I like the concepts but feel it is not being supported or built out to nearly its capability. I hear all the time about how new or younger folks are not joining or getting ham licence, yet with specific areas like APRS it is not appealing to youth (yet) and if someone gets new idea or uses it out of typical use method they get chewed out by old timers.
Why is BaoFeng UV-5R or similar low cost not have APRS built in for TX location? Should be virtually free to integrate! Why does rx side not have simple low cost option? Why is txt msging not 10 key like old flip phones and messaging from ham to ham VERY simple and integrated? Why no VHF or UHF product that looks like the OLD Palm VII wireless device with developers OS-in fact, palm had these "Web Clipping Applications" that utilized the old Mobitex narrow bandwidth radio networks to "browse" the internet, I would think the PACKET people would have built this out by now using same idea! Why do I need my smart phone to fully utilize SainSonic AVRT Tracker (if need smart phone, why not simply use aprs.fi-better yet, if I need smart phone, why use ham radio)? why not a >$100 product with built in screen for tracking? Why not full featured ham tablet >$150 with VHF, UHF built in with APRS? Where are Wearables or head worn in this mix?
I feel like a well built hand held should do voice, data, msging, psk31, email, maybe photos as easy as a smartphone without need of having smart phone! That would be the THRILL!
For that matter why is there not a really low cost >$200, full featured, SMALL, HF rig with Winlink built in?
Want to get kids involved? Want the thrill back?? Where is the arduino or Ras Pie dev platforms specifically designed for HAM with built in radios? Where are the peer to peer games? Where is treasure hunts? Start doing this!
Sorry to rant on my very first ever eham post, but been watching from shadows for years and see all of the possibilities and no action. The Boafeng was the most Thrilling product in years, but big splash, then NOTHING!!! Get the costs down, features up, development platform easy and highly integrated.
Interesting Post
I have also suggested an HT with smart phone capabilities that could do text messaging, sending images, files, send and receive mail. Think of the conveniences and possibilities in using it for field day, camping, emergency communications, disaster relief, weather spotters..etc. Surprisingly some hams were against the idea. I guess they were close minded or stuck in the FM only mode apparently.
The radios that DO offer something in the way of that are cumbersome, very expensive and VERY poorly implemented. For instance, the modems inside the Yaesu FT1DR and the FT2DR are software based and CANNOT be accessed to use as a packet radio modem.
Other Yaesu sophisticated radios like the VX8-DR and VX8-GR can not send pictures, files, mail because the inboard modem CANNOT be accessed for packet. You can send some text messages over APRS as I understand it, but it is very cumbersome. There is no QWERTY keypad.
Icom's D-Star IC- 51a plus CAN send pictures, files and text. But that requires the use of an optional $65 cable and an Android tablet or phone using the D-RATS program.
(The Kenwood THD-72A and the older THD-7ag HT's CAN access the builtin packet radio modem as can the their mobile TM- D700 and TM-D710G models. The new Kenwood HT, the THD-74A model is actually a step backward with an KISS only modem which means that simple terminal programs like PuTTY and HyperTerminal won't work with it thus limiting the usefulness of this very expensive....$649....HT.)
The Yaesu FT1DR can take pictures with the optional expensive $140 ! mic. Then you take the picture and it downloads the file to a removable chip which you can transmit out. But you can't see the picture! You have to take the chip out and and plug it into another computer to view it!
(And you CANNOT connect your computer to your Yaesu radio and view the picture according to a Yaesu representative at a Fusion seminar in Ohio two years ago. You must take the chip out and plug the chip into the computer and THEN you can view it!)
Now the $400 FT2DR can also take pictures with the expensive optional $140 mic but at least on that model you can view it on it's built-in with it's display which looks like something from an early 1990's hand bar code reader/scanner with Windows CE.
Kenwood not surprisingly was well ahead of the curve back in the 1990's. They developed an optional device that took photos and could also display it on the device! It was called the VC-H1 communicator and it was designed to work with HT's like the THD-7ag as well as their mobile radios with built-in APRS/Packet modems.
To summarize: Unfortunately none of the expensive and sophisticated radios today can send and receive files, text messaging, mail and photos without some Rube Goldberg approach! This is 2017 and even those lowly $15 - $25 smartphones have built in cameras and QWERTY keyboards. Our $500 - $600 HT's are still barely getting out of the 1990's technology wise.
All it would take is to have one of the Chinese companies like Baofeng/Pofung to marry the smartphone add a builtin packet modem in a dual band HT and sell it for $100 and the big three would be scrambling to catch up. I don't know why we aren't there already.
Thanks for your post. I been saying this for quite awhile...
