– Don Rotolo, N21RZ, Vocoding: Creating Digital Voice, CQ Amateur Radio Dedicated to the faint of signal Today's amateur radio experimenter is as likely to use a keyboard as a soldering iron for experiments, and as a digital enthusiast, I can only cheer and encourage you to get involved and have some fun.
Of course, the real goal isn't to just listen but to actually chat with people. Just think of it: worldwide communication with a Technician class license, a bit of effort and learning, and some fairly simple, relatively inexpensive equipment! I'll jump a bit ahead here and share one tidbit: at one point early in my exploration of D-STAR, I linked to a reflector and heard a guy in San Diego, California chatting with a chap in Yorkshire, England. So if it's that bewildering, why even bother?
When I first dove into D-STAR, I knew nearly nothing about digital voice and quickly found myself drowning in a big bowl of bewilderingly murky information soup.
