codec2 is the 2022 Amateur Radio Software Award Recipient

​

The Amateur Radio Software Award (ARSA) committee is pleased to announce the recipient of the 3rd annual Amateur Radio Software Award to David Rowe, VK5DGR, and his project, Codec 2.
The award committee went through extensive consideration of all nominations received. We had a very competitive pool of nominated projects to choose from. Factors considered include innovation, impacts on amateur radio and community involvement.
Codec 2 is a foundational project for digital voice communication on HF and VHF. It provides a royalty-free and open source codec suitable for digital voice application in amateur radio. Codec 2 enables other software and hardware projects to utilize digital voice communication without the barriers of licensing, usage fees and vendor lockdown.
"As well as speech compression software, the Codec 2 library also includes a variety of modems integrated into the FreeDV protocol to support robust open source digital voice over HF radio," explains David. "We are working on improving the quality, and lowering the SNR required for HF digital voice."

David Rowe VK5DGR
With Codec 2, David has made significant contributions to amateur radio by helping to move the community beyond the vendor controlled digital voice ecosystem and enabling other innovation previously prevented by patents. David Rowe and key contributor Mooneer Salem, K6AQ, created FreeDV, a program for digital voice communication over HF, as a reference implementation. Codec 2 is also used by the M17 team for digital voice in their VHF/UHF/GigaHertz communication protocol and applications.
Visit https://www.rowetel.com/codec2.html to learn more about Codec 2.
The ARSA committee is proud to present the 2022 Amateur Radio Software Award Certificate and an award grant of $300 to David Rowe, the project owner and core contributor of the Codec 2.
We are looking forward to next year's Amateur Radio Software Award. Input and nominations for future awards are welcome at https://arsaward.com/ .

 

There is no such thing as "innovation previously PREVENTED by patents". This indicates a total absence of understanding of patents and innovation.'

What you may be trying to say is that some were "prevented from USING an extant innovation" because they did not seek nor secure a patent license.

If an innovation has novelty that is not described by extant patent claims-- as prior art-- then NOTHING has prevented that innovation. Don't confuse INNOVATION with MOTIVATION, please.

Innovation is NEVER EVER prevented by patents. Patents are a limited time award of control to make, use, offer, sell an innovation. IF THE INNOVATION is patented then it already exists. Nothing is "prevented".

IF you choose to innovate without securing a patent, that is up to you. But to place the patent system as a PREVENTION of innovation is false, and a misleading characterization of what thousands of radio amateurs have achieved--as inventors-- over 110 plus years. You would do well to find another group of technology enthusiasts with such a stellar record for innovation--through their PATENTS-- over the course of the last century.


I am well familiar with the CODEC2 motivations. Nice job. Whether its patented or not.

73
Chip W1YW

 

Unfortunately, I don't see major manufacturers abandoning their own CODECs for VHF/UHF radios and HTs.

 

It would be awesome if using of Codec2 or similar digital voice over HF be viral among the operators. There are some digital modes like FT8, but all the phone QSOs are made in analog mode which is nice, but we need some digital modes for voice also, when the SNR is too low and you barely here the other person, digital mode could help to have a contact with clear voice with very low SNRs and it is possible that in a 2.8 KHz bandwidth of SSB, Multiple stations work at the same time instead of just one, despite it has it's own limitations.

 

I hope someone takes it up and make hardware. I'm thinking Connect Systems/AnyTone etc. I'm sick of all the fragmentation and locked protocols from Yaesu etc. DMR is not being modified/innovated by any manufacturers either. I would be an early adopter of an open source based HT or mobile radio!

 

https://m17project.org/

 

Hi all! As the main developer on the FreeDV app side, congratulations are definitely in order for David. I'm definitely not good at voice codec stuff so Codec2 and everything that uses it (FreeDV, M17, etc.) wouldn't be where it is without his effort.

We're making progress on adoption for sure. For one thing, more and more people are joining in every Activity Day (next one is the weekend after Dayton, BTW--May 28-29).

Also, if you haven't played with FreeDV in a while, I'd upgrade as a lot of stuff has changed with the application in the last year or two. The current stable version is 1.7.0, with 1.8.0 currently in test. Plus, there's native support for all three of the major platforms now (Linux (using either PulseAudio or PortAudio), macOS (ARM and Intel) and Windows (32 and 64 bit)), whereas macOS was missing in the older versions before.

 

Potato Potato.

 

Po-TAH-to....

 

I hope the guy that came p with VARA HF gets an award! I was flabbergasted by the speeds in Winlink mail

 

This issue has been around for more than 15 years. At this point, the basic patents for the modes you refer to--actually the modes themselves are NOT patented- have EXPIRED. IOW its not the PATENTS that are preventing anything.

Get a new manufacturer to open up the floodgates. Then buy their radios.

 

Thank You David Rowe for your great work,
and all the other people here who work hard to push the limits of technology and intelligence.
thank you all.

 

One avenue that is very common in the music world is to have custom instruments manu'd in Asia and sold here.

By analogy, it is a slam-dunk , if someone wants to follow thru, to have VHF and UHF handhelds custom built with FreeDV, or any other 'codec' you want. The cost to do this is incremental if one piggy backs off extant hardware designs.

IOW the barrier for entry to do amateur radio hand helds without the impediments imposed by the extant 'big' manufacturers is LOW.

That's not the business I am in, but frankly I am surprised someone hasn't run with this--IF there is a sizeable need within the amateur radio community for such an 'open source' option.

Any idea why this hasn't been pursued?

73
Chip W1YW

 

The AMBE codec as used in DMR and Fusion expires in 2028. The D-Star version has expired, however.

There is a handheld FreeDV microphone called the SM1000. Unfortunately the chip shortage has affected production so there's no ETA on when it'll start getting made again.

That said, from the radio side, Flex had been putting out a waveform that one could install into SmartSDR and get FreeDV support effectively built-in. They stopped offering it for the time being due to compatibility breaking changes in SmartSDR but I and a few others have been experimenting with running FreeDV on the Flex radios using a Teensy 4.1 plugged into the USB ports on the back. There's also:



Anyway, we're definitely interested in other manufacturers building in support as well. If you happen to be from a radio manufacturer and are interested, feel free to reach out! We can provide assistance if needed.

 

Sounds good!

Hmmm...have you tried talking KA9Q into going into the HT business?

My point is that it doesn't take a lot of money to get a kilo+ lot of HT's or more with whatever open source ability you like. The patience is in the cert.

Some should be careful about patent expirations.... companies like to claim patents apply when they may not apply to certain uses or derivative embodiments. Specifications (the content part of patents) can say they own the kitchen sink, for example, but if its not specifically described in a claim or claims, its not under patent. And commonly the claims change dramatically between filing and issuance.

I do not believe ALL the claims expire in 2028; many are now gone. Be interesting to see what is left, if any

73
Chip W1YW