Thanks for the feedback Ed. For some reason, maybe terrain of the north shore of Long Island, it is easier to get to K2DIG than W1NLK from the base antenna. Maybe the line of sight to NYC is along the south shore which has comparitavely low elevation.
Our investigation into D-Star a few years back was to spark some use of the 70cm frequencies. To get that use, we would be making the Icom equipment investment and everyone in the club would need to buy a radio. So in total, the investment for the club is steep and we would not really know if there would be an appreciable increase in repeater activity. There are much larger clubs on Long Island with bigger budgets that have not taken the "plunge" into D-Star and we have wondered why. >From what I saw demonstrated last weekend, using the node adapter with an old >laptop, two FM-N radios and a duplexer was indeed a repeater pointed to a >reflector. I believe that anyone with a D-Star radio could listen in to both >sides of the conversation through this hot-spot repeater... did I >mis-understand what I saw? I believe that a hot-spot repeater pointed at a busy reflector would get the frequency busy again. 73 de KA2UGZ - Jay
