12 Nov
2013
12 Nov
'13
11:21 p.m.
The sole company that manufacturers AMBE chips used for D-STAR just announced their bankruptcy and halted all production and sales of chips. It is rumored there is a potential buyer for the AMBE encoding intellectual property, but chip production and shipping may not resume for a year and devices may triple or quadruple in price.
Just kidding. I just made this up to illustrate the problem with using proprietary technology in amateur radio modes. :-)