Mark Kramer wrote:

Michael Coslo wrote:

PSK31 has a huge advantage in that it is
pretty cheap, and not proprietary. D-Star is decidedly not cheap, and is
quite proprietary.

No, D-Star is not proprietary. It is an open standard.


I respectfully disagree:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-STAR

to quote the relevant part:

"D-STAR has been criticized for its use of a patented, closed-source
proprietary voice codec (AMBE). [4] Hams do not have access to the
detailed specification of this codec or the rights to implement it on
their own without buying a licensed product. Hams have a long tradition
of building, improving upon and experimenting with their own radio
designs. The modern digital age equivalent of this would be designing
and/or implementing codecs in software. Critics say the proprietary
nature of AMBE and its availability only in hardware form (as ICs)
discourages innovation."

end quote


Wow.

Understood. I'll skip most of the post because I'm not looking for a
sentence by sentence rebuke here. Let's just take it that you don't like
my ideas, and we'll move on.

My thoughts are that having some sort of device that young people can
use to communicate with each other, in a manner such are they are used
to, such as texting, might just be a good thing. Add a couple more
friends, and you have a VHF chat room. No need for repeaters, no need to
intrude on other people's BW. The idea isn't to forge some new
technology. Too many people get caught up in that. It is an application
of available technology in a way that some folk might not see as useful,
but others might.


- 73 de Mike N3LI -