Reduce the $$$ barrier? The D-Star chip costs about $25. No one is going to be able to manufacture an open source vocoder chip for less than that.
It would be the ultimate in $$$ reduction - free! This would *not* happen in
HTs, being they're hardware driven. However, for base stations and
mobile/laptop setups, or even an HT/Smartphone combo it *would* be possible to
drop cost to free.
-73, KE7HQY
