27 March, 2025

QMX+ mechanical improvements

My QMX+ has some minor mechanical improvements:
  1. Slimmer knobs. I decided to replace the knobs as I often touched the bottom one while adjusting the top one and vice versa. The slimmer knobs solved that. I found knobs on AliExpress with the same looks, only a smaller diameter as the image shows. Unfortunately they don't have screws, so they aren't so well attached as the original ones.
  2. Folding laptop feet which I first saw on the AE5X blog.

05 March, 2025

Speech coding in DMR, D-STAR and System Fusion

Example of a speech signal which transitions
from an unvoiced to a voiced sound
Digital VHF and UHF communications is increasingly popular among radio amateurs using DMR, D-STAR and System Fusion. 

Very few radio amateurs, however, have much understanding of the signal processing required to compress a speech signal so it can be transmitted with the low bit rates available. Here is an attempt at an explanation.