I would like to see a black box 2/70 and possibly 23cm DV/DD rig that is controlled via USB with front end software that is PC/linux based. Small 12v car based PC's and 7" touch screens are getting cheap and readily available. It could double up as a APRS system/street mapping/email/whatever. This would be similar in design to Icom's PC based receivers that can have both PC control or remote front panel control. We can dream...
Michael. VK5ZEA --- In [email protected], "john_ke5c" <k...@...> wrote: > > I've been meaning to clean this post up for a while, but since I don't > think I'll really do that soon, here's the rough hypothesis: the next > big breakthrough in DStar will be a user-friendly user interface. The > current DStar radio interfaces were developed before DStar really was > used much and do not reflect how these radios really are and can be > used. Many folks hear about DStar, buy a radio, try it for a few > weeks, then put it aside or sell it because they feel it is too > complicated. > > The current DStar radio UI's are as powerful and functional as DOS, > and they need to become like windows - note that's a small 'w' so I > mean the generic concept rather than a specific Windoze or X-windows, > etc. How would this happen? A new radio UI is implemented with: > > 1) a 'glass cockpit' style of interface - an LCD that is either itself > touch sensitive or is surrounded by softkeys, or both. This is > against the trend of physicially smaller and smaller radios, but look > at some of the current smart phones. HT's don't have to fit in a > shirt pocket; > > 2) a repeater/gateway database that is EASILY downloaded and updated > via the internet - wifi too so you can do this in your driveway; > > 3) no additional 'programming' of the radio to use this downloaded > data. The radio will present this data to the user via the UI in one > of several useable forms such as lookup by city, by geographic > distance from the radio which also has a GPS of course and by good old > callsign; > > 4) selecting a repeater from the database sets all necessary DStar > callsigns, frequency parameters, etc; > > 5) a builtin help system; > > 6) a logical presentation of the "one-touch call" to callsign route > back to a caller on a distant gateway. The UI might popup the > caller's information and the matching database information for the > caller's gateway and ask if you wish to engage in a QSO now or save > for a few minutes later; > > 7) some limited last heard information accessible via the low-speed > (limited bandwidth) data subchannel; > > 8) reflector linking (via an in-range repeater/gateway - callsign > routing to the gateway?), perhaps using the low-speed data subchannel > to send a keep-alive request every 30 to 60 seconds to the selected > reflector to keep you linked; > > 9) multiple uses of the low-speed data subchannel so GPS data might be > alternated with a reflector keep alive request, etc.; > > There's more, but this is enough to be food for thought. > > 73 -- John >
