04 December 2015

Digital Voice Modes

So many options for digital voice mode operations these days.  Less than 10 years ago, D-Star hit the market and I was part of the group that got Tucson set with a D-Star repeater "stack".  Now, hams are still using D-Star but we've also got C4FM/Fusion, DMR, APCO25, and more.  Unfortunately they are not compatible so while the digital modes are fun technologies to play with, they do tend to split up the ham community a bit.

I've been playing around with different options, here is a test I ran using one computer to link handheld radios into two different modes.  A DV4mini dongle is running DMR, while a DV3K dongle is running D-Star.  The DV4mini is connected to a Connect Systems radio; the radio transmits to the dongle, which pushes it through the internet to come out anywhere in the world on the DMR systems.  The DV3K is also connected to the internet, and can operate standalone to access D-Star systems around the world; an Icom radio also can connect by accessing local repeaters that are linked into D-Star.