On Oct 6, 2009, at 8:22 PM, Radioman wrote: > Ed, > its no problem, i just seen a few posts about open source G2, and > for a > newbee confusion set in.. > so at this point I'm not here to buck the system so to say.. > > just needed to be straightened out, heh heh.. > > 73 - > Tony > NN1D
You just had unlucky timing. You were the first person to show up on the list, right during the "pitch" by the author for his new software. I'd take the enthusiasm of the author with a grain of salt. Ask him how many GWs in the U.S. are running his code and satisfied with its performance, before diving into something that's basically "Alpha- release" quality levels, at least by commercial standards. That being said, Icom's stuff is only "Beta-release" quality in my opinion... but 99.9% of the U.S. GWs are running it. Or more. Not this new stuff. PDF documentation, etc, all available from a manufacturer and a team, not an individual. At least it's barely up to commercial software product levels of quality for all the things that "surround" the software, including support. If you REALLY want to play with the new stuff, I'd start with two things. I'd load up Icom's stuff to learn how the network was designed to work by Icom, and then choose to experiment or not with the other stuff later after checking the opinion of the U.S. Trust Server team as to whether they want to support the other code. I've never seen an official announcement of whether or not they even want to deal with it, on this list for sure (since this isn't a Gateway Admin's list), or any other. Bottom line: There's hundreds of GW operators and Icom (paid) tech support who can help you with the Icom stuff. There's only one closed mailing list, and a very hyper developer pushing the new thing. Never seen anyone using it send any notes to any lists saying they're enjoying it, or explaining any "benefit" from using it. The $299 is nothing, compared to what most folks spend on just the duplexer/ antenna system for a full-stack D-STAR site. Anyway, there you have it. Your call. I'm not judging either way, other than opinions about the release and documentation and "support" stuff... and I've been doing technical support for high-end telecom systems for gettin' close to 20 years now. The majority of the U.S. infrastructure are built as Icom systems, and there's far more help to be had from others than the new thing. You can always call up Icom and ask for a deal on the software. Can't hurt to ask. Especially since it was once free... that's pretty good leverage. If you're turning up a machine somewhere where there's zero D-STAR, they've been known to make deals in the past. Can't speak for them, though. Give Icom America a ring on the phone. -- Nate Duehr, WY0X n...@natetech.com
