Makes sense! Thanks Jeff! :-)
John Hymes
La Rue Communications
10 S. Aurora Street
Stockton, CA 95202
http://tinyurl.com/2dtngmn
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff Ackerman
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 3:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Erring on the Side of Caution....
One other thing is hams already modify there RSS to suite there needs, mainly
speaking of the 900 mhz rss for GTX's, MTX9000's and so forth. But alot of
these hams that have this modified software are very reluctant to let it go
wild out on the net for fear of the big M cracking the whip, therefor its all
kept in a tight group, but in some cases its not.
On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 2:55 PM, Kris Kirby <[email protected]> wrote:
On Thu, 1 Jul 2010, La Rue Communications wrote:
> Thanks Jeff! I am curious though - if the RSS is similar to Computer
> applications (I know the RSS *IS* software) but if its obsolete, a lot
> of software vendors don't mind if the obsolete software goes public /
> freeware. Even if it was made Open Source and people could configure
> it to work with any similar Motorola radio (If possible), would
> Motorola get upset about stuff like that happening with their licensed
> software?
Motorola will sue you into bankruptcy if you cross them. However, they
have larger problems. Remember that they are selling radios that cost
$1500+ to every agency under the sun because of the narrow-banding that
is coming up in a few years. The secondary markets of the existing
"wideband" radios will be legal Part 90 users who do not want to pay for
the new radios, and can afford the filter and frequency
standard replacement as well as the tech's time on the bench to make
sure the radio is within spec. On top of those factors, many of the
radios weren't made to deal with the splinter frequencies which will be
used in increasing numbers in the future.
I suppose if one was bright and wanted to hedge a few bets, one could
buy up a large number of Maxtracs, have them sent to China, install new
timebases and filters, check them there cheaply, then send them back to
the US and have them checked again, programmed, and sold to the other
Part 90 users. Or one could have 900MHz Maxtracs turned into 450MHz
Maxtracs, keep the 2.5KHz deviation, and use HearClear. That would be
fundamentally changing the operation of the radio and might involve
learning 68HC11 microprocessors and reverse engineering the radio. But
those costs are cheaper in China, where the choice is "do I want to eat
today?" versus "Do I want to eat next week?" or "I still have four
months before they foreclose."
Of course, the growing dependence on CODECs to achieve bandwidth savings
in digital radio sets an artificial obsolescence point in the lifetime of
the radio. As long as the FCC and industry keeps thinking they can
squeeze blood from a turnip, two-way radio will see smaller allocations
and the Big Five telecom players will enjoy allocations in the
multi-megahertz.
But Motorola plays in that market too.
--
Kris Kirby, KE4AHR
Disinformation Analyst
--
Jeff Ackerman
Peninsula Communications
6 Rossi Circle, Suite C
Salinas, Ca 93907
[email protected]
