Herb G1LRO
Tom M0LTE@G1LRO There seems to be a proliferation of devices calling themselves modems when they are actually just sound cards, sometimes with PTT and/or CAT, and the modem is in software. This is somewhat confusing. Is this one your own design?
@m0lte its a fair point, and 'modem' covers a broad category. This device takes signals from the analog to digital domain and provides out of band control functions such as PTT (and soon CAT). Like a modem it's a stateless device without protocol functionality (AX25 etc) so for its position in any category, modem seems more appropriate than say 'node controller'.
It's largely my own design, relying on the open source AIOC processor for the uber-smarts.
Is there a more appropriate term?
@G1LRO Modem specifically means MOdulator - DEModulator, and this doesn’t do that. It’s a combined audio interface and transceiver controller, which I accept is a mouthful, but I’ve already helped one confused buyer of your lovely box who thought it was something it isn’t :)
By the way- I like the design and applaud anyone replacing the overpriced Signalink.
By the way- I like the design and applaud anyone replacing the overpriced Signalink.
@m0lte There is scope for lively debate on this :) Looking at the Wikipedia definition, it seems to fit nicely "A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio." The PTT function is a control function analogous to the hook relay on early modems.Modems really are a the bottom of the stack, so IMO calling any anything more fancy would be misleading.
@G1LRO By that definition USB sound cards are modems.
What is Dire Wolf or WSJT-X if not a modem?
What is Dire Wolf or WSJT-X if not a modem?
@m0lte Modems are a Layer 1 device, and Direwolf, TNCs etc span up into Layer 2 & 3. I take your point that this is actually a fraction of a modem, and DireWorlf does the heavy lifting of turning the digital sound into a usable digital/binary stream. Maybe it should,be better called something like a 'USB Radio Controller'
@G1LRO I mean, it’s your product, so of course do as you wish, but I think that could really help.
It sure would have helped your confused buyer, who thought he was buying a packet radio TNC.
Best of luck with it, by the way.
It sure would have helped your confused buyer, who thought he was buying a packet radio TNC.
Best of luck with it, by the way.
@m0lte Thanks for the input and good wishes Tom, I've updated my ebay listings and the V2 unit will be labelled as 'Controller' :)
@G1LRO Oh cool! Thanks for taking it on board.
I wonder- have you tested the device with 9600 baud G3RUH packet? Could be interested!!
I wonder- have you tested the device with 9600 baud G3RUH packet? Could be interested!!
@m0lte The sound card has full 48k sampling rate so should work fine with 9k6 packet. Also there are no isolation transformers which i see can cause issues at the higher frequencies.
The big problem with were I live and testing this stuff is that I am out of range of all packet repeaters, i get a few noisy stations on APRS, but not readable. I have to set up my own second station to test this stuff :)