For the June VHF contest, I operated Single-Op Portable from the summit of Pikes Peak. I combined this with Summits On The Air (SOTA) and Parks On The Air (POTA) activations. In a few hours, I made 80 QSOs on 6m, 2m, 1.25m, 70cm, and 23cm bands. It was a fun time.

Quite a few of the contacts were made on 2m FM, The Utility Mode. Even though CW, SSB and WSJT modes are more efficient (especially with weak signals), FM is still the least common denominator for modulation. Everyone has it, so there are more QSOs available with that mode.FM is the default choice for easy VHF simplex communication.

Where Be Digital?

Perhaps it was the lack of oxygen in my brain, but I started to wonder:

Why the heck, in the year 2022 are we still using an analog mode for so much of our amateur communication?

FM was invented in the 1930s, which is ancient history from a technological point of view. Of course, we do have many handheld and mobile radios available that support digital voice (DV) modulation. In fact, we probably have too many digital formats to choose from, all incompatible, which has fragmented the market. The three dominant digital voice modes are D-STAR (first out of the chute), DMR (a commercial standard) and Fusion (Yaesu’s C4FM offering). I think these all have their advantages and disadvantages which attract various people to support one or more of them. However, none of them is dominant and universal, like FM. It is interesting that virtually all DV radios on VHF/UHF include analog FM because it is The Utility Mode, the fallback modulation that keeps us all compatible.

Universal Digital Voice

For this post, I am primarily looking at this from a SOTA and POTA perspective, which means simplex operation and not repeaters. (However, you could extend this idea to repeaters, too.) I am also not so concerned about keyboard modes, just DV plus some basic digital telemetry that goes with it. It can’t be too complex or it will not be fast and easy to use.

I propose a universal DV mode that is implemented in all VHF/UHF transceivers (think in terms of your typical handheld or mobile transceiver for 2m and 70cm). And yes, go ahead and also implement D-STAR, DMR, Fusion, or whatever, but give us a universal digital format that just works. The key idea is to have a digital least common denominator mode that replaces FM. This mode can be the defacto standard for “meet me on simplex” and become the Next Generation Utility Mode. How cool would it be to get on top of a summit and push the DV Call button and work stations on digital many miles away? The station’s callsign should be embedded in the digital stream along with location data (lat/lon or grid locator) and some user-defined fields ( SOTA reference or other information). This format should also have really good weak-signal performance, significantly better than FM, for when the signal-to-noise ratio is low. All the technology must be open, to encourage wide adoption, with no proprietary codecs or modulation schemes.

The technology for this already exists and it would not be difficult to implement. The real challenge is the lack of industry coordination and collaboration between amateur radio manufacturers. Unfortunately, I don’t see this changing any time soon.

That’s my thought for today. What do you think?

73 Bob K0NR

The post Universal Digital Voice appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

A big trend in ham radio activity is the use of internet-connected transceivers commonly referred to as hotspots. These devices often use one (or more) of the popular VHF/UHF digital formats (DMR, D-STAR, Fusion) but analog FM is also used. They allow a radio amateur to have a local RF connection into one of the extensive radio networks (e.g., Brandmeister).

Unfortunately, there have been situations where radio amateurs arbitrarily chose hotspot frequencies that caused interference with existing radio activity. For example, a hotspot showed up on the 70 cm SSB calling frequency, 432.100 MHz. One of the worst examples of interference was a hotspot sitting on the input frequency of a satellite transponder. Not good.

The Colorado Council of Amateur Radio Clubs (CCARC) is the VHF/UHF frequency coordination body for the state of Colorado. Included in its spectrum management role, the CCARC maintains a detailed set of band plans (called Frequency Use Plans) for the 144 MHz, 222 MHz, 420 MHz, 902 MHz and 1200 MHz bands.

The CCARC recently decided to provide some guidance on what frequencies should be used for hotspot operation. Previously, the operator of a hotspot had to scan through the Frequency Use Plan and figure out where hotspots fit in. It wasn’t very obvious, so the CCARC now recommends 10 specific frequencies on the 70 cm band for hotspot use.

These frequencies are available for simplex hotspot use. However, for each of these simplex frequencies, there is also a corresponding frequency 5 MHz lower that can be used for hotspots that operate duplex.

Unlike repeaters, hotspots are not coordinated by the CCARC. With 10 frequencies available, it should be easy to find one that doesn’t have any co-channel interference from other users. See the complete CCARC hotspot guidance here.

These guidelines won’t solve every problem but it will help people find a hotspot frequency that plays well with others. These frequencies are valid for Colorado only. Check your local VHF/UHF band plans for more information.

73 Bob K0NR

Disclosure: I contributed to these CCARC guidelines but I don’t speak for the CCARC.

The post Recommended Colorado Hotspot Frequencies appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

I was first introduced to D-Star some twelve years or so ago.  I purchased the ICOM IC-92AD hand-held and managed to get setup on one of the local D-Star repeaters.  Being one who (at the time) preferred all things HF, my D-Star activities were almost non-existent.  But it was fun to tinker and learn.

Some time passed and I experimented with various DVAP type devices that came onto the market.  I preferred using these to the local repeater, since I could connect into reflectors around the world and share in all the fun of digital radio.

Around the early 2016 timeframe, I purchased the Hardened Power DHAP Mini Mega Self Powered Enclosure along with a Raspberry Pi 3 and the DVMEGA Dualband add-on for the Pi.  The DHAP case is a 3-D printed plastic.

Inside there’s plenty of room for the Raspberry Pi, the DVMEGA and four rechargeable batteries.

I setup the Raspberry Pi with a popular image at the time from the Maryland D-Star group.  As I have never claimed to be a Raspberry Pi expert, even though I do own three devices.  One being an ADS-B aircraft tracker and second which has been running SETI@home and then the third running the Maryland D-Star setup.

Anyway, the Maryland D-Star image was easy to setup and at the time (2016) the group was active.  They had a website which contained more knowledge needed to setup the Pi and a very helpful forum community.  I could fire up my DHAP and via my radio connect/disconnect reflectors all around the world, reboot or shutdown the Pi.  It was all very cool.

Burnout

When the burnout occurred in late 2016, I wasn’t doing any form of operating and as a result I shut down the D-Star Pi and placed it (along with the IC-92) in a closet.  It sat there until just about two weeks ago when (like many of you) found myself bored out of my skull from the self-isolation COVID-19 routine.  I decided this was a project that might take my mind off the events of the world and might even help rekindle some of my amateur radio interests.

Power Up

After being sat idle for over three years, everything needed a good charge.  Surprisingly my ICOM batteries all came back to life and even the DHAP powered on just fine.  Everything worked (just as it did when I shut it down) but I figured at the very least I needed to update the software.  That’s when I realized the Maryland D-Star Pi was no more.

Pi-Star

While everything worked (best I could tell), in my hunt for what happened to the Maryland group, I discovered Pi-Star.  The Pi-Star group is an active group and appears to be the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to all things D-Star hotspots.  So I downloaded their latest and greatest image (4.1.0), installed it onto an empty SD card and began noodling around.

Of course “Noodling” around is much like driving around trying to find something without actually stopping to ask for directions.  The end result left me sort of frustrated and wondering if I should just go back to using the old Maryland setup.  At least it worked…for now.  But it’s not like I don’t have time or the mental capacity to figure this out.  So, diving head first into the forums I began to find the answers I needed and more importantly, I knew once I had everything working…it would be a much better setup.

All the Pre-requisites

As my DVMEGA was several years old, one of the first things required was to update the firmware so it could take advantage of all the features in Pi-Star.  This wasn’t as straight forward as I had hoped it would be.  It required some risky soldering of a short wire so the firmware of the DVMEGA could be updated.  I found all the documentation required for performing this risky step located here.  Well…almost!

With soldering iron, wire and some solder in hand, I completed the risky step and proceeded to update the firmware.  However, each time I attempted to perform the update it failed.  What have I done?  Did I ruin the DVMEGA?  I decided to go to bed and then take another stab at it the next day.

With a strong cup of coffee in hand, I proceeded to double-check all my work.  I felt confident in the soldering job, so hardware was all GO!  I then looked at it from the software perspective.  I decided to try using an older version of Pi-Star to rule out some issue with the latest version.

BINGO!

Once I rolled back to version 3.4.17 (from earlier this year), the process of updating the DVMEGA firmware worked just as it should.  In just a few minutes I had managed to update the firmware of my DVMEGA board from 2.19 to the latest 3.26.

More Frustration

With the DVMEGA updated to 3.26 and my Pi running Pi-Star 4.1.0, I began digging into the programming requirements of my radio.  For the life of me, I couldn’t figure  out how I needed to setup the radio so I could still control the system from my handheld.  After a bit of swearing and more digging in the forums, I discovered a fairly significant difference between how the radio needed to be setup from what was required with the Maryland D-Star setup.

I got there in the end

Yep, all appears to be working perfect.  I can easily connect and disconnect from any reflector I have programmed into my IC-92 from anywhere in the house.  While I tend to leave the setup in my shack (basement man cave) connected via Ethernet cable, I also can move the device around the house and use wi-fi.

From within my QTH the device is fully self-contained.  I can run it off the batteries and wi-fi and have coverage anywhere within the house (or even from back deck) should I choose.

Next Steps

I do have a few additional setup steps which I plan to experiment with in the coming days.  With the old Maryland setup I had my smartphone hotspot configured which would allow me to take this mobile.  Pending I had good broadband coverage, I could activate my hotspot, turn on the DHAP and place it all in the car for mobile ops.

Want more info on Pi-Star?

Your first stop needs to be the Pi-Star homepage.  From there you can join the forums, download the software and learn everything you need to know about Pi-Star.  I also found another great source of information on the Amateur Radio Notes blog site which is managed by Toshen, KEOFHS.  He’s a fellow Coloradoan living in Lyons.

Well I think that just about does it for this posting.  I wish you and your family a very Blessed Easter weekend (if you celebrate).  I’ll return soon with another update.

73 de KDØBIK (Jerry)

I was first introduced to D-Star some twelve years or so ago.  I purchased the ICOM IC-92AD hand-held and managed to get setup on one of the local D-Star repeaters.  Being one who (at the time) preferred all things HF, my D-Star activities were almost non-existent.  But it was fun to tinker and learn.

Some time passed and I experimented with various DVAP type devices that came onto the market.  I preferred using these to the local repeater, since I could connect into reflectors around the world and share in all the fun of digital radio.

Around the early 2016 timeframe, I purchased the Hardened Power DHAP Mini Mega Self Powered Enclosure along with a Raspberry Pi 3 and the DVMEGA Dualband add-on for the Pi.  The DHAP case is a 3-D printed plastic.

Inside there’s plenty of room for the Raspberry Pi, the DVMEGA and four rechargeable batteries.

I setup the Raspberry Pi with a popular image at the time from the Maryland D-Star group.  As I have never claimed to be a Raspberry Pi expert, even though I do own three devices.  One being an ADS-B aircraft tracker and second which has been running SETI@home and then the third running the Maryland D-Star setup.

Anyway, the Maryland D-Star image was easy to setup and at the time (2016) the group was active.  They had a website which contained more knowledge needed to setup the Pi and a very helpful forum community.  I could fire up my DHAP and via my radio connect/disconnect reflectors all around the world, reboot or shutdown the Pi.  It was all very cool.

Burnout

When the burnout occurred in late 2016, I wasn’t doing any form of operating and as a result I shut down the D-Star Pi and placed it (along with the IC-92) in a closet.  It sat there until just about two weeks ago when (like many of you) found myself bored out of my skull from the self-isolation COVID-19 routine.  I decided this was a project that might take my mind off the events of the world and might even help rekindle some of my amateur radio interests.

Power Up

After being sat idle for over three years, everything needed a good charge.  Surprisingly my ICOM batteries all came back to life and even the DHAP powered on just fine.  Everything worked (just as it did when I shut it down) but I figured at the very least I needed to update the software.  That’s when I realized the Maryland D-Star Pi was no more.

Pi-Star

While everything worked (best I could tell), in my hunt for what happened to the Maryland group, I discovered Pi-Star.  The Pi-Star group is an active group and appears to be the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to all things D-Star hotspots.  So I downloaded their latest and greatest image (4.1.0), installed it onto an empty SD card and began noodling around.

Of course “Noodling” around is much like driving around trying to find something without actually stopping to ask for directions.  The end result left me sort of frustrated and wondering if I should just go back to using the old Maryland setup.  At least it worked…for now.  But it’s not like I don’t have time or the mental capacity to figure this out.  So, diving head first into the forums I began to find the answers I needed and more importantly, I knew once I had everything working…it would be a much better setup.

All the Pre-requisites

As my DVMEGA was several years old, one of the first things required was to update the firmware so it could take advantage of all the features in Pi-Star.  This wasn’t as straight forward as I had hoped it would be.  It required some risky soldering of a short wire so the firmware of the DVMEGA could be updated.  I found all the documentation required for performing this risky step located here.  Well…almost!

With soldering iron, wire and some solder in hand, I completed the risky step and proceeded to update the firmware.  However, each time I attempted to perform the update it failed.  What have I done?  Did I ruin the DVMEGA?  I decided to go to bed and then take another stab at it the next day.

With a strong cup of coffee in hand, I proceeded to double-check all my work.  I felt confident in the soldering job, so hardware was all GO!  I then looked at it from the software perspective.  I decided to try using an older version of Pi-Star to rule out some issue with the latest version.

BINGO!

Once I rolled back to version 3.4.17 (from earlier this year), the process of updating the DVMEGA firmware worked just as it should.  In just a few minutes I had managed to update the firmware of my DVMEGA board from 2.19 to the latest 3.26.

More Frustration

With the DVMEGA updated to 3.26 and my Pi running Pi-Star 4.1.0, I began digging into the programming requirements of my radio.  For the life of me, I couldn’t figure  out how I needed to setup the radio so I could still control the system from my handheld.  After a bit of swearing and more digging in the forums, I discovered a fairly significant difference between how the radio needed to be setup from what was required with the Maryland D-Star setup.

I got there in the end

Yep, all appears to be working perfect.  I can easily connect and disconnect from any reflector I have programmed into my IC-92 from anywhere in the house.  While I tend to leave the setup in my shack (basement man cave) connected via Ethernet cable, I also can move the device around the house and use wi-fi.

From within my QTH the device is fully self-contained.  I can run it off the batteries and wi-fi and have coverage anywhere within the house (or even from back deck) should I choose.

Next Steps

I do have a few additional setup steps which I plan to experiment with in the coming days.  With the old Maryland setup I had my smartphone hotspot configured which would allow me to take this mobile.  Pending I had good broadband coverage, I could activate my hotspot, turn on the DHAP and place it all in the car for mobile ops.

Want more info on Pi-Star?

Your first stop needs to be the Pi-Star homepage.  From there you can join the forums, download the software and learn everything you need to know about Pi-Star.  I also found another great source of information on the Amateur Radio Notes blog site which is managed by Toshen, KEOFHS.  He’s a fellow Coloradoan living in Lyons.

Well I think that just about does it for this posting.  I wish you and your family a very Blessed Easter weekend (if you celebrate).  I’ll return soon with another update.

73 de KDØBIK (Jerry)

Enclosure

This post is a continuation of The Cacophony of Digital Voice Continues (Part 1), so you probably should read that one first.

All of the popular amateur digital voice (DV) systems (D-STAR, DMR and YSF) use the AMBE vocoder (voice codec) technology. This technology was developed by Digital Voice Systems, Inc. and is proprietary technology covered by various patents. The use of proprietary technology on the ham bands causes some folks to get worked up about it, especially proponents of an open source world. See my blog posting: Digital Voice at Pacificon and this presentation by Bruce Parens K6BP: AMBE Exposed. Codec2 is an alternative open voice codec developed by David Rowe, VK5DGR. David is doing some excellent work in this space, which has already produced an open codec that is being used on the ham bands. FreeDV is an umbrella term for this open codec work. Here’s a recent video of a presentation on FreeDV by VK5DGR.

It will be interesting to see if and how Codec2 gets adopted in a DV world already dominated by AMBE. After all, a new codec is another contributor to the digital cacophony. On the HF bands, it is easier to adopt a new mode if it can be implemented via a soundcard interface (which FreeDV can do). Any two hams can load up the right software and start having a QSO. The same is true for weak-signal VHF/UHF via simplex. (Note that Flexradio also supports FreeDV, showing how Software Defined Radio (SDR) has an advantage with adopting new technology.)  VHF/UHF repeaters are trickier because you must have a solution for both the infrastructure (repeaters and networks) as well as the user radios.

The vast majority of digital repeaters support just one digital format. For example, a D-STAR repeater does not usually repeat DMR or YSF transmissions. Interestingly, DMR and YSF repeaters often support analog FM via mixed mode operation for backward compatibility. It is definitely possible to support multiple digital formats in one repeater, but the question is will large numbers of repeater owners/operators choose to do that? With existing DV systems, the networking of repeaters is unique to each format which represents another barrier to interchangeability. In particular, most of the DMR infrastructure in the US is MOTOTRBO, which won’t ever support D-STAR or YSF.

In the case of a new vocoder, we can think of that as just a new format of bits being transported by the existing DV protocol. DMR, for example, does not actually specify a particular vocoder, it’s just that the manufacturers developing DMR equipment have chosen to use AMBE technology. So from a technical viewpoint, it is easy to imagine dropping in a new vocoder into the user radio and having it work with other identical radios. Of course, these radios would be incompatible with the existing installed base. Or would they? Perhaps we’d have a backwards compatibility mode that supports communication with the older radios. This is another example of putting more flexibility into the user radio to compensate for DV incompatibilities.

One objection to AMBE is the cost of the technology, especially when compared to free. When D-STAR radios first started using AMBE codec chips, the chip cost was rumored to be $25 to $50, but I don’t have a solid source on that. Now, I see that Tytera is selling a DMR handheld at around $100, including AMBE technology inside, so the codec can’t be very expensive. If a free codec starts to be a credible threat, it will put additional pricing pressure on the AMBE solution.

A potential advantage of Codec2 is superior performance at very low signal-to-noise ratio. We’ve all experienced the not-too-graceful breakup of existing DV transmissions when signals get weak. Some of the Codec2 implementations have shown significant improvement over AMBE at low signal levels.

Conclusions

Repeating a key conclusion from Part 1:

• For the foreseeable future, we will have D-STAR, DMR and YSF technologies being used in amateur radio. I don’t see one of them dominating or any of them disappearing any time soon.

Adding in these conclusions for Part 2:

• Codec2 will struggle to displace the proprietary AMBE vocoder, which is well-established and works. The open source folks will promote codec2 but it will take more than that to get it into widespread use. Perhaps superior performance at low signal levels will make the difference.
• Repeater owner/operators will continue to deploy single-DV-format repeaters. This will make multiformat radios such as the DV4mobile be very attractive. In other words, we will deal with the digital cacophony by having more flexible user radios. This will come at a higher price initially but should drop over time.

Repeating this one from Part 1:

• A wild card here is DMR. It benefits from being a commercial land mobile standard, so high quality infrastructure equipment is available (both new and used gear). And DMR is being embraced by both land mobile providers (i.e., Motorola, Hytera) and suppliers of low cost radios (i.e., Tytera, Connect Systems). This combination may prove to be very powerful.

Well, those are my thoughts on the topic. I wish the DV world was less fragmented but I don’t see that changing any time soon. What do you think is going to happen?

73, Bob KØNR

The post The Cacophony of Digital Voice Continues (Part 2) appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

It wasn’t that long ago that I commented on the state of digital voice on the VHF/UHF ham bands: Digital Voice Balkanization. We have three main competing (incompatible) standards in the running: D-STAR, DMR and Yaesu System Fusion (YSF). At a high level, these three formats all do the same thing but there are significant differences in implementation (See Comparison of Amateur Radio DV by Roland Kraatz W9HPX.) All three of these are (arguably) open standards, allowing anyone to implement equipment that supports the standard. However, the reality is that D-STAR is still largely an ICOM system (with Kenwood joining the party), YSF is mostly a Yaesu system and DMR is…well, DMR is not deeply embraced by any large amateur radio equipment supplier. Instead, DMR is promoted heavily by Motorola for the commercial market via their MOTOTRBO product line. Another big factor is the availability of DMR radios from some of the low cost providers in the ham market: Connect Systems, Tytera MD-380. Baofeng has also announced a DMR radio but it has some potential shortcomings.

D-STAR has a clear head start versus the other DV standards and is well-entrenched across the US and around the world. DMR and YSF are the late comers that are quickly catching up. To put some numbers on the adoption of DV technology, I took at the digital repeater listings in the August issue of the SERA Repeater Journal. SERA is the coordinating body for Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. This is a large region that includes rural and large urban areas, so perhaps it is a good proxy for the rest of the country. I just considered the listings for D-STAR, DMR and YSF repeaters, some of which are set up as mixed-mode analog and digital repeaters.

D-STAR   161    39%
DMR      136    33%
YSF      121    29%
Total:   418   100%
SERA Repeater Journal - August 2016

I was definitely surprised at how the DMR and YSF numbers are in the ballpark with D-STAR. Of course, we don’t know for sure how many of these repeaters are actually on the air or how many users are active on each one. Still, pretty impressive numbers. (And I did not bother to count the analog FM repeaters but those numbers are way higher, of course.)

It is the repeater clubs and repeater owners that drive the deployment of infrastructure for new technology. To some extent, they are driven by what their users want but also by their own technical interests and biases. One of the positive factors for DMR is that most of these systems are Motorola MOTOTRBO. Hams involved in commercial land mobile radio are exposed to that technology and naturally port it into the amateur radio world. MOTOTRBO is actually not that expensive and it’s built for commercial use. YSF received a big boost when Yaesu offered their repeater for $500 to clubs and owners that would put them on the air. By using Yaesu’s mixed analog/digital mode, it was an easy and attractive upgrade for aging repeater equipment.

Disruption From New Players

Early on in the world of D-STAR, the DV Dongle and DV Access Point by Robin AA4RC allowed hams to access the D-STAR network without needing a local repeater. This basic idea has continued and evolved in several different directions. For example, the DV4Mini is a cute little USB stick that implements a hot spot for…wait for it…D-STAR, DMR and YSF. This is very affordable technology (darnright cheap) that lets any ham develop his or her own local infrastructure. We don’t need no stinkin’ repeater. DV MEGA is another hot spot, supporting D-STAR, DMR and YSF. I guess somebody forgot to tell these guys they have to choose one format and religiously support only that one.

OK, so that’s one way to solve the babel fish problem…support all three formats in one device. And that’s what the DV4 mobile radio promises to do as well: “This DV4mobile is a tri-band VHF/UHF transceiver (2m, 1.25m and 70cm) that supports DMR, D-STAR and C4FM ( or “fusion”) all in one box.” Heck, let’s throw in LTE while we are at it, it’s only software. This site says the radio will be available Q4 2016. Well, it’s Q4, so maybe it will be here soon.

Conclusions

So let’s wrap up Part 1 of this story. What can we conclude?

• For the foreseeable future, we will have D-STAR, DMR and YSF technologies being used in amateur radio. I don’t see one of them dominating or any of them disappearing any time soon.
• Equipment that handles all three of those DV modes will be highly desirable. It is the most obvious way to deal with the multiple formats. Software-defined radios will play a key role here.
• A wild card here is DMR. It benefits from being a commercial land mobile standard, so high quality infrastructure equipment is available (both new and used gear). And DMR is being embraced by suppliers of low cost radios as well. This combination may prove to be very powerful.

The post The Cacophony of Digital Voice Continues (Part 1) appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.