You might want to get your numbers straight. There are over 12,000 users registered worldwide. The system hears over 1800 users transmit every day.
There are over 500 repeaters worldwide and I believe that slightly over half of that is in the US. The northeastern corridor has been one of the slowest to adopt D-STAR, but has increased dramatically since Dayton last year. I have to take ask when you say that none of the 4 D-STAR repeaters near you work, do you mean that you can't reach them? From what I can see W3AGB is nearest to you at 37 miles, so that's pretty far away. And of the 663,000 US Amateurs that you refer to, don't think that they all are active, don't think that they are all on VHF/UHF, the number is much, much less. Amateur Radio has many facets, voice, CW, digital, satellite, EME, and many more. D-STAR is probably one of the cheapest, except for FM, modes of operation in Amateur Radio. Want to talk about money pits? Try looking at the cost of a decent satellite station. Want to make D-STAR look free, look at the cost of some of the big EME stations. We're talking 6 to 7 digits worth of radios and antennas. Dependent on your viewpoint, Amateur Radio in general is a money pit. But if you are an individual that likes to stay abreast of new technologies. If you like to try new things. If you like to talk to people around the world, then D-STAR is actually a quite respectable part of Amateur Radio and since all D-STAR radios ALSO do FM, it's actually one of the cheapest new, advanced modes that exist. (FYI, under no stretch of anyone's imagination should packet and APRS be considered new technology. There are college graduates that were born after packet was created!) And finally "And anything that seems to divide the Hams can't be good. Can it?" ROTFLMAO! Put 5 hams in a room, ask a question, you'll usually get 7 different answers! Hams make the Republicans and Democrats seem united! Ed WA4YIH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of milkman Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 7:49 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] I Want To Know??? I'm new to this group and would like to start off first saying Hello to everyone here. Now what I don't understand is this. It seems to me that D-Star could just be a huge money pit at this time. As I look around my state we have 4 D-Star repeaters total. Out of over 230 repeaters. And none of the D-Star work. What I'd like to know is. If there are 660,000 Ham in the US. And less than 3000 on D-Star. How long is it before the other 663,000 catch on to D-Star. And is it worth the effort? And wait for this format get up and running? And if D-Star is so great. why hasn't Kenwood & Yaesu joined in? Because just reading post in this group. And looking at our D-Star repeaters in MD. Just makes me wonder if I could be throwing good money after bad? And anything that seems to divide the Hams can't be good. Can it?
