Comparison: Digital vs Analogue voice on weak HF

Steve G1XOW

Impressive: the Barrett 4050 SDR using digital voice on very weak HF sigs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NecfnD-K9x8

John WA7UAR

The demonstration starts at about timecode 4:17 -- I think this also shows the potential for a new Flex radio that offers ALE and digital voice over HF for both amateur and military use... leveraging the recent contract Flex has now with Raytheon.

Dwayne_AB6A

3.8Mhz + is a licensed band in Australia. Digital voice on 80M-10M would not be possible given our current baud rate limitations.

WX7Y

Good Video about Digital voice BUT This is NOT new to FLEX Radio's 6000 series.

The Flex 6000 series had Digital Voice plugin for FreeDV version 1.05 AND D-Star way back in 2017 and dropped support for the Waveform because the modes changes so fast with FreeDV  https://freedv.org/ that it was just to hard to keep up for something that can just be added with the full software package for most all radios.
FreeDV on the FLEX works just like any other Digital mode but does require a Computer MIC for the dual audio path and setup is a bit confusing. 

A hardware solution for a QUICKLY evolving mode like Digital Voice is the wrong way to go and this is why FLEX doesn't have the Waveform any longer being updated and the Program is now up to version 1.4 with many more modes that frankly the old waveform wouldn't be compatible with. 

I'm sure if someone that writes waveforms would keep up with a current FreeDV release and there was enough demand they could stick the waveform back in the MODES selection in SmartSDR. 

I used the old Waveform quite a bit but without keeping up on the latest modes there was no one to talk to any longer.

73's
Bret 

AA0KM

The flex wave form was not right it was setup all USB and FreeDV uses conventional anything below 30 meters is all LSB and above was USB the wave form did not do that it was all usb. 
Most all digital software all now use USB. But you can still use Freedv just have to use separate software from FreeDv .  Its a mess to use that way with the flex but can be done.  USB to LSB is not compatible. 
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If i remember right if both users are on a flexradio with the waveform it works fine because the USB issues match each other. 

KF4HR

I've run various digital voice modes on HF in the past.  When conditions were iffy (QSB, QRM, QRN), results suffered.

Note the Barrett 4050 SDR radio screen is indicating ALE2G (i.e., Automatic Link Establishment).

WX7Y

not sure why you think "it is a mess to use the separate software on the FLEX", maybe you can explain. 
It has been easy for me to set up and use.
Any radio using FREEDV needs to have a computer MIC and speakers, a USB or blue tooth sound device / computer headset work great with any radio including the FLEX. 
Using DIGI-L for lower sideband and DIGI-U for Upper Sideband works where ever you want. 
NO PROBLEMS here at all just a little confusing with all the sound devices to go through the first time but other then that it's peace of cake. 

And yes if both users were on a flex or the other party was using mode 700 on usb it worked fine for me. 

Bret