Batboard

WOW! WOW! The new Icom DSTAR AMBE Digital handheld has a colored LCD screen for full motion video! You can see a photo of this handheld on ICOM's web site if you dig through the DSTAR history page.

Icom showed this all new "multimedia radio" at the 2003 Hamvention in Dayton.They have a 4 to 8 kb/s AMBE digital voice channel (vastly superior to IMBE, and much cleaner/clearer!), plus legacy analog FM voice (for the Old Timers who can't let go of CW), and high speed digital data at 128 kb/s. This supports video, ftp, and ip.

The DStar is controlled by either it's included front end control panel, or a PC via USB connection. The data is sent/recieved to a plethora of "devices" by ethernet connection. The radio can be connected to just about anything that is associated with an IP address. At Dayton, it was connected to a wireless access port. It could easily be connected to any sort of el cheapo ethernet video cameras, such as the dlink, linksys, etc.

This radio makes a Motorola P25 radio look like child's play, and downright plain Jane! Right now it is advertised in AES, and it don't cost no stinking $6,000, either! Also, the Windows programing software is included for free, and you won't have the various issues associated with RSS/CPS. For all it does, it is contained in a very small package. ICOM says it will be released this month!

Move over, Motorola! You are now ancient junk compared to the new ICOM DStar!

Larry

Ya, I'd have to admit that the Dstar from Icom had excellent voice quality in digital mode - way better than IMBE. I want one

Yep, it's too bad that they standardized on the old fashioned, outdated IMBE for P25. Compared to the much clearer sounding AMBE, the ancient IMBE approach really sucks!

Yep, it's too bad that they standardized on the old fashioned, outdated IMBE for P25. Compared to the much clearer sounding AMBE, the ancient IMBE approach really sucks!

This coming from the guy that always praises Astro P25 and how superior it is.

Yes, P25 is INFINITELY superior to analog FM!

My point is that when they did go digital, it's too bad they didn't go AMBE, but at the time, it was in its infancy and standards have the disadvantage that it takes a long time to settle on them. You typically wind up with the previous generation technology. On the other hand, FM is 1950's stuff!

Larry