  Re: D-STAR experiment on Cubesat  On Jun 8, 2008, at 9:18 PM,
David Donaldson wrote:  > Do we think that anyone other then
Icom will ever support the mode?    > I'd > love to experiment
with it on the birds but until there is   > competition to >
drive the price down will that be possible. > Maybe a GNU
project? > Dave > Minnesota  Sadly, it's basically impossible to
make a software version which   having a number of interesting
capabilities that would be useful for   amateur radio.  The
Wikipedia page sums it up pretty well:  D-STAR has been
criticized for its use of a patented, closed-source
proprietary voice codec (AMBE). [4] Hams do not have access to
the   detailed specification of this codec or the rights to
implement it on   their own without buying a licensed product.
Hams have a long   tradition of building, improving upon and
experimenting with their own   radio designs. The modern digital
age equivalent of this would be   designing and/or implementing
codecs in software. Critics say the   propr