Hi Buddy and all,
I don't have anything for it either.
Also there isn't any activity on d star in my aeria.
Thanks 73 Matt ka0pqw
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Buddy Brannan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 6:43 PM
Subject: Re: D-STAR On the Cheap?


> Hi Matt,
>
> I agree completely.
>
> This is why I don=92t have any D-STAR gear.
>
> On Mar 12, 2014, at 7:38 PM, Matt Arthur <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Hi Buddy and all,
>> That's great you have done this.
>> I for one will not do D star unless i can do it independetly
>> I refews to have stuff that i can not operate
>> thanks 73 Matt ka0pqw
>> ----- Original Message -----=20
>> From: "Buddy Brannan" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 5:05 PM
>> Subject: D-STAR On the Cheap?
>>=20
>>=20
>>> Hi y'all,
>>>=20
>>> I didn't want to post about this until I had something perhaps more
>>> concrete, but I changed my mind.
>>>=20
>>> Yesterday, I came across the following post:
>>> =
> http://hamgear.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/sub-200-d-star-radio-in-the-making=
> /
>>>=20
>>> Which is pretty exciting. A commercial radio manufacturer, interested =
> in
>>> breaking the Icom D-STAR monopoly stranglehold for portable radios? =
> While=20
>>> I
>>> have philosophical issues with proprietary black box codecs in use =
> for
>>> Amateur service things that promote experimentation and would prefer
>>> something free and open, OK, I'm a minority. I get that. My biggest =
> beef
>>> with D-STAR is that it's tied to one radio manufacturer, and it looks =
> like
>>> that might actually change.
>>>=20
>>> Well, I wrote to the President of Connect as directed, and it looks =
> like I
>>> have his ear. At any rate, he's willing to explore the issues around
>>> building in some accessibility to his design. Of course, it would =
> perhaps
>>> not be full text to speech, so we likely wouldn't get the full on SMS
>>> messaging and what not, but it sounds like h's amenable to having=20
>>> callsigns,
>>> frequencies, menus, etc. available nonvisually. Just to give an idea, =
> he
>>> said that in order to get the voice samples for all the letters and=20=
>
>>> numbers
>>> would require an upgrade of the ROM in use by his current models from =
> a=20
>>> 1MB
>>> to an 8MB size, which would cost about $1.00 extra per unit. Y'all =
> know=20
>>> what
>>> this often means for us: it's an extra cost, and I won't be bothered. =
> So I
>>> wrote back and asked him if, indeed, this was a show stopper. I =
> pointed=20
>>> out
>>> that for letters and numbers, we were looking at, at most, about 56 =
> voice
>>> clips, very small ones, and if you didn't mind concatonating some =
> files,=20
>>> you
>>> could get away with far fewer than that. He wrote back and said, =
> "Look, if=20
>>> I
>>> was worried about a $1 part, I'd just add it into the price of the =
> unit",
>>> followed by, "With 8MB of ROM, I could potentially get thus and such =
> many
>>> voice samples without compression, even more with compression, and =
> this
>>> isn't a big deal". Well, more or less that's what he said, at any =
> rate.
>>>=20
>>> I've sent him my eyes-free guides for Wouxun and Puxing    to give an =
> idea
>>> of how we work with even "accidental" accessibility, also suggesting =
> that
>>> strategically placed tones, different pitched or length tones, etc. =
> would=20
>>> be
>>> helpful. So I really hope that as he works on this the he will find =
> me a
>>> useful enough resource to consult with so that we will actually have =
> a
>>> D-STAR radio we can use independently.
>>>=20
>>> --Buddy, KB5ELV=20