[OZAPRS] Gating DPRS to APRS

[Darryl Smith]

Hi Zik and Hamish and Others... 

On Internet connecting D-Star Data, I cannot see how sending D-Star data
to
the Internet would generally be illegal. Gating from the internet to
D-Star
is different. IN that case there is the potential for an unlicensed person
to transmit over ham radios. Sending to the Internet can be performed by
someone with a D-Star in receive only mode, which will not require a
license. 

* The Vocoder it turns out can be purchased for about $20, which is not so
bad. You can see a project using it on the following page.
http://www.moetronix.com/dstar/

The patent issue with Vocoders and CODEC units is not so straight forward.
Sure, the AMBE 2000 and AMBE 2020 might be encumbered by patents, but
patents normally last under 20 years. That means that 1986/7 is about the
current timeframe for patents expiring. My guess is that this is one of
the
reasons that the AMBE1000 was killed off - since it was about to go out of
patent coverage. The GSM CODEC full rate and half rate codecs date from no
sooner than 1991, so they are about to expire, even if they have not yet.
The IS95 Codec/vocoder dates from about this time too. And there was a
heap
of work done by Bell Labs in the 1970's, and even by Robert Moog in the
1980's. 


* The D-Star system was developed by hams at the JARL, and the radio was
released in 2004 if memory serves in Denver, Colorado. The material that
was
presented by Icom America very specifically targeted the radio *AS A
SYSTEM*
to NGO's. Specifically, it was designed to assist in NGO's applying to the
Department of Homeland Security for grants. The whole system was put
together in a way to allow it to be an easy purchase post 9/11. Look at
the
design of the repeater system. 

It is designed to live inside solid plastic cases - and that includes the
dishes. Very few hams can afford to have two or three repeaters and their
microwave links live in cases. The only people who can afford that are
some
VERY wealthy WICEN type groups, or organizations like the American Red
Cross, Doctors without Borders, DANGER (Part of MAF) and some (US) ARES
groups with significant state funding.

>If you think you can improve on it why not make
>your own improved system and encourage people to adopt it?

Basically I do not have the budget to do this. ICOM does, and so I have
tried to get things improved by them. Bruce Perens has tried too.

But some people are working on improved systems that work. Like my friend
Matt Ettus with the USRP board, and the HPSDR project. People might not
realize that I am deeply involved with HPSDR (www.hpsdr.org) by assisting
them to get their ideas implemented onto PCB's. The TAPR Board (which I am
a
member of) has dedicated significant resources to the HPSDR teams, and
this
is showing a lot of results. 

I really should be over in the USA next week at the TAPR/ARRL Digital
Communications Conference. Unfortunately my mother is rather unwell, and
needs looking after following cancer treatment. I should have been flying
out in Tuesday, and only made the hard decision last night not to go.
Pity,
because there is a heap of great work being done. The list of papers will
be
up soon http://www.tapr.org/dcc.html, but the speakers schedule is
amazing...

	* Results of HF Digital Protocol survey - Paul Rinaldo
	* FSM Virtual Radio Kernel - Frank Brickle
	* A stroll through Software Radio - Bob McGwier

Sorry about such a long post. If people can do good things with the D-Star
then fantastic. But it is my belief that the D-Star system has some
issues.

Darryl


-----Original Message-----
From: ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au [mailto:ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au] On
Behalf Of Zik Saleeba
Sent: Thursday, 20 September 2007 11:42 AM
To: VK / ZL APRS Users
Subject: Re: [OZAPRS] Gating DPRS to APRS

On 9/20/07, Hamish Moffatt <hamish at cloud.net.au> wrote:
>
> I have to disagree that "it's not a big deal."

I agree Hamish that it's not ideal. But the important caveat here is
that people are working on alternative open vocoding schemes which
will fit within the D-STAR standard. The trouble is that pretty much
all decent modern vocoding schemes are currently patent encumbered. I
expect that the closed vocoder will be replaced with free alternatives
in time. Until then we have something which isn't perfect from a
licensing point of view but at least it's effective, cheap and
available.

> > d) The data service isn't here yet but it will give us mobile internet
> > capability with decent bandwidth. It's much better than anything of
> > this kind readily available to amateurs right now.
>
> Would this be legal to use, and even if so why should we be providing
> internet access over the radio? I think amateur radio is best used for
> things that can't be delivered commercially, not just as a freebie
> alternative.

I believe that the WIA is looking at the legality of internet
connectivity right now. My understanding is that in Australia right
now it's _not_ legal to gateway D-STAR data to the internet. In most
other countries it is legal and amateurs are very enthusiastic about
the benefits. From my own point of view I can think of five great ham
projects I'd love to use this feature for. If it can be made legal
then what's not to like?

Cheers,
Zik
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