-compatible stackable shield

Arduino Pins: I2C; GPIO, PWM and ADC

Frequency RX/TX: 134-174MHz, 200-260MHz, 400-520MHz

Amateur Radio Bands: 2 Meter, 1.25 Meter, 70 Centimeter

Power Output: 250 milliwatts (preliminary)

Radio SoC: Auctus A1846S

Channel Bandwidth: Selectable between 12.5KHz and 25KHz

Subaudio Modes: CTCSS, CDCSS (transmit/receive independent)

Advanced Features: Volume, Squelch, VOX, DTMF encode, DTMF decode, tail noise elimination, tone generator, tone detector, RSSI

Pre-Emphasis: Can be disabled to assist with digital modes

Antenna Connector: SMA, 50 Ohm (optional "rubber duck")

Audio Connection: Hardware selectable between TRRS (mobile phone style headset) and Arduino PWM/ADC inputs and outputs, PWM/ADC smoothing filters built in

Input Voltage Range: 5-20VDC, 4xAA, 7.4 volt lithium battery pack, power adapter capable (requires external power supply as Arduino does not supply enough power for shield)

Be sure to like HamShield on Facebook so you can keep up to date with future developments and example sketches!



$117,194
pledged of $25,000 goal

Turn your Arduino into a powerful radio transceiver!