[QCWA] D-Star experience

Sat Aug 11 11:35:14 EDT 2012

Jeff and all,

A slight correction.  D-Star is not a proprietary system from or by 
Icom.  The source code was developed by the Japan Amateur Radio 
League and is in the public domain.  What is proprietary is the DVSI 
(Digital Voice Systems Inc.) AMBE 2000 encoder/decoder chip because 
AMBE developed the I/C firmware and as such owns the "chip" not the 
actual source code itself.

Any manufacturer anywhere in the world is free to develop and market 
its own D-Star radio.  Yes, they are tied to the  DVSI AMBE2000 full 
duplex vocoder DSP chip because DVSI has chosen not to license its 
manufacture to anyone else.  But in single lot quantities these chips 
are only in the $12 per unit range.  And I am sure in mass wholesale 
quantity, they cost a lot less.

Why you do not see D-Star radios from Kenwood, Yaesu or Alinco has 
nothing to do with it being a proprietary system (which it is not) or 
even that it requires a proprietary chip.  It has all do do with the 
way Pacific Rim equipment developers bring product to the 
marketplace.  Its the business mindset that while peculiar to Western 
culture is common in the Pacific Rin and basically says that if Icom 
has developed a product based on a certain design standard, that no 
other company will do the same.  Its strictly cultural and has 
nothing to do with either technology itself or good business acumen.

A few years ago, it was widely rumored that Kenwood would be bringing 
a D-Star radio to the market.  It actuary did so, but only in the 
Japan domestic market and only for a matter of months.  The radio was 
pictured on many websites and was -- in reality either a direct 
licensed clone of ot a re-badged Icom ID-800.  But for the world 
market, Kenwood chose to develop the TM-V71A which interfaces to the 
www using internal Echolink software.

The base cost of manufacture of a TM-V71A analog FM and that of an 
ID-880 Icom D-Star radio are likely quite close, so why did Kenwood 
opt for Echolink?  Because Icom was supporting D-Star.  Its the same 
reason that Alinco (now GRE Alinco) supports using the publicly-open 
ITU-TV.32 digital voice protocol while Yaesu recently announced its 
support C4FM FDMA in its new FT1DR/E hand held transceiverwhich is a 
commercially used digital voice protocol.   The Icom, Yaesu and 
Alinco radios all require encoder / decoder chips that are 
proprietary even though the protocols themselves are open source code.

So why the refusal to enter the D-Star market?  The only 
reason:  Pride.  No company will make a product similar to any 
other.  Remember -- the first NBFM transceivers were developed in the 
USA and Europe -- not Japan.  In this area the Pacific Rim were 
joriginally OEM suppliers to companies like Galexy, Ross & White and 
others including Sears & Roebuck for several years before the first 
Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu radios were sold un-rebadged to the Western 
nations.  They are only leaders in digital audio because in the West 
no company has yet seen a real market develop for digital amateur 
radio gear at a level to invest in.  I doubt that it ever will happen 
as the two US based major manufacturers of ham gear -- TenTec and 
Elecraft -- appear to be heavily HF oriented.

In reality, there is nothing keeping any entrepreneur in the USA or 
Europe from building and selling a D-Star radio in competition to 
Icom.  The only thing that they -- at present -- must use is the 
proprietary DVSI AMBE encoder / decoder chip.  Its the exact same 
chip that is used in the D-Star DV Dongle -- made here in the USA -- 
that connects to your PC or Apple Mac via a USB port uses to provide 
encoding and decoding of compressed audio using the JARL Codec.  At 
present, DVSI AMBE chips are the only encoder / decoder i/c's used in 
all D-Star radio gear -- including the U.S. produced DV Dongle.  I 
believe that they are also the sole supplier of the  ITU-TV.32 
digital voice protocol chip as well.

Will this ever change?  Only if and when the Chinese decide which 
system that they will clone and bring to the world marketplace at a 
price point far lower than that of current ham radio digital audio 
gear.  Likely, that reverse engineering is happening right now, but 
they will await investment from a US or European equipment supplier 
before producing anything.  There is always the chance that we may 
see a mainland China clone come to the market via eBay such as the 
first Wouxun, TYR and Baofeng FM hand-helds, but I suspect thats a 
longshot as the market for digital audio ham radio is in reality 
insignificant right now.

In reality, my prediction is that -- barring action by our FCC to bar 
use of analog in ham radio -- which is pretty far fetched -- that for 
VHF/UHF emcomm work, that NBFM will remain as the primary mode used, 
while on HF it will continue to be SSB voice.  And we are talking 
voice communications not digital keyboard based modes.

So in a nutshell, there is nothing proprietary regarding the D-Star 
source code and anyone who can figure out a way around being forced 
to use the proprietary firmware inside the AMBE2000 chip can build 
and market a radio around its encode / decode system.  Some hams are 
working on this with a firmware called Codec 2, but thats nowhere 
ready for "prime time" yet.

Last but by no means least, the reason that our nation does not have 
and may never have a truly inter operable digital voice radio 
communications system is that each manufacturer is hell bent on 
making its "digital protocol" the "only" protocol.  In most nations 
the telecommunications regulatory body dictates standards that 
industry must adopt.  Here in the USA is the other way around.  As a 
result, we have a digital television system based on an inferior 8VSB 
system to the world standard OFDM.

The bottom line:  Until both Congress and the FCC get their act 
together and dictate development of a single digital voice protocol, 
a nationwide inter operable radio communications system will never 
become a reality.   At least not in many of our lifetimes.

de
Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF

At 05:15 AM 8/11/2012, Jeffrey D Angus wrote:
>Just a personal thought, D-Star is still a proprietary system
>from Icom.
>
>The biggest issue with Em-Comms is interoperability.
>
>While I find that Icom's emulation of the Nextel "Direct talk"
>network to be an interesting design, using something that
>excludes 90% of the available radios out there isn't my
>idea of interoperability.
>
>Jeff-1.0
>wa6fwi
>
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