While you may not see a need to go digital, there definitely is a need to go to narrowband signals on 2M. We can double the number of repeaters on 2M by going to narrowband FM or digital signals.
And for the new group of kids becoming hams, analog is becoming something that only their parents and grandparents did. Most people under 30 have probably never talked on an analog circuit, except for maybe a FRS radio. Telephones, cellphones, and everything else have been digital for a long time, and now TV is digital. As far as the statement "D-Star will realy explode when some one finds a way to standerdize digital into a transfurable mode between manufactures and platforms .... AKA diffrent radios." Well, aside from a number of misspellings, it is true today. D-STAR is that technology. It is standardized and any manufacturer can produce the radios. It's such a shame that the old-fuddy social architecture of Japan, along with some family feuds, have kept some Japanese manufacturers from implementing new technology. Kenwood's new radios that does APRS, wow, that's only 20 year old technology. Yaesu WIRES? Well that was a pretty decent failure even before it started. Alinco just can't complete its digital solutions. Icom had the foresight to sink a lot of money into Amateur Radio and create an entire platform of multiple radios and repeaters and software to support a new technology, that's only leaps and bounds beyond what the other guys have done. So while some aren't entering D-STAR until other manufacturers implement it, I'm boycotting the other manufacturers until they decide to join the 21st century. Ed WA4YIH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of bruce mallon Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 3:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Digital vs. Analog both have a place. I have HAM FM radios that are 40 years old and still work just fine
