Beg to differ, Nate. I know you computer gurus are all gaga about the world-wide call sign routed [Nextel Direct-Talk] D-Star model, but from the point of view of an Emergency Management Agency, we have no interest in having one of our communications resources tied to the entire planet during a local emergency.
We might be interested in regional networking or access from the State EOC - it depends on the circumstances. Actually, if D-Star really takes off, it is inevitable that there is no way everyone will play together and there will be separate networks, subnetworks, connect & disconnect on demand, or whatever turns out to be the evolution of things. New ideas don't automatically mean BETTER ideas. For proof just look at the glitzy, state-of-the-art, digital dashboard in the 84 Corvette. Others tried it too. Look into any car today - what do you see? Good old fashioned analog readouts. People found that the old model works best. The new technology stayed in the dashboards - all those dials are microprocessor driven - but the new technology was refined to work the way the users want it to work. Likewise, new technology will be part of amateur radio's future - but the user interfaces - and the architecture of the systems that we use will be driven by what meets amateur radio needs. It's easy to see the attraction of the call sign routed model - it is an attraction for existing hams, particularly computer oriented hams, to be able to do things that ham radio could never do before - but is it an attraction to potential new hams??? We should be careful here - if we want there to be amateur radio in the future - it may not be a real good idea to evolve the "product" into a poor imitiation of the same thing any 16 year old can get at a the local mall for $29/month. ------------------------------------------------------------- --- In [email protected], Nate Duehr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: for local Nets. "...Trying to cram D-STAR with it's USER-routed model with all-the- time linking via Gateways into the older Net Command and Control model, is probably a mistake. I think over time we will all TRY to use the old models, but they'll fall apart, ..."
