What you're seeing there is a new "market driver" that will produce a host of HF radios that require very little expertise to operate them for a much broader market than Ham radio.
The "driver" is the Global Marine Distress Safety System (GMDSS) that is used on vessels of all sizes around the globe to protect life at sea. It's what replaced "Sparky" and his CW rig on large ships. There's a HUGE misconception that GMDSS is a "satellite based" system. Not so. On large vessels, satellite systems are used for routine communications when there's no emergency and satellites form a backup during emergencies assuming the equipment is working and needed. But satellites are a backup, *not* the backbone of the system. On large ships such as "Sparky" used to travel aboard, the GMDSS system depends upon HF (Shortwave) point-to-point SSB communications to contact other ships and shore stations just like Hams use to make contacts across the HF spectrum. Licensed GMDSS operators have to apply a knowledge of HF propagation in order to choose the best frequencies for the needed range under any conditions, just as experienced Ham operators do. Emergency calls are made using Digital Selective Calling (DSC) feature on these radios which alerts bridge crews throughout the area in the event of an emergency call. That has spawned a huge demand for rugged, easy-to-use HF SSB equipment such as ICOM is showing in the Youtube presentation. Hams will certainly see a lot of product fallout as manufacturers focused on that market provide a new generation of simple-to-use but efficient equipment for Ham band operations as well. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFuy01zZR4g This japanese company has a new radio with a good looking amber/orange LCD display. ---------------------------------------- KN1w _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
