On Sunday 06 December 2009 18:22:22 Dave Ackrill wrote: > Gmail - Kevin, Natalia, Stacey & Rochelle wrote: > > > As for D-Star, ICOM is the maker, don't believe Yaesu has anything in their > > line-up, same for Kenwood (except the rebrand). I am a Kenwood man and so > > far I have resisted going to D-Star until I see what the other makes bring > > out. If D-Star was so good WHY haven't the other brands made and sold them? > > I would guess that D-Star is the intellectual property right of Icom, so > if other manufacturers want to use it they would have to pay Icom for > the right to do so. I can't see many manufacturers wanting to tie their > future development to a competitor by including something that the > competitor controlled... > > There is an alternative that implements D-Star which uses a dongle unit > into the PC to interface other radios, but it isn't cheap. I guess that > could be due to rights payments as well? > > Personally, and I am a bit of a sucker for strange new modes, I can't > see what D-Star would give me that I need or want at present. Even > digital audio over Amateur bands seems to have more down sides than up > to me. > > Dave (G0DJA) > > >
Hello Dave and the Group. D-Star is a protocal that the JARL (Japenese version of the ARRL) has devel- oped that is open source to the public EXCEPT for one piece of software that it relies on that is PROPRIETORY code. Hense the reason the D-Star dongle cost so much to sell. Kenwood, Yaesu, and Alinco can jump on the band wagon anytime they want if they want to. Its just that I think they see D-Star as more of a FAD than a useful mode. The thing that gets me is that everyone I have talked to locally thinks that D-Star is going to behave like a plain analogue voice signal. WRONG!!! You are going to have lose of data depending on conditions and signal stregnth in ANY mode, but with D-Star it is more pronounced for the cut-off threshold between full and no signal decode. There have been a few Satellite QSO's on AO-51 using D-Star but no one has released an audio file of the quality that was obtained that I have found yet which is something I would like to heard. Here in Michigan, I have played a little with 'borrowed' (already programmed) equipment on D-Star and didn't like it much. Too much choppy audio and lose of lock on data. Got fifty miles from a repeater that was now D-Star and lost link to it. That same repeater as an analogue repeater I could get into from as far away as 125 miles. All based on same antenna and power - 50 watts and a MFJ 15 dollars dual band mag mount on same car. I am not impressed with it as a general usage system unless you are going to be a local user ONLY. As for long distance comms, it would have to rely on band conditions helping out. I'll stay with the tryed and true methods for now. James W8ISS ------------------------------------ Suggested frequencies for calling CQ with experimental digital modes = 3584,10147, 14074 USB on your dial plus 1000Hz on waterfall. Announce your digital presence via our Interactive Sked Pages at http://www.obriensweb.com/sked Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: digitalradio-dig...@yahoogroups.com digitalradio-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: digitalradio-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
