Playing with DUDE-Star and actually hearing audio / 2021-01-20

I recently noticed the DUDE-Star software which allows access to D-Star, DMR, YSF, NXDN, P25, M17. For those who read here and got dazzled by these abbreviations: These are radio systems where voice data can be transported both via radio signals and via Internet data streams.

In all of these systems there are ways to connect radio / network interfaces together to make contacts over longer distances possible. This software allows access to all these interfaces and will do the audio encoding/decoding so it will use a microphone and loudspeaker.

I haven't had any luck in hearing D-Star audio yet which may be due to not being a registered D-Star user or due to not selecting busy reflectors (the computer systems that allow linked radios and networks to have the same audio data: an audio chatroom). I browsed around other systems and found busy talkgroups in YSF where I heard chatter in Dutch and English last night.

It is nice to see software like this making it all accessible without investing in hardware. The codecs used have a serious influence on the audio quality, and I was warned the quality from DUDE-Star isn't as good as from the actual radios. From what I heard some of the digital audio modes the quality isn't very good (to leave lots of room for error correction).