[aprssig] Re: D-STAR video on YouTube

[Scott Miller]

> Last time this conversation came up someone pointed out P-25 as an 
> alternative.   I think the vocoder for P-25 is made by the same company 
> that does the D-Star stuff.  And the licensing requirements and 
> structure are the same.  Hardware only, no computers, etc.   AND, there 

See http://www.speex.org/.  There ARE alternatives.

> are people already homebrewing D-Star transceivers.  Can I shout that a 
> couple of times like a little kid?  PEOPLE ARE HOMEBREWING D-STAR 
> TRANSCEIVERS.   People are pushing for an open D-Star movement and 
> development.

And they're having to buy AMBE chips from a single supplier.  Hams are 
good at coming up with clever, low-cost technology - but the AMBE 
requirement sets a lower limit to just how low-cost any implementation 
can be.  For the price of the AMBE chip, you could get a reasonably 
powerful DSP that'd run both the codec and any number of other functions.

In the end, the blame probably lies with us anyway - if the ham 
community had come up with a better solution first, maybe we wouldn't 
get stuck with Icom doing the 'innovation' for us.

Scott
N1VG