Apr 23 2013

Turning your smartphone into a 2-way radio

True? It seems so, the Alianza DxB promises to do just that.

alianzahdThe Alianza DxB is a portable rugged two-way radio docking case with an additional battery that turns your smartphone into a fully functional multi-band two-way radio. The DxB is able to communicate and work with all major two-way radio vendors.

The patented Alianza DxB is a simple solution to today’s communication needs by combining smartphone data with RF on a single device. This allows you to merge a smartphone and two-way radio into one device with the added benefit of a protective rugged case for your smartphone and eliminating the need for you to carry multiple devices. The multi-band feature enables the two-way radio to communicate across all frequency bands (VHF, UHF, 800MHz) for seamless interoperability. It also uses your existing smartphones data to extend the communication distance from 25 miles to anywhere in the world using the Radio-Over-IP repeater/gateway feature while supporting all LTE networks. The case provides a waterproof, shock proof, and crush proof casing for your smartphone which will be available for iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, and Blackberry.

Website: click here.

14 comments on “Turning your smartphone into a 2-way radio”

  1. Pingback: Turning your smartphone into a 2-way radio | KH...

  2. Pingback: Turning your smartphone into a 2-way radio | KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

  3. Interesting find! I was thinking of making something similar (with an external TRX over bluetooth).

    A bit too expensive though, 400$. If it was 200$ I’d go for it.

  4. Good morning, I guess it was just a matter of time and it may just catch on and spark some intrest in ham radio and bring some more op’s into the fold.
    Mike

    • This is a kickstarter campaign — the device isn’t available (and since their target is $300,000, probably never will). So this is hardware & software that’s going to work with iPhone, android, blackberry (why?), and “win8” (does that mean windows phone? And if so, WHY?). How many complex pieces of hardware do you know that work with all of those (not to mention all the various form factors there are just for android phones) Oh yeah — and first responders are going to use this….right. You know the best way to fail at product development? Aim at everything.

      Their kickstarter page doesn’t tell you what you get for your money — ie, how much money do you need to donate to receive one of these devices? What is their target sales price? How far along are they in the development cycle? Is there a working prototype? Software? At best, this is poorly defined kickstarter project.

      • I agree, but mostly for another reason: why spend loads of money on such a device, while $50 is enough to get you a decent dual-band HT? Still interesting enough to post about it. Who knows what the future holds.

      • Why not? Recent articles I read online show that the NYPD has given 300 officers android phones running special apps to conduct onsite DMV/Criminal checks without running to their police cruisers. Why not add a two way radio function to it. Times are changing. I want one! The kickstarter page does state what you get for your money on the right hand side along with their production timeline and photos of their prototype further down the page. $400 for their basic unit. I agree that 4 of my HTs equals the cost of one of these but look at all the features it has. I am interested to see more information on how it works in what they call IP mode. I’m always looking for the latest and greatest, and this is really cool idea. Interest to see what happens with them.

    • I don’t agree with that, the kickstarter is very clear how much you need to donate ($400) to get one.

      But I agree it’s very expensive though. And as far as I can see it’s just a HT you ‘stick on’ with the regular controls done through the phone. For me to spend that much it would actually have to do something ‘smart’ to go with the smartphone.

      I could think of stuff like QSO recording (Icom’s D-Star HT’s already do this), being able to listen to the QSOs you missed during the day would be great. And stuff like built in APRS, automatic frequency adjustment for sattelites (doppler shift) are all stuff that could be done by pairing an HT with a smartphone. Maybe even some SDR (there’s small chips that can do 2Mhz bandwidth SDR so that’d be great to have on the go).

      I don’t think it’ll attract anyone to the hobby by itself, the $50 baofengs probably do more towards that (and even they won’t do much). But I’ve never met someone who said he wouldn’t want to be a HAM because of equipment price, the exam is a much greater obstacle.

  6. Its totally doable, but in a different form factor – I dont see any space for battery pack in there. Renders they show have NO SPACE WHATSOEVER for accu nor electronics.

    UHF/VHF can be done with chinese BK4811/RDA1845 chips (US $1 – 9 / Piece on alibaba). Those have buildin GFSK modems for digital modes.

    I am sceptical about the 700-800MHz band.

  8. interesting article, wonder where they were sourcing cost for HT’s from, I know of a few $1200 to $2K priced models, but I know more people buy the newer HTs like the UVD1P/6/X …, UV-R5, UV-B5 and others that are in the same price range, $400 is crazy

  10. Pingback: The Alianza DxB an interesting product for ham radio | Ham Radio by John Allsopp G4YDM

Comments are closed.