TMDA worth it to Uniden/GRE?

[PhillyPhoto]

Is TDMA worth the investment to Uniden or GRE? I know MA/COM's new OpenSky systems use it. But I think the voice decoder from it might be another issue. I'm used to Motorola systems, so I don't really know the specific details of the newer systems. I know Moto also has the new MotoTRBO radios that use TMDA for 6.25khz spacing I believe. If they could conquer the voice used on the OpenSky systems, would Uniden/GRE look to add TMDA to their next line of scanners, or is it more complex than it looks?

 

[kwrxxx]

In the US selling the scanners would be illegal.

 

[PhillyPhoto]

Can anyone elaborate on this?

 

[Just_Me]

I think the various mentioned TDMA formats are all different, so it would be multiple formats they would have to add, not just "TDMA". (Lots of work)

I am fairly sure that some of the protocols (mostly the voice coders) are covered by patents and copyrights.

Does anyone know for sure?

 

[Dee_Dee_Dee]

sad thing is unlike P25, motorola vselp, smartzone, smartnet, and johnson, LTR, MACOM Provoice you can't monitor opensky even with an opensky radio or so i have been told.

thank god i hear the system that have been installed so far have not lived up to expectations.

 

[crayon]

http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91875

 

[PhillyPhoto]

http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91875

Well even though it talks about the complexity of TDMA systems, I still want to believe in my gut that someday we may see it. I don't think we'll see it within the next 4-5 years, but demand will grow, and I think GRE might push the envelope first on this.

Who knows, maybe we'll see provoice first

 

[SCPD]

TDMA is itself no big deal as long as the receiver can handle the channel bandwidth.

We will see a TDMA scanner soon - but likely not for OpenSky. I anticipate TDMA capability specifically for P25 Phase 2 sometime soon (years, not months). If MotoTRBO catches on, we might see that too.

 

[WayneH]

Also, whatever format is used to translate digital bits in to voice will charge a royalty or will be patent protected. You can do whatever you want with TDMA but there are other parts to the equation.

I'm sure we'll see MOTOTRBO in the distant future. Right now it's not worth the cost for R&D and implementation in to a radio scanner.

 

[SCPD]

Also, whatever format is used to translate digital bits in to voice will charge a royalty or will be patent protected. You can do whatever you want with TDMA but there are other parts to the equation.

On that front, there appears to be some convenient overlap between P25 Phase 2 and DMR (MotoTRBO) - they both use the new DVSI half-rate vocoder.

 

[n1das]

I'm sure we'll see MOTOTRBO in the distant future. Right now it's not worth the cost for R&D and implementation in to a radio scanner.

We may be likely to see Icom and Kenwood's NXDN digital format in future scanners if NXDN takes off and becomes popular. NXDN is the competitor to MotoTRBO toward meeting the future 6.25kHz narrowbanding requirements for Part 90 services.

NXDN is FDMA, MotoTRBO is a 2-slot TDMA system. Although NXDN and MotoTRBO were designed from open European (ETSI) standards, it looks like Motorola did some customization of their solution (i.e., added 2-slot TDMA) in order to lock customers into using MotoTRBO gear supplied by Motorola.

With NXDN, you aren't locked into a single manufacturer (Motorola in the case of MotoTRBO).