Our hobby started 1st with Spark Gap transmitters and Coherer Detectors using CW. Fast forward through tubes, transistors, AM, SSB, FM and now Satellite, Digital and of course FT-8.
Something hiding in the bushes is Digital Voice and a new mode FreeDV 2.0 which is digital processing of a SSB signal. Take your standard SSB gear and add the free software FreeDV 2.0 and you are in the mode of pulling your hair out. A snippet from their website...
I saw that there was a demo of this mode as far back as 2018 at a RSGB convention, so this mode has been around for 7 or 8 years. I heard about it yesterday. This Digital Voice Mode is yet another omen of contests and operating overtaking homebrewing anything. Some will read this as an assault on purely hardware defined radios as computers are involved and it is just that.
My crystal ball suggests this mode will soon be fitted with functionality and software so that your Smart Phone is now a FreeDV transceiver. All the pieces (or most of) are there, and it just takes someone to link the LEGO Blocks.
FreeDV 2.0 Control Panel
I fired up my Hermes Lite 2.0 and downloaded the free software and got nowhere, but then again, I didn't read the manual. When I hit the PTT button on the screen I could see my transmitted signal on their control panel, so the Hermes Lite 2.0 is being controlled by the Software.
The Bandwidth is less than the 6 kHz often seen with the high end SDR's and supposedly the digitization of the SSB improves the signal in and out. (I am stating to you more than I really actually know.)
It was invented by hams, and the Far East radio manufacturers are financially supporting its development as this will eventually show up as an operating mode on rigs like a future IC7300 MK3.
This is likely not something you build but takes advantage of already owned rigs and applying open-source free software and this "Good Buddy" results in a new mode of operation. One desirable feature is that you can click a link and automatically see who is on what band and whether they are just listening or actually operating. One watering hole seems to be on 20M at 14.236MHz.
The above video is a demo of FreeDV on 14.236MHz. It must be in a stealth mode... nothing heard or seen.
Try This One.
I have used the QUISK SDR software for many years and in the last 10 years noted a button on their dashboard marked FreeDV. I never knew what that was.
If you have a plain old SSB transceiver then you will need some sort of interface wiring to the computer and likely a 2nd sound card installed in your computer. For those whose rig is controlled by SDR software some of that wiring exists in the set up for the SDR.
Alert, Alert, there is a Waters and Stanton (a major radio dealer in the UK) you tube video covering the IC7300 MarkII that now has an advertised price and a potential for Christmas delivery. Despite all the improvements and new features like a CW reader, HDMI port and USB C Port and improved hardware, the price point is not a far from a plain, now 9-year-old IC7300. The presenter used great finesse in stating the obvious, with the attractive price of the Mark II, the used market for the original IC7300's will take a downward hit. That affects 100,000 radios as that is the number of IC7300's that have been sold so far.
You better get to know as you will not get to go.
73's
Pete N6QW