About Zero Retries (and N8GNJ)
If you see something interesting mentioned in Zero Retries and would like to search all the Zero Retries “Back Issues”, just click:
All previous issues of Zero Retries are available without restriction (no paywalls).
For some background, Zero Retries 0000 was the Introduction Issue.
Zero Retries 0026 and Zero Retries 0027 were a 2021 Year End Review of Zero Retries.
Concurrent with every fifteenth (formerly, every tenth) issue of Zero Retries, I publish an Omnibus of “Zero Retries Interesting” projects, etc. The most recent Omnibus was Zero Retries 0090 Omnibus of Zero Retries Interesting Information published on 2023-03-17. (I’m a bit behind on this.) Unfortunately, I haven’t kept up with this goal.
Index
Frequently Asked Questions about Zero Retries
Amateur Radio “Meta” (Big Picture) and how Zero Retries Relates
Frequently Asked Questions About Zero Retries
I strive to make Zero Retries mostly self-explanatory, or at least provide hyperlinks where I think it will help explain a topic, but not “slow down” the story with an explanation.
Q. What’s the deal with the weird name “Zero Retries”?
A. This is the most frequently asked question about Zero Retries. In Amateur Radio Packet Radio, a data transmission is divided into “packets” and each packet is tagged with a “checksum” that is unique to that packet. When the packet is received, the receiving station compares the checksum to the data received. If the checksum is correct (for the data received) the packet is assumed to be good. If the checksum is not correct, the receiving station sends a request to the transmitting station to re-transmit the packet (a Retry). The most ideal state of packet radio communications is that no retransmissions (retries) are required. Thus Zero Retries is the ideal state of a packet radio data transmission, and a goal I strive for to explain things I write about well enough that few “retries” (follow up explanations) are needed by readers1.
The name Zero Retries as a name for a newsletter was created by Budd Churchward WB7FHC for the newsletter of the now-defunct Northwest Amateur Packet Radio Association (NAPRA) based in Western Washington, USA. More than three decades after my participation in NAPRA, both WB7FHC and I found ourselves in Northwest Washington (near Bellingham, Washington) where we are now occasional collaborators in various projects involving Amateur Radio data communications.
Q. What is your background / qualifications to publish Zero Retries?
A. The primary qualification I have to publish Zero Retries is that I decided to try publishing an independent newsletter about technological innovation occurring in Amateur Radio and see if it was interesting enough for readers to subscribe. I started Zero Retries in July 2023, and to date, the experiment seems to be working out.
My background is that I was trained as an electronic technician, I almost accidentally became a self-taught system and network administrator.
I became licensed as an Amateur Radio Operator in the mid 1980s. A major part of my knowledge base about Amateur Radio data communications was from being involved with a very bright bunch of folks in the Seattle, Washington area when I relocated there in 1987. I learned from those folks like a sponge.
A minor qualification is that I was a semi-professional writer about the technology of Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
I decided that if I was going to do Zero Retries, I was going to write, unapologetically, and a bit fearlessly, about the things in Amateur Radio that I find interesting and fun.
Q. What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen?
A. I think that the coolest thing I’ve seen in Amateur Radio… the most Zero Retries Interesting thing… is the QO-100 payload in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) that provides nearly total hemispheric coverage of the Eastern Hemisphere.
Accolades for Zero Retries
Eric Guth 4Z1UG — QSO Today Podcast www.qsotoday.com:
I am very interested in the evolution of amateur radio and its future. It has a huge impact on civilization and I am proud to be a part of it.
4Z1UG is a (former) Paid Subscriber of Zero Retries.Richard Keller:
I got my ticket in 1950 when I was 13. After reading your blog I have found a renewed interest in amateur radio. You are a resource that I need to help me reconnect with ham radio.
Witold Kinser VE4WK:
Thank you very much for your effort in delivering an excellent Amateur Radio newsletter. I always find something very interesting in each issue.Florian Lengyel WM2D:
A challenging read. Lack of commercials. Seems like a balanced presentation. Exposure to new (to me) areas of radio. Zero Retries is easily the best of the amateur radio newsletters I've read since I became a ham in 1988.
WM2D was a Paid Subscriber of Zero Retries.Phil Marquis K6HSV:
[Zero Retries] beats the heck out of reading QST.
K6HSV is a paid subscriber of Zero Retries.Jason Milldrum NT7S — Applied Etherics:
Excellent source of news about cutting-edge digital amateur radio.Edward Mitchell KF7VY:
I've known Steve for a long time. He writes well about an important subject for amateur radio. Happy to support his work.
KF7VY is a Paid Subscriber of Zero Retries.Scott Nacey KK6IK:
[Zero Retries] is the best, most leading edge commentary on today's Ham Radio. Keep it up.
KK6IK is a Paid Subscriber of Zero Retries.Chris Osburn KD7DVD:
Zero Retries is the content I’m looking for, summarizing new tech and providing pointers to this generation’s innovators.
KD7DVD is a Founding Member of Zero Retries.Jon Pearce WB2MNF — President, Gloucester County (NJ) ARC:
Great ideas for supporting development of amateur radio amongst an ever-aging group of hams. We need new technologies to attract different groups of technically-minded hams.
WB2MNF is a Paid Subscriber of Zero Retries.Jason Rausch K4APR — Owner / Lead Engineer / Shipper / Janitor at RPC Electronics, LLC (by Night):
I know Steve and he has supported my company with articles. It's VERY much appreciated!
K4APR is a Paid Subscriber of Zero Retries2Tom Salzer — Random Wire℠:
N8GNJ authors a unique, quirky little highly independent, opinionated, self-published newsletter about technological innovation in Amateur Radio.Randy Smith WU2S:
Thanks for bringing a strong dose of twenty-first century reality to amateur radio.
WU2S is a Founding Member of Zero Retries.Josh Walton KK4LGZ:
I get so excited when I see you have posted! Love your work, your style, and the subjects you cover. Keep up the great work and keep me excited every time you post!
KK4LGZ is a Paid Subscriber of Zero Retries.
Zero Retries Interesting Relevant and Interesting Quotes
Ultimately, amateur radio must prove that it is useful for society. - Dr. Karl Meinzer DJ4ZC.
The Universal Purpose of Ham Radio is to have fun messing around with radios. - Bob Witte K0NR
We are confronted by insurmountable opportunities! - Pogo
Nothing great has ever been accomplished without irrational exuberance. - Tom Evslin
Irrational exuberance is pretty much the business model of Zero Retries Newsletter. - Steve Stroh N8GNJ
What’s life without whimsy? - Dr. Sheldon Cooper
Amateur Radio is literally a license to experiment with and learn about radio technology! - Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Radios are computers - with antennas! - Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Zero Retries Elevator Pitch
The former description of Zero Retries that was included with every issue was:
Zero Retries is a unique, quirky little highly independent, opinionated, self-published newsletter about technological innovation in Amateur Radio, for a self-selecting niche audience, that’s free (as in beer) to subscribe.
It’s now distilled down to:
Zero Retries is an independent newsletter promoting technological innovation in Amateur Radio, and Amateur Radio as (literally) a license to experiment with and learn about radio technology.
As of August 2024, shortly after beginning its fourth year of publication, Zero Retries hit 2000+ subscribers, and in February 2025 hit 2500+ email subscribers. There are hundreds more readers that follow Zero Retries via RSS feed, and mentions on social media, and email forwards.
Amateur Radio “Meta” (Big Picture) and Zero Retries
One of the dangers facing Amateur Radio in the 2020s and beyond Is perceived irrelevance to general society. As in “what is the actual use of Amateur Radio - why should society care?” And the subtext to that question, applicable only to Amateur Radio, is “Why should valuable radio frequency spectrum be allocated mostly-exclusively to Amateur Radio?”.
The most well-known “use” of Amateur Radio is emergency communications in a disaster. Unfortunately, three technology evolutions have combined to render Amateur Radio nearly moot for emergency communications:
Iridium is medium-speed data and voice via Low Earth Orbit satellite network. Iridium user terminals can be as small as a handheld radio. Think “walkie talkie” that works anywhere on the planet and doesn’t require any ground infrastructure. Thus its an idea voice / low speed data system for use in emergency communications. In 2019, Iridium completed replacement of their satellites with new, much more capable satellites, which allowed much faster data speeds and made Iridium much less easy to saturate in intensive use.
FirstNET is First Responder Network Authority, a program of the US Government with AT&T as the infrastructure / service provider. FirstNET provides dedicated capacity, prioritization, and hardened cellular network capacity specifically for first responders and government agencies on AT&T’s cellular network. Unlike previous voluntary efforts of cellular service providers for emergency communications offered, FirstNET has enforced and monitored metrics for reliability, capacity, and features and thus is much more reliable than “civilian” cellular infrastructure and services.
Starlink is a low earth orbit satellite system that provides Broadband Internet Access (roughly 100 Mbps downlink, 20 Mbps uplink) nearly anywhere on Earth. In 2022, Starlink relies on a bent pipe model relying on regional earth stations to transition Internet data between satellite and fiber, but the next generation of Starlink satellites will work much like Iridium with inter-satellite links that will considerably reduce the requirement for a regional earth station for Internet service in a specific area. Example - there’s little demand in the middle of a desert (or ocean) so instead of an earth station, the traffic for those few users can be “handed off” to another satellite until there is an earth station within range.
All three services have evolved in the late 2010s and are now mature enough to integrate into emergency planning. The combination of the technical capabilities of FirstNET (local voice and data), Iridium (regional / worldwide voice and data), and Starlink (regional / worldwide Broadband Internet) provides a good mix of emergency communications
In addition, a new organization - Information Technology Disaster Resource Center (ITDRC) has evolved to provide emergency communications based on Information Technology services (rather than two way radio), such as providing Wi-Fi at disaster relief sites. ITDRC is centralized and supported by major corporate sponsors. ITDRC seems to appeal to a younger, technical demographic - “just bring your IT skills and you can help” instead of a requirement of an Amateur Radio license and the unique, hyper-local organizations common in Amateur Radio emergency communications.
The primary trend working against Amateur Radio providing emergency communications is that the Amateur Radio population is rapidly aging and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to rely on Amateur Radio Operators to turn out in an emergency.
Zero Retries Assumed Audiences
Techies (which encompasses Amateur Radio Operators) interested in data communications via radio,
Students, especially college students interested in data communications via radio, often for engineering and research projects,
Regulators trying to understand Amateur Radio and “hobbyist” radio communications and the technology used there.
For a detailed explanation of these various Audiences, see Zero Retries 0089’s Request To Send.
Zero Retries Background
Zero Retries began publishing in July, 2021 and is published every Friday at 15:30 Pacific. For an overview of the genesis and goals of Zero Retries, see Zero Retries 0000 - The Introduction Issue.
In Zero Retries, I try to highlight some of the incredible technological innovation that is occurring in Amateur Radio in the 2020s. It was created to try to offset the “same old, same old” perspective of “the Amateur Radio Publishing Industrial Complex” that hides most of its content behind paywalls, and on the rare occasion it features an innovation in Amateur Radio, portrays it as a one-off innovation instead of explaining that it’s just one innovation of many in this era.
Buzzwords Used in Zero Retries
In Zero Retries, some “buzzwords” from Amateur Packet Radio are playfully used.
Request to Send is the Editorial section of Zero Retries, and is derived from the RS-232 data communications standard where one of the signals in RS-232 is “Request to Send” so that the Data Transmission Equipment (DTE) (modems) and Data Communication Equipment (DCE) (terminals) stay in synch because DTEs typically had small buffers. So, Request to Send is a playful way of saying “May I please have your attention?”. Prior to Universal Serial Bus (USB), RS-232 was the primary serial communications standard, including on Packet Radio Terminal Node Controllers (TNCs).
ZR > BEACON is Zero Retries’ “short news blurbs” section of news items I judge to be “Zero Retries Interesting” but not long enough (or not enough space for) a full article. In Packet Radio, a beacon is a brief “announcement” transmission, not directed to any station in particular.
Feedback Loop is a term from electronics, where a portion of the output signal is fed back into a circuit regulating the input. That seemed an appropriate and techie label rather than a mundane functional title such as “Comments to the Editor”.
Limitations of Zero Retries
There are four significant limitations of Zero Retries:
Trying to keep up with technological advancements in Amateur Radio is a “drinking from a firehose” exercise; there is so much going on that inevitably, some significant developments don’t get mentioned in Zero Retries because new developments occur continuously.
Zero Retries is primarily an email newsletter. The (current) publishing system for Zero Retries is Substack (see below) and Substack, mindful of the restrictions of large email service providers such as Gmail, limits the size of email newsletters to what those email service providers consider acceptable. There’s only so much room in each edition of Zero Retries.
Zero Retries content is primarily generated by one person. I’m gratified that other author’s work now regularly appears in Zero Retries. A lot of the content in Zero Retries originally published elsewhere is republished in Zero Retries with permission or with the intent of fair use.
Zero Retries is written by an Amateur Radio Operator who has lived his entire life in the United States, with little real world exposure to Amateur Radio in other parts of the world. That’s not from lack of desire or interest to cover technological advancement in Amateur Radio in other parts of the world - I’d love to. Want to help with that? Please contact me.
Zero Retries Paid Subscriptions
In July 2023, I activated paid options for Zero Retries provides revenue that offsets some expenses incurred in operating Zero Retries. I explain the payment options decision in this special post - Zero Retries Administrivia - Activating Payment Options. Paid subscriptions to Zero Retries are entirely optional; there is no difference in the content that the paid, and the free subscribers receive. There are other perks that the paid subscribers will receive in the future, beginning in 2025.
Zero Retries Store
The Zero Retries Store was activated in February 2025. It sells a variety of Zero Retries branded merchandise - hats, T-shirts, etc. Primary customer service of the Zero Retries Store is provided by Tina Stroh KD7WSF.
Over the course of 2025, the Zero Retries Store will also feature one of a kind ephemera being retired from Steve’s N8GNJ Labs that he’d like to find a new home for. Revenue from these items will provide some additional funding for continuing to publish Zero Retries and related expenses.
Think of the N8GNJ Labs items as a friendly, personal flea market, slowly liquidating Amateur Radio (mostly) and electronic ephemera to a friendly crowd. All N8GNJ Labs items will be priced to sell and find a new home, not to make exorbitant or even market rate profits.
The Zero Retries Store is a secondary priority to Zero Retries - we’re not professional sellers (but we strive to provide friendly, professional, courteous, prompt service).
The Zero Retries Store was originally going to be called the Zero Retries Unabashed Merchandizing Division. but that’s just a bit too unwieldy. Before that unwieldy name, it was going to be named something else that was popularized by a certain radio show about “cars”, but turns out they were smart enough to copyright that phrase. 🙁
Media Inspirations for Zero Retries
There are numerous media inspirations for Zero Retries, thus it’s only fair that I try to cite them given the inspiration they have provided to me.
Some things I’ve learned, collectively, from these media are:
The courage to “dive deep” on a subject,
Try to explain a subject in a conversational manner… even if it takes longer. It’s likely some readers don’t understand the subject well and privately are grateful to you taking the time to explain it.
Have some fun, don’t take yourself too seriously.
These are your words, it’s your publication, do what you think is needed.
ARRL Gateway Newsletter - You’d never know that this newsletter ever existed (1984 - 1990) by browsing the ARRL website. It’s inexplicable to me that there’s no mention of Gateway there because Gateway was the newsletter that knitted the disparate groups, developers, and networks together and progressing more or less in unison during the early to middle years of the birth and growth of Amateur Packet Radio. Each biweekly issue brought interesting, useful, and often actionable news about Amateur Packet Radio.
TAPR Packet Status Register - It’s not quite the same publication as it was in the glory days of Packet Radio, but the PSR newsletter (1982 - present) was a profound influence on me. I wrote several articles for PSR, and was very briefly an editor. I used one article I wrote for PSR as a writing sample in my application for a columnist position, and that position changed my life.
Packet Radio Magazine and Digital Digest Magazine - Until I rediscovered them as part of my ongoing project to donate almost all of my archives of Amateur Radio printed material to Internet Archive’s Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications, I had forgotten these very focused publications. I had not realized / remembered how much they shaped my worldview of Amateur Radio Packet Radio until I began rereading them after DLARC digitized them and posted them online.
Ham Radio Online - Ham Radio Online was the first blog about Amateur Radio that I considered informative and on-target about the issues in Amateur Radio that I was interested in, such as data communications in Amateur Radio. HRO was particularly interesting to me because I knew its author, Edward Mitchell KF7VY, who also lived in the Seattle, Washington, USA area and the activities in the Seattle area were reflected in HRO.
SMART Letter - It’s almost two decades since the last issue, but David Isenberg’s The SMART Letter was another profound influence to me on what, and how good, a newsletter with a solo, profoundly competent voice could be. Isenberg was famously the author of a profound essay called The Rise of the Stupid Network which foretold the rise of the Internet and the inevitable decline of the Public Switched Telephone Network - PSTN (as the be-all-and-end-all of telecommunications). The SMART Letter illustrated to me just how much influence one voice can have.
Boardwatch Magazine was a profound inspiration to me, and I unexpectedly became a columnist for Boardwatch. My Wireless Data Developments column launched my professional writing career. In particular, Editor Rotundus Jack Rickard’s editorials and his “skewer, don’t suffer the foolish folks” that were ill-advised but wrote to Boardwatch anyway were absolutely inspirational on how effective (and fun) an independent publication could be. Rickard’s replies to such folks were practically poetry. Boardwatch was one of the few publications where the ads were as informative and interesting as the editorial content. (Byte was another.)
Micro Cornucopia was the epitome of a publication with narrow niche, but diving very deep into that niche. I discovered Micro C less than two years before Editor David Thompson decided to fold it. Micro C was simultaneously an inspiration for how much one person could accomplish with an independent publication… and the dangers of one person becoming too successful with an independent publication (it takes over your life).
Midnight Engineering Magazine was a highly eclectic magazine that highlighted solo or very small technical ventures. It was notable, in influential to me, because its Editor / Publisher / Printer / Janitor, William E. Gates, literally did it all on that magazine, including physically publishing it on a printing press that he bought used and resurrected. ME was an inspiration about just how much one person can accomplish with very focused effort.
Jerry E. Pournelle (Users Column / Computing at Chaos Manor) and Steve Ciarcia (Circuit Cellar) were both columnists in Byte Magazine. Both wrote in a conversational style that I really enjoyed. Pournelle especially wrote about how he used microcomputers and along the way offered commentary about the microcomputer industry.
Media Mentions (Appearances) about Zero Retries
I’ve been interviewed a few times in the past few years:
2021-04-26 - Plutopia News Network - Steve Stroh: Broadband Access
2021-12-08 - FLOSS Weekly 659 - Open Source and Amateur Radio
2023-11-25 - QSO Today Podcast - Episode 477 - Steve Stroh - N8GNJ
2024-05-04 - LinuxFest Northwest 2024 - Amateur Radio and Open Source (Not Just Linux)
2024-05-08 - RATPAC - Tracking Technological Innovation in Amateur Radio - Zero Retries Newsletter
The RATPAC presentation focused on explaining the trends in Amateur Radio that I’m seeing and reporting about in Zero Retries.
About the Editor - Steve Stroh N8GNJ
See also my QRZ.com page - https://www.qrz.com/db/N8GNJ
I live (very close) to beautiful Bellingham, Washington, USA (the City of Subdued Excitement). Bellingham is nestled in the far Northwest corner of Washington, about ten miles South of the US / Canada border, and about 50 miles South of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
My passion in Amateur Radio has always been data modes and other technology oriented activities in Amateur Radio. In the 2020s, I’m semi-retired and working on passion projects like Zero Retries and dabbling on projects in N8GNJ Labs. Although I’m not yet active in Amateur Radio satellites, I plan to do so. Ditto microwave (mostly networking). In 20233 2024 my major focus will be getting more antennas installed, getting on the Amateur Radio HF (shortwave) bands, and a major secret project.
In 2021 and 2022, I was a volunteer on the Grants Advisory Committee (GAC) at Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC). I no longer have any involvement with ARDC, a condition ARDC required for me to write substantively about recipients of ARDC grants.
From September 2021 through August 2022, I was President of the Mount Baker Amateur Radio Club Digital Group (DG). To my surprise, I was asked to be President again from September 2023 through June 2024.
In 2022 through mid-September 2023, I was a Board member of the Whatcom Emergency Communications Group (WECG), an Amateur Radio group focused on emergency communications in Whatcom County, Washington.
Previous clubs I’ve been involved with during my time in Washington include Northwest Amateur Packet Radio Association (NAPRA), MicroHAMS, Boeing Employees Amateur Radio Society (BEARS), and a few that are defunct and I’ve now forgotten the names of.
Current Amateur Radio affiliations include HamWAN / Puget Sound Data Ring, and TAPR.
My other writing outlets include my personal Amateur Radio Blog N8GNJ.org and Superpacket, a blog about the big picture of Amateur Radio (something of a precursor to Zero Retries). I have other newsletters in development.
In April 2024, Kay Savetz K6KJN began a joint podcast about the past and future of amateur radio called Store and Forward, which we try to publish biweekly. K6KJN discusses his work at the Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications at the Internet Archive (Store), and I discuss hot topics about Amateur Radio technological Innovation from recent issues of Zero Retries (Forward).
About the Assistant Late Night Editors
Jack Stroh, Zero Retries Assistant Late Night Editor (Emeritus), was profiled in Zero Retries 0031. Jack is now a Silent Keyboard (Zero Retries 0042) and prior to his death had retired from his role as Late Night Assistant Editor due to illness (Zero Retries 0038).
Shreky Stroh, Zero Retries Assistant Late Night Editor In Training is still working on defining his role in the Zero Retries production process beyond keeping me company during late night and wee hours editing sessions of Zero Retries.
About the Zero Retries Pseudostaffers
When I began Zero Retries, KE9V, KB6NU, KB9MWR, and W7NWP encouraged me as I developed Zero Retries. I paid close attention to their respective blogs and other writing that often featured “Zero Retries Interesting” subjects. Thus they, and others, were named as a (entirely imaginary title) Zero Retries Pseudostaffer.
KE9V and KB6NU continue to blog, but KB9MWR and W7NWP seem to have retired from blogging and I only hear from them once in a while via email.
W6BI is not a blogger, but very active in promoting AREDN activities as an AREDN Ambassador, and was named a Pseudostaffer in August, 2023.
K6KJN was named a Pseudostaffer in January 2024 for their continuing contributions to Zero Retries about the Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications (DLARC).
K4HCK was named a Pseudostaffer in September 2024 for his unique contribution to Amateur Radio (and significant inspirations to Zero Retries) with his weekly compliation Amateur Radio Weekly.
KJ7T was also named a Pseudostaffer in September 2024 for his unique contribution to Amateur Radio with his weekly newsletter The Random Wire. I particularly value KJ7T’s writing as, similarly to Zero Retries, he writes longer, explanatory pieces in a conversational style. KJ7T delves into technical areas of Amateur Radio, usually from a hands-on perspective, that I just don’t quite have the bandwidth to cover in Zero Retries.
About Substack
Substack is an excellent platform for authors to create and publish email newsletters, including a well-developed subscription fee mechanism that can be optional and multi-tiered. As I’ve gained experience with Substack, I don’t feel it’s entirely suited to Amateur Radio projects because it strongly encourages “community involvement” which is something of an odd fit between Amateur Radio with the vast majority of other writers using Substack. But, one stellar quality of Substack is that you can get started at no cost. But, there’s also the Substack problem.
For future Amateur Radio newsletters, I will probably use the Ghost platform.
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Last updated 2025-03-05
Admittedly, this is an imperfect analogy, but hey, it’s not a boring name like Steve Stroh N8GNJ’s Newsletter about Things, Mostly Digital, That He Finds Interesting in Amateur Radio.
To be transparent, I’ve written of RPC Electronics, LLC’s products long before K4APR became a paid subscriber of Zero Retries. I write about companies such as RPC Electronics because they are Zero Retries Interesting and their products relate to the subject matter of Zero Retries.
2023 turned out to be pretty busy for my family, including family health issues, a remote work assignment that kept us away from home for much of the first half of the year, and joyfully, the wedding of our daughter and the resulting planning and execution of that.
