FCC Update: Yaesu FT-3 cleared for launch

On May 26th 2019, the Yaesu FT-3 radio received the FCC ID of K6620725X20. This covers both the radio itself and also the Bluetooth module for hands free operation and possibly other functions too.

Based on news from Yaesu at the 2019 Hamvention, they expect this radio to be available in the June 2019 time frame. It is common with the FCC while requesting an FCC ID to provide test data along with pre-release copy of device photos and instruction manuals.

The above detail found on the FCC OET website shows that a date of July 10th is when this material will be made available to the public through the FCC.

This latest digital voice radio for the amateur community will incorporate Yaesu Fusion C4FM alongside analog FM and AX.25 packet communication. The FT-3 will replace the FT-2 as the flagship handheld radio offered by Yaesu and will compete with the D-Star capable Kenwood TH-D74 for current "most expensive" amateur handheld radio.

HVDN will likely provide a side by side review of the FT-3 against the TH-D74, so be sure to check back later this summer.

The big questions so far are:

• Will the FT-3's dual receiver have desense on receive while operating FM satellites?

• Will the FT-3 allow for Falconsat3 APRS split band 9600 baud?

• How well will the audio record function work?

• Will it be possible to wirelessly pair the radio to a computer for programming like the Kenwood?

• Would AM mode reception be possible in the military aircraft band?

• How easy will it be to program by hand?

• Will the spectrum scope be useful of a novelty?

• Are some of the new Fusion features reminiscent of various 1990 era analog radios?

Sign up for updates below or send in your own questions in the comment section or the Facebook group for this radio.

LimeSDR Mini & SDR#: Yes, it works....

Of all the SDR programs, SDR# still holds a special place in my heart. Until recently, it was hard to get the LimeSDR Mini working with this versatile piece of software.

Lucky for us, Goran Radivojevic (YT7PWR) has done some recent great work to make these two software defined radio things play nice together.

Step 1:  

DownloadSDRSharpLimeSDR_v02.zipfrom https://github.com/GoranRadivojevic/sdrsharp-limesdr/releases and unzip the folder content into where your version of SDR# is found. There are 3 files:

Step 2: 

Add the following line in the frontendPlugins sections of FrontEnds.xml file:

<add key="LimeSDR" value="SDRSharp.LimeSDR.LimeSDRIO,SDRSharp.LimeSDR" />

Step 3: 

Plug your LimeSDR Mini and load SDR#.  I am using release 1700. You should see LimeSDR in your drop down options under "Sources" just like where you would select RTL-SDR (USB).

Step 4: 

Click on the gear icon to open the setting for the LimeSDR Mini and hit the "refresh" button.  You should see the details for your LimeSDR Mini come up as pictured below.

Comments:

With the LimeSDR Mini attached to a laptop via a 6 foot USB cord, reception was fine with my "test setup". The signals shown on SDR# for the curious were two of my MMDVM hotspots operating on 427.585 MHz single slot  and 427.545 MHz dual slot running DMR mode. I pipe audio out of SDR# into DSDplus, but generally I prefer the simplicity of using SDRangel for decoding digital voice modes. Dragorn of Kismet fame printed the nice case for my Lime SDR Mini a while back.

Steve K2GOG

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Recent HVDN Notebook articles worth a look: 

• NXDN: What is it and where is it?

• Line of Sight: Aircraft Edition

• May 2019 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

• Timing is Everything: 7 Days with Kerberos SDR

NXDN: What is it and where is it?

Digital Mobile Radio or DMR for short is where most of the digital voice activity is taking place in amateur radio today followed closely by Yaesu's C4FM based System Fusion.

On the rise, but still far away in terms of users and repeaters is NXDN.  Just like DMR, NXDN is an open standard and was jointly developed by Icom and Kenwood, who in the amateur radio world only have the well aged D-Star mode on offer to cater to digital voice amateur enthusiasts.

Yaesu Fusion is not an open standard although it shares some similar attributes with NXDN because of underlying technology. Alinco is the only current non-Chinese original vendor to offer an amateur grade DMR radio.

The History of NXDN

After 3 years of development, the NXDN standard was finalized in 2005 and product aimed towards commercial users appeared one year later.

NXDN is based around frequency division, multiple access technology which allows different communication streams to run concurrently with only minor frequency separation.  While Yaesu Fusion is also FDMA based, it is not compatible with NXDN or dPMR, which is starting to become popular as PMR or FRS unlicensed analog radio replacements in certain parts of the world.

DMR which is TDMA or time division multiple access based interweaves two different communication streams together in one 12.5 kHz wide channel. 

NXDN can make used of its FDMA technology to run in either a signal communication stream mode in a channel that is 6.25 kHz wide or marry two streams together and still work in one 12.5 kHz stream.  DMR can only work in one 12.5 kHz channel and offers no narrow band option.

Both NXDN and DMR can support voice/voice, data/data or voice/data essentially at the same time in the same 12.5 kHz channel which is very efficient. DMR is the only mode in use today in amateur radio that is actively capable to support this "two discussions, on the same frequency, at the same time" functionality though.

As of the time of this article, the only way for amateur radio operators to use NXDN is through commercial new or surplus equipment. There is not one single amateur grade or market NXDN radio available.  It is possible for users of Yaesu Fusion and DMR to talk to NXDN users by way of mode translation offered my MMDVM hotspots, but this is not the same as native speaking NXDN to NXDN radio.

In past HVDN articles, we have covered the rise of DMR by looking at the number of repeaters deployed globally.  When it comes to NXDN, we will track registered users and also repeaters moving forward starting with this article.

United States: NXDN Amateur Adoption 

DMR started life as a commercial communications solution but in a few short years started to see second life in amateur radio. NXDN may be the eventual front runner for digital amateur communication for a few reasons. Lets first look at the current state of NXDN adoption in the United States which holds much of the global activity so far.

As of the May 2019, there are only 1,963 global registered users ID's for NXDN and 61.6% of them are in the United States. 

Of the 61 represented countries in the radioid.net database, 6 other countries capture 20.3% of the remaining NXDN ID's which leaves 54 countries around the world to account for the remaining 18% of users not yet accounted for.

The total number of NXDN user IDs grouped by major geographic regions indicate that the south eastern part of the country is the hotbed for NXDN users with Florida and Arkansas holding the two largest pools of users as of the time of this article.

Another view through the lens of FCC amateur radio regions illustrates that regions 1, 4, and 5 are far ahead of the rest of the country. With a total of 20 states represented out of 51 (Including D.C), there is much room to grow in other areas.

NXDN United States Amateur Repeaters

Over the last few years,  HVDN has used repeaterbook.com to keep track of digital voice repeater data with our latest tracker being issued just before Hamvention 2019.

In the data captured on May 9th 2019, there were 119 NXDN repeaters globally.  With Hamvention over, there is already one additional NXDN repeater according to the same data source bringing the total to 120.

NXDN: Future Outlook

With only commercial equipment for both radios and repeaters being available to amateur radio operators, should a vendor such as Icom or Kenwood introduce the next generation of digital voice radio based around NXDN, they may possibly create a similar growth trajectory that DMR has experienced in recent years. 

This may put Yaesu in a tough position to maintain control over its single vendor C4FM/FDMA/YSF/Fusion ecosystem unless it opens up its standard to all other vendors to promote inter-operable digital voice radios across vendors. 

Chinese vendors like Ailunce,  TYT, Radioddity and Retevis may also be challenged to compete, but may eventually offer lower cost NXDN equipment. Alinco does currently offer NXDN capable radio such as the DJ-NX40, but is aimed at commercial users.

Further reading:

• May 2019 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

• October 2018 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

• Digital Voice Radio Made In South Dakota?

• Watch! Two Time Slots In Action

• That was quick:  NXDN to DMR

• May 2018 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

North Star Digital Net: Presentation on BlueDV

The weekly North Star Digital Net held every Tuesday evening at 9:00 PM Eastern on DMR talk group 31630 (STEM).  Any amateur radio operator is welcome to attend. 

Access via All-Star and Echolink is possible to through Hudson Valley Digital Network with details on that at stem.hvdn.org for those without a DMR radio or not able to use a radio at the time of the discussion.

Net control, Jim WA2UMP often turns over the floor to someone knowledgeable on a specific topic followed by a Q&A  session.

This week featured Rick, W1RHS who shared information about the popular BlueDV application. BlueDV allows you to create a hotspot for digital ham radio modes under Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. 

BlueDV allows you to create a digital communications platform under these operating systems using only a computer, tablet or phone and using the computer or devices speaker and mic.  

The presentation covers the DVMega radio/modem board combined with the BlueStack board for USB or Bluetooth connectivity and the AMBE 3000 dongles with AMBE Server.  

There is a comparison between BlueDV and PiStar and a review of the DVMega Cast network radio. Not covered in the presentation is "Peanut" which is one of many growing applications used to augment access into digital voice infrastructure today.

Download a copy below and be sure to check back next week if you have further questions.

More details:

• North Star Digital Net

• BlueDV for Digital Ham Radio Presentation

Line Of Sight: Aircraft Edition

Definition: Line of Sight

Aircraft and radio waves are two great examples to talk about regarding line of sight.

Simply put, the higher the aircraft flies, the further a ground station can receive transponder signals at 1090 MHz or 978 MHz originating from an aircraft.  Obstructions on the ground such as mountains and tall buildings can obstruct the ability to receive all ADS-B transmissions at the ground level too.

The technology covered in this article is known as automatic dependent surveillance broadcast or ADS-B for short. A fancy GIF animation at the end of this article will help visualize reality from theory even further!

Compare:  Fact and Fiction   

The website "Hey, What's That!" is useful for identifying mountain peaks and line of sight for different forms of communication. The below map shows the theoretical range of ADS-B communications up to 10,000 and 30,000 feet elevation from the chosen center point at a known height.

Ground based obstructions have been accounted for on the map as noted by some local summits with the red push pins that make for great amateur radio SOTA destinations. 

A calculation of 47 foot above ground level for a total height of 256 feet was used for the same latitude and longitude coordinates six digits past the decimal point on the "Hey, What's That!" website in order to match the location of the HVDN ADS-B antenna location with high accuracy.

The "Blue" center dot clearly is not in the center. of the reception range. Its location was moved to calculate the distance to all aircraft from where I was located while I was authoring this article. This is one of many features available to those that gain access to the HVDN VRS. Details about HVDN membership can be found at the end of the article.

Comparison of the theoretical and real world values are very, very close when looking at both data sources.

Had the ADS-B antenna been located outside and above the roof line just a few feet higher, its possible that the two results would have been even closer.

The dark red "splat" is the historical reception report over time for aircraft up to 30,000 feet. The pink splat is for aircraft under 10,000 feet.

However, there is one thing to take in mind here, aircraft are not flying in every possible location which will account for some gaps in coverage when looking back at the theoretical map.

Is it worth the extra work in adding an outside antenna to gain the additional coverage benefits? This certainly is shaping up as a classic case of diminishing return, so read on to show how this was validated.

Detail:  Spot checking some results

The top photos are captured from the "Hey, what's that!" website for theoretical "potential" results. The lower photo is zoomed in from the HVDN Virtual Radar Server to complete the comparison against fact to cover real life reception results.

10,000 Foot Elevation Connecticut Comparison:   The projected range spike towards and over Springfield was accurate from the projection and actual reception results.

Add caption

30,000 Foot Elevation Finger Lakes Comparison: Coverage was just short of the prediction over Cayuga Lake, but awfully close.

10,000 Foot Elevation Long Island East End Comparison: Coverage fell short of the North Fork at 10,000 feet but air traffic is captured as noted by pictured aircraft which were at 14,000 and 18,000 feet pictured to right of coverage overlay.

30,000 Foot Altitude Over Delaware Bay Comparison: Coverage was pretty accurate based on traffic spikes compared to theoretical results.

Further Results:  Comparing Other ADS-B Feeder Sites

According to Flightaware's website, there are a number of close proximity feeder sites to where the HVDN primary site is located in the Hudson Valley of New York.

Only the two highlighted receivers on the map (Orange) have similar coverage of HVDN which must mean that the height above sea level for all three stations must be similar and may even be using near identical reception equipment to that of HVDN (Red)

Here is further evaluation of the public details each of the three stations provide.

Receiver Site #1:  Montgomery, NY - Flightaware 87114

Receiver #2: Poughkeepsie, NY - Flightaware 77960

Receiver #3: Middletown, NY - Flightaware 83104

For Fun:  What if.....

It would seem for the Hudson Valley, few interested seriously in ADS-B reception can really improve reception without a huge height increase or locating the antenna outside.

Steve K2GOG of HVDN thought it would be fun to model the benefits of increased antenna height, so check out our amazing use of animation skills below to see how much higher you need to go to literally receive every aircraft possible via line of site up to 10,000 (Orange line) and 30,000 (Blue line) feet.  

Perhaps it may be worth while putting the antenna up another 30 feet located outside. Interested in setting up your own ADS-B aircraft receiver?  Helpful links follow:

• HVDN Notebook February 22nd 2019:  Are you posh or not? Tracking aircraft

• HVDN Notebook April 6th 2018: Rare Aircraft Sightings: What have you "heard" lately?

• HVDN ADS-B & Related Section:  What is ADS-B?

• HVDN ADS-B & Related Section:  Even more about ADS-B!

• HVDN ADS-B & Related Section:  Donate for access

Another approach may just be easier to recruit ADS-B feed providers to just aggregate into the HVDN Virtual Radar Server to increase the range of reception for aircraft under 10,000 feet. Contact the author if there is interest in contributing to this.

May 2019 Global Digital Repeater Round Up

It is that time of year again, where Hudson Valley Digital Network analyzes the growth of digital voice amateur radio repeaters and provides some additional commentary behind what is helping to push towards the future of mode modulation.

Why May and October?

The month of May in most parts of the world means nicer weather and the start of the hamfest season in many countries. In the United States, many vendors typically announce new products just before, during or after the three day long Hamvention formerly of Dayton Ohio but now held nearby in much more "modern" facilities in nearby Xenia.

This event often impacts purchasing decisions of both end user devices (hand held radios, mobiles, hotspots) and wide area infrastructure such as repeaters or so called "mega-spots".  Taking a measurement just before this event helps not only provide normalized results, but give readers an opportunity to see a big spike in growth just after should they wish to look into this themselves!

The Anytone D878UV is a very popular DMR radio
due to its feature set, price, durability and accessories.

October is the next update before the onset of winter and holiday shopping season when vendors sometimes run promotional sales. Measurement at the start of the fourth fiscal quarter helps provide more normalized measurements to track how things are looking for the future of digital voice mode growth.

May 2019 Digital Repeater Growth

Basing HVDN's measurements on public repeaterbook.com data has multiple benefits.  This website is widely used by the amateur radio community and captures almost all repeaters globally. Most all heavily used repeaters will be listed here and the operators of these resources usually like to let others know they exist to highlight the technical expertise it takes to run a good repeater. These are the two major benefits and why we chose to base our analysis only on this websites data.

The data above tells a great story. DMR continues its upward trajectory mainly fueled by inexpensive hand held radios and hot spot devices which create the need for wide area repeaters.

Growth of DMR repeaters over the last 12 months was 18.6% which equals 34.4% of all total digital voice repeaters for the top 5 digital voice modes.

The single vendor supported FDMA based Yaesu Fusion mode grew a respectable 12.6% from May of 2018 to present.  With lowered cost hand held and mobile radios along with a few promotions that resulted in sold out or back ordered equipment early in 2019.

Some other reasons the mode also known as YSF or C4FM has been widely popular are its fuller range audio and easy programming requirements compared to most all other digital voice modes.

Icom's D-Star continues to struggle thanks to its limited and higher cost equipment. There was not a single new D-Star capable radio offered for sale in the last year that fit into the hand held of mobile category.

Aside from the Kenwood TH-D74 which is the only non-Icom radio to support D-Star the only new radio capable of D-Star is the $2,099 USD Icom IC-9700.

This high end base radio will appeal more towards those interested in satellite or weak signal communications in the 2m, 70, and 23cm bands. While the radio is capable of D-Star operation, this radio will likely not cause any uptick in repeater growth.  Of the three major digital voice modes, the 15 year old GFSK based D-Star only saw 2.9% growth.

Commercial To Amateur Impact

DMR started life as TDMA based MotoTRBO offered to commercial customers by Motorola before it was made an open ETSI standard. P25 and NXDN are two other commercial voice modes that have started to see adoption by the amateur radio community as commercial users generate surplus equipment as they adopt newer equipment.

While the numbers of deployed P25 and NXDN repeaters combined equals a microscopic 6% of digital voice repeaters globally, both modes showed promising repeater growth.  P25 repeaters increased 19.1% and NXDN grew 13.3% in the last year.

While these two modes still only account for 525 of 8305 repeaters globally, this is interesting because only commercial new or surplus equipment is available. An HVDN prediction is that these two modes will continue to erode potential D-Star growth as most amateurs seek to experiment with easily obtainable and low cost equipment that has a professional or multi use appeal.

The Kenwood NX-5300 is a analog FM, DMR, P25 and NXDN radio
 made for the commercial market but is starting to show up on E-Bay.

Further 2019 digital voice expectations

While this update focuses on repeater growth, it is getting harder to avoid talking about hotspot devices.   The cost of single or semi-duplex devices thanks to open hardware and software initiatives has continued to trend between $30 to $70 USD which offers an opportunity to those looking to experiment with digital voice while mobile or at home when a repeater is not reachable or even available.

Duplex hotspots are like miniature repeaters as Joe N1JTA referred to them as in his presentation given at the Trenton Computer Festival earlier this year.  Much more about learning how to run a wide area digital repeater can be learned from these devices, especially as it relates to DMR and its unique "two discussions, at the same time, on the same frequency" capability.

Costs for duplex hotspots have remained in the $60 to $150 USD range and will likely hold steady for the foreseeable future.

While the original OpenSpot device continues to be a favorite of digital mode enthusiasts, the next generation OpenSpot 2 fell way short of expectations based on its cost, poor Wi-Fi performance and lack of portable power option.

A well known Chinese ham known as Winters CN, BI7JTA has been an active contributor to the advancement of open hardware for a while now.  He has recently introduced a new product that is very exciting in that it solves all negative aspects of the OpenSpot 2 and at a lower cost.

As a finished product, its likely going to be popular as more people learn of it. Since it also is based around common footprint boards, it can be further enhanced by replacing its MMDVM boards with those of even higher quality by engineers like N5BOC and his popular products.

With Alinco and Anytone becoming two of the more popular vendors compared to TYT and Ailunce of last year, probably the most anticipated new digital voice equipment soon to enter the market is the Anytone D578 mobile.

This radio has many common features as the Alinco, Anytone and BTECH hand held radios but introduces something that will be a first for the amateur radio community.

A full control bluetooth remote microphone with display will help set this radio apart for those looking for "remote head" capable radios but with an easier to install approach.

Digital Voice:  Looking Forward

DMR looks well positioned to continue to dominate digital voice interests in amateur radio, but may be challenged by P25 or NXDN if vendors like Icom or Yaesu decide to leverage expertise in the commercial business lines and introduce them to the amateur radio community. Alinco who is the only large amateur radio vendor to offer DMR product to amateurs, but also has a range of commercial products that supports NXDN also.

Features such as location sharing, text messaging and infrastructure enabled intelligence continue to be explored