Before few months, Wojciech SP5WWP informed us about M17 project. M17 is a new digital radio protocol in development as an alternative to those currently available, with freedom in mind.
“The goal here should be to kick the proprietary protocols off the airwaves, replace DMR, Fusion, D-Star, etc. To do that, it’s not just good enough to be open, it has to be legitimately competitive.”
M17 is an RF protocol that is:
• Completely open: open specification, open source code, open source hardware, open algorithms. Anyone must
be able to build an M17 radio and interoperate with other M17 radios without having to pay anyone else for the
right to do so.
• Optimized for amateur radio use.
• Simple to understand and implement.
• Capable of doing the things hams expect their digital protocols to do:
– Voice (eg: DMR, D-Star, etc)
– Point to point data (eg: Packet, D-Star, etc)
– Broadcast telemetry (eg: APRS, etc)
– Extensible, so more capabilities can be added over time.
You can learn more about M17 following next links:
Picture: M17 Project
