Having set up the radio for my personal use, I popped onto the Network Radios Suite and was pleased to come across Peter NR6400 near Manchester. Peter had only joined the network radio community a few days earlier, but we had a very productive chat, during which he confirmed what my earlier ‘echo test’ had indicated, namely that my audio was ‘BBC quality’, in best network radio tradition. A word of warning: Do be careful here - the success of the original channels has been replicated recently by ‘copycat-channels’; some – but not all – of them are run by the radio community, looking to increase their membership. Can you begin to understand the controversy surrounding these devices a little better now, perhaps? There is an inclusivity to this, versus the exclusivity of having a transmitting licence. If it is a DAB radio, it will self-tune and the display will tell you what station you are listening to. There is no tuning dial. Radio User - the title pretty much encompasses anyone who ‘uses’ radio, doesn’t it? It might seem obvious to you as a reader of this magazine, but I hope you will understand why I make this point at the start of this article. It is because the new batch of network radios are, for some people, not real radio, however that may be defined.

There are many different applications available for network radios and mobile telephones that provide 2-way simplex communications functionality, some applications use more than others with the 'Zello PTT' application being one of the best due to using an advanced rate adaptive/variable bandwidth CODEC (coder/decoder) that compresses the audio efficiently while providing very good quality audio. What I suspect many mean, is that network radios are not ‘traditional’ radios and do not use an ‘acceptable’ band, whatever is meant by that.Now, this is where it gets interesting. You see, the internet fulfils the criterion of actually being a mode of propagation in itself! If the Earth’s atmosphere provides us with natural ways of extending the range of radio signals, in exactly the same manner, the internet can be seen as a man-made form of extending the range of low-power devices. Earlier this year, Karl Hobson G1YPQ created a set of Zello channels called Network Radios ( Fig. 7). With 12 channels enabled all the time, most of which are very busy, I have been using between 1.5Gb and 2.5Gb per month. Very helpful in everyway possible and although the postage is heavy in price but it is DHL so you will get it as they keep you informed from start to finish

Some people would say its a glorified mobile phone well sort off until you hit the repeater stations and you have to be a qualified ham op to use it Most network radios can also be used as a WiFi Hotspot allowing other devices to access the internet through the network radios 3G/4G data connection, this will require a larger 'data allowance' with Your chosen mobile network provider. Sadly this is true, but none of that can be laid at the feet of Network Radios. Many people give up Amateur Radio due to snobbery being aimed in their direction. ‘Oh you’re an M6?’ Well if that’s what people are up against, can you blame them? They will certainly spread the word that Amateurs are a miserable bunch. If you keep telling people the bands are dead, they are going to believe you and these things have a way of becoming true. Network Radios are thriving. As I write this article, there are QSO’s on channels 01 and 02. There is also a stream of people asking for authorisation to use the system. Many of these are M0’s. What does that tell you? Network Radios is populated by people who are positive about the hobby, technically savvy and keen to not lose the RF bands we have been allocated. In fact you will often hear Amateurs develop Skeds via NR to go and meet on HF or VHF. This is because they have a central place to meet like minded people. ‘It’s just Skype’ i can go on and on, network radio is not amateur radio however i do use it myself and find it an excellent way to speak with like minded people. Nice tidy thing well built easy transportable get on the air anywhere in the world with the GPS antenna so no need to worry about if you have a signal

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If You have multiple channels switched on all the time, especially if they are busy channels You will use larger amounts of data. Not exactly ‘stealing’ anything, as far as could be told, but they looked like connections to servers of ‘Oriental’ origin, which did not need to be present at all. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. This is something that I struggle with on a daily basis,I can churn out 80-100wpm on a physical qwerty keyboard,but perhaps 10 or 20 on a touchscreen one. Although I’ve seen others flying along, fingers blurred ! Here, you will find audio from analogue, DMR, D-STAR & Fusion stations crossing over to each other as well as onto the internet. The brainchild of a Manchester-based radio amateur Gareth M6IGJ, the IRN platform is growing very fast; by the time you read this, it will have developed even further ( Fig. 6).