January 06, 2013

Foundation Amateur Radio Training Android App

January 06, 2013/ Colin Butler

The Radio & Electronics School has released a free Amateur Radio Foundation training App for Android devices described as suitable for both Australian and UK Foundation students.

A few months ago the Radio & Electronics School posted a free Foundation Course on YouTube. That foundation course has proved to be very popular.

Ron VK2DQ from the School looked into the Google Analytics and was surprised to find that more than 60% of users of the course are doing so from portable devices.

"Perhaps we should make Foundation training application for Smartphone" Ron thought.<

Well the people at RES have done it. There is now an Android application for the foundation licence. It’s free!

Just go to Google Play Store at "play.google.com" and search for Radio & Electronics School.

You can download the application directly to your phone, tablet or other portable device. The course is in the same Video format as the well known Standard Course.

““We think this might be popular with young people and in particular for JOTA. We only released the application a few days ago and already there have been over 100 installs.”

— Ron VK2DQ

RES recommends that you use this application in conjunction with the publication "Your Entry Into Amateur Radio available through radio clubs and the WIA.

App on the Google Play Store - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appbuilder.u172726p386584&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5hcHBidWlsZGVyLnUxNzI3MjZwMzg2NTg0Il0

December 15, 2012

FreeDV Ham Radio digital voice software

December 15, 2012/ Colin Butler

FreeDV is an application for Windows and Linux that allows any HF SSB radio to be used for digital voice mode with a bandwidth of just 1.1 kHz

Speech is compressed down to 1400 bit/s then modulated onto a 1100 Hz wide QPSK signal which is sent to the Mic input of a SSB radio.

On receive, the signal is received by the SSB radio, then demodulated and decoded by FreeDV.

Features

Codec 2 voice coder and FDMDV modem
50 baud 14 QPSK voice data
1 Centre BPSK carrier with 2x power for fast and robust synchronisation.
1.125 kHz spectrum bandwidth (half SSB) with 75 Hz carrier spacing
1400 bit/s data rate with 1375 bit/s open source Codec 2 voice coding and 25 bit/s text for call sign ID
No interleaving in time or FEC philosophy resulting in low latency, fast synchronization and quick recovery from fades.
44.1 or 48kHz sample rate sound card compatible

Watch FreeDV, the new HF digital audio program for Radio Amateurs.