M17's Current Goal:

M17 is developing a new digital radio protocol for data and voice, made by and for amateur radio operators.

Our protocol's voice mode uses the free and open Codec 2 voice encoder. This means there are no patents, no royalties, and no licensing or legal barriers to scratch-building your own radio or modifying one you already own.

This freedom to build, understand, and innovate is core to amateur radio, but has been missing from the commercially available digital voice modes. This is part of why amateur radio digital voice modes have largely stagnated since the 1990s and we're almost wholly dependent on commercial products that aren't well designed for amateur radio users.

M17 is about unlocking the capabilities that amateur radio hardware should already have.

Here you will find people working on radio hardware designs that can be copied and built by anyone, software that anyone has the freedom to modify and share to suit their own needs, and other open systems that respect your freedom to tinker.