[amsat-bb] Re: Icom D-Star

[Gregg Wonderly]

On 4/29/2011 3:23 AM, don wrote:
> Hi Greg,
>         Sorry to say this, but your analogy to "just another component" is 
> plain wrong. The vocoder cannot be replaced by another generic component as 
> far as I can ascertain. I cant' even find the algorithms that would allow me 
> to program a DSPIC or fpga at home in my meager lab to perform any of the 
> functions in the codec.

I am not suggesting that you create your own version of that codec Don.  I am 
suggesting that you can put this codec into a design to make it work with D-Star 
now.  Later, if another codec becomes popular, if you've done the design right, 
you could plug in another codec that would change the form of the coded data and 
recognize that form for decoding and presto, you swap in the new codec and you 
don't have to worry about being dependent on D-Star.  In a sense, this is 
exactly the thing that the FM-USB-LSB-Digital knob does on your existing 
multi-mode rig.

You just have to think about D-Star as a mode, and not as a "rig" or a 
"standard" and move on to experimenting with what you can master instead of only 
what you can "make".

Gregg Wonderly
W5GGW