D-Star Illegal in France

It looks like ARCEP, the communications regulator in France, has determined that D-Star is an Illegal digital mode. They have several reasons stated. I do agree with one part of their findings. Quote "ARCEP says AMBE vocoder is using patents, licences and proprietary undisclosed specifications that are against art. 1.56 of ITU Radiocommunications Rules." I see this as a problem, but I am happy to know that there are some Hams working on an open source fix for this problem.

For more info: http://draf.asso.fr/index.php?post/2010/06/28/D-STAR-situation-in-France

USB Sound Card

I have been looking at USB sound cards. I have heard that it is better to run a separate sound card for digital modes to keep windows sounds of the air. This is a good idea and I guess that is what SignaLink interfaces' have going for them. I have always built my own or just recently started using the SCI-6 PC Sound Card Interface Kit from Unified Microsystems. This USB sound card makes a cleaner waterfall display than my laptops built in sound card. I am very impressed with the quality of this sound card. Only time will tell if it is durable enough to last. This sound card was less than $4.00 shipped. These can be found on Ebay and some other places on the Web.

Product Description:


USB 2.0/1.1/1.0 Compliant.
Plug and play USB device, Auto driver installation.
Drive two channels speakers directly.
Support 3D positional sound and virtual 5.1 Channel soundtrack.
Digital Class-B power amplifier inside.
LED Status indicator
Works with Windows Vista/XP//2000/ME/98SE

AGWPE Upgrade Avaliable

AGWPE has a new version ready for download. The new version is ver 2010.414. This version works a lot better for my RMS station. It seems to decode the packets better and seems more robust. If you have not upgraded yet, please do so. The way I upgraded was by deleting the old version and installing the new program. I then had to enter my information into AGWPE and restart the program. It work the first time out. This is a great program made even better.

http://www.sv2agw.com/ham/agwpe.htm
http://www.sv2agw.com/downloads/default.htm

New Winlink Client Software Released

RMS Express for Winlink 2000 has been released. It is a radio email client that includes support for the new sound card mode Winmor. It also has support for HF Pactor, VHF/UHF packet and direct telnet to WL2K CMS servers. I have started experimenting with this mode and it looks to be quite interesting. It has a learning curve but comes with some good documentation. Get your feet wet with this and move to the future. I will comment on this mode after I have had some time to try it out.

http://www.winlink.org/WINMOR
http://www.winlink.org/ClientSoftware

ARRL Files Comments with FCC Regarding Spread Spectrum Issues

06/14/2010

"In response to a 2006 ARRL Petition regarding spread spectrum issues, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) on March 16 (WT Docket No 10-62), proposing to amend Part 97 to facilitate the use of spread spectrum communications technologies by eliminating the requirement that amateur stations use automatic power control (APC) to reduce transmitter power when the station transmits a spread spectrum (SS) emission and reducing the maximum transmitter power output when transmitting a SS emission. The ARRL filed comments on this matter on June 14, 2010."

Read more here:

http://www.arrl.org/

I am glad the ARRL and the FCC are trying to help Spread Spectrum grow. I am all for the elimination of the requirement that amateur stations use automatic power control (APC) to reduce transmitter power. I do not agree with reducing from 100 W PEP output power to 10 W. I think this will continue to hurt the advancement of SS.

Winlink 2000 RMS Upgrade

I have updated my Winlink RMS with some new equipment. I added a Yaesu FT-2800m that has 65 watts out. I also added a new Radio Shack 15-Amp Power Supply 22-508. These additions should increase the coverage area. My mobile testing showed som areas that had below average coverage. I will be doing another round of testing to see if the coverage did increase.

http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm