The FCC uses the phrase "quantitized or digital information" in the definitions in part 2 so anything encoded into discrete levels of amplitude, phase or frequency is digital.
The definitions in part 97 were probably very clear when they were written. It looks like they took amateur radio terms from the 1960's and 1970's and then spelled out which emission designators corresponded to each of them. I think that the methods of textual information transmission are fairly well defined. In CW and MCW, the symbols in the alphabet being used for communication are sent in intenational Morse code. Phone uses speech to represent the symbols. Image is transmission of glyphs representing the symbols. RTTY is transmission of symbols using a digital code that are immediately printed. Data is the tansmission of symbols using a digital code that aren't immediately printed. Digital code is ASCII, Baudot, AMTOR or any publicly documented code that isn't morse code. Phone also allows the transmission of sounds other than speech, except music. Image also allows the transmission of pictures that are not symbols in an alphabet. The FCC's definitions are outdated, but given these definitions, sending a PDF file is probably image transmission as it can contain pictures. In the 1970's the same operation woud have been performed by a fax machine and the defiition of image includes facsimile. 73, John KD6OZH ----- Original Message ----- From: DuBose Walt Civ AETC CONS/LGCA To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 16:18 UTC Subject: RE: [digitalradio] NEWEST RULES.... Perhaps now is the time to ask the question...what is the difference between analog and digital? Both are data. In the truest sense of the word, language normally vocalized is data in an analog form. If we digitize it, it becomes digital data. If we take a picture of a printed page and transmit it digitally, it is an image but the "information" carried on the page is a language. The question seems to be if the information sent as a image digitally any different than the information sent digitally without the printing/scanning process. What is different in sending a word processor file or the same file converted digitally (scanned?) to a JPEG or GIF file. Also, is a PDF file an image or digital data file. We have a problem that we REALLY don't know the definitions of "these words"/"terms" that the FCC is using. It matters little what our definition is; rather, what the FCC's definition is. Walt/K5YFW -----Original Message----- From: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of David Michael Gaytko // WD4KPD Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 4:54 PM To: DIGITALRADIO Subject: [digitalradio] NEWEST RULES.... PERHAPS IF WHAT IS TRANSMITTED IS NOT FOR DIRECT HUMAN CONSUMPTION AND GRATIFICATION, THEN IT IS NOT DATA. JUST GONNA HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE AFTER ALL THE SHOUTING IS OVER. DAVID/WD4KPD Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Yahoo! Groups Links
