[HN Gopher] Open Source DMR Modem Implementation in SDR with GNU...
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       Open Source DMR Modem Implementation in SDR with GNU Radio and
       Codec2
        
       Author : threeme3
       Score  : 88 points
       Date   : 2025-04-19 12:23 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (qradiolink.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (qradiolink.org)
        
       | lpribis wrote:
       | I see this is only tier 2 for now (conventional channels) and not
       | tier 3/trunked yet.
       | 
       | Are trunked networks ever used in amateur radio or outside of big
       | commercial/government systems? Is there a standardized way to
       | feed back channel info to the SDR frontend for trunked operation
       | in GNU Radio? Eg. The control channel will tell the terminal to
       | tune to traffic channel at X Mhz to receive or send a call, which
       | requires reconfiguring the frontend.
        
         | birdiesanders wrote:
         | Trunked is essentially useless to HAMs, and we never really use
         | it much. We have essentially everything that trunking was meant
         | to solve for a company; large pre-authorized spectrum space,
         | self-coordination in that space without having to get fcc
         | involved. Use of 25khz FM where part 90 is now only 12.5 also
         | is enabled by being a ham.
        
           | mschuster91 wrote:
           | > Use of 25khz FM where part 90 is now only 12.5 also is
           | enabled by being a ham.
           | 
           | Y'all can use 25 kHz for repeaters? Here in Germany repeaters
           | are 12.5 kHz only, allegedly due to a lack of free
           | frequencies...
        
             | colanderman wrote:
             | In the US frequency allocation within each band (including
             | repeaters) is left up to regional spectrum management
             | organizations (which have no legal authority). So it varies
             | by region.
             | 
             | Here is the allocation for eastern New England for example:
             | https://nesmc.org/docs/nesmc_bandplans_2023.pdf On the
             | crowded 2m band we have 20 kHz for major repeaters and 9
             | kHz for smaller ones.
        
           | wolrah wrote:
           | > Trunked is essentially useless to HAMs, and we never really
           | use it much.
           | 
           | I wouldn't say it's useless, but the utility is reduced
           | because we typically don't have the density of users where
           | two timeslots on a single channel becomes a real limiting
           | factor. A repeater that's set up for local talkgroups on one
           | timeslot and then open access on the second is generally more
           | than enough unless you have a lot of people trying to use it
           | at once, especially in a world where anyone who wants to can
           | have their own personal hotspot for less than the cost of a
           | HT.
           | 
           | Also the usual "ham not HAM" thing.
        
           | ac29 wrote:
           | > part 90 is now only 12.5
           | 
           | This is wrong. 25kHz part 90 licenses are still available so
           | long as the system meets the minimum efficiency standard
           | (19.2kbps or better for 25kHz).
        
         | Calwestjobs wrote:
         | many SDRs can RX/TX spectrum many times wider than you think is
         | required in here.
         | 
         | Try to look at this small enthusiast SDR receiver -
         | http://g4wim.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073/ /
         | http://kiwisdr.com/public/ you can see that simple 350$ radio
         | can have 100s of "channels" visible/receivable at once.
         | (digital modes are available in bottom right "toolbar", in top
         | right corner, drop menu called "extensions" )
         | 
         | so with (different) SDRs you no longer need to choose one
         | channel and listen to it, you can receive 200 channels at once,
         | storing that data and choose what channel you want to decode
         | later
         | 
         | or decode multiple radio stations realtime at once, even each
         | with different mode (AM/FM/Olivia/USB...) and you can even
         | (UNIX) pipe data from it, to programs not designed for ham /
         | sdr use. data is just data as soon as you have it you can do
         | anything with it. you can even write program/script to send
         | email/notification/sound when specified callsign makes
         | call/connects to trunk. for billing purposes...
         | 
         | or BTS/repeater can listen to 50Mhz wide part of spectrum
         | 400Mhz-450Mhz AT ONCE realtime so no "tuning" necessary. for
         | example 2000$ USRP can do that (but you need amps, filters etc
         | to make full BTS )
        
       | fsiefken wrote:
       | I wonder if Codec2 could be replaced by one of the low bitrate
       | neural audio codecs, HILcodec and SementiCodec sound better at
       | 2-3 kbps.
       | 
       | https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.04752
       | 
       | https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.14085
        
         | Calwestjobs wrote:
         | i rather transfer few bits of text with text-to-speech and
         | speech-to-text on end device, providing much better experience.
         | and technically with 2kbps it is not very different than what
         | these codecs do.
         | 
         | depends on device, on one hand there are handheld radios which
         | have small ARM for UI and control of dedicated radio chip, and
         | then there are mobile phones/laptops/tablets with so much
         | neural processing on board that it can have model sounding like
         | person/celebrity of your choosing.
        
       | glzone1 wrote:
       | I really wish we could find some "HD" voice codec / mode - all
       | the SIP protocols have gone pretty HD / zoom etc are HD at this
       | point, a lot of cell has gone HD.
       | 
       | Are the bands really so crowded (think on 70cm?) that we can't
       | afford the bandwidth for something a bit more HD?
        
         | tarxvf wrote:
         | https://www.openresearch.institute/opv/
        
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