OT: RE: [aprssig] D-710 at FCC test site

[Drew Baxter]

At 04:15 AM 8/7/2007, Dave Baxter wrote:
>Hi...
>
>Does this imply that in the US, many celular phones still use analog FM
>for the audio?

Not many.. Very few old AMPS phones are in the field now, mostly used 
by construction workers and truck drivers who don't want to let their 
beloved bag of 3 watts go.  It's no longer permissible to activate 
these phones because they do not adhere to E911.  That's why it's 
illogical.  Analog is no longer required and can be taken down 
starting Jan 1 2008.  We haven't had active development of analog 
sites in almost a decade.

>I thought (wrongly it would seem?) that 99.9% of the developed world had
>long since changed over to GSM (digital) for mobile phones

The US (and some other countries) have CDMA and/or GSM.  Both are 
digital and both afford features that make it pretty much impossible 
to pick up these signals and decode them into something usable.  I'm 
sure they have specialized equipment that can do it, but a guy with a 
traditional police scanner would hear nothing or a little noise, etc.

>As to the read protection of the FLASH firmware:  If you poke about the
>more dimly lit areas of the web (content filters fully functional!)

The problem is the D700 uses some weird NEC flash that would probably 
require a special NEC programmer last I knew.  I'd not be surprised 
if Kenwood used it yet again in the D710.

There is a connection on the D700 for a ribbon connector that is 
wired to the In-circuit programming pins of the D700.  However, I 
couldn't find anything that would program it except for the 
appropriate NEC programming appliance, which was more expensive than 
my self-serving research budget would allow. :)

--Droo, K1XVM