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Paul Elliott's avatar

Re. the Hamvention, I was there with my Turn Island Systems gadgets as a guest of HamSci and TAPR. My stuff was on the table between the TAPR and HamSci areas, and I spent a lot of time talking with interested hams. Rob Robinett (author of wsprdaemon) and I gave presentations, pretty much the same material we covered at the recent HamSci conference.

I had a blast! This was my first Hamvention, and while I knew it was a big deal, it was way bigger than I had anticipated. I didn't have a chance to see most of it, but I did get to talk with Hans (QRP Labs -- a very busy guy!), and a number of internet friends.

A few outcomes for Turn Island:

* TAPR will be handling sales and distribution for the RX-888 reference clock adaptor kit that I designed on a napkin during the recent HamSci conference, collaborating with a couple of the TAPR folks. I've been selling these from the Turn Island Systems website, but TAPR may take over, or at least become an alternate source.

* One of my WSPRSONDE multi-band transmitters is now on the way to Ellesmere Island (in Canada's far, far, north). I am thrilled by this -- it complements the one now in Antarctica, plus I didn't have to carry my demo unit home on the plane!

* I have several (possibly many) requests for units from the next WSPRSONDE production run.

* There is serious interest in the filters and filter/preamps I have developed for use with wide-band SDR receivers. These optimize, or at least improve, the useful dynamic range of a wideband SDR (as used by the wsprdaemon and other receiving systems).

(FYI, the WSPRSONDE is used in propagation and ionosphere research, and is one of many types of equipment set up by hams, scientists, and ham-scientists.)

This is all small-potatoes stuff, and I'm certainly not going to cut into Icom's market, but it is gratifying to see that there are enough interested hams out there to make what I am doing seem worthwhile.

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Jerry Wanger's avatar

I wasn't trying to get a good deal from DVSI. The $2.00 offer was a starting point and should probably be at least the standard royalty price DVSI charges their customers for incorporating their vocoders. Even if I offered $22 per radio they would have rejected it. It was not the per radio royalty charge issue. Their business model requires everyone to pay an up front licensing fee.

Because their patents have expired on the DSTAR vocoder, in theory I can develop a great DSTAR vocoder and not have to pay them a penny in royalty or licensing fees. I don't have the knowledge to even make a poor quality vocoder however I am sure there are people out there who can.

The second issue I had with the article is the use of DSTAR is not good. My objective is to have all the current vocoders available in the radio so all the different modes can eventually be accommodated. The DMR vocoder is used in DMR, Fusion, NXDN, and P25 phase 2. The only vocoder I did not mention is the vocoder used in P25 Phase 1. I am not sure if our hardware will accommodate P25 Phase 1. That vocoder is also patent free because of its age.

The reason for having DSTAR as the fourth protocol is because it is the easiest to implement. It is a "low hanging fruit" argument.

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