India, Sweden Introduce New Callsign Suffixes, Prefixes

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In India, newly licensed amateur stations have been assigned new suffixes since the 25th of June. Although the existing, older callsigns have not changed, new General Grade licenses, which are assigned a VU2 prefix, now get a combination of numbers and letters, creating callsigns such as VU22DX or VU29AR. Likewise, Restricted Grade licenses, which are assigned a VU3 prefix, receive suffixes of two numbers and three letters, creating callsigns such as VU33ABS.

“These new prefixes are a practical measure to accommodate the increasing number of amateur radio enthusiasts in India by expanding the available callsign combinations while still adhering to the country’s internationally allocated prefix block.”
— Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, assistant director of the National Institute of Amateur Radio

Meanwhile, in Sweden, amateurs who have received the new entry-level class certificate are identifying themselves with the country's new callsign prefix, "SH." These amateurs can be heard on 40, 20, 15, 10, 6 and 2 metres, where they are permitted to use a maximum of 25 watts of power.

MMDVM Project Drops Support for M17 Mode

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MMDVM, a popular software and hardware project that powers many amateur radio hotspots, has announced the intention to drop the M17 digital voice and data protocol as a supported mode. First communicated to the OpenDV Groups.io list on 12 July 2025, the project's maintainer cited a number of grievances and rumours behind the decision.

Inclusion of M17 among the supported modes of the MMDVM project has been a major benefit to the current rate of adoption of M17. The first commercial radios supporting M17 shipped in the second half of 2024.

The M17 Project is an open source digital voice and data protocol that is positioned as an alternative to digital modes that require use of proprietary encoders.

MMDVM is an open source project that enables amateur radio hotspots to support multiple digital voice modes including D-STAR, DMR, YSF, P25, NXDN, and POCSAG.

M17 Foundation Responds to Statements made by MMDVM Project Maintainer

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The M17 Foundation has responded to a number of grievances and rumors expressed by Jonathan Naylor (G4KLX), the maintainer of the MMDVM project. Along with dropping M17 support from the MMDVM project earlier this week, G4KLX posted statements critical of the `M17 Project's management and technical implementation.

The response from M17 is a point-by-point rebuttal of G4KLX's statements.

With M17 support removed from MMDVM, amateur radio operators potentially lose access to the M17 digital voice mode via hotspots and repeaters.

The M17 Project is an open source digital voice and data protocol that is positioned as an alternative to digital modes that require use of proprietary encoders.

MMDVM is an open source project that enables amateur radio hotspots to support multiple digital voice modes including D-STAR, DMR, YSF, P25, NXDN, and POCSAG.