Alinco has 2 different digital radios. They are both proprietary and can't even talk with each other. D-STAR is an open source system. Maybe Alinco will produce a D-STAR compatible radio someday. If you want to listen to a D-STAR signal, you have to have a compatible radio.
Yes, and only because the AMBE 2020 Vocoder is best suited to the job. Speex would be optimal, but there is no hardware package for Speex that is so small, compact, and suited to the job.
The AMBE chip itself is $20.00 for qty(1), if you buy more the price comes down. Hence, no effective alternative to the AMBE 2020 for a small package (such as demanded by HT's) leaves the AMBE 2020 as the only acceptable solution.
Oh now we are judging who is a real HAM and who isn't?
Maybe you've been living in a cave for the last 30 years but people don't build their own radios anymore.
You're probably one of these old coots who is still mad the US dropped the US requirement to get a license. You still want to use crystals and tap out messages at 13 words a minute.
My main point was DSTAR cannot be considered open source. When you pay $20 do you get the source for the AMBE 2020?
I'm not the one perpetuating a myth... Stop being a luddite and do your research before you prove my observation about your lack of ability beyond a reasonable doubt.
You may still be able to recover your credibility.
A luddite? I'm a fan of DSTAR. I want to see it succeed. I just have a problem with people calling it open source when it is not. That is not a myth, that is fact. Shoe me the source code for the vocoder and I'll stop saying it.
I think calling DSTAR open source only hurts DSTAR's chances of wider adoption. We need more than one company to start making this hardware and those companies don't do things for free.
So, what you're saying is that because a particular component of it is manufactured by a commercial organization, and is not implemented in source code, that it's not open source, even though the design specs for it are published widely.
By your very definition and logic, one must conclude by inference that since Intel and AMD are the only manufacturers of PC CPU's that Linux/BSD/(or whatever) isn't open source because the CPU's are manufactured by commercial organizations.
Frankly your distortions of truth are amazing. First you purposely confuse the AMBE 2020 Vocoder Chip with the DV Dongle end-user product and misrepresent that it's $200, not $20
You then inferred that D-Star as a whole wasn't open source, even though it's a published standard by the JARL.
You then suggest that because a hardware component of the solution is made by a commercial organization that it's not open source.
And yet again below, you infer that you're "for D-Star" when your very statements falsely "condemn" for being proprietary.
Then, you accuse me of having an "Agenda" with the NCR D-Star guys, who are "for furthering D-Star" in the national capital region. But you make it sound like a bad thing, which contradicts your very statement that you're "for D-Star".
OK, never did I use the word proprietary and I don't see any condemnations coming from me. Gets your facts straight.
I like digital radio technology in general and DSTAR in particular. I just think the idea of DSTAR being open source is a joke without an open source codec.
Hardly a condemnation.
You sure are sensitive when someone disagrees with you. No matter how many accusations you make and names you call me, you're still wrong on this one.
By god man, is a TRANSISTOR "proprietary"? The chip is eminently affordable, heck it's less than many popular CPU's for computers, and D-Star is an open-standard published by the JARL.
You can buy the AMBE 2020 Vocoder just as you can buy any number of other silicon chips (aka packages).
D-Star is a published standard by the JARL.
The AMBE 2020 Vocoder can be purchased by you, your friends, or any number of other Amateur Radio manufacturers.
HOW pray-tell is this "Proprietary?" Because the other manufacturers aren't making D-Star capable units yet? Perhaps you should call their factory reps and ask "When will you be making a D-Star Capable Radio?"
As scannerbitch said That's not D-STAR, Alinco uses its own protocol. Right now ICOM is the primary manufacturer to distribute D-STAR radios and Kenwood distributes a model in Japan only (identical to the ICOM ID-800 but with the Kenwood badge).
Alinco has 2 different digital radios. They are both proprietary and can't even talk with each other. D-STAR is an open source system. Maybe Alinco will produce a D-STAR compatible radio someday. If you want to listen to a D-STAR signal, you have to have a compatible radio.
VE7TKO 3 years ago 3
To be clear, D-STAR is not open source. Icom does not make the CODEC (arguably the most important part of the entire product) open source.
You gotta pay for that one.
candlstudios 2 years ago
Yes, and only because the AMBE 2020 Vocoder is best suited to the job. Speex would be optimal, but there is no hardware package for Speex that is so small, compact, and suited to the job.
The AMBE chip itself is $20.00 for qty(1), if you buy more the price comes down. Hence, no effective alternative to the AMBE 2020 for a small package (such as demanded by HT's) leaves the AMBE 2020 as the only acceptable solution.
kvesterling 2 years ago
$20? You make me laugh.
The USB dongle is $199.. adding D-STAR to an ICOM radios costs.. what a coincidence.. $199.
So much for open source. It's all a pipe dream.
candlstudios 2 years ago
I didn't say DV Dongle, I said the AMBE 2020 Vocoder, which is a chip.
If you don't like the price, be a real HAM and build your own.
kvesterling 2 years ago
Oh now we are judging who is a real HAM and who isn't?
Maybe you've been living in a cave for the last 30 years but people don't build their own radios anymore.
You're probably one of these old coots who is still mad the US dropped the US requirement to get a license. You still want to use crystals and tap out messages at 13 words a minute.
My main point was DSTAR cannot be considered open source. When you pay $20 do you get the source for the AMBE 2020?
candlstudios 2 years ago
Dude, the only thing I can say in response to your misconceptions is that it must truly suck to be irretrievably stupid.
You've mis-judged not only the D-Star technology, and myself, and most notably, the true spirit of the public service that is HAM radio.
Amateur Radio exists to further Radio technologies, digital voice was pioneered on Amateur Radio as far back as the late 1980's by Phil Karn.
kvesterling 2 years ago
Alright, looks like I struck a nerve. You've sunk to name calling now. I guess you've run out of constructive things to say.
Plus I get another lecture on the true spirit of HAM radio. I'm so lucky.
I just said this is not a truly open source technology. Clearly I am ruining some dream of yours by making this point.
Get over it and quit acting like a baby.
candlstudios 2 years ago
I'm not the one perpetuating a myth... Stop being a luddite and do your research before you prove my observation about your lack of ability beyond a reasonable doubt.
You may still be able to recover your credibility.
kvesterling 2 years ago
A luddite? I'm a fan of DSTAR. I want to see it succeed. I just have a problem with people calling it open source when it is not. That is not a myth, that is fact. Shoe me the source code for the vocoder and I'll stop saying it.
I think calling DSTAR open source only hurts DSTAR's chances of wider adoption. We need more than one company to start making this hardware and those companies don't do things for free.
My credibility is just fine.
candlstudios 2 years ago
So, what you're saying is that because a particular component of it is manufactured by a commercial organization, and is not implemented in source code, that it's not open source, even though the design specs for it are published widely.
By your very definition and logic, one must conclude by inference that since Intel and AMD are the only manufacturers of PC CPU's that Linux/BSD/(or whatever) isn't open source because the CPU's are manufactured by commercial organizations.
Interesting...
kvesterling 2 years ago
Frankly your distortions of truth are amazing. First you purposely confuse the AMBE 2020 Vocoder Chip with the DV Dongle end-user product and misrepresent that it's $200, not $20
You then inferred that D-Star as a whole wasn't open source, even though it's a published standard by the JARL.
You then suggest that because a hardware component of the solution is made by a commercial organization that it's not open source.
kvesterling 2 years ago
Wow, two separate messages just to say:
"Blah blah blah blah.."
Simmer down pot roast.. we clearly don't agree and obviously never will.
I at least didn't have to resort to name calling to make my point. Well I guess I just called you a pot roast.. oops.
You clearly have an agenda with the National Capital Region DSTAR Association. Good luck with that..
candlstudios 2 years ago
You don't have to agree with facts, but never the less be they facts.
kvesterling 2 years ago
And yet again below, you infer that you're "for D-Star" when your very statements falsely "condemn" for being proprietary.
Then, you accuse me of having an "Agenda" with the NCR D-Star guys, who are "for furthering D-Star" in the national capital region. But you make it sound like a bad thing, which contradicts your very statement that you're "for D-Star".
You are most certainly an interesting person...
kvesterling 2 years ago
OK, never did I use the word proprietary and I don't see any condemnations coming from me. Gets your facts straight.
I like digital radio technology in general and DSTAR in particular. I just think the idea of DSTAR being open source is a joke without an open source codec.
Hardly a condemnation.
You sure are sensitive when someone disagrees with you. No matter how many accusations you make and names you call me, you're still wrong on this one.
candlstudios 2 years ago
By god man, is a TRANSISTOR "proprietary"? The chip is eminently affordable, heck it's less than many popular CPU's for computers, and D-Star is an open-standard published by the JARL.
You can buy the AMBE 2020 Vocoder just as you can buy any number of other silicon chips (aka packages).
D-Star is a published standard by the JARL.
The AMBE 2020 Vocoder can be purchased by you, your friends, or any number of other Amateur Radio manufacturers.
kvesterling 2 years ago
HOW pray-tell is this "Proprietary?" Because the other manufacturers aren't making D-Star capable units yet? Perhaps you should call their factory reps and ask "When will you be making a D-Star Capable Radio?"
kvesterling 2 years ago
@VE7TKO
The protocol is open, but the voice codec is not !
max2950 7 months ago
As scannerbitch said That's not D-STAR, Alinco uses its own protocol. Right now ICOM is the primary manufacturer to distribute D-STAR radios and Kenwood distributes a model in Japan only (identical to the ICOM ID-800 but with the Kenwood badge).
FDH1964 3 years ago
too bad that's not dstar
scannerbitch 3 years ago
it sounds like wireless car door openers (433,920 MHz)
technokultur 3 years ago