On Fri, 22 May 2009 12:31:31 -0000, "dcooley99" <[email protected]> said:
> With the decreased activity on most local area DSTAR systems it seems > evident that for DStar to survive we must encourage the use of its full > capabilities i.e. voice, data, and position reporting. Yep. You got it. If all it is is another way to provide a voice repeater, it's a lot cheaper and simpler to build up a nice UHF MASTR II and go back to watching the game and drinking a beer, instead of spending the extra time/effort involved in operating a Gateway-equipped D-STAR system. That's the reality of it, for sure... use the advanced features, or die a long slow painful death after the novelty wears off... it's REALLY easy to build linked voice FM repeaters these days. Even with as much of an International "scope" as D-STAR's linking provides. The only thing D-STAR's got going for it is operators learning to use the advanced features, in the long run. Sure it's nice not to have "static" on weak signals and the other niceties of digital comms, but at the end of the day, that's not "enough" to sustain it. Gotta use the toys... Nate WY0X -- Nate Duehr [email protected]
