[aprssig] OT: Yaesu to release digital amateur radio gear
Amateur Radio WB8NUT
duffy at wb8nut.com
Mon Jan 9 09:28:52 EST 2012
Yes Bob, that is kind of my point. The AMBE chip is just another
proprietary part of ANY of these digital radios (Icom, Yaesu, Motorola,
etc.). Also the AMBE chip with its price is not really making the radios
any more expensive. What is keeping the price high is the lack of
competitive offerings.
The complaints about the proprietary chips - in being proprietary - are
not taking into consideration that almost every radio sold in the last
20 years uses many proprietary discreet devices. So if an amateur is
going to shy away from adoption of technology based on radios using
proprietary technology, then I guess its back to tube radios for those
folks. As for me, I'm not worried about it.
While others sit on the sidelines waiting for some magical open standard
to come out (and even if it comes out manufacturers might not adopt it),
many of us are moving forward having a lot of fun with those new
technologies and have been for a number of years.
My issue is not with the proprietary nature of the codecs or any of the
chips, but for Yaesu trying to introduce yet another digital method
against one already well established. That causes market confusion,
delayed purchases (who wants to buy a radio and take a chance that your
chosen technology will end up the loser) and incompatible technologies
that do not play together within the amateur community. The argument
that DStar is incompatible with existing public service systems does not
hold water because I don't know of any public service system in any of
our major cities (maybe the boonies) who will be willing to link their
critical emergency communication systems with amateur systems.
It would have been much better for the community of radio manufacturers
to jointly agree on the technology instead of each going their own way.
Maybe that was tried and failed already and hence why this situation is
now occurring.
My guess is that by each manufacturer sticking to its own technology,
they'll be able to keep the price of the radios higher. OR, it is
possible that each manufacturer will discount the radios in order to try
and get their system to be the winner in the technology war. That
remains to be seen.
In any case, it looks like the line in the sand has been drawn, and
there will be a fight. Just what we need, the 21st Century equivalent of
the Code/No-Code battle....which is better, D-Star or Moto-Turbo (or
whatever they are going to call their derivative) to again divide
amateurs into separate camps.
Duffy
www.wb8nut.com
On 1/9/12 8:47 AM, Bob Bruninga wrote:
>> This would reduce the price of the radios...
>> by about $20 per radio making them affordable
>> by all amateurs throughout the world.
>> There would then be much rejoicing.
> I donno. Changing the price of a $639 radio to $619 probably will be
> unnoticed by just about everyone that I know of. You can see that much
> variability in prices just between dealers on a daily basis.
>
> Bob, WB4APR
>
>
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