HF Digital Voice Programs Once Again Available for Download http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/07/31/10237/?nc=1
>From the ARRL snip Citing codec (coding/decoding) licensing issues, three free Windows programs for sound card-based HF digital voice were yanked from their download site for a short time recently, surprising hams who are interested in HF digital voice operation; several online groups that supported the software were also closed for a short time. WinDRM, DRMDV and FDMDV, all written by Cesco Lanza, HB9TLK, used a codec that was developed for the US Department of Defense and NATO. Rights to various forms of the codec are held by several companies; they have never been released for free distribution and use by hams. According to Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, the companies have "winked" at ham radio use for several years, but a recent complaint caused the programs to be pulled from the download site. "Lanza did a quick rewrite to use an open-source codec, and now WinDRM and FDMDV are back," Pearce said. "DRMDV, an intermediate program between the other two, has been abandoned. WinDRM could always use the open-source Speex codec, but FDMDV users will need to download the new version." snip FDMDV and WinDRM can both be downloaded from Jason Buchanan's, N1SU, Web site. http://www.n1su.com/ snip 73 from Bill - WD8ARZ http://hflink.net/qso/