Yep, it definitely is possible. I see it all of the time. While FM is a nice, clear wideband signal when it has sufficient signal strength and correct deviation settings, when it isn't full quieting and when radios have deviation and modulation settings from near 0 to 200+%, FM signals can sound quite crappy.
DSTAR digital on the other hand, as is often stated, is much more all or nothing than FM. The FEC takes a weak signal and makes it sound just like a strong one. And at this point, since we have radios from 1 manufacturer (and DVDongles from another) the audio signals are much more consistent in level. And there's a number of installations of IRLP and EchoLink where the audio may get processed at an analog level maybe 10 times. At a bare minimum, the audio is processed in 4 places, compared to D-STAR's 2. And don't forget the extra beeps and boops common to EchoLink. Even if the repeaters are all interfaced to manufacturer specification, there's a lot of audio processing going on. And there's still weak and badly modulated end-user devices. Heck, The SEWX net is so much easier to listen to and understand than most of our local single repeater FM nets. Ed WA4YIH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nate Duehr Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 3:55 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Emergency comms poll. On Apr 4, 2010, at 10:57 AM, Woodrick, Ed wrote: > > and the audio is much better than FM equivalents of IRLP and EchoLink. > > > Ed WA4YIH Not technically possible unless the repeaters are interfaced incorrectly. -- Nate Duehr, WY0X [email protected]<mailto:nate%40natetech.com>
