Dayton

[Paul L Rinaldo]

Gang,

There were two systems at the Dayton HamVention that may be of interest.

The first was ICOM's "D-STAR System," which according to the brochure was
developed in cooloaboration with the Japan Amateur Radio League. It
provides for user-to-repeater digital voice, data and image communications
at 12400-1300 MHz and high speed backbone at 5.6 GHz or higher. I don't see
a description on www.icomamerica.com but have a 4-page brochure, which I
will bring to tacos.

The second was an 802.11b system connecting to a laptop RLAN card, up the
coax to a bidirectional amplifier capable of up to 2 W (I believe Part 15
allows up to 1 W) and an omnidirectional stick antenna. The company also
offers a filter switchable for each 802.11b channel. You can access this
via www.rflinx.com. It looks like a professional system at $600-ish, which
may be a little dear for amateur pocketbooks, which could be used
painlessly to get on 2.4 GHz 802.11b. 

73, Paul, W4RI

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