In QST March 2006, pages 129 to 136 Icom is promoting their new radios. The ad starts on page 129 with a Vulture sitting on a tombstone (R.I.P.) and titled "Some say this is the future of amateur radio." (Scare tactics?)
The Icom IC-7000 looks like a remake of the IC-706 series, it might sell? The PRC1500 receiver looks interesting with either remote head or PC interface. The D-STAR series, 1.2 GHz voice repeater, 1.2 GHz data repeater, 2 meter digital voice repeater, 70 cm digital voice repeater. Of course one would also need new mobile transcievers to work with D-STAR repeaters. That could be quite an expensive undertaking. I wonder how many clubs and individuals will be considering converting over to D-STAR? Soon or will it take some years to fully implement or will this die due to cost of purchasing new repeaters and radios? Have heard of one local club considering D-STAR but they would also like to keep the current two meter and 70 cm FM repeaters going for some years which are in need of replacement. A large amount of funds would be needed to implement both. There are 32 two meter repeaters listed for the twin city Minnesota area. Not very many are actively used. Some repeater clubs also have 70 cm repeaters, very rare that any one of those are used. Think the 3M club has a 1.2 GHz repeater, but do not know of very many users. There are about four 220 repeaters that I hear. I have called and called on them, I can "kerchunk" them but no one comes back to me, never hear anything other than the CW ID on them, why are they there? Then localy Radio City, Inc. has WIRES-II with a Yaesu radio set up going in the store. So that would mean one would need another new radio besides D-STAR. Is the WIRES-II new mode going to be a success? Or will it die due to cost of purchasing new radios? Two meter, 70 cm and 220 FM mobile has died due to cell phone use and more concentration needed in driving on today's busy roads for the most part IMHO. Very few hams fire up the two meter rig at home, except maybe for emergency use on Skywarn or to check into a weekly club net. Are these new radios going to sell? Jerry - K0HZI Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
