Digital modes

As it stands, all my radio operations have been using analogue modes of transmission, and due to the prohibitive cost of most existing digital equipment I've obviously not been able to experiment with it, but my radio related browsing has caused me to stumble on yet another Chinese radio that offers functions of a more expensive radio but a cheaper price, the Kirisun S780.

The S780, when operating in digital mode, appears to be compliant with dPMR standards, using  FDMA, 4-level FSK modulation, and in essence works like a mobile telephone but minus the infrastructure so no loss of coverage, it is seemingly compatible with dPMR446 but with a minimum TX power of 1 watt it wouldn't be legal and it isn't type approved for dPMR446, it does analogue transmissions as well.

The S780 appears to be able to send text messages, like SMS but peer to peer rather than through infrastructure, in common with other digital radios like this it can talk directly to another radio without transmitting to them all, it also offers encryption, though this is limited to voice, the text messages can be decoded by anyone listening if sent to all radios in range.

Looking at pictures of the radio the connection does not appear to be Kenwood, as is the case with other Chinese radios such as those by Wouxun and Baofeng for example, it instead appears to be 2-pin Motorola, thus immediately ruling out compatibility with my existing Wouxun accessories, which is a pain as when I do buy one of these radios I will have to order it with a USB lead to actually program it to work on the right frequencies.

So if finances permit a digital radio may join all my analogue gear, and given the quality of Chinese radios now I think it would be worth it.

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