JACK; Techcon 2026 is a one-day conference sponsored by the ARRL West Central Florida Section on February 28th. The forums will cover a variety of amateur radio technologies including NXDN, or next-generation digital narrowband. This is the newest digital mode for amateur radio and its use is gaining momentum within SKYWARN.

Paul Toth, NB9X, one of the keynote speakers, told Newsline that NXDN, created jointly by Icom and Kenwood, is used for short text, GPS and amateur digital communication.

PAUL TOTH: [sound clip]: Its primary purpose was to create a technology for ultra-narrow banding for Part 90, Land Mobile Radio.”

JACK: Toth says this use of bandwidth is a perfect fit for digital amateur radio technology, using 6.24K per channel, a 4800 baud data rate and FDMA modulation. He said it provides audio that is cleaner and more distortion free.

PAUL TOTH: [sound clip] "You don’t have any snap, crackle” because you're decoding zeroes and ones."

JACK: Most Florida West Coast counties are using NXDN for SKYWARN activities. They have a weekly net and SKYWARN reports go directly to the National Weather Service as needed during severe weather. Other areas developing NXDN are Connecticut, Massachusetts and parts of Canada.

The conference is being held at the Hillsborough County Public Service Operations Center. For details, follow the link in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org