A Musing about Bluetooth

I'm kind of surprised that I haven't seen any amateur radio projects that make use of Bluetooth. The Bluetooth frequencies are outside of the ham bands, but even so, it is wireless and that's what hams do.

One application that I think Bluetooth would be good for is remote control. For example, I can purchase a wireless microphone for my Icom IC-207 for about $150. It uses an infrared link to communicate with the base unit, meaning that I have to be within sight of the rig.

Wouldn't this work much better and cost less using a Bluetooth link instead of infrared? With a Bluetooth remote mike, for example, I could be in my home office on the first floor and still communicate through the rig in the basement.

What I envision is a transceiver that I can plug into the microphone (the mike has a quick disconnect right at the mike) and one that I can plug directly into the base unit. The link would have to be capable of handling both voice and control signals, but I think that's part of the Bluetooth spec, isn't it?

Anyone with a little more knowledge of Bluetooth care to correspond about some of the possibilities?

Submitted by kb6nu on Sat, 11/09/2002 - 16:01. kb6nu's blog | login or register to post comments