The main problem with sole source technology is the absence of
competition, which generally keeps prices high. And "message delivery
over HF" is a niche market if ever there was one.
If we want out of this box (pun intended),
1. expand the market
Very few hams are interested in sending email over HF. Amateur radio
serves a very broad range of interests, but there's one common aspect
to all popular modes: the ability to communicate in real-time. The only
significant driver for email over HF is emergency communications. As
Rick KV9U has pointed out, a capability used only during emergencies
will never be reliable during emergencies. Thus we must find a way to
incorporate reliable message delivery as a useful adjunct to something
much more broadly appealing.
2. minimize the cost of adoption
"Cost" is not limited to money spent on a an outboard box, it also
includes less tangible things like the effort required to learn,
deploy, and manage a new operating system. We can debate the merits of
various architectures until we're blue in the face, but the bottom line
is that anything that doesn't run on a Windows PC with a soundcard and
a 3 khz bandwidth transceiver will not see broad uptake in the amateur
community over the next 5-10 years.
3. find some sizzle
Why has PSK become so popular so quickly? It provides "fast enough"
real-time communications, it runs on just about any Windows PC with a
soundcard and a stable transceiver, and its narrow bandwidth permits
panoramic reception -- a use of available computing technology that is
both visually attractive and highly effective.
73,
Dave, AA6YQ
Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org
Other areas of interest:
The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/
DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion)
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