Mark wrote:
You know what the trouble is with us amateurs is ?

We are stuck in the analogue age... We should all be using digital
communications by now..

Wasn't there a time when amateurs were ahead of commercial design?

Now all we do is complain when the commercial world brings out new
technology that
causes a problem with our old technology.

Look at the big picture people... We are still using analogue
communications..
Blimey , even my home phone is digital. My CD player is digital, my TV is
digital.

That's my 2 pence worth ( about 4 cents... )


There are some serious limitations to digital voice comms that make it
not work so well for our purposes. Bandwidth issues, believe it or not.

Another problem I note is that I was reading a review of a unit that
will interface between the microphone and xciever. I was reading along
with interest - it sounded pretty good - then at the end of the article
they note that you have to receive the whole transmission, or you
receive nothing. No tuning across the bands looking for a signal.
Perhaps the ARS should be channelized like CB?

Comparisons with cell phones are amusing because the quality of those
little POC's is by and large unacceptable IMO. "Can you hear me now?" 8^)


Modern digital HF voice can be hi fidelity; narrow bandwidth, and experience
few dropouts. It is superior to SSB, in any case. I don't see why it is not a
superior solution for amateur service HF needs.

The next trend will be software defined radios/cognitive radios, for which we
have already got a simple taste of in recent years with Kachina, and so on.
The thing that will be new to us is the incredible flexibility of the choice of
waveform and frequency.

It IS a real shame that hams, as hams, have not led the telecom
revolution/evolution in the last decade. We had a shot at being the first
practical and major adopters of spread spectrum a generation ago--that
fizzled.

It may very well be that changes in the mode allowances on HF will encourage
some major innovation.

Do you now realize that SSB has had a longer run than AM as the dominant mode
in the ham community? Other than legacy use in military and public service,
where else will you find such an allegiance to SSB?

SSB is noisy; not optimized in bandwidth; and of poor fidelity. CW even beats
it for S/N for a given link.

SSB is especially prone to broadband low noise levels. All the more reason to
move it aside for better modes.

73,
Chip N1IR