[Elecraft] K3 Digital Voice Mode - our future?

[Don Wilhelm]

There are advantages to digital voice, but for Amateur Band use, I don't 
think we are "there yet".  When we see an 'open source' digital voice 
mode that is published and can be implemented by any amateur, then I may 
change my position, but that is not the situation today.  I do not 
believe that proprietary modes of any sort should be permitted on the 
ham bands.

One characteristic of digital streaming 'anything' is that if the signal 
'loses sync', things go to pot, and you have to wait until it syncs up 
again.  With fading on an analog signal, you can usually fill in the 
gaps, but with digital, it is all or nothing.  When it is "all", it is 
great, but the gaps are annoying - plus the quality is determined by the 
bit rate in the encoding/decoding algorithms.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 9/17/2015 11:16 PM, Sandy wrote:
> I could not agree more Don!   There isn't much advantage for amateur 
> radio to digital voice operations.   Just another "kink in the wire"!
> No advantage at all.  All the digital voice stuff I have heard sounds 
> terrible at times.  Motorola's system (proprietary no doubt!) can sound
> absolutely awful when signal conditions are bad.
>