Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

It's not really a new concept.


As someone who uses FlRig on an almost daily basis I'm just personally all set with it being the only way to control a mobile radio. But as an optional feature it'd be fine.

 

I assume most hams use some sort of rig control and audio soft modem for various special modes. I use FLDigi and WSJT-X, too. What I'm imagining is lower in the stack using a common I/Q connection. The RF decks would be cheaper than full radios since they wouldn't need anything after the RF filters and IF DAC & ADC and could all share the same baseband (user) interface. It could be a whole ecosystem. You could buy a complete radio with a familiar face or a body with no face at all and build your own around a phone, custom device, PC or whatever. If only some of that 'Rona money was earmarked for completely harebrained ideas.

 

FL rig. Not FL digi.

It's the exact thing you're referring too.


My point still is that a mobile radio gets used while mobile. A touch screen is not conducive to a mobile usage.

I do agree it's a nice option. But every radio that has a data port already had this option.

 

I know what FLRig does, on my IC-7300 the FLRig connection is via CAT and virtual audio cables. Icom didn't provide a CI-V with enough bandwidth for actual SDR. Using the CT-17 CI-V cable just lets two programs control the radio simultaneously via CAT rather than just one using a simple USB connection. In this case that the IC-7300 is SDR is no different than any other traditional radio.

FLDigi doesn't work without FLRig (or Hamlib if it works with your radio) to interface to the radio since it still relies on the radio for IF demodulation into AF and is really just a remote control of what the radio has on its face and hardware it has inside.

It's a nuanced difference but fundamental because a true SDR demands a lot less of the hardwire and much more of software. I have a complete RX station that can do FM, APRS and DMR, NXDN, D-STAR, P25 in SDRsharp that only needs a $10 RTL-SDR dongle hung from a USB port. The hitch is transmitting of course, which would require a HackRF that has both the RX and TX chains (e.g. a DAC and filters to complement the ADC chain), buffer amp and power amp as well as a DVSI AMBE chip to encode for digital. So it's definitely not a trivial amount of work to make it into a true two-way radio.

 

Right.


But we aren't talking about running fldigi or any FT8 software while driving.


The topic at hand was a headless radio that uses a touch screen device for control. I'm saying the option to do that already exists.

Further more, functionality wise while driving I would prefer some knobs. Like how the ftm400 is. A dtmf mic helps with commonly used memory channels, but knobs help when scrolling the list.

As I've been saying this whole time, it'd be a nice added feature, but I'd always want a head unit.

 

Just my preference. That's all

 

Which we are all allowed. Not everyone is required to use or like the same shit.

 

We're talking about two different things. FT8 is a mode that using audio tones on a USB modulation. I'm talking about the software doing the actual SSB modulation. The user interface could be anything you want. It's a phone or computer only because those are convenient.

The front end of my IC-7300 could be split and made separate from the RF side. It would look like a Flex 6400 or 6600 with a Maestro. But you could use the 6400/6600 with a PC running a virtual front end that just looked like a Maestro or anything else. You can take the Maestro unit with you, leaving the body of the SDR at home and it can control it over the Internet. You're sitting behind a device that looks just like a radio, knobs, display, buttons and all but it can be anywhere.

That's what I'm picturing in my head. A VHF/UHF RF section with any sort of controller you wanted that leverages the computing power available in devices to be whatever you wanted it to be. It could be an app, it could be a device that looks in every way like a familiar radio. It could be something you design yourself. Being SDR it's only limited by what you want to do. Invent your own modes, use FM, digital, whatever.

 

My mistake. I read this as a mobile application.

At home it doesn't really make a difference.

 

It is a mobile application. Shrinking a Flex concept down.

 

Good. I don't like Matt. I think you could do better.

 

Well I don’t like Matt either. But Matt is all I have

 

Oh. Ok

So in that case I do that already and still want my knobs. Haha

 

I think you should investigate this Ben avenue

 

Isn’t that why you have your wife?

 

She's not my ham radio secretary James.

 

Can you add the ability to do DMR or Fusion to your mobile radio by installing software plug ins?

 

Is that what the radio you posted does?

 

Cuz I'm all on board with that. With buttons lol