At 09:58 AM 5/9/2010, you wrote: >I can also hit FM repeaters 100 miles, but there are also FM >repeaters 15 miles away that I can't hit. There's a lot of >variability in how individual repeaters operate. Also, I had no idea >what type of equipment that you have, mobile, handheld, or fixed. >So, indeed, 37 miles can be far, dependent on all sorts of parameters.
I try and compare apples with apples here - D-STAR repeaters with FM single site repeaters on or _very_ close to the same site, for these reasons. >There are significant portions of this country that doesn't have ANY >repeater coverage. It's like the AT&T commercial that I just saw "We >cover 97% of America" that's the people, not the geography of America. Even more so Australia, where 91-98% of the population is covered by the telcos. In terms of area, that's the little bit down the easy coast from Cairns down and around the southeast corner to a bit beyond Adelaide, plus Darwin, Perth, Tasmania and several major highways. However, within 90 minutes drive from the second largest city in the country, I can be outside of cell coverage, but ham radio on FM and D-STAR in some directions is going strong. Go another hour or so further out, and while there's repeaters, you're starting to find HF a better proposition. A few hours further out and the repeaters themselves disappear. Now you're in HF territory, and only just starting to enter that vast place called the Outback. :) No cell, VHF, UHF, just good old HF and sat phones, though HF is cheaper to run, and I still consider to be the more proven technology. :) Even non hams are advised to install HF radio (there are a couple of services targeted at the general public that you can obtain a licence to use). > >To answer one of your question, if the power fails, can you still >use D-STAR? Absolutely, basically it is the same rules as FM. You >can still talk the same 50+ miles on simplex. At the basics, D-STAR >is just a mode like AM, FM, or SSB. Yep, indeed. Simplex was all I had when I first bought into D-STAR, and it was very active. Of course, when the repeaters came, activity moved there. 73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL http://vkradio.com
