44 Net and the ARDC (Amateur Radio Digital Communications) foundation

Today I learned via the Ham Radio Workbench podcast that there are nearly 12.6 million IPv4 IP addresses reserved just for ham radio purposes, which are administered by the Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) foundation. It all started when Hank Magnuski, KA6M, was assigned the class A 44/8 netblock of 16.7 million IP addresses for use by licensed amateur radio operators worldwide back in 1981. In 2019, realizing that hams would never use all of those IP addresses, 1/4 of them were sold, with the proceeds of the sale going into the ARDC foundation to be used for issuing grants to eligible amateur radio purposes and to fund the costs of managing the IP addresses assigned. 

Known as the "44 Net', this is one of the largest allocations of static IP addresses in the world. The name comes from this range, which includes 44.0.0.0/9 (8,388,606 usable IP addresses) and 44.128.0.0/10 (4,194,302 usable IP addresses) for a grand total of 12,582,908 usable IP addresses. This is amazing and literally a gold mine that is free for amateur radio operator use, providing you have a ham radio-related application. Consider that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) typically charge between $2 and $25 per month for a single static IP address...and do the math. Wow.

So what can you do with one or more of these IP addresses? Here are some uses:

• Remote station access (no more dynamic IP addresses or paying for a static IP address!)
• Voice over IP (VOIP) servers like Asterisk and AllStar
• Packet radio and mesh networks
• Virtual private networks (VPNs) and tunnels between systems (like repeaters and VOIP nodes)
• Websites and blog servers
• Digital hotspots
• Remote repeater access
• etc

I thought I'd let everyone know that this is available; to apply for an address, first check out the ARDC website (link above) to learn more about the foundation and answer any questions you might have. Then you can register for an ARDC account (also known as amprnet.org) here. You will need to sign up for an account, enter and verify your callsign before you're allowed to apply for 44 Net addresses. 

I should also mention that it's also possible to apply for grants from the foundation. You can view the list of grants (and amounts) that they've approved to date, which include various outreach, EMCOMMs, repeater and educational programs. To receive a grant you need to be a non-profit org (like a club) and submit an application. Very cool! 

I'm going to move ahead and request an IP address (probably a range of them) that I plan to use for my DMR and YSF hotspots as a starter, and I'll probably also apply for some under my club (NA0TC.org) which we can use with our club remote station, among other things. Should be fun!