We’re helping our fellow hams see the light!

Welcome to the Carolina Flashers Photonics Group

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	The Carolina Flashers  Photonics Group is an organization of Amateur Radio operators in North Carolina (and beyond) who experiment with coherent, or more often, partially coherent light as a communications medium.
	According to Federal Communications Commission regulations, the frequencies above 300GHz are a legitimate allocation for the Amateur Radio Service.  This includes light waves, of course.  While many people consider through-the-air optical communication to be an unregulated medium, we as licensed hams follow all applicable FCC Part 97 rules, such as callsign IDs, no commercial messaging, etc.

Watch this space as our group expands and our website evolves.  Some of our goals are:

• An appropriate club callsign¹
• CFPG affiliation with the ARRL²
• Lobby the ARRL to fix Rule 1.12³
• Local multimedia communication
• DX (long distance) communication
• Networked optical repeaters in the area
• Inexpensive, easily duplicated equipment
• Exceptional ham radio fun and fellowship

¹ Status: COMPLETED.  On May 25^th 2010, CFPG was granted its first choice vanity club callsign, K4THZ.

² Status: Proposed founding documents have been made available for comment by the members. Once any changes have been adopted, they will be submitted to the ARRL for approval.

³ Status: COMPLETED.  The ARRL Board of Directors, during their second 2010 meeting held July 16th and 17th, “clarified the VHF rules to allow monochromatic sources (such as laser or LED) to count for contest credit, as long as the laser power is less than 5 mW.”

Listed below are links to some relevant information on this subject:

• ARRL - the national association for Amateur Radio™
• Amateur Lightwave Communication - by Steve Noll WA6EJO
• Amateur Radio Laser Communications - by Jim Moss N9JIM
• Australian Optical DX Group - a Yahoo Group from “down under”
• Beam Expander - widen that laser beam to reduce scintillation problems
• Carolina Flashers Group - a Yahoo Group just for us
• Cree - a cutting edge manufacturer of LEDs, etc, right here in North Carolina
• The DX Zone - resource guide to Amateur Radio
• Edmund Scientifics - large surplus Fresnel lenses cheap
• Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology - an open access resource of in-depth information
• Expérimentation Radioamateur Laser - par Yves Garnier F1AVY et Marius Cousin F8DO
• Experimenter's Corner Laser Page - by John Yurek K3PGP
• Filter Design in Thirty Seconds - from Texas Instruments, quickly design all kinds of analog active filters
• Free Space Laser Communications - webpages by G8AGN
• Fundamentals of Photonics - free ten module online tutorial from the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
• Get on 448THz for less than $100 - by Emil Pocock W3EP from February 1997 issue of “QST” magazine (ARRL members only)
• Getting Started in Electronics - a complete electronics course in only 128 pages
• Handbook of Optical Through the Air Communication - a basic primer by David A. Johnson, PE
• Infrared Data Association (IrDA) - info on infrared data exchange protocols
• Laser Communications Primer Part I - by Bryan Bergeron NU1N from September 1990 issue of “QST” magazine
• Laser Communications Primer Part II - by Bryan Bergeron NU1N from October 1990 issue of “QST” magazine
• LaserFest - a yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of the laser
• Laser Focus World - trade publication about the photonics industry
• Laser Pointer Safety - bulletin from the Laser Institute of America
• LEDs Magazine - trade publication about LED technology
• Lichtsprechgerät 80/80 Part 1, Part 2, and YouTube video - a WWII German lightbeam comm set, by Helge Fykse LA6NCA
• Light-Emitting-Diodes-dot-org - by E. F. Schubert at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• LightPointe - a company providing optical through-the-air communications equipment
• Linux Infrared How-To - using IrDA with the Linux operating system
• Modulated Light DX - by Chris Long VK3AML and Mike Groth VK7MJ
• National Semiconductor Bulletin #1244 - fast response current feedback photodiode amplifier
• North Country Radio - kits including an FM LED transmitter and receiver set (IRMO) in mono or (IRST) in stereo
• Optical Communication - by Bob Atkins KA1GT from September 1988 issue of “QST” magazine (ARRL members only)
• Optical Design Using Fresnel Lenses - tutorial by Arthur Davis and Frank Kühnlenz
• Optical Experiments - extensive material here on Tim Toast's website
• Optical Through-The-Air Communications Page - by Clint Turner KA7OEI
• Optics Bookshelf © - basic optics reference material compiled by Clarence Bakken
• Optics & Photonics News - trade publication from the Optical Society of America
• Photodiode Amplifiers - an online seminar from National Semiconductors
• Photodiode Front Ends: The Real Story - by Phil Hobbs from April 2001 issue of “Optics & Photonics News” magazine
• Photophone - the Wikipedia article about Alexander Graham Bell’s “most important” invention
• Projects - photonics construction projects by us and by others
• Ramsey Electronics - kits including LB56C LED and LBC6K laser optical audio communicators
• RONJA - an open source, free space optical data communications project
• RS-232 Laser Transceiver - uses a repurposed laser pointer
• SuperBrightLEDs - a wide variety of LEDs useful as optical frequency transmitters
• Wireless Communication with IrDA Standard Protocol - a 15 minute online tutorial from DigiKey

CFPG Club Officers for 2010:

• Raymond “Woody” Woodward K3VSA, President
• Adriano Marcuz KV7D, Vice-President
• Mary “Lisa” Woodward KG4PFB, Secretary/Treasurer

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