An announcement has been made by Kurt, OE1KBC and reported by concerning a multi-mode radio combining various digital modes. The radio/computer is called simply NEW RADIO and is a joint initiative of the ÖVSV, DARC and IARU R1. As stated in Don’s article:
the “NEW RADIO” that will operate on the 2m & 70cm bands and support the most common ham digital modes, including DMR, D-STAR and C4FM (System Fusion), plus analog FM. As reported in the article, the NEW RADIO has been created by hams for the ham radio community will feature a colour touch screen display, 50W of power output, a 1.8 GHz processor, a Linux operating system, plus dual AMBE+ vocoders, allowing for full-duplex, cross-band operation. Also, one of the biggest features of the NEW RADIO is that it will include a built-in LTE wireless modem and SIM card allowing it to be Internet connected while on the go. Apparently, with it being Internet connected, the NEW RADIO will be able to automatically download frequencies, offsets, contacts and other configuration information on the go, allowing for instant updates for users. (The full article may be found here.)
I certainly hope this radio really is “ready for Prime Time” soon as it might very well fill a big need by allowing use of multiple systems without the need to carry around a radio for each digital mode. I suspect many hams have hesitated to jump on the digital bandwagon simply because of not knowing which standard would have dominance. Nobody wants to relieve the VHS/Beta experience! (Yes, I am dating myself here!)
If anyone gets a look at this radio at Dayton I hope you will share with us your impressions!
Robert Gulley, AK3Q, is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Robert also blogs at All Things Radio.
Donde está a la venta ese equipo quiero saver donde lo puedo comprar
Has anyone some infos about the project? dead? The internet site is empty.
http://www.newradio.eu
With google translate I have learned that NEWRADIO is an initiative funded by ÖVSV (Austrian Amateur Radio Society) the DARC (Germany) and the IARU Region 1 (Europe, Africa, Middle East & Northern Asia). It has been in the works for at least a year. Beyond that its hard to tell how far along it is. But since these same foreign hams came up with the DV4mini that can do multi modes, along with many other interesting projects, I have high hopes, and am sure they have made more progress than the Connect Systems guy.
DARC (“the German ARRL”) has started the development of a SW SDR transceiver for remote control a few years ago.
We intend to deploy several of them all over the country over the next months for those members that have no possibilities at their QTH.
The project described here is new to me. But I am not so surprised that such a thing came up: The Japanese innovation cycles are “quite” long and you would not really want to rely on Chinese products: You always get what you pay for and you don’t pay much for their stuff…
VA7RLB would be nice to get
I’m wondering if this ‘lil rig is too little, too late. If this came out a decade ago, yes it would’ve been way more expensive, but it would have generated a neat buzz in the amateur radio community that might have made folks give a positive thought about going digital. Any price mentioned on this? Sticker shock, and possibly not wanting to get stuck with a digital mode that eventually gets rejected, is want keeps many from going digital here. That’s just my $0.02 worth.
The German texts about this radio provide no further information. But I believe that the developers missed a very important feature: a local network connection – have your choice of Bluetooth, WLAN and RJ45 (my personal favorite).
It is true that the VHF/UHF bands are not very populated, even here in densely populated Germany with our good repeater infrastructure. Most traffic is during the morning and evening hours when commuters are on the road.
The various digital modes thin out the traffic even more by dividing it into sepatare islands. This radio might be able to bridge these gaps.
What happened to APRS? Dead too since it is not mentioned?
GPS is not mentioned anywhere, but there are two sockets at the back of the unit. I could imagine that a serial interface or so is available there.
The rest would only be a bit of software.
VHF / UHF bands are almost dead in the UK. To make it worse we have different digital modes that thin out the activity even more ! Some amateurs want digital but no one needs it, truly pointless invention.
Yep, same in Western Australia!