FreeDV Aims to Bring Open-Source HF Digital Voice Into the Mainstream

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ARDC grant will fund development, documentation, and promotion of this important open-source amateur radio technology.

To advance the state of the art in HF digital voice and to promote its use, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) has awarded $420,000 to the FreeDV Project. With this grant, the FreeDV Project team will:

  • Hire experienced digital signal processing developers to work with the volunteer staff to improve speech quality and improve low signal-to-noise ratio operation, making FreeDV performance superior to single-sideband (SSB) over poor high-frequency (HF) channels.

  • Work with commercial HF radio companies to embed FreeDV into at least two commercial radios, greatly reducing set up effort and reducing latency.

  • Continue development of a suite of advanced, open-source HF modems, with the goal of making FreeDV’s digital performance comparable to VARA at both low and high signal-noise ratios.

  • Continue support of the existing software library (libcodec2) and application software (freedv-gui), and embedded FreeDV adaptors (SM1000 and ezDV).

  • Better promote FreeDV online and in person at amateur radio clubs and conventions.

  • The FreeDV Project team believes that the work funded by this grant will:

  • Open the path to widespread adoption of a truly open-source, next-generation digital voice system for HF radio.

  • Provide a mature, open-source low-bit-rate codec useful for a variety of amateur radio and commercial applications.

  • Provide a suite of high performance, HF data modems for open-source data applications usable by any radio amateur.