On May 6, 2010, at 2:34 AM, J. Moen wrote: > milkman wrote: "It seems to me that D-Star could just be a huge money pit at > this time." > > It depends on how you go about it. I bought a 91AD at Dayton, just to get my > feet wet. It cost about the same as my favorite QRP radio (FT-817ND) or > about half of my inexpensive HF QRO radio.
Have to agree here also... my other "hobby" inside of Ham Radio is weak signal VHF+ work... one transverter for 10 GHz from Down East Microwave will easily dwarf the price of the least expensive D-STAR rigs, and is still higher than the most expensive by a small amount. And then you still need an "IF" rig (VHF 144.2 SSB) to drive it, a dish, a feedhorn, some semi-rigid to hook it all up... And that's just one band... the current "collection" of rigs cover SSB/CW/FM/WSJT/Whatever Mode on 6m, 2m, 220 MHz, 440 MHz, 902 MHz, 1.2 GHz, and 10 GHz... and that doesn't include the HF rig(s)... or the add-on amplifiers and receive pre-amps, power distribution... etc. Yep, ham radio is definitely a money pit... but the D-STAR rigs didn't dig as big a hole in the pit as some of those above! (GRIN!) I may be sellin' some of this stuff soon... way too many rigs sitting unused and other irons in the fire. Did I mention the analog HT's?! Or the P25/analog HT on loan from a club?! Hmm. I forgot my repeater gear... and all the repeater gear the club has stored at my house as spares... and the broken stuff that needs bench time... LOL! The collection tends to grow... instead of getting smaller over the years... not quite ready to be documented on that TV show "Hoarders" yet, but starting to feel the space/storage "bulge"! I've seen worse, though! -- Nate Duehr, WY0X [email protected]
