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I've been looking around for new digital amateur radio hardware and here's what I've found so far:
Alinco has a few radios out: DR-620 VHF+UHF, DR-135MKII mobile/base and the DJ-596 & DJ-593MkII VHF/UHF hand helds.
Of course these require "optional digital cards" and Alinco is using some format of digital which is a point of much confusion in my mind. Mainly the confusion is due to this link:jn1jdz.ampr.jp/20F3/ From what I can gather there were perhaps older digital option cards that used 20F3 (the EJ-40U/43U for the DR-135 and DR-145 radios). After a bit of digging it seems this format was based on the established ITU-TV.32 protocol.
Apparently the 20F3 format is incompatible with 10F3 which seems to be the format of the new digital option cards (EJ-47U) used in the DR-620 and the latest series of Alinco digital ready radios.
Why do I get the feeling this is going to become another one of those format wars? It's like digital TV only worse ;-)
www.alinco.com/usa.html
AOR has an interesting box ARD9800 that allows you to run digital using your old analog radio. AOR is using AMBE2020 and DQPSK and apparently is compliant with the G4GUO open digital protocol (yet another format). Seems like a pretty cool box which allows for video/image to be sent as well.
www.universal-radio.com/catalo...50.html
Then there is the new Icom system named D-STAR. This appears to be a pretty impressive and thought out communications network, however it is 1.2 GHz and up due to the high speed data integration. Check it out.
www.icomamerica.com/amateur/...ndex.html
Has anyone heard of any other released or in production products? Is anyone even interested in digital at this point?
-S
Alinco has a few radios out: DR-620 VHF+UHF, DR-135MKII mobile/base and the DJ-596 & DJ-593MkII VHF/UHF hand helds.
Of course these require "optional digital cards" and Alinco is using some format of digital which is a point of much confusion in my mind. Mainly the confusion is due to this link:jn1jdz.ampr.jp/20F3/ From what I can gather there were perhaps older digital option cards that used 20F3 (the EJ-40U/43U for the DR-135 and DR-145 radios). After a bit of digging it seems this format was based on the established ITU-TV.32 protocol.
Apparently the 20F3 format is incompatible with 10F3 which seems to be the format of the new digital option cards (EJ-47U) used in the DR-620 and the latest series of Alinco digital ready radios.
Why do I get the feeling this is going to become another one of those format wars? It's like digital TV only worse ;-)
www.alinco.com/usa.html
AOR has an interesting box ARD9800 that allows you to run digital using your old analog radio. AOR is using AMBE2020 and DQPSK and apparently is compliant with the G4GUO open digital protocol (yet another format). Seems like a pretty cool box which allows for video/image to be sent as well.
www.universal-radio.com/catalo...50.html
Then there is the new Icom system named D-STAR. This appears to be a pretty impressive and thought out communications network, however it is 1.2 GHz and up due to the high speed data integration. Check it out.
www.icomamerica.com/amateur/...ndex.html
Has anyone heard of any other released or in production products? Is anyone even interested in digital at this point?
-S
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SF Bay Area
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Re: Digital Amateur Radio
Fri, November 7, 2003 - 11:54 PMWell, Seth, I *am* interested in that most
venerable digital mode, CW! :-)
It used to be the bedrock of ham radio--the
one thing that all hams had in common
with each other. But alas, country after
country is abandoning the Morse testing
requirement--and its days may be
numbered here in the U.S. as well.
------
Nevertheless, it still affords hams
operating on a shoestring budget to
get on the air and to make QSOs.
To their credit, Russia and India have
both indicated that they will retain their
Morse testing requirements. At least
these countries are willing to stand up
and be counted, and to go against the
flow of the anti-Morse-testing wave that
is now cresting.
------
CW technology has remained pretty
basic and stable since the days of
spark gaps. Just call me a mossback
on this one. -
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Re: Digital Amateur Radio
Sat, November 8, 2003 - 7:46 AMYes I have to admit I too am sad to see it fading away. It is after all one of the most reliable and efficient forms of communication in many circumstances. Of course after well over a decade with no code use, I'd be lucky if I could recognize a handful of characters.
I think there will always be a fondness for it within the ham community world wide, and for that I'm thankful. I've been on both sides of this code/no code debate. When I got my license it was 5 WPM for Novice, but that was long ago. I always figured I would upgrade at some point and learn to copy faster but never did (learn 15-20 WPM). I can see how some people felt the community was not growing and they looked at code as a barrier but I'm glad there are still license classes the require it.
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