icom D-star equipment etc.
I think the idea that Icom has is great, but the pricing will have to come down for most of us to be interested. However, with a little competition in the market, it will probably come down very quickly. So far, Icom's D- Star is pretty much the only option; but ARRL has a committee working on HSMM (High Speed Multi- media) radio, developing what is to be known as the Hinternet (Ham- internet). Check out the arrl.org website and click on the button for "HSMM" to see how they are progressing.
The idea is to use 1.2 GHz access, using the same channels and a dialect of the same IEEE 802.11b protocol currently used for commercial Wi-Fi. It turns out that this band of frequencies is primarily a Ham Radio band, and the commercial users, as secondary users, are allowed to use it so long as they don't interfere with Ham Radio communications, and must simply put up with any interference generated by Ham Radio. (That isn't a license to be rude, but that's essentially what the law says.) The main differences are that a.) Ham radio is non commercial, so will have to find a way to not include banner ads and other commercial applications of the web, (hooray!), and b.) we are allowed several times the power output that the commercial users can use, which will make it easier for us to connect over longer distances, especially since we also can build our own antennas...
The system as envisioned will likely include Hinternet access through satellites from ground- based stations.
This is going to be very interesting.
Dan Giles
KF9KA
XE2/KF9KA
