FreeDV (HF digital voice) for Ubuntu

FreeDV ("HF Digital Voice for Radio Amateurs") -- http://freedv.org/ -- is now available as an installable package for recent versions of Ubuntu[0].

Many thanks to David Rowe and the rest of the upstream FreeDV team, and to A. Maitland Bottoms for the Debian package[1].

The freedv package for Ubuntu is available from either of these PPA's:

Freedv PPA (and its prerequisites) only
https://launchpad.net/~kamalmostafa/+archive/freedv

Ubuntu Hams Updates PPA (many backported ham packages)
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-hams-updates/+archive/ppa

73 de KA6MAL

-Kamal

[0] Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise), 13.10 (Saucy), and 14.04 (Trusty).
[1] Debian freedv package: http://packages.qa.debian.org/f/fdmdv2.html

FreeDV is a valuable addition of a new & non-proprietary tool for Hams.

I listened to the recorded QSO and observed two of the three key operating variables:

1. Significant saving of spectrum for FreeDV vs analog SSB. (+)

2. Significant FreeDV artifacts - muffled audio. (-)

3. Missing was an on-air comparison of SSB throughput in rough band condition and/or weak-signal performance vs FreeDV (The specs say "should be readable down to 2 dB S/N" but can you demonstrate the difference is real-world practice via another recording of a live QSO, please?

Do you know if anyone has tested this with an Icom IC-7200
or IC-706MK2g? If so, what have been determined to be the best rig settings, please? (That sort of data would be good to gather on your Web site.)

Thanks for this contribution to our hobby!

73, David KD4E

David (NOT Dave) Colburn, KD4E - Nevils, Georgia USA

Safe & Secure Search Engine: duckduckgo.com

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Restored to design-spec at Heaven's gate 1Cor15:22

I've been using this package on and off since it showed up in a recent magazine (CQ or QST...something like that). Codec2 was meant iirc to be a FOSS replacement for the AMBE series which is used in D-STAR and DMR.

It sounds really good.

Really PJU? :-) I should blog about that! :-)