On 05/11/2012 11:42 AM, Gregory Maxwell wrote:
Think of what is going into cellular handsets these days, more than what is going into HTs, because the HTs are behind the technology. Cellular today is primarily DSP-based implementations that successfully navigate really low power budgets.On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 2:14 PM, Bruce Perens<br...@perens.com> wrote:The reason that SSB transmission is in general not offered on HTs is that much of the power of a linear PA ends up being turned into heat.Hm. I thought it was also because they don't have stable and accurate oscillators
Only if we are aiming for 100-3000 total users over the lifetime of the system. That is how many can be expected to build or buy something that hangs on the outside of an FM HT. For true ease-of-use, purpose-built radios are essential.In any case, being _easy to use_ will mandate running inside some HT's FM modulation—
We don't have large entrenched hardware companies in Amateur Radio in the way that exists for other consumer equipment. We have a few reasonably small old-line companies like Yaesu and ICOM that might not even survive the next few years. Yaesu just split their management off of Motorola in the aftermath of the Google purchase of Motorola Mobility. Their future is murky. Essentially all of our manufacturers are sidelines of their main businesses: Yaesu and ICOM are commercial and marine radio, Ten-Tec is mold and die machining.It's simply not possible to be competitive with large entrenched hardware companies.
Yaesu and Icom aren't equipped to innovate in the way Amateur Radio needs. We have a few small companies that are agile enough to produce new technology. And we have seen the sort of manufacturing that is necessary for something like an HT come into the reach of much smaller companies than previously.
Note the success of small handheld manufacturing for projects likeDSO Quad <http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/DSO_Quad>. It's really only one guy, who shopped out manufacturing and cabinet design at reasonable prices. Many of the same parts that we'd need for an HT are in there, and it's in the same form factor.
I have seen this question a lot in Open Source projects. The ones that decided to concentrate on the technology alone ended up making the greatest products that nobody ever used. They may be really proud of that, but IMO it's technological autoeroticism.... but without that, I think trying to outdo dstar at its own game is just a losing battle and it distracts from making the best codec and modem that can be made— and making displacing dstar the goal makes the whole process non-fun: How many people want to work on a project whos success or failure is uncorrelated with how well they do?
I don't think anything is standing in the way of making the very best codec, or several of the best modems. Along the way, some of us will try to get them into the hands of lots of people.
Bruce
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