Mike, Please disassociate my posts from official Elecraft. While I do contract repair work on the legacy products (K1, KX1, K2, etc,) for Elecraft, I do not represent Elecraft in any statements that I make here on the reflector. What I suggest is my own independent offering.
73, Don W3FPR. On 4/28/2012 11:40 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Don - > > I am not suggesting that you include D-Star in your products, and I am > not going to change your mind, but I tend to disagree with the concern > about D-Star over the proprietary nature of ABME... > > Not to split hairs, but the "mode" of D-Star is Gaussian minimum shift > keying, a form of frequency shift keying. The D-Star implementation of > GMSK is an "open" standard, and has been implemented at the hobbyist > level. > > Which brings us to ABME, a proprietary "code-book" protocol (codec). I > struggle with the lack of a published, unfettered standard as many do, > but...I wonder how large of a practical impact this on me. I think > about the other things that I can't make myself but leverage in my > station, such as DSP controllers containing proprietary intellectual > property and "microprocessor-based" transceivers (e.g. K3) from which > I can not, to the best of knowledge, obtain and reuse the code. > > I think that one of the things that distinguishes "open" from > proprietary is that I could, if I was so inclined, attempt to > implement AMBE in software if ABME was "open". I am not so inclined, > no more than I am inclined to "hack" my K3 or replace the DSP in one > of my "other" radios with a custom FPGA. If the test for ABME is the > ability of an individual or organization to implement it at-will and > without royalty, then I would have to admit it fails...but...with all > of the proprietary IP and non-reproducible components in my "amateur" > systems, and knowing of the existence of a number of "modes" > (protocols) that are implemented by one seriously-flawed PC > application (that I can't decode by ear), I guess I just have a hard > time seeing the big difference. > > In the end, I think D-Star is fun and probably less of threat to the > long-term health of amateur radio than gentrification and apathy, but > that's just my opinion... > > 73, > > Mike Alexander N8MSA > > [email protected] > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > *From: *"Don Wilhelm" <[email protected]> > *To: *"Greg Troxel" <[email protected]> > *Cc: *[email protected] > *Sent: *Saturday, April 28, 2012 9:42:29 PM > *Subject: *Re: [Elecraft] D-Star > > I agree fully, despite the article in the May issue of QST which glosses > over the proprietary nature of D-Star. > > I am opposed to the use of proprietary protocols in ham radio. Ham > radio to me is free radio. I have passed my license requirements, and > should be able to use whatever modulation techniques are authorized by > the FCC. The thought of paying for a license (even though that payment > may be bundled with a transceiver purchase) is foreign to my views of > ham radio. > > Certainly, I buy computers with Windows loaded, but I do not buy Icom > transceivers with D-Star loaded. That is what is foreign to my view of > ham radio. > > Until someone comes up with an open source and free to use substitute > for the AMBE Codec that is owned by Digital Voice Systems, Inc., I will > not be using D-Star. > > 73, > Don W3FPR > > On 4/28/2012 9:17 PM, Greg Troxel wrote: > > I would hope that Elecraft would not add D-Star support; I think it's > > against the spirit of amateur radio, and particularly contrary to the > > kit culture, to have an on-air specification that an individual amateur > > is precluded from implementing without obtaining a patent license. > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
