Regardless of how it has been increasingly accepted, and even if Icom dramatically lowered the huge overpricing, D-STAR is, and will continue to be, a niche technology, as long as Yaesu, Kenwood, Alinco AND even Icom themselves continue to sell significant volumes of non-D- STAR radios. It's certainly a good thing there are so many niches in amateur radio, but establishing a D-STAR repeater for tactical emcomm in lieu of (not in addition to) an analog FM repeater, probably eliminates roughly 90% of potential ham volunteers and IMO would be foolhardy. Those who say digital is the way of the future may be correct, but every analog radio sold, including those sold by Icom, pushes that point further into the future, and by then, D-STAR may have been obsoleted by another technology.
If you can afford it, certainly--buy HT and mobile rigs that are BOTH analog and digital-capable. I'm in D-STAR only because I won an IC-91AD as a door prize. The radio I bought for my truck is the Icom IC-208H simply because I couldn't/wouldn't afford nearly twice as much for the near identical ID-800. I'm far from alone. I don't mean to rain on D-STAR proponents parade, but that's how I see it. -- Moe
