You thought Peanuts was a cartoon? Guess again.

Well it appears that the modern cellular telephone is making inroads into amateur radio in a significant way.  For those of you who use the Allstar Network, you may already be familiar with Zoiper and Iaxrpt as methods to get into the Allstar Network using your cellphone.

Here's a very brief summary of how Allstar via your cellphone works:  You install Iaxrpt or Zoiper (or some other emulator), and you fill out the settings menu with the 5 or 6 fields that need to be filled out.  These fields tell your application (e.g. iaxrpt) where to connect.  You will be connecting to a node, such as 2360 (the WIN system), or some other node, perhaps your own node.  From there you can then connect to other nodes anywhere in the world. 

Whereas this is not strictly ham radio, most nodes are linked to radios that have antennas that transmit on VHF or UHF, so you must have an amateur license if you are talking on Allstar.  The network is vast, and you can connect to nodes all around the world.

This concept of using a cellphone to connect to Allstar has now set its sights on D-Star with a program application called Peanut.

The Peanut Android Interface

David, PA7LIM, put together this application so that you can get into D-Star from anywhere you have a cellphone connection.  Currently, there are a limited number of D-Star Reflectors that are available. These include REF001C, REF030C, and several others.

Peanut will not run on iPhones at this time.

The upside of this software is clearly that you will be able to access D-Star as long as your android phone is in cellphone range.  Many hams will be very happy to have this additional method of getting into  D-Star.  I must say that my original reaction upon hearing about Peanut was a bit negative.  I felt like the "ham radio" aspect of D-Star was being watered down.  It is too early to say how Peanut will improve or perhaps damage D-Star.  

When I think back on my introduction to Allstar, I did not have a node of my own initially, and the only way to get into Allstar was to use my cellphone and Zoiper to access my friend's node.  From that perspective, the introduction of Peanut serves a similar purpose in allowing folks without a D-Star radio to get onto D-Star without the expense of buying a D-Star rig.

Will this mean the demise of D-Star radios?  Time will tell, but I believe that hams like their radios, and so those D-Star radios will continue to be the main method of getting connected.

The popular Icom ID-51 D-Star / Analog handhelds

I think there is much more to be said on this topic, but for now, see the link below to the PA7LIM website so that you may investigate the Peanut option for yourself.  In my case, I downloaded the app, and requested a Peanut "code" which was sent back to my email within minutes.  I soon was listening to Ref001c and the audio was outstanding.  I think I like the option of using my cellphone, but like I said before, the jury is still out as to whether Peanut is a good thing, or just "food" for thought.

Link for the PA7LIM is found HERE.

73, Mark 4x1ks