At 04:39 AM 10/22/2008, you wrote: >The exception to Nate's advice is if you travel to metropolitan areas with >any regularity where you could use a D-STAR/Gateway system or as one of my >friends observes the clarity of digital helps with his hearing.
I agree on the clarity bit. While D-STAR audio clearly sounds "artificial" and is far from what I would call "hi-fi", it does have a certain clarity about it that makes it very intelligible (which is the whole point of 2 way radio! ;) ). I think this point often gets forgotten, but from a communications point of view, I prefer D-STAR to even strong FM signals (because the latter are often transmitted by poorly configured radios and repeaters). D-STAR audio is quite consistent. 73 de VK3JED http://vkradio.com
